In The Bequeathed, Choi Sung-jun has a complicated relationship with Park Sang-min due to a tragic incident in their past.
Detective Choi Sung-jun used to be good friends with his now captain, Chief Detective Park Sang-min, who was once his junior.
Now, Sung-jun has to take orders from Sang-min, who constantly feels like Sung-jun is undermining his authority.
The attack on Sang-min
A few years ago, Sung-jun lost his wife to a hypoglycemic shock. Sung-jun was not home that night, but his son, Jun-hyung, was.
Jun-hyung was wearing headphones and did not hear his mother’s call for help. By the time he noticed something was wrong with her, it was too late to save her.
When Sung-jun found out about the incident, he blamed his son, who had just lost his mother. Sung-jun’s words left a deep impact on Jun-hyung.
Their relationship became strained, and they stopped talking to each other. Jun-hyung then got involved with delinquents.
One night, Sung-jun and Sang-min were working late. When Sung-jun left, he accidentally left his phone with Sang-min.
On that same day, Jun-hyung’s friends discovered that his father was a police officer. They tied him up and sent pictures to Sung-jun, asking for help.
Since the phone was with Sang-min, he saw the messages and went to rescue Sung-jun’s son.
Jun-hyung’s friends caught Sang-min, covered his face, and made Jun-hyung stab him. Jun-hyung did as he was told, believing that his friends had caught his father.
It was only after Jun-hyung stabbed Sang-min multiple times that he realized the person he had attacked was not his father.
Sang-min became the unintended victim of an attack meant for Sung-jun. Although he survived, the attack left him with a limp.
Due to that, Sang-min suffered from depression, and even his wife left him. Similarly, as Jun-hyung went to prison, Sung-jun lost the only family he had left.
Mending relationships
Since that day, Sung-jun has been blaming himself for what happened to Sang-min. He takes on the responsibility of solving Sang-min’s cases.
Sung-jun excels at his job. He solves numerous cases and allows Sang-min to take credit for them, so it is Sang-min, not Sung-jun, who becomes the captain.
Whenever Sang-min hits a dead end in an investigation, Sung-jun takes it upon himself to investigate independently and solve the case.
The other detectives are aware of this, so they respect Sung-jun and follow his orders as much as they follow Sang-min’s, which makes Sang-min insecure.
Sang-min’s superior keeps praising Sung-jun while berating Sang-min for his mistakes. When there is a staff cut, the chances of Sang-min losing his job are high.
Sang-min makes yet another mistake and turns in his resignation before he is fired, only to find out that Sung-jun has resigned to save Sang-min’s job.
This leads to Sang-min fighting Sung-jun for pitying him. Sung-jun then talks to him about their past and reveals that he blames himself for the way his son turned out.
This conversation leads Sang-min to realize that it is guilt, not pity, driving Sung-jun’s actions. The two come to understand each other and resolve their differences.
Soon after, while saving Seo-ha and Young-ho, Sang-min gets shot in the same leg that Jun-hyung stabbed. Sang-min then relieves Sung-jun of all the guilt he has carried for years.
Sang-min reveals that he visited Jun-hyung in prison recently. He urges Sung-jun, who has not seen his son since the incident, to pay him a visit.
Freed from the burden of the past, Sung-jun quits his job and makes an effort to mend his relationship with his son by meeting him.
Also Read: Yoon Myung-gil’s death in The Bequeathed explained
