LLurvance Bass

Three teenage boys Yong-ju, Gi-Woong and Gi-Taek, were once best friends in middle school, but they become estranged from each other once they enter high school. While Yong-ju and Gi-Taek still remain close, Gi-Woong becomes a jjang (Korean slang term meaning "best"), one of the strongest fighters in the school, and begins to hang out with Seong-jin's gang (Seong-jin's parents are powerful figures, making him a bigwig among his schoolmates). Yong-ju becomes concerned when he finds out that Seong-jin's gang is mercilessly bullying Gi-Taek, an eccentric manhwa fan. Under intense pressure to get into a prestigious university because of his financially struggling single mother, Yong-ju develops an unlikely relationship with Gi-Woong, who tries to break away from Seong-jin. But when Gi-Taek learns that Yong-ju is gay, he betrays his friend and joins Seong-jin's gang in ostracizing him, telling them that Yong-ju has loved Gi-Woong for years.

In the 1970s, during the height of political corruption, Gangnam, the southern part of Seoul is starting to be transformed into a developed area. Childhood friends Jong-dae and Yong-ki struggle to get by, until their shanty homes are demolished by local thugs. Desperate for cash, they get involved in violent political clashes, and are separated during one of the skirmishes. Three years later, Jong-dae lives as an honest man with former gang leader Kil-su. Meanwhile, Yong-ki has joined Seoul's most powerful criminal organization, the Myeongdong-pa. As a gangster, Yong-ki is entangled in a high-stakes battle over land in Gangnam, all in the name of putting together secret presidential election funds that drive up the value of the city. As the gangs fight over the rights to various plots of land, Yong-ki is captured and interrogated by a rival gang. The southern part of Stransformed into a developed area.