Ok lol i went to read the last few chapters and im just??? I kind of understand, personally i don’t like that hyung forgives him like wtf but then again it’s what worked best for him and truly allowed him to move on, so good on him. But i still can’t wrap my head around it like this story is so complex. Any kind soul willing to share their opinions on this? And my previous questions too please. And anything else about this manhwa really. ( damn i need to find friends who read manhwa so i can talk and ramble and analyse shit with them)
I’m just leaving a comment coz I also wanna know I dropped this because I knew the ending would make me cry and I just wanna know what happens… maybe someday I’ll read it till the end
Hi!! As someone who put off reading this for yeaaarsss and just finished it overnight (it is currently 6am here), here are my messy thoughts, so spoiler warnings (the spoilers are also quite detailed so...yea!!)
I super agree with you on not liking it when the victims comes back to their abusers and "forgiving" them, but this manhwa actually portrays woohyung's (our poor mc) mental struggle so well that his decision totally makes sense for him at the time.
He was drowning in his hatred, confusion and mental conflicts that he finds himself becoming the people he hates the most in his life (doing whatever he wills even at the cost of hurting others, acting obsessive and blaming other people and using the "its because i love you, you made me love you so its ur fault"). Basically he saw himself becoming his own abuser and hurting the very people he loves (tmi : i be relating so hard on this shit, so focused on hatred towards someone that you unconsciously become that very person).
So when he came back to his abuser, it was because he was so ashamed of himself that he felt if he stayed with "good people", woohyung would hurt them and they would be happier without him in the picture(in his words : im not saying you two arent special for me, im saying this because you are) so instead he just thought his right place was with the abuser (he also felt like he still cares for the dude for old times sake ig).
And at the end, i wouldnt say he forgives noyeol/abuser, more so that he saw noyeols true nature, that being pathetic mentally ill disgusting human being that only cares about himself at the end of the day. And after seeing that, everythinf clicks on his head and decided he is actually nothing but a pathetic bastard. So yea he moves on at the end. :D oh and the abuser rapist bastard got released early and didnt go back to jail and ended up being a novel writer.
GOSH THAT WAS SO GODDAMN LONG BUT PLEASE READ IT, IT IS AWESOME theres a lot of dialogue and its quite dense but incredibly worth it for me :)) im oversimplyfying it here and in the manhwa its portrayed much more beautifully(?) And detailed so read itt hebe sorry if the whole thing is hella messy, its loterally 6am here ive stayed up all night reading this ughh
It's honestly a trauma response. Similar to how domestic violence victims often go back to their abusers or even defend their abusers, or when kidnapping victims develop stockholm syndrome.
Not only was Noyeol original crime extremely traumatic, he also wrote a huge mind fuck bestseller book that commented on basically every part of Woo Hyung's personal life. And to make matters worst his writing is extremely popular and hailed as the "truth" by members of the public. Noyeol's book is basically like a second violation of Woo Hyung, as it's a public gaslighting of Woo Hyung's victimhood and his agency as a person.
Basically, voluntarily 'returning' to Noyeol is Woo Hyung's stress response. Embracing the narrative that Noyeol's trying to paint of two lovers pushes down the trauma as it's like pretending what really happened, didn't happen. Or that what happened, wasn't as bad as it actually was.
A lot of victims struggle with self blame. Woo Hyung struggles with that a lot, the fact that he's a police officer with a black belt in tae kwon do, the fact that he's a man, and the fact that he wasn't able to escape sooner. The dream he has about being naked on trail symbolizes the self blame a lot of victims feel. Convincing himself that he cared about Noyeol and hence 'let' Noyeol do those things to him is just another unsustainable coping mechanism directed towards the self blame, like the alcohol and then the sex.
Ultimately though, that's not the solution, as it's clear that such a choice is to really surrender your agency, and to live in a state of numbness.
Damn…. (Also amazing writing skills)
Could someone spoil me on why he went back to his abuser like i read a comment about it but i still can’t really understand. I hate it so much when authors would make the character go back to their abuser like why tf but from the comments I’ve read this seems to be a darn well written and realistically story ( which is so fcking hard to find especially with manhwas). I would like to understand, could someone spoil this for me? Oh and i need to know does the rapist go to prison in the end?