*OxU explained what's going on - I'm dumb

nah then we all stupid cuz based on the comments cuz no one knows what’s going on

LITERALLY.

My understanding is this:
Mittens has never felt loved and is pretty much used his whole life so he doesn’t feel important enough to take a stand in the situation. The initial agreement was that jooin take care of him for some months so he has the idea that jooin always meant for their relationship to end.

The brother is an extremely insecure narcissist. He gets off on controlling every aspect on Mitten’s life under the guise of “bettering” him. He takes his stress out on mittens by being possessive, controlling and criticising every behaviour because he thinks it’s cathartic (I know ppl like this irl). Another reason he is so controlling is because he wants mittens to be solely dependant on him. So he wasn’t allowed to work anywhere, or have sex and make other friends etc. the brother is terrified of the people around him as they could betray his at any moment. If mittens is completely dependant on him for everything he can’t betray him. And I think the brother does actually have a thing for him, he’s just so in denial. Not helped by the fact that mittens does understand and sympathise with him which is why he doesn’t want to betray him, because the brother will be alone.

Jooin has commitment issues and doesn’t want to stay tied to a relationship. In fact he fears it so he doesn’t want to hold onto Mittens. He still views him as belonging to his brother I think. There’s also some dynamic about how he doesn’t want to take away something that belongs to his brother but I can’t remember, something to do with their parents iirc.

So everyone in this story is complicated and layered and everyone has faults (the brother is narcissistic, jooin has commitment issues, mittens has codependency issues). They are all feeling trapped by their traumas but the brother is doing the most to get mittens back. Whereas mittens and jooin feel like they can’t do anything much because both of them are too afraid to take stakes in the situation (jooin because of his commitment issues where he doesn’t want to tie himself to mittens and mittens because he feels like jooin was from the start always planning to throw him away) hence why they can’t tell him to fuck off. To some extent I think both of them sympathise with him and mittens actually seems to care for him to a degree. Everyone just traumatised.

Idk if this comment helps or if I’m regurgitating useless info TT^TT sry

nah this was extremely helpful and makes perfect sense

THAAANK YOUU I kinda got the jist of it too, but Jooin and Mittens seem to be pretty aware of their traumas and issues and what healthier relationships should be like, unlike the brother. They've been helping each other out up until now and figuring stuff out together so I just don't get why they couldn't do or say anything when the brother showed up to take Mittens back. I don't expect them to live happily ever after just like that, but I thought they made enough progress to stand up a little against the brother. They don't seem to have anything to loose either so why take such a massive step back when they already experienced a good relationship together??? The brother is easier to understand at this point tbh... Unlike Jooin and Mittens, he seems oblivious to his shortcomings and toxic behaviour so no wonder he keeps being the way he is and he also has the business and pretty much his whole life to loose if he doesn't get Mittens back. Because Mittens is the only person he can take all his frustrations out on, which helps him regulate himself and deal with his life. So it's understandable why he wants him back. Jooin and Mittens seem to unnecessarily complicate everything. Hope their next date will be in a therapist's office xD

Ngl I see it a bit differently because in the other chapter where mittens admitted his love the people at the bar he said he didn’t know what to do because he was used to loving one sidedly and being thrown away so he wished he could be more broken so jooin would feel bad and not throw him away. That’s not growth, that’s actually him continuing that behaviour of selflessly giving resulting in him being hurt and because of his history with the same situation he feels like jooin is fully capable of ending their relationship like that. And when the brother asks “what is this?” And jooin doesn’t stand up for him whether it’s because he panics or his cowardice if I were him I would view that as Jooin throwing me away and giving me back to the brother. In that moment I think he felt abandoned and that’s why later he says “this is my problem. I’ll deal with it myself”. Because he felt that it was a complete rejection. So that one moment was like 100 steps backwards. That’s how I see it. Also understanding your own behaviour sometimes doesn’t help you act different especially when it forces you to face deep seated fears and trauma. Sometimes u understand but don’t move far forward. I think that might also be the case particularly with Jooin. Like I think Mittens might understand Jooin more than he understands himself.

Oh, I think I simplified the characters and their relationships too much... thinking that since Jooin and Mittens clearly feel better with eachother they'd do something to preserve it regardless of their insecurities. Like, subconsciously realising what's "good" and "bad" and naturally wanting the former so they'd do ~something~ to keep this good thing they have going on even if it goes against what their traumatised brains tell them. But clearly it's not that simple and as you said, they have layers of trauma to dig through and sort out.

Thank you very much again for the insight and explanations I wish every story with slightly more complicated plots and characters than your average smutty yaoi would have people like you in the comments to sum things up a little and offer an overall simple analysis of what's going on, because waiting a week for a ch to release and reading multiple things at the same time makes me get lost along the way :))

Did editing the comment delete the replies bc I can’t see them anymore lol

Nvm I can see your reply. My acc just glitching

Omggg this is excellent and well done!! Thank you!!!! I have a question, what is your take on Jooin’s commitment issues? What do you think is the reason?