Ch. 37

To me it feels like the author is trying to go with an almost "dense-because-he's-autistic" sort of route, same as Semantic Error's mc, but its falling short because of the nature of his literal work which is all about emotions as you've said. (All this coming from an autist who has written romance and knows that any good autistic writer would have studied or at least to some degree learned what emotions and situations correlate and how they fit into a story, which would be exactly what our mc would have been doing since he's obviously so good at scripts....) but that's just my take

Idk, all autistic people are different. While I haven't written anything since I was a teen, I've been obsessed with romance stories ever since I was a child. It still took me almost a year to realise I had my first crush on someone, even after having such obvious thoughts as 'I want to kiss her" :') I was also in my late teens at the time, and p much everything I've read tend to have people get their first crushes much younger, so that as a reference didn't help much with identifying things/"being familiar" with the feeling when I had never experienced it before. I had thought all the descriptions of having crushes was exaggerated, and to find out they weren't was mindblowing.

I'm really good at picking things up in stories, some of it thanks to tropes being a thing, but irl I'm so dense and oblivious when it comes to these things it's ridiculous. I've had a woman grab my hand on the dance floor at a club and dance right against me for a whole song before I realised she was flirting with me. So, even if he has studied emotions and romance, being in that situation yourself is completely different (especially if you haven't experienced it before). At least, that's my experience with these things as a fellow autist.

As for this one where he asks when they started dating... yeah, a completely fair question imo. It's never been said explicitly so far and as far as I remember, there was no "I like you romantically" said, and there just were a lot of assumptions. I would prefer a confirmation.

I'm also an anxious mess who overthinks almost everything, whereas Dohu isn't. He doesn't think about things any more than he needs to. From what we've seen of his character, he makes sense to me.
I also just relate to him and his way of thinking a lot :'D

You're experience is valid and real and I appreciate the response.

I'm not as peeved as I think other people are about this dynamic so I was just trying to rationalize a bit, but I think you raise a pretty good point.

We don't know for sure he's autistic either so it could be we're missing the mark entirely and the author is just making him dense on purpose, who knows. ╮(￣▽￣)╭

Yep, I understand. I try to explain things from his side here and there, as his way of thinking is something I relate to a lot.

It could be that the author is unknowingly portraying him as autistic, they might be basing him off of someone they know who either isn't diagnosed or they aren't aware they are autistic. Or it could be that the author is aware to a degree, but there could be something that stops them from fully admitting it (ie. not wanting to stress over "correct" representation, or any possible cultural stigma that would make it hard to say). In a way I get it, sometimes I get imposter syndrome simply because I don't fit in the typical portrayal of a low-support needs autist, nor do I experience some common symptoms (ie. meltdowns) or then they're in very specific situations. Either way, I love Dohu and the way this story portrays him and Juheon. I love how accepting and understanding Juheon is, instead of blaming Dohu or trying to change him. (⌒▽⌒)