Killing Stalking is a BL, and it’s what the author herself called her story. multiple times. i agree that the term “Boys Love” sounds like there’s going to be actual love or romance in the story, but, however misleading, it’s not the case here. the term BL replaced the terms yaoi and shounen ai in Japan, where all of these terms originate from, and then in the rest of Asia, namely Korea and China. again, it’s misleading, but it doesn’t change the fact that BLs aren’t always about love or romance—there can be romantic relationships there, but to call something romance you need to deliver somewhat healthy relationship with (usually) a happy-ending. it’s not what’s happening with many, and i mean MANY currently ongoing BLs that are about toxic and unhealthy relationships. i don’t like the term myself because it really is misleading, and i prefer to stick to “yaoi”, but that doesn’t change the fact that the definitions in southeast Asia are changing, and we just need to accept it. what is actually praiseworthy is that Koogi really committed to portraying that unhealthy, toxic and abusive relationship between Sangwoo and Bum in a realistic way, and never tried to make it feel like a proper romance, as in Sangwoo changes for Bum so that they can end up as a healthy, normal couple (something that happens way too often with many ongoing BLs). also, Koogi herself said that Sangwoo loved Bum, however fucked up his definition of love was. so, there’s the love i guess.
Killing Stalking is a BL, and it’s what the author herself called her story. multiple times.
i agree that the term “Boys Love” sounds like there’s going to be actual love or romance in the story, but, however misleading, it’s not the case here. the term BL replaced the terms yaoi and shounen ai in Japan, where all of these terms originate from, and then in the rest of Asia, namely Korea and China. again, it’s misleading, but it doesn’t change the fact that BLs aren’t always about love or romance—there can be romantic relationships there, but to call something romance you need to deliver somewhat healthy relationship with (usually) a happy-ending. it’s not what’s happening with many, and i mean MANY currently ongoing BLs that are about toxic and unhealthy relationships. i don’t like the term myself because it really is misleading, and i prefer to stick to “yaoi”, but that doesn’t change the fact that the definitions in southeast Asia are changing, and we just need to accept it.
what is actually praiseworthy is that Koogi really committed to portraying that unhealthy, toxic and abusive relationship between Sangwoo and Bum in a realistic way, and never tried to make it feel like a proper romance, as in Sangwoo changes for Bum so that they can end up as a healthy, normal couple (something that happens way too often with many ongoing BLs).
also, Koogi herself said that Sangwoo loved Bum, however fucked up his definition of love was. so, there’s the love i guess.