Dan's Love as Strength

Now I understand that for a lot of people, maybe even the author herself, Dan's purpose in this story is to be no more than a completely weak and helpless little baby bitch boy bottom who is to be fucked relentlessly and look pretty and cute while it’s happening—to be Jaekyung's punching bag and fucktoy until Jaekyung realizes that using people as punching bags and fucktoys (against their will) is bad, actually, and perhaps he should try being nice instead. As it stands, Dan fulfills those roles perfectly. Buuut. I think there is occasionally more to Dan than just being those two things, and much like how I think the webtoon could've/could benefit from leaning further into the abuse portrayed in it, I think it would've been/would benefit from the author leaning more into these moments when Dan rises above his status as a mere punching bag and fucktoy.

Dan and his love and care for others has been both a source of strength and weakness for him. Whenever he has a moment of strength in the webtoon, it’s been for someone else’s sake. He was able to put up with working multiple part time jobs not just because he kind of had to in order to survive, but because his grandma was terminally ill and he wanted to do anything he could to get her treated and to repay her for all that she'd done for him. And he of course, unfortunately, puts up with Jaekyung’s treatment of him, again because of his love for his grandma. Almost conversely, though, it is his love for his grandma that makes him able to stand up to Jaekyung and tell him to fuck off for a bit—I believe they're in the middle of sex when Dan gets an emergency call from the hospital, and Dan more confidently than he's been able to before refuses to continue the act, because his grandma’s wellbeing takes precedence over everything else. We hadn’t seen a moment like that from Dan before, from what I remember. It was to the point where even Jaekyung was surprised by the outburst.

Another moment where we get Dan's strength showing through due to his care for another character is when he challenges Jaekyung to a sparring match for the sake of fulfilling a wish he might have (and, as we know, to try to understand Jaekyung's occupation better so that he can be a better physical therapist to him). He gives it his all despite it seeming impossible for him to win, supposedly for his own, and Jaekyung's, personal gain. But when the fight is over and he ends up winning through almost underhanded means, again shocking Jaekyung, we learn he actually (partially) did it because he wanted to grant Potato's wish of sparring with Jaekyung!!!

Personally, I like these moments a lot—they deepen and complicate Dan's character, showing that despite the rest of his behavior, he does actually have his own hard lines drawn in the sand, and he is, or was, willing to do whatever it takes to defend those lines. They’re fun and interesting and sweet and pleasantly surprising, and they have/had the potential to pave the way for an exciting character arc for him—where he gradually learns to focus more on himself and the people and things he really cares about and learns to stand up for himself and those things more often. Where he, in essence, breaks out of the hell cycle of devaluation that Jaekyung traps him in.

I found myself curious about these moments because of Jaekyung’s reactions to them as well. We don’t get to find out much of what he’s thinking when they happen (although to be fair some details are fuzzy to me so maybe we do) but both times—the incident with Dan’s grandma and the sparring match—Jaekyung seems to be legitimately surprised and even impressed by Dan. Which, to me, similarly hinted at something possibly more complex about Jaekyung’s character. You’d expect him to have lashed out during these moments, but no…again, I don't remember the phone call incident as well, but I believe he really did let Dan go. And similarly, with the sparring match, he does later on allow Dan to express what his own PERSONAL wishes were (though he shuts them down, lol). Something about these moments genuinely take Jaekyung aback enough to not only please him, but also to want to kind of be nicer to Dan, and I couldn’t help but wonder why. I thought that maybe the author might’ve been doing that trope where the asshole character is being like “haha, you’re not like other girls, the other girls just fold under my abuse and/or run away, but you actually stand up to me and I think that’s sexy ". Which, to be clear, is in and of itself a bit of a ridiculous trope, but still interesting in its own right.

Unfortunately, as of season 1 we don’t/didn’t get any more of these moments like I hoped we might, which makes them seem more like one-off moments or complete flukes or mere plot devices (Dan's resistance might've been ultimately for the sake of Jaekyung going to pay off the hospital bills and make Dan feel more indebted to Jaekyung, and the Potato wish thing...well, who knows)—like they weren't deliberate choices made by the author. To be fair though—besides the obvious fact that the webtoon isn’t finished and so we could see more of this in season 2—character development does not have to be linear and it often isn’t. And it would make sense for Dan to have less moments like these over time, considering how much time he has spent isolated in his relationship with Jaekyung who has been nothing but horrible to him. But nonetheless it does feel a little disappointing and like wasted potential (as of now) for us to not have seen more of this side of Dan—Dan who can and will fight back for the people that he loves. I think having more of these moments earlier on not only could’ve added more character complexity to both Dan and Jaekyung, but it also would’ve made even more evident the impact that Jaekyung has on Dan, the way he demoralizes and wears Dan (and all the other people in his life) down, and makes it increasingly difficult to not just want to do whatever he wants to escape his abuse.

tl;dr Dan has moments of strength borne of his loving and caring nature, and I think that the webtoon could've and still could benefit from leaning further into those moments. It makes both Dan and Jaekyung's characters and interactions more interesting and complex.