Just posting a break down/ analysis of the first season for recap

SO BACK AGAIN- I JUST completed a 3rd reread (at this point these are annotations ). While we wait for Season 2, since I don’t think it’s coming until 2025, I’m posting this here for anyone (myself included) that forgets anything. I can confirm a few things that may have been easy to miss from my previous post and clarify some theories as well.
I will post below for further clarification- because I know a lot of people are confused after the first season but here’s everything I’ve gleaned after tight reading the first season.

Characters of note:
Seo-In: sex addict and rich
Yeongwoon: trauma ridden, poor and doing his best
Hae-yool: actor that Yeongwoon was previously the manager of
Taegu- Hyung: leader/CEO of the company- that started from the gangsters he was working with before
Yoon-Seok: Yeongwoon’s friend from middle school (has red hair, owner of the Ducati bike)
Jaewon (DECEASED)- Older (step??) brother of Seo-In




Timeline:
-Last year in middle school is when Yeongwoon and Seo-In met
-they become friends
-Seo-In has a step brother from his Mother’s Marriage: Jaewon
-seo-in and Yeongwoon and Jaewon begin hanging out a lot
-Seo-in and Yeongwoon’s relationship begins to change
-Yeongwoon witnesses Kiss between Seo-in and what looks like/ alluded to is Jaewon
-Yeongwoon begins to pull back as a result of this, which begins to effect Seo-in
-Seo-In leaves for an overseas trip on the same day that the assault on Yeongwoon takes place- lead by Jaewon
-Seo-In’s family pay off Yeongwoon’s father for his assault, charges are never pressed for his injuries or suffering
-Yeongwoon steals the hush money and runs
- Taegu most likely encounters him as a runaway pretty early on and takes him in
-Seo-In returns to find Yeongwoon is gone
10- yr skip
Picks up where the events start in the series

That is my current understanding of the past events as they were disjointedly portrayed, so a few things of note for the first season:

Previously I had thought that the catalyst behind Yeongwoon leaving and the resulting anxiety disorder were caused by not the kiss he’d witnessed but by the betrayal he felt from the assault he went through which broke his arm/hand and resulted in him being unable to pursue Judo anymore. This is still wholly correct- but I do have a few updates to this as well- I’ll start with the brother:

- Jaewon’s father is the wealthy one- this is evidenced by his conversations with his Mother in regards to managing his public reputation because his father is planning on going “back” into politics and wants to hand over the business operations to her (Chapter 27).

-Jaewon and Seo-In are not directly related this is indirectly referenced by the family at the death anniversary of Jaewon where an aunt states: that there he can’t be blamed for not being able to form a deep connection to someone who isn’t blood related to him- and also alludes to Seo-In probably feeling “guilty” with the way Jaewon died (possibly suicide, possibly due to illness since he did have a private doctor- the lady that gave Seo-IN the trip killer drugs in chapter 10)

-Jaewon- doesn’t actually like Yeongwoon despite spending a lot of time with him and Seo-in because
- He’s poor
- He knows that Yeongwoon likes Seo-In sexually or vice versa
- Or he himself is interested in Seo-In

- the change in Seo-In’s behavior once Yeongwoon started to pull back after the latter saw the kiss was most likely the catalyst that lead to the assault on Yeongwoon perpetrated by Jaewon (we see him in chapter 31 in the flashback- one of the people that assaulted him having asked: “Where were you?” To which he replies “I was at the airport to see my brother off” and he presses his hand to Jeongwoon’s face stating “Cold, isn’t it Yeongwoon?” this is directly in reference to the same flashback from Seo-IN’s in chapter 17 Where Seo-In is waiting in the snow with his Mother for Yeongwoon to show up to say goodbye and he doesn’t, nor does he answer his calls)

SO Yeongwoon left not because of Seo-in (I don’t think he had a choice) but because of the assault perpetrated by Jaewon, rendering one of his arms useless- there has been particular focus on his hands- all season, but with the reveal of his arm in the sling in Seo-in’s mother’s memory and the article in frame on the last page of the season finale. I’m thinking his injuries may have been even more extensive than portrayed in that one shot.

Seo-in’s parents (mother at least) were not only aware of the fact that Jaewon was the perpetrator of the assault against Yeongwoon, but were also aware of who Yeongwoon was and did not make any effort to take any sort of responsibility for it or explain it to Seo- In - even being aware that he was Seo-in’s best friend (possibly more)

Seo-in has no fucking idea that any of this happened, because
A. His family hid it
B. Yeongwoon had no choice but to keep silent given either the shame from his father having accepted the money or his subsequent mental health developments, this is likely the event that is the cause of his anxiety disorder
C. Yeongwoon either assumes that Seo-In knew about what Jaewon had done to him- or even assumes that him not knowing would be better given that it seems he’s misunderstood the relationship between the two.

The money that was “stolen” as referenced in chapter 25 from his father, was hush the money that Yeongwoon took as his own (totally valid) when he fled to finally cut ties with his father after pretty much being abandoned by everyone he could possibly trust.

It is referenced by Jaewon’s doctor- (The woman in chapter 10) that the three of them did hang out quite a bit (Jaewon, Yeongwoon, and Seo-In) which leads me to believe the only one who was aware at all of what was growing between Seo-In and Yeongwoon was Jaewon, and for some reason he destroyed it. I currently think his (step?) brother must’ve been obsessed with him- because in the flashbacks Yeongwoon has of Seo-In and the mystery person, we see the person always having the same hair and mole just below the left side of his lips, and this placement and hair color is the same in the family photo of the Han Family revisited in chapters: 6, 8,11, etc) - we even initially get the overlay of his face (the brother’s) and Hae yool (the guy he was previously the manager of) in chapter 3. We also see him in Seo-In’s flashbacks in chapter 21 stating “Don’t tell me you think people are actually being genuine with you?”

My assumption is that this statement was made post Yeongwoon’s disappearance in effect to minimize any of the connection that may have existed between the two, the same can be said for his appearance in Yeongwoon’s nightmare in Chapter 3 when Jaewon appears behind him, holding his chin up when he tries to turn away from the image of Seo-In and Hae- yool together and telling him

“Don’t look away.”
“There’s no place for you there.”
“Not in the past, not now…not ever”

So the main antagonist rn is a freaky ghost.

Anyway that’s everything until Season 2