I mean he was malnourished I guess so maybe that played a part
He’s kinda small as an adult too when you compare him to Chiyoung and the other men we’ve seen so far so I think he’s just a small guy :3
I think he mentioned on top of it that he was kind of a sickly “runt” of his family and it’s obvious he wasn’t taken care of well growing up. I think it mentioned he never really had a chance to go to a doctor overall mostly because of finances so he’s probably been in bad condition up until our wolf decided to take care of him. His health dramatically improved. So he’s just not had a lot of nutrition. At least that’s what I’ve gathered.
in the novel, mc was malnourished bc he was unable to keep food down (he would always throw it back up no matter what he ate) so the timeline is correct. when geontae finds mc, mc tries super hard to fit into the fighter dog pack bc he is afraid of being abandoned once more so he forces himself to eat over and over even if he throws up multiple times and eventually he is able to keep most foods down and grow to a relatively normal adult size (but still on the weaker side and i think he still struggles to eat some foods in the novel)
also to add on, it was a physical disorder of his and the main reason why his family abandoned him :(
I've been wondering for a while, he's 21 and his hyung found him specifically 5 years ago. But in the backstory he looks no older than 10y/o(??. I went back to check if maybe he *join* the gambling dent 5 years ago but had been w the hyung since before but that's not the case
I even considered the the korean age thing, (which would make him 19) that still would put him at 14y/o. you could add the fact that he was a sick and weak child but still wouldn't look so little imo
Maybe the artist just drew him too small and I'm overthinking lmao