THANKKKKK YOU! Like i genuinely feel like I’m losing my mind when I read these comments. If the reader went through a fraction of what he did they would’ve been jaded as well.
I’m gonna be totally honest, what you expressed about child abuse is totally true as children emulate their caregivers or the situations they were thrown into.
But let’s be clear, while both of the were subjected to abuse (whether different kind, still same outcome) one decided to let go while the other hold on onto something that was destroying him.
I do feel terribly bad and more so when he expresses that he does like MC but he then chooses to keep doing what he’s doing because he has “too much to loose “ when the reality of the situation is much sadder as he already lost himself and keeps choosing not to let go, whereas the other two tried their best to get out of that vicious circle and be better, find happiness. That’s the difference between the two, one understood what they needed to change and the other didn’t.
I do hope his story ends with him being genuinely happy and loved.
But he kinda deserved that because otherwise I don’t think he would’ve realized how to let go.
you're not wrong but you're giving jooin way too much credit and still underestimating jooyung's trauma. jooin did not "let go". he ran away. his whole arc is about how his coping mechanism was escapism, but his past still shackled him even as he tried to walk away from it. on the other hand, jooyung never left the fight. he was forced to continue fighting, especially by their father who in his own words "lost the better heir (jooin)", not verbatim.
plus jooin only understood what needed to change cause he had a taste of what life could be like if he healed, and it gave him hope and courage. there was none of that for jooyung.
it's so easy to say that jooyung should have let go, but again as a child he grew up on the concept of living life on survival mode 24/7, he had no concept of "letting go".
we learn from young that the sky is blue, but what happens when we're faced with the concept that the sky is red? "nonsense. we know the sky is blue." that's our reaction right? and that's what it's like for him. adult soldiers who fight long wars and come back from it get severe ptsd and lose a sense of purpose and self. what do you think happens when a child actually grows up living that fight?
it's so easy to victim blame and say they should have helped themselves and be better. but victims aren't in the right mindset!! everyone has different capacities and reactions to trauma. there are depressed people who literally can't get out of bed, would you call them lazy? no, cause that's literally their condition! kudos to those who can, but not all could.
it's hard for us to understand unless we're in that exact situation but that "too much to lose" is literally jooyung's whole self and being, his whole life, not just this situation with yegyeom. he didn't deserve such a cruel wake up call, but he did need it. and that's a very big difference.
and to me that difference is also what makes yegyeom's character and what he represents shine even more. especially his act of reaching out a hand to jooyung. here's a man who has been taken advantage of, spit on, abandoned, etc. a man jooyung himself has been so cruel to. and yet, that man like a dog full of love and compassion remained kind till the very end. yegyeom could have walked straight away with jooin, but he stayed to give jooyung a helping hand.
it's the final nail in the coffin for jooyung who believed the world is cruel but it's also what set him free. he finally got the love and kindness he needed. a tiny light in his dark tunnel.
it's such a perfect conflict of themes and beliefs, but i'm afraid people are missing that just so they can have an "ultimate villain" painted in black when this whole story is actually just full of grey.
people underestimate the impact child abuse and trauma has on a person. i see a lot of comments pointing out how his past doesn't justify what he's done. it's not meant to. or "his actions don't make sense, he's a shit person." that's literally the point. a shit environment makes a shit person. and he was so young when it all happened too whereas jooin was older. and i don't think jooin even went through the same physical abuse he did. not to make this some trauma olympics, but jooyung went through really fked up shit that shaped his fked up personality.
jooin went through (mainly) manipulative emotional abuse by his mom. and jooyung literally had to fight to stay alive with a stepmom that was feeding him his allergies. their parents literally pitted them against each other even if jooin was passive about it.
it makes their story as siblings more heartbreaking actually... jooin was reaching out so they can find comfort in each other, but joohyung literally couldn't trust anyone, especially not the son of the stepmom who was trying to lowkey kill him.
i want to see a hopeful resolution between them but i know it won't happen... their father is the biggest villain here imo... pos is a cheater and a literal criminal that makes his children clean up his mess for him...
at least now jooin and yegyeom have each other TT and i hope jooyung can feel remorse and take the grace jooin and yegyeom have given him to heal and grow...