i find it a little funny how during this entire manhwa thus far, all we have been seeing i...

i find it a little funny how during this entire manhwa thus far, all we have been seeing is how people make assumptions about and place expectations on jinhyeong, making it so that it's extremely difficult for him to open up to others, but for some reason, there's suddenly confusion when we see another character behaving similarly to others we've already met. i mean, the whole reason why his relationship with uyun is working and helping him grow is because uyun gave him the room he needed to open up and feel safe doing so. uyun never made assumptions about his character or talked about him behind his back or took other people's word for it in regards to who he was. he was patient and allowed jinhyeong to show him, and his acts of kindness and affection are unconditional and non-transactional because he acknowledges the weaknesses jinhyeong struggles with and tries to fill in the gaps.

all this to say that i can't blame his ex for feeling bitter--after all, i've been where she is, and the pain always lingers a little, even after a long time. you start wondering what it was about you that wasn't good enough. but regardless, she was never playing fair because we see her repeatedly hold the things she gave him over his head while simultaneously ignoring his words and his feelings about what she was doing. we don't see the entirety of their year-long relationship, but he expresses himself and communicates clearly about two key things that lead to the downfall of their relationship: he didn't care for her giving him test answers, and he didn't feel comfortable going to that party. in both cases, he still sacrifices his comfort and his boundaries in exchange for hers, and in both cases, she ignores what he says because she means well (and we even see her tell on herself a bit by saying he's "strong" and "[his] family is rich," implying that the problems he was having shouldn't have been such a big deal, though i do think her expression afterwards did indicate some level of regret for saying it].

could he have expressed himself better about these things, and likely many other things during the course of their relationship? absolutely, and he shows both now and even back then that he understands that his failure to do so caused significant harm to someone else. however, i'd say his ex still has some growing up to do herself (i haven't yet been provided a good reason for why her sudden change in reaction towards him being in a new relationship that's good for him but it's with a man is reasonable or justifiable but i digress), because it seems like she still doesn't seem to think that she did anything wrong or even understand what it was that she did wrong, and after five years at her age, i find it a little strange that she couldn't think of even one thing she could've done better in that situation. on the whole, these were two people who were never going to work out in a relationship because their methods of expressing themselves and their affection are just too different lol.