I can read stuff that is not perfect, when It seems logical. Because humans are not flawless, so I can understand flawed relationships. I mean look at Killing Stalking. That was so well made, you felt how it can be, that some people are together, even though everyone knows how fucked up it all is. But humans can create a bubble if the factors are right. But if this story is like you say, it is yet another author who has no real understanding of humans. Which I don't blame them for though. It should just be taken as is. Not really representative of reality, but may be for some a good short escape from reality?
I actually enjoy reading about flawed characters and relationships. Killing stalking was visceral, with two deeply damaged people that “got together” through circumstance and the MC being kept as, I would say, a kind of entertainment to the killer. Why killing stalking is different though is that it acknowledges how messed up those two people and their “relationship” actually is. There are no excuses made for either of them. It doesn’t romanticize their relationship. This webtoon here has a good start with the MC remembering what went on and why he broke away. He himself acknowledged his own flaw of not having a backbone and holding on to fruitless hope. This all fell apart as soon as MC told his boss what happened. He doesn’t even acknowledge that the MC was sexually assaulted and almost raped. This character is an outsider to the situation, as is the reader. And the narrative through the opinion of the boss shifts it into the MC having to forgive seme, that it’s his fault for fleeing a “relationship” that was toxic and undermined his self worth without informing his fuck buddy first. His outside perspective excuses the seme’s actions and tries to romanticize what boils down to stalking and enacting vindictive revenge in form of sexual assault. That’s where my problem lies. It would be different if only the MC tried to romanticize it because that’s how his character was introduced. But it irks me to see this character, who had the right idea by being disgusted and scared by what happened to him, to be gaslighted by the boss to make him doubt his decision and feelings on the matter. His boss was introduced as having a position of trust being the moral guide to the MC, and meant to portray an unbiased opinion. And he gives advice which is meant to push the MC and his toxic ex fuck buddy back together again. I hope this is going to be remarked later on with maybe a perspective on the boss who might enjoy creating drama. But right now it doesn’t seem that way. Everything points at the trope of “misunderstood seme”, “my parents didn’t love me so I don’t know how to love”, and “love conquers all”. I’m waiting for a perspective of how the seme viewed the relationship in the past. And this webtoon gives off the vibe of making excuses for the seme’s behavior. So everything will probably be explained away as a giant misunderstanding.
perfectly said. thank you. i was fucking screaming at my screen the whole time because of how frustrating this relationship is. one is an egotistical pos, and the other the living embodiment of an inferiority complex. relationship is so fucking toxic that i can't even breathe. regretful that i read 16 ch of this shit.
so it seems it is not completely non-human behavior there? depending on the strength of the uke's will and all, what the boss did....It happens in real life too...Like parents telling their abused daughter to respect their husband because it is their duty and whatnot...without properly listening. Or friends saying they are whining, without asking why she is, because their guy is such a huge manupulator (and good looking may be), that everyone trusts them more then the victim who has just their will in shambles by that relationship and just needs a helping hand, because they are so full of confusion and fear that they cannot move on their own apart from just asking for help....shit like this makes me mad. So that is why I think I cannot read this. If is apparentl true that the author failed in what they were trying. If you want romance with drama and no psychological tragedy tag, than you should know what makes something labeled as that....or may be this is their intention because they want to address this topic? who knows...
I feel where you're coming from. There has to be a lesson or appropriate consequence after all that toxicity. That's what I'm hoping Taejoo is there for to enact some form of justice! Buuuut I'll be better off not getting my hopes up.
No telling where the author will take this. Maybe they're driving their readers crazy, knowing how real this hits home to some people, and then later burst that fantasy and prove how badly it can end.
Maybe come back once the final chapter ends? Just to see how it turned out.
Oh absolutely. You will always have people around you that push you to forgive and forget. Sometimes even the people that are close to you and who, as you said, only see the positive facade of their friend’s or child’s SO. This happens and I would speculate that it’s also grounded in Christianity in regards to forgiveness and also because they don’t get the whole picture. The problem in this webtoon though is that the boss knows nothing about MC’s ex. He only knows what MC told him. So the “unbiased” narrative itself pushes this idea by the outside perspective of the boss as if the seme’s actions are due to love. It goes even further to say that it’s MC’s fault for fleeing this toxic relationship. So on one side it romanticizes the seme’s action, and on the other side it blames the victim for the seme’s actions. One could always argue that the boss has his own agenda. Maybe he has a sadistic streak and would like to see the MC suffer by actively gaslighting him. But that would have needed to be established before giving such controversial advice, to make it clear that his perspective is not unbiased and doesn’t reflect the author’s opinion of MC’s and ex’s toxic relationship as something romantic. The reason I’m not too annoyed about MC is because his behavior is consistent with how his character was introduced as having no self esteem and always interpreting the ex’s behavior as proof that he likes him, even though he has evidence to the contrary. So him falling back into it is not too surprising, especially after the “advice” from his boss, which aligned with his views about his ex in the past. And it’s not even a speculation if what the boss said pushed Mc back to his ex. He actively thinks about the advice and is influenced by it. I mean, here you got somebody with extremely low self esteem who had enough courage to break away. No one ever knew about this relationship, so he never got an outside perspective to it to confirm that he was in the right. And the first perspective he gets is that it’s his fault and that the ex must love him after all. And this plays right back into MC’s past fantasies of his ex. It’s tragic, and actually interesting but so far I see a lot of questionable tropes being introduced which point to the contrary and would leave us with the message of “as long as you are patient, long suffering and trusting, you will be rewarded with love”. Which pushes the opinion of being responsible for your SO’s actions and behavior. Or “if you were the victim of childhood abuse/neglect you are absolved automatically of any responsibility if you treat the people around you like dirt as long as you realize, even if you mentally broke your partner” . And that message is just not palatable to me. I will continue to read and I hope I will be surprised and actually eat my words in the end
Wtf is this? So the seme treated MC like garbage and a convenient hole. This guy never cared for the feelings of the people around him. Also, I think he probably has some fiancé in the background, because he told his friends he was in a relationship with someone, and it certainly wasn’t the MC. I’m sorry but I don’t think MC acted wrong by vanishing from this POS. We see MC easily being swayed by the seme’s manipulation, guilt trips and gaslighting, he probably knew if he said something before hand he would have caved in yet again. And I have to wonder about the Authors moral compass in regards to romantic relationships. So if you are treated like shit by some guy you have sex with, who sometimes does something nice for you, and you have the evidence of him not giving a crap, everything is forgiven because this guy searched for you for 2 years like an obsessed maniac? And I guess sexual assault is also ok as long as you are former fuck buddies? I have to assume that’s what the author thinks because MC’s boss completely disregards what he was told about. He only goes on about his assumptions that the seme must care for MC because he searched for him and that they should hook up again. But we have evidence to the contrary and we must assume that MC told his boss everything that happened. So why give such bs advice? The seme is not in love but rather pissed that MC dared to dump him. This is all out of hurt pride and anger for losing control over his former doormat. And MC goes right back like a moron. And it’s not like they are actually really going out or that the seme cares about him, which is evident in the insta hookup without regard if MC is enjoying himself when the fucking begins. I wouldn’t be surprised if seme only asked him to date so he can be the one dumping MC in the end as revenge. That’s what it looks like to me. Gosh, I hope this is a cautionary tale where MC realizes he’s in an abusive “relationship” and dumps this bastard. Sorry for the rant but I can’t stand toxic and abusive behavior being romanticized.