First and foremost: I really liked this Webtoon. There's no doubt I will reread it and if it makes its way into german bookstores some day, I will gladly collect it there, just as I did with Killing Stalking and numerous other stories. Yet, there's also something that could have ended the whole ordeal for me then and there and only BARELY managed to kit the boat. And all of that, literally at chapter 79, when the story was pretty much over. How that happened? Stay with me for a bit and find out, there will be no »TL;DR«-version, just so you know beforehand. The reason for that is simple: To understand my train of thought, you need to follow it - a simple one-liner stating the conclusion wouldn't quite cut it, especially if you're a fan of Yuri and prone to simply think of every word against him as baseless hostility toward him or whatever, which you didn't feel while reading (because you may have not seen what I saw, which isn't a problem, but you might understand once I explain it to you).
You see, when it comes to psychologically heavy parts in a story, I tend to keep the shackles on my suspension of disbelieve pretty loose. I can absolutely take characters going mental or a situation going tits up like what happened during the scenes of chapter 78 to 80, as long as the characters involved and / or the reason for said escalation has been set up and established beforehand. This happened here; Soyeon was obsessing over Yuri and with Ayeon by her side, she got a glimpse of power she couldn't handle in her already broken mental state, so she went in over her head more and more. There's a logical throughline here, it works, so no problems on that part. But it also has to tie into the story. I know what they were going for, when the whole Yuri-Arc happened and how he ran away at the sight of Jaerim (seemingly) making out with another guy. Sadly, the whole premise of this Webtoon was the relationship between Jaerim and Yuri. So I, as the reader, need to be able to want to see those two getting happily together, otherwise the whole plot crumbles apart from the base up. There's where the problems start to arise: Yuri had always been someone you had to pamper. Selfishly, he didn't care that the people around him had feelings, too. That they got hurt and suffered, just like him. Like, when after the whole thing with Yuri's family went down, Scar-Boy (Sorry, I forgot how to spell his name, so I'm just going to call him that for the time being) didn't attend the funeral of his parents, as Dunno complained at one point. Well, of course he didn't. Who knows if he was even released from the hospital by that point? Maybe he was, but in what state was he in? And what was even with that scene about his seemingly dead mother and the father who killed her? Nothing ever came of that information, it was simply there and that's it. Talk about loose ends, but that's a whole different can of worms, which I ain't gonna open today. Point being: Yuri has been selfish, long before the whole thing went tits up and he changed into the Yuri we knew in the beginning. The original conflict with Scar-Boy is yet another example. Yes, his mind was playing tricks on him later on, but you have to be self centered before that, for it to turn out this way. People cope with loss differently because their underlying personality determines how they deal with certain circumstances. Which means he had to be selfish before, so this could be the way he took it in the first place. Since he was selfish, he blamed everything on Scar-Boy, who he had a misunderstanding with, right before the events at his home. He was just as selfish before, that's why he didn't bother asking Scar-Boy what the reasons for his cruel words were, and thus created the misunderstanding which lead to the whole disaster that came afterwards. And even though Jaerim and Yuri were on a path everything was going smoothly right before the events of chapter 79, he reverted to his old ways on the spot and turned his back on a suffering Jaerim, without a second thought. Without Scar-Boy, he would have just left him there, on the ground, hurt and broken. While I do understand what part of his character was responsible for that specific reaction, it doesn't exactly make me cheer for them as a couple. Like, how much pain did Jaerim already have to go through, at this point? I know, the Webtoon acknowledges all of it and it does make sense in a psychological way, I believe this is possible, but the problem is, that the sense it does make, shines light on Yuris personality where you seriously don't want to have any light on. Like, no. Keep it in the dark as firmly as possible. I almost lost interest in the couple - right before the happy end. This one chapter almost destroyed everything. It's not about the story being nonsense or anything - like I said, there's definitely a logical throughline here - it's about the writer's decision to display this particular »dramatic« scene as a turning point and showing Yuri's ugliest ways so blatantly in the process of it, that it made me reconsider if I wanted to have him as the protagonists Love Interest in the story, at least for a while. And since I know that the premise is them getting together at the same time as I lose interest in Yuri as the Love Interest, that's where the aforementioned »crumbling apart from the base up« is coming into play. With this particular dramatic scene, of course I'm referring to that Rape-Scene. And yes, I know it's isn't rape all the way through, in case you were wondering why I called it that way. That's because it doesn't count as harassment anymore at this point, so I lacked a better word and seriously, I wasn't even sure if Ayeon penetrated Jaerim or not. I mean, the whole thing is censored like this, the only hint was that he wore pants in later scenes, but Jaerim crying seemed almost as if he was being fucked already. But let's go through this Rape-Scene bit by bit, shall we?
1. Yuri is being told that Jaerim was basically kidnapped. A girl, he seemingly didn't even recognize as someone he knows from whatever place, is telling him, someone he doesn't have an obvious connection to was being taken away by scary people. She's telling him about this incident instead of calling for authorities. He doesn't question it. Now you COULD be saying it's a good thing, since he charges into action on the spot, because he's that worried about Jaerim. And yes, in his situation it makes sense that he doesn't wait to ask stupid questions or think about things a lot in general, but the real problem starts at this point. 2. She gives Yuri a letter. Somehow, even though they are both in the student council, in which Jaerim used to do paperwork to no end, and eventhough they learned together for school, he doesn't recognize Jaerims handwriting at all. Like, he doesn't even question it. Again. Eventhough Jaerim ran after Yuri after all he did to him and wanted to be with him and he has never been the type that would write a letter instead of talking face to face about important stuff. Did he really think this lowly of Jaerim? After all the times he faced his wrath already and didn't back off? He simply believes it. And again, it is believable, as far as human behaviour goes, as well as the story that doesn't make it seem like an accident, as they also adress this flaw of his later, but that doesn't make it any better. He doesn't question the letter in it's most basic intention, since Jaerim wouldn't have acted this cowardly at this point of the story (and even before that) and doesn't think the handwriting is in any way off. Eventhough these goons probably didn't know Jaerims writingstyle by heart and he should have seen his handwriting a lot, as I mentioned. The letter was ridiculously long, he should have noticed SOMETHING about it. And yet ... still just the beginning of said bigger problems. 3. Those goons with a camera were right there, he came in and they were literally gone - he didn't just miss them because he was so focused on Jaerim and Ayeon, they literally vanished from the scene. Don't know who missed that one here. 4. Jaerim was black and blue from being thrown about, had his clothes torn and fingers bleeding from clawing the ground in fruitless escape efforts. Seemingly, none of this caught Yuri's eye. Like, at all. You would think he payed at least that much attention if he was going to judge him anyway. Again, this could be because he's so blind to it, but that again adds to the bigger problem which is being highlighted in this chapter and the one after. 5. Jaerim is literally crying and relieved when Yuri comes in, but the latter just pouts and turns his back at him. He TURNS his BACK at him.
And in case you still don't see the bigger problem, which ties into everything I mentioned before: It's Yuri's selfishness. I know they made the point of him being like that but wanting to change for Jaerim and it did kind of save the whole thing a little. Especially when the Scar-Boy showed up and Yuri somehow saw the light after having some sense talked into him. But first of all, the whole existence of Scar-Boy in that scene, even after he had seen Soyeon on that other occasion before, was already pretty contrived and made my suspension of disbelieve nearly snap. Like, how did he know about any of this? How did he know what Yuri did, what he saw or how he reacted? Why was he even there in the first place? This scene left me speechless for a lot of reasons, believe me. And second was the fact that Yuri willingly overlooked all of the weird things within those five picks I just gave you and simply saw what he wanted to see. Even if that's what it was supposed to be - not something incredibly uncomfortable that a reader might see and the author didn't, which happened by accident - it doesn't mean it's a good character build up. Like that one scene, when Jaerim threw that pendant away and later he tells Yuri he would stay by his side, no matter how hurt he would get. That's simply not a good thing and certainly not something you want to build relationship around that is supposed to be wholesome and romantic. Don't get me wrong, I'm all in for some crazy relationships, hell I don't even have a problem with rape in fiction, because it's fiction and lets us explore territories that we might not want to get involved with, in real life. But if the story is introduced as one with a loving couple, this whole rape-thing blows it out of proportion already, because after that, Jaerim would have had a trauma and building a working romantic relationship on that experience is going to be very ... ambitious, to say the least. It's different, if they start into a relationship with it, because it might even rely on the Stockholm Syndrome or a knack of the protagonist that was forced or maybe not as forced as it was set out to be, so they can form a relationship that somehow works. It does work for some people, so there's that. And we go into the story with a different mindset. But this is ... well. Different. Because even if you put the rape-thing aside, it still shows Yuri abandoning Jaerim without asking questions, just because he was hurt. He was so blind, he didn't see any of those blatantly obvious hints, that this whole thing was set up and forced. Gave me the feeling of not wanting Jaerim to be with a guy like Yuri, because ... when they made up before, Jaerim said, as already stated above, he would stay with Yuri, no matter how much he was hurt in the process. That shouldn't be the premise of a healthy relationship. And a flaw like the one shown in Chapter 79 / 80 isn't something you overcome just like that either. Next time, there might not be someone else, showing up for some contrived reasons, talking sense into him. How often will Jaerim have to suffer until Yuri actually changes? As we saw, the way he was when he didn't have actual problems, he was already this selfish. He returned more to his former self a while ago, but chapter 79 / 80 still happened none the less. So what kind of Yuri does he need to evolve into and when will that be the case? That's what I'm questioning here. Him going back and being true to Jaerim definitely helped going out of this story with mostly positive feelings, but I would have to lie if I said that didn't bother me considerably much. That's why I had to rant it off now.
If you didn't see it like that at all, be my guest. I guess its more fun if that didn't bother you as much.
First and foremost: I really liked this Webtoon. There's no doubt I will reread it and if it makes its way into german bookstores some day, I will gladly collect it there, just as I did with Killing Stalking and numerous other stories.
Yet, there's also something that could have ended the whole ordeal for me then and there and only BARELY managed to kit the boat. And all of that, literally at chapter 79, when the story was pretty much over. How that happened? Stay with me for a bit and find out, there will be no »TL;DR«-version, just so you know beforehand. The reason for that is simple: To understand my train of thought, you need to follow it - a simple one-liner stating the conclusion wouldn't quite cut it, especially if you're a fan of Yuri and prone to simply think of every word against him as baseless hostility toward him or whatever, which you didn't feel while reading (because you may have not seen what I saw, which isn't a problem, but you might understand once I explain it to you).
You see, when it comes to psychologically heavy parts in a story, I tend to keep the shackles on my suspension of disbelieve pretty loose. I can absolutely take characters going mental or a situation going tits up like what happened during the scenes of chapter 78 to 80, as long as the characters involved and / or the reason for said escalation has been set up and established beforehand. This happened here; Soyeon was obsessing over Yuri and with Ayeon by her side, she got a glimpse of power she couldn't handle in her already broken mental state, so she went in over her head more and more. There's a logical throughline here, it works, so no problems on that part.
But it also has to tie into the story. I know what they were going for, when the whole Yuri-Arc happened and how he ran away at the sight of Jaerim (seemingly) making out with another guy. Sadly, the whole premise of this Webtoon was the relationship between Jaerim and Yuri. So I, as the reader, need to be able to want to see those two getting happily together, otherwise the whole plot crumbles apart from the base up.
There's where the problems start to arise: Yuri had always been someone you had to pamper. Selfishly, he didn't care that the people around him had feelings, too. That they got hurt and suffered, just like him. Like, when after the whole thing with Yuri's family went down, Scar-Boy (Sorry, I forgot how to spell his name, so I'm just going to call him that for the time being) didn't attend the funeral of his parents, as Dunno complained at one point. Well, of course he didn't. Who knows if he was even released from the hospital by that point? Maybe he was, but in what state was he in? And what was even with that scene about his seemingly dead mother and the father who killed her? Nothing ever came of that information, it was simply there and that's it. Talk about loose ends, but that's a whole different can of worms, which I ain't gonna open today.
Point being: Yuri has been selfish, long before the whole thing went tits up and he changed into the Yuri we knew in the beginning. The original conflict with Scar-Boy is yet another example. Yes, his mind was playing tricks on him later on, but you have to be self centered before that, for it to turn out this way. People cope with loss differently because their underlying personality determines how they deal with certain circumstances. Which means he had to be selfish before, so this could be the way he took it in the first place. Since he was selfish, he blamed everything on Scar-Boy, who he had a misunderstanding with, right before the events at his home. He was just as selfish before, that's why he didn't bother asking Scar-Boy what the reasons for his cruel words were, and thus created the misunderstanding which lead to the whole disaster that came afterwards.
And even though Jaerim and Yuri were on a path everything was going smoothly right before the events of chapter 79, he reverted to his old ways on the spot and turned his back on a suffering Jaerim, without a second thought. Without Scar-Boy, he would have just left him there, on the ground, hurt and broken. While I do understand what part of his character was responsible for that specific reaction, it doesn't exactly make me cheer for them as a couple.
Like, how much pain did Jaerim already have to go through, at this point? I know, the Webtoon acknowledges all of it and it does make sense in a psychological way, I believe this is possible, but the problem is, that the sense it does make, shines light on Yuris personality where you seriously don't want to have any light on. Like, no. Keep it in the dark as firmly as possible. I almost lost interest in the couple - right before the happy end. This one chapter almost destroyed everything. It's not about the story being nonsense or anything - like I said, there's definitely a logical throughline here - it's about the writer's decision to display this particular »dramatic« scene as a turning point and showing Yuri's ugliest ways so blatantly in the process of it, that it made me reconsider if I wanted to have him as the protagonists Love Interest in the story, at least for a while. And since I know that the premise is them getting together at the same time as I lose interest in Yuri as the Love Interest, that's where the aforementioned »crumbling apart from the base up« is coming into play. With this particular dramatic scene, of course I'm referring to that Rape-Scene. And yes, I know it's isn't rape all the way through, in case you were wondering why I called it that way. That's because it doesn't count as harassment anymore at this point, so I lacked a better word and seriously, I wasn't even sure if Ayeon penetrated Jaerim or not. I mean, the whole thing is censored like this, the only hint was that he wore pants in later scenes, but Jaerim crying seemed almost as if he was being fucked already.
But let's go through this Rape-Scene bit by bit, shall we?
1. Yuri is being told that Jaerim was basically kidnapped. A girl, he seemingly didn't even recognize as someone he knows from whatever place, is telling him, someone he doesn't have an obvious connection to was being taken away by scary people. She's telling him about this incident instead of calling for authorities. He doesn't question it.
Now you COULD be saying it's a good thing, since he charges into action on the spot, because he's that worried about Jaerim. And yes, in his situation it makes sense that he doesn't wait to ask stupid questions or think about things a lot in general, but the real problem starts at this point.
2. She gives Yuri a letter. Somehow, even though they are both in the student council, in which Jaerim used to do paperwork to no end, and eventhough they learned together for school, he doesn't recognize Jaerims handwriting at all. Like, he doesn't even question it. Again. Eventhough Jaerim ran after Yuri after all he did to him and wanted to be with him and he has never been the type that would write a letter instead of talking face to face about important stuff. Did he really think this lowly of Jaerim? After all the times he faced his wrath already and didn't back off? He simply believes it. And again, it is believable, as far as human behaviour goes, as well as the story that doesn't make it seem like an accident, as they also adress this flaw of his later, but that doesn't make it any better. He doesn't question the letter in it's most basic intention, since Jaerim wouldn't have acted this cowardly at this point of the story (and even before that) and doesn't think the handwriting is in any way off. Eventhough these goons probably didn't know Jaerims writingstyle by heart and he should have seen his handwriting a lot, as I mentioned. The letter was ridiculously long, he should have noticed SOMETHING about it. And yet ... still just the beginning of said bigger problems.
3. Those goons with a camera were right there, he came in and they were literally gone - he didn't just miss them because he was so focused on Jaerim and Ayeon, they literally vanished from the scene. Don't know who missed that one here.
4. Jaerim was black and blue from being thrown about, had his clothes torn and fingers bleeding from clawing the ground in fruitless escape efforts. Seemingly, none of this caught Yuri's eye. Like, at all. You would think he payed at least that much attention if he was going to judge him anyway. Again, this could be because he's so blind to it, but that again adds to the bigger problem which is being highlighted in this chapter and the one after.
5. Jaerim is literally crying and relieved when Yuri comes in, but the latter just pouts and turns his back at him. He TURNS his BACK at him.
And in case you still don't see the bigger problem, which ties into everything I mentioned before: It's Yuri's selfishness.
I know they made the point of him being like that but wanting to change for Jaerim and it did kind of save the whole thing a little. Especially when the Scar-Boy showed up and Yuri somehow saw the light after having some sense talked into him.
But first of all, the whole existence of Scar-Boy in that scene, even after he had seen Soyeon on that other occasion before, was already pretty contrived and made my suspension of disbelieve nearly snap. Like, how did he know about any of this? How did he know what Yuri did, what he saw or how he reacted? Why was he even there in the first place? This scene left me speechless for a lot of reasons, believe me. And second was the fact that Yuri willingly overlooked all of the weird things within those five picks I just gave you and simply saw what he wanted to see. Even if that's what it was supposed to be - not something incredibly uncomfortable that a reader might see and the author didn't, which happened by accident - it doesn't mean it's a good character build up. Like that one scene, when Jaerim threw that pendant away and later he tells Yuri he would stay by his side, no matter how hurt he would get. That's simply not a good thing and certainly not something you want to build relationship around that is supposed to be wholesome and romantic.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all in for some crazy relationships, hell I don't even have a problem with rape in fiction, because it's fiction and lets us explore territories that we might not want to get involved with, in real life. But if the story is introduced as one with a loving couple, this whole rape-thing blows it out of proportion already, because after that, Jaerim would have had a trauma and building a working romantic relationship on that experience is going to be very ... ambitious, to say the least. It's different, if they start into a relationship with it, because it might even rely on the Stockholm Syndrome or a knack of the protagonist that was forced or maybe not as forced as it was set out to be, so they can form a relationship that somehow works. It does work for some people, so there's that. And we go into the story with a different mindset. But this is ... well. Different.
Because even if you put the rape-thing aside, it still shows Yuri abandoning Jaerim without asking questions, just because he was hurt. He was so blind, he didn't see any of those blatantly obvious hints, that this whole thing was set up and forced. Gave me the feeling of not wanting Jaerim to be with a guy like Yuri, because ... when they made up before, Jaerim said, as already stated above, he would stay with Yuri, no matter how much he was hurt in the process. That shouldn't be the premise of a healthy relationship. And a flaw like the one shown in Chapter 79 / 80 isn't something you overcome just like that either. Next time, there might not be someone else, showing up for some contrived reasons, talking sense into him. How often will Jaerim have to suffer until Yuri actually changes? As we saw, the way he was when he didn't have actual problems, he was already this selfish. He returned more to his former self a while ago, but chapter 79 / 80 still happened none the less. So what kind of Yuri does he need to evolve into and when will that be the case? That's what I'm questioning here.
Him going back and being true to Jaerim definitely helped going out of this story with mostly positive feelings, but I would have to lie if I said that didn't bother me considerably much. That's why I had to rant it off now.
If you didn't see it like that at all, be my guest. I guess its more fun if that didn't bother you as much.