Lol i'm glad you agree! I think people are over-romanticizing TAku because they recognize that Joowon and Haesoo have tons of heavy and toxic shit to wade through, but 1. Joowon and Haesoo are clearly growing as characters, and they're capable of making things work out if they put in the work, 2. Taku was never a well-intentioned prince charming here to ""save"" Haesoo from his fully consensual relationship with Joowon, and 3. Taku isn't a great or interesting character to begin with lol, like his feelings are shallow and he was really sly trying to make Haesoo his.
Believe me when I say I've been preaching that since the dawn of this manwha, that Taku is a manipulative piece of sh*t. People often forget the fact he approached Haesoo not with pure intentions, but an aim for a fling in mind. He saw him as a temporary entertainment to pass the time with while he was staying in Korea for work. He got intrigued by JxH complicated relationship and wanted to try his luck with Haesoo, see if could do any better than Joowon. He started a one sided competition with J over this soon after, as if the whole thing was a game to him. His og plan was to dump Haesoo once his work was finished and he had to go back to Japan, leaving Haesoo hurt and broken hearted, like he did to so many of his previous models and lovers. It terrifies me how much of a sociopath Taku is. In a way, he is a villain of this story. And don't get me started with his personality and appearance. Dude has the most boring personality and design of a fictional character there is. I agree with J when he said he couldn't get along with people like Taku who looks at others like he knows something they don't, which is extremely annoying. I too hate people like that. The truth is that people like Taku are very unlikable in real life, just with that kind of anti-social and condescending personality, and combined with that manipulative ass of his it becomes 1000x worse.
No, he was still kinda manipulative lol. His straightforward approach doesn't make him less manipulative, it's just a form of being so. His intentions were 100% not pure to begin with, and he's confessed to behaving selfishly and being a jerk to literally all of his previous partners, throwing them away when he lost interest, and he says himself that he planned to do the same to Haesoo. It's disingenuous at best. Plus the way he did the whole "i don't care that you're currently going through some things with another guy and you're seriously not at your best, i'll be a distraction for a month" was clearly taking advantage of a emotionally-fraught Haesoo, and also really cheapens his ""love"" imo.
I don't think Taku is sociopathic, but I agree he's definitely not a good person. He's selfish and manipulative and clearly has issues of his own to deal with, and frankly I'm 100% not interested Joowon isn't perfect, but he shows independent character growth. Taku was an asshole and now he's an asshole in """"love'""". The two are not the same, and Taku's temporary obsession with Haesoo doesn't just negate his impure intentions. 100% agree with what you said about Jowoon not being able to get along with people like Taku, that kind of edgy asshole that thinks the world revolves around them, lol. I'd definitely hate him irl too lmao but in the story he's just so irrelevant I just scroll past him whenever he appears bc no thanks to that ~boring~ content
Taku was straight forward from the start because he had literally no feelings for Haesoo except vague interest wanting to play around with him, and the entirety of their relationship feels hollow and utterly uninteresting. I've been waiting for Taku to gtfo because he's so boring, his 'love' for Haesoo is so shallow, and there's nothing attractive about him. It's not like he's a great character or person, and he's definitely over-romanticized despite that.
Joowon and Haesoo have layers. A lot of bad ones, but a lot of deep ones, with miscommunication and misunderstanding, desire to keep each other close while still fearing getting closer, their history and family circumstance and jobs all pushing at them in different ways. It's compelling, and it's emotionally stimulating. They have tons of shit to work through, but as a reader, I WANT to see them work through it. It would be boring if they just got together as a happy ending anytime soon, but I'm only invested in them and how their relationship will play out.
It definitely helps that Joowon is going through some decent character growth. It's a bit heavy-handed at times, but it's much more interesting than Taku and his 'ok you can use me for a month' and subsequently proving himself to be SO boring during that month lol.
Idk I just don't have any interest in Taku. I don't hate him, but it annoys me to see him bc he's so irrelevant lol. Go fall in ""love"" with the next imperfect stranger already, lmao.