...and honestly thought Subin will ended up with Hyunwoo and i was going to write a sad comment on how good it would be if Subin ended up with the hyung-- but it happened, bam.
I was honestly sure that Subin will ended up with Hyunwoo bc of the cover and both pairings has equal potentials to end together, as well as have their own ups and downs; Subin & Hyunwoo are cute together and has a long history, but they can easily fall into a toxic relationship bc Hyunwoo is often confused with his own feelings and blamed Subin for it. And if it all come back to 'love', Subin might suffer alone before Hyunwoo realized his mistakes. Subin and Hyung seems reeeeallly awkward and stiff at first, maybe it was because they have like zero history and Subin only has his eyes for Hyunwoo, also the fact that they have 7 years differences between them and Subin was really unbearably childish at first. However, we can see that by staying with Hyung, Subin was healed from his brokenheart, albeit very slowly. Forgetting about your first love and also 5 years of unrequited love is no easy joke. Subin was suffocated with Hyung sometimes bc he felt like he can't be himself (probably his rugged and childish-self), though it could be because he didn't trust Hyung enough to show himself just yet. Or it was the confession, it make Subin unconsciously think that he has to stay 'likeable' to be loved by hyung, as a way to escape from his own uneasiness after he saw Hyunwoo with Noona+bf. But actually at the same time, we can see how he gradually became calmer on how to handle his situation with Hyunwoo. He can see his situation not only while whining and crying about it, but thinking it thoroughly and even taking everyone's feelings into consideration. This is a really great character development-- which, i think, that Subin wouldnt reach if he didnt have Kang Jun-hyung at his side.
If you're a creator yourself you'd know: sometimes the character 'moves' by themselves. And i think despite Reck's (probably??) plans to have Subin and Hyunwoo sort themselves up and ended up together, Subin choose Hyung in the end.
Don't get me wrong, chapter 42 hurts me too, it shows that Subin and Hyunwoo could ended up together if only Hyunwoo could catch up soon, in term of feelings and time, they would definitely be together. But Hyunwoo is still Hyunwoo, and a few minutes late could means destiny. :(
The ending is rushed, true, but i think the author tried to tied as much as loose ties as they can. It might feel empty but Reck put a lot of subtle hints on the epilogue. It's deeper than what it shows-- the rings (damn the rings!), on how Subin gets more mature but can still show his childlike-ness in front of Hyung (by teasing him about the underwear (╯✧∇✧)╯ ), on how after the years they don't seem awkward with each other anymore, totally comfortable in their own skin, and they can be way more honest on telling 'ily' and such. Two years aren't that short, though it wasn't that long as well. Feelings could lingers, it shows on how Subin sees Hyunwoo the first time he came to the table (cz hot bb damn), but he can comfortably talk about the rings later on, and even asked Hyunwoo abt the gf-- it means that Subin really moved on afterall.
I wished there will be more insight on Hyunwoo's feelings as well, but well. We can only take the fact that he has a girlfriend means he's already (at least tried to) moved on as well.
tl;dr not a perfect executions, but still a great ending for me.
It's beautiful and all but Taichi still lost. I think the mangaka will make Arata to win karuta and Taichi to 'win' Chihaya in the end. But I still hate the fact that after all of that hardwork, after loosing and loosing and loosing, he still preserve but he still lost to Arata. And if Taichi didnt even end up with Chihaya, then whats the point? Stop putting him in the line and hurting him this much for the plot. Taichi doesnt deserve this. Afterall second place hurts the most.