Winouyang's Favorite

Oof, this is a tough one. Hee-Seo is obviously very manipulative, emotionally abusive and out of line. He's mentally unstable and probably the most classic textbook example of what badly managed and uncouncelled borderline personality disorder looks like that I've seen in fiction lately. He flip-flops, when Tae-Kyung is nice to him he loves him and wants to stay with him forever, he has delusional fantasies of having found both a guardian and a lover in one, giving him all the kinds of affection he's never had. And when Tae-Kyung hurts him, Hee-Seo hates him, lashes out, resorts to desperate measures for attention by threatening suicide. And Tae-Kyung does not know how to handle him at all, so he unwittingly keeps making the hole deeper with mixed messages, coming closer for a moment just to pull away the next, giving lies and half-truths and then watching hopelessly when the truths he tells aren't believed

Hee-Seo is obviously completely liable for his own actions and his behaviour should not be excused, but it's so hard to view him as a monster because you can see exactly why he ended up that way. His mother abandoned him and died and every adult around him failed him completely, including Tae-Kyung even if he didn't mean to do it. If someone had sat down with that kid ten, five, even two years ago and met his emotional needs I reckon he would be much different. Tae-Kyung is the only person to ever give him attention and affection, but even that's aloof and distant, Hee-Seo chases it just to be met with a cold shoulder and when he gives up and resigns to being abandoned, Tae-Kyung pulls him in again because of guilt and gives him that authentic care he's been yearning for, because realistically Hee-Seo will never make it on his own

It's a very toxic cycle and honestly, what would be the best would be Tae-Kyung disappearing from his life and another completely unrelate adult (who's also preferably professionally trained to deal with heavily traumatized children with personality disorders) stepping in to councel him. But we know that's not going to happen lmao