This is not as bad as some people made it out to be but the loose ends are annoying tbh. I major in literature and some scholars say that adding plot points that add nothing and lead nowhere is a sign of bad writing. I agree with them. These are the loose ends that stood out the most to me:
- Taewoong wanted to dump Dojin
Did the author just forget that Taewoong wanted to dump Dojin? Instead it seems like he forgave Dojin after he mumbled the truth about the fake confession while half-conscious. This was quite the unsatisfying conclusion, and then near the end of the story Taewoong is bothered by the fake confession again. It's like the author had a change of plans halfway through and decided that, for fairness, Dojin should be the one with regrets and not Taewoong.
- Taewoong's brother
Another thing, Taewoong's brother was mentioned when he brought him clothes in one of the chapters. Dojin wants to meet his lover's brother but Taewoong gets embarrassed and says they'll meet later. This seemed like a foreshadowing indicating that the brother would appear later and be quote relevant, but then he never appeared and was never mentioned again either.
To be honest, I thought his brother was gonna end up being the guy that asked if he wasn't falling in love for real, which would explain why Taewoong didn't want them to meet. At some point the supposed brother would accidentally reveal Taewoong's dumping plan to Dojin and drama would ensue.
If done right, that would mean wrapping 2 loose ends at once, and both characters would feel regretful and beg for each other's forgiveness by the end. I like this idea better, but there's no use focusing on what ifs. Oh well...
I have just read chapter 13 and here's my opinion...
The concept is good but the execution is lacking. I expected this to be a nice enemies to lovers trope with sexual tension shooting through the roof as they performed together, but as of chapter 13 this is falling short and there's only 11 chapters remaining.
First of all, I can't understand Heejae at all, he went from trying to kick Juhyuk out of the apartment to lusting over him at the blink of an eye. This might be because the story seems to be jumping from one scene to another and even doing some time skips without giving a hint of how much time was skipped.
We can't even say this was one of these tropes where he was actually in love all along or fell in love at first sight because, again, he was straight up trying to send Juhyuk into homelessness.
Talking about homelessness, Juhyuk is adult with adult responsibilities and a full time job, and now he also has to worry about getting a new place, yet it's like he is never tired, never busy. In fact, his schedule seems to be very free since he can be fully invested in the band. Which reminds me, he only played as a hobby for a short while in the past but now he's performing on a TV show and his skills didn't get brought up as a weakness first thing? That doesn't make sense.
One of the band members wearing a mask because she wants to stay anonymous is silly. To top it off, the mask is also tacky. Hell, none of them look like they're a punk band, they look like they're relaxing at home, but they are supposedly on a TV show!
Back to mask girl, why bother adding that detail to the character if her background is obviously not going to be relevant in the story? (If it becomes relevant I will eat my words but it really doesn't seem like the case and such a short story shouldn't waste time on side characters anyway)
So far so good and the art is beautiful, but now I'm caught up and will have to suffer through waiting for these short chapters.
How much longer is it going to take for the king and his whore to be begging in the streets? Torture is not entertainment!
This lost me when the summary said he got assigned to be the prosecutor of his brother's murder case. I'm pretty sure that's a conflict of interest.
Wealthy and aristocratic. Life began from the moment I met him....
- Author: Suho 조호
- Genres: Full color / Historical / Long strip / Official colored / Romance / Web comic / Webtoons
An 8.8 rating is low considering people here give good ratings to anything. If you are wondering why this story has a low rating, I guess majority is people who dropped it without even finishing, or maybe people who are used to basic stories filled only with porn. For me, this is a gem.
*Long review ahead*
I usually hate stories with historical settings because usually they have weak overused plots and there's nothing historical about it, rather, it seems like the authors of those stories just wanted an excuse to put the female leads in exaggerated prom dresses that look nothing like historical outfits.
In this story, however, the historical setting is actually relevant and well utilized and the outfits look realistic too. I sensed a little of a Jane Austen influence and the author did say she was inspired Pride and Prejudice on the Q&A. If you like P&P or other Austen works, you might like this.
This story is set in a period of rise of the bourgeoisie class and the first industrial revolution (iirc). Both these aspects and also the business aspects are relevant, they are not overexplained as an attempt at worldbuilding and not lacking either, it's just right.
I also like the fact that this is not a story where things can be solved by being a little smarter than the bad guys, who are often stupid as fuck. Even when the characters feel like they have an advantage or when everything feels like it's solved, there are social and financial barriers that have a real effect on things.
About the romance, it IS good, but it doesn't overshadow the plot or vice-versa, I was curious both about the romance and how the business storyline would unfold which is great.
On one hand we have Lily, she starts off as naive and even a little spoiled but gets a reality check pretty early in the story. I like the way she matured. She starts hating Edward because of the way he rejected her, but when she starts forgiving him the author did well in giving her another reason to hate him even more. One might think this is annoying, but for me it's a lot better than having her hate him for something that has been resolved for the sake of the conflict. Although it's not like it had to be one or the other, there were other options, but this is interesting enough.
On another hand we have Edward. His hate for aristocrats is understandable and, by extension, his hate for Lily also is. Because the hate is so palpable, it's even more impressive the way Edward was shown falling for Lily is also convincing.
There's no smut, only kissing, but in some moments towards the end you can tell they did the deed off-panel. I'm fine with this, though. However, I agree with comments that said that the ending felt a little rushed, we could have seen a little more of their life together but it was cut short.
One thing that has been bothering me is... where did Lily's nanny that was living in the inn together with her go? I was waiting for her to reappear for whatever relevant reason at any moment.
The dick was so big that it wouldn't get inside in the first try but in the second they didn't change anything but the position, and still they expected it to go in?
The seme might be taking his time because he wants to meet again, but how can an experienced uke not try some stretching with a plug.
There's not even a scene with them putting on lub, not even the classic panel with just the ripped wrapping laying around on the bed. Are we just supposed to assume that they did it off panel even tho there are no clues or is it a case of they really didn't do it at all? First option is bad storytelling, second option makes them look DUMB.
I had to leave my low profile mode to say: Yajima protecting Torikai's head was just 10/10, "feather touch Yajima" indeed.
There was a lot of victim-blaming going on in this, basically blaming the uke for the sexual harassment and attempted rape he suffered, like it was his fault. He could have a one night stand with the whole campus and the harassment still wouldn't have been justified, it wasn't something he "brought on himself"
And just because he's lonely the story shouldn't lead to him settling for a STALKER. It's not uncommon for yaoi to be bullshit when it comes to real consequences for sex offenders and stalkers but the seme didn't even have any sort of forced redemption. The fact he went back to stalking the uke 2 days after getting dead rejected is brought as a joke like "haha he couldn't hold back"