Maple Tree's Favorite

Seen a few comments complaining about those that are critiquing this story with the usual "It's fiction" retort. Yes it's fiction, and there is good fiction and bad. Like someone posted, fiction is a mirror to reality. The author is using her fictional work to promote a lot of toxic aspects of a capitalist society, that image is the most important thing, that gender roies are rigid, and the power lies with wealth not skill. The author is using "bdsm" as a way that many abusive men in real life do, it has widely been reported that "she wanted rough sex" "it was bdsm" is used as defense for men who abuse or murder their female partners. Having Doona fill this role doesn't make her a "strong female lead" and having Doona's "character growth" being her so hung up about her ex not validating her 24/7 whilst she puts nothing into the relationship and emasculates her male partner. She ends up with a younger, naive character, who will never be able to be her equal and grow together, she expects him to play the role of submissive housewife, providing her with sex and being a maid... that's not an empowering female character.

Harada has been brought up as a comparison to "dark" stories. But what Harada does is challenge a lot of controversial tropes, by showing how normalised abuse is in yaoi. Harada must be the only yaoi author to portray the "student x teacher" trope for what it is, grooming. And their "Henai" series literally parodies yaoi's obsession with glamourising rape.

As it is fiction, author's, good author's have a platform to hold a mirror up to society and challenge it. For me, this was best seen with Yamashita Tomoko's works, which challenge the sexism women face. Saezuru too, challenges the yaoi idea that sexual abuse and neglect is just something that can be forgotten easily, instead the author has spent 10 years crafting characters like Doumeki, Aoi, Yashiro and how all three of them being survivors has impacted them.

The author isn't holding a light up to the "ills" of society, she is depicting them and reinforcing them. Readers are criticising the author for not just sticking to a one shot "mind break" hentai manga, as it would have achieved the author's goal of ruining Minho. Instead they created a 100 odd year old manhwa, that readers have been following for years, in the hope that the characters actually develop and the author actually challenges the social structures that the character's live with.

Strange how the author presents Duna's relationship with her publisher compared to Minho's.
- Duna is shown to receive constant messages from her editor
- Duna's editor visits her, "as and when he pleases" and checks up on her progress, feeding back to his boss
- Duna's editor for some absurd reason puts her up in a hotel, expenses paid so she can write
yet
- Duna gets major press attention just for being given a publishing contract, before she has even published her new book... thus giving her money for interviews, and creating hype which leads to sales.
yet
- Minho too is given a book deal by a major publisher
- He has zero contact with his editor
- He has zero publicity for getting a book deal
- Minho, we see has to survive off of his advance... whereas Duna was given an advance and free accommodation, alongside money earned from publicity

The author isn't even being logical at this point, it's like they just want to set Minho up to fail at every opportunity. We are also meant to ignore that Minho tries to keep writing, despite his economic hardship, and despite being put in a tiny room by Doona at constant risk of being hit and sexually abused by her, he saddles on until he is nearly killed by Doona and he escapes her house. This leads him to eventually selling his laptop, which at that point he was suicidal and not able to focus on what he saw as his one goal, publishing the book so he can get back on his feet.

The author in earlier chapters had Wookyung say how he was going to make Minho dependent on him, and give him the opportunity to publish a novel. It's like the author is forgetting that Minho has years of work experience, publishing research and peer reviewing journals with a novel under his belt too. Yet Doona, magically gets a book deal after how many years of inactivity, whereas the author shows how much Minho has to struggle to even get an interview?

TLDR: But the fact Minho gets to be raped and manipulated during (and throughout) his peak of depression and desperation takes away the essence of BDSM from this manga. This manga is NOT BDSM AT ALL. A shitty dom who can't treat her subs right.



so essentially Duna was (by the storyline indirectly saying so) "not the best person", but she gets a chance at redemption and we see her moving on.

Same with Minho (but the storyline paints HIM as the only bad guy), he doesn't get a chance to be better but that gives Duna the right to be a prick?? Mind you, Duna was the one who wanted to end the relationship but didn't actually say it so she cheated on him several times (in fact, she only JUST broke up with him).

The author's note about Minho is "You should have been good to Duna" really now?? Fuck off.
We know Minho is a shitty guy and I'd love to see him own up for his mistakes or get his own arc, but being a rapist, belittling, and manipulating someone isn't the fucking route (especially at their most desperate times).

This manga has MANY inconsistencies, but the biggest one is that everyone gets what they wanted except Minho who not even remotely got the chance to be better. It's obvious he has some sort of mental illness. And just like every other character, he's done some shitty stuff.

I am seriously invested in Minho because I know he's a shitty character and he hasn't actually been given the chance to reflect and move on without having to walking on eggshells. It's crazy he's forced to sell himself out for basic necessities. He insulted Duna when they were dating, what a prick, but he deserved nothing after.

He still wanted to be with her, Duna didn't. If you're in a relationship and want out, TALK about it. Cheating doesn't justify batshit.

I have been invested in this for 3 years I really just hoped Minho would get something that doesn't require him to be assaulted. I just hoped Duna would be a Dom and treat her subs right.

Pls give me any kind of gl/yuri rec please I’m desperate to find some and if you do ty :)

chpt 14 (her first appearance, where u see she works in a sex shop and has her own kinky tastes, also involves brief interaction with doona about sex toys etc), chpt 22 (mostly just her and haesol content, no sex, skippable),
chpt 23 (brief appearance in the first few panels where she bickers with Doochi the MC's older brother, skippable),
chpt 24 (another brief appearance, this time in the last 4-5 panels where she has a sex dream about Doona the mc, if u like sexy gyerin its worth it),
chpt 25 (she appears in a good chunk of this chpt but not right away, this is set in the sex shop again and involves her having an adorable inner monologue about her crush on Doona and imagining various erotic situations involve her and the toys in the store. its solid Gyerin content!)
chpt 26 (all gyerin content! features: gyerin chatting, hanging out and then flirting with doona in various locations lol)
chpt 27 (doona and gyerin have Kinky sex well foreplay? that's the whole chpt lol)
chpt 28 (more kinky full on sex with gyerin and doona. also some pretty intense spanking)
chpt 29 (final part of doona/gyerin sex arc, this time involving some uh bodily fluids but also some aftercare so thats nice!)
chpt 33 (super brief appearance in the middle of the chpt, can be skipped tbh)
chpt 34 (a different series of kinky gyerin/doona sex chpts begins here. this time hot candle wax is introduced as well cuz why not lol)
chpt 35 (some hot sex but then haesol arrives and throws things into disarray and chpt ends with doona being confronted by her two subs, worth reading imo but if u want WLW content only then def skip the next chpt)
chpt 36 (so the start of the chpt is p tense has alot of dialogue between doona, haesol and gyerin. 2 subs wanting doona's attention and doona being all "i cant with u two and ur FEELINGSS go home" and needless to say no one goes home and gyerin seeing how haesol managed to get doona's attention, INSISTS on staying. she's the one who initiates the idea of a threesome. so she was never "forced" to participate in one which ive seen some comments in SB thread saying that, its not true.)
chp 37 (threesome time. no actual fucking happens yet, doona orders haesol to tie up gyerin Shibari Style and then suck gyerin's toes and meanwhile gyerin is having her own internal monologue over this strange situation)
chpt 38 (more threesome Stuff, no fucking still, very short chpt, involves some spanking tho)
chpt 39 (final part of threesome arc, doona fingers haesol and haesol at doona's command eats out gyerin until both have an orgasm. gyerin and doona smooch a bit. thats p much it for gyerin for a WHILE)
chpt 60 (gyerin is back! but this chpt is mostly haesol moping with some cute interaction between him and gyerin just being buddies)
61 (gyerin is front and center again, she's determined to make Doona her main lady and hatches an adorable sexy plan that involves roleplay and costumes lol)
62 (play time! doona is a bad cop and gyerin is a pitiful widow being taken advantage of by said cop. thats the whole chpt!)
63 (more play time/roleplay sex. with bonus squirting)
64 (final part of roleplay sex with gyerin/doona. then some more lovin via oral sex in a hotel bed. but the chpt ends wiht gyerin in tears cause she "got dumped" im sry gyerin baby! u'll find ur loving dom queen one day! before that part tho its a great chpt full of sexy WLW stuff and flirty dialogue)
65 + 66 (very brief appearances of gyerin. in the last part of 65 she sees haesol passed out on the street and takes him to the hospital and first part of 66 she has a nice daydream about being saved at the club by a busty tough blonde and then going back to a hotel with her. becuz gyerin has a Type haha)
aaaand that's it for gyerin in the english chpts. she appears again in the main series on a few occasions near the 100s where she's mainly there chatting with haesol and his roomie/doona's bro Doochi. but her final big major appearance is in chpt 115 which is also the first and only time in main SB that we meet Juyeon aka the noisy blonde woman that Gyerin will date in the side stories) i hope this helped someone! lol

Just want to copy it to me read later