this story is flawed in many ways, and while idt it fails in characterization (the characters r both beautifully complex and fleshed out), it def falls short in storytelling, evident in the way most of us were confused about the sequence of events and the convoluted timeline in which the story was told. Even in my reread, desperate to make sense of the proper timeline of things, I was still a bit confused
but the thing i appreciate about it is the raw dynamic of the two, the story was ab how two broken people who found each other, too jaded to yield to any complicated feelings that might possibly sprout from their odd "relationship", but unexpectedly found solace and comfort w each other, enough to mend their broken hearts despite all the denials. another thing about the two is they are both very similar to each other and idk if they realize that... but bc of this similarity, the way they develop is pretty complex and slowburn because bruh they liked to play 5d chess w each other and talk in riddles the tension was always insane!!!
BUT THEN BOOM Ending happened and holyshit that was beautiful, but also blueballing. like wdym the moment they finally dropped all pretenses and made it fully requited the story ends??????
Now for the raws... jesus christ in heaven.. its crazy how different their dynamic was from the first chapters - always on guard, always one-upping each other, sarcastic, snarky, fully guarded
to
very sweet and tender w each other.. crazy how these two are very verbose but has never outright said " i love you" to eo yet (im looking at u damon!!) yet u can very much see how much they are deeply in love w eo from those tender touches... the way they kiss, the way they jus brush the bangs, or kiss the palm or fingers of the other... or when damon jus draws circles on colton's skin.. like no malice intended? it just screams "OLD MARRIED LOVE" and so it makes me wanna internally scream because THIS , this is what we were robbed off the main story... AND AFTER YEARS WE R FINALLY SEEING THE FUCKING PAY OFF
i love them smmmmm and they clearly touch and look at each other like theyre the only two ppl in the world, with so much tender love. For all the talking back and forth that they love to do, why is there no WORDS OF AFFIRMATION. SAY IT SAY SARANGHAE WTFFFF these two make me insane