I tried reading this, but the male lead makes me sick to my stomach. He is repulsive and disgusting. I was wondering what the hype was about...and honestly? I regret it. I couldn't even finish this. I have a lot to say about how much I dislike—no, HATE and despise—the ML! This guy manipulates and coerces the MC into sex repeatedly, degrades and humiliates him like he's not even human.
PLUS!!!
YOU guys would totally have different opinions if the ML wasn’t attractive, wouldn’t you? A rapist is still a rapist. It doesn’t matter if he has some tragic backstory. Sure, I can acknowledge why he turned out that way—but is that really a free pass? It’s kind of ridiculous how they try to balance it out with, “Oh, he’s nice sometimes.”
Hahahahha, I don’t care.
It’s infuriating watching a narrative try to humanize someone after they’ve already dehumanized another character. Sure, the man suffered too. But he made someone else suffer just so he could feel in control. This doesn’t make him deep or complex.
The whole “MC selling his body” thing, coupled with the non-consensual scenes, just made the story feel gross. Like, how are we supposed to root for that romance? How do you even call that love? You’re watching this poor guy spiral and get taken advantage of, and the story tries to sell it like a tragic love story instead of what it really is: manipulation wrapped in pretty art.
And to the inevitable: “If you don’t like it, just scroll,” and the “It’s fictional, who cares?” brigade—don’t worry, I’ve got a reply ready for you, so you don't have to type it out anymore.
Sure, sure. I’ll scroll down if I hate it—if I’m mildly annoyed.
BUT I DESPISE IT. I REALLY DO.
If y’all can scream about how "hot" the rapist is, then let me scream about how much I despise this. Hell, I’ll even sing about it.
I don’t care if it’s fictional. You people always use that sorry-ass response.
Fiction Shapes how people think, feel, and understand relationships. That’s why we have age ratings, trigger warnings, and media literacy. When abusive behavior is romanticized and presented as love—especially without consequence—it normalizes it. It teaches people, especially young or vulnerable readers, that this is what passion looks like. And that’s not just irresponsible. It’s dangerous.
Stories like this mislead people and give some (or most) a twisted sense of what love actually is.
So let’s stop romanticizing abuse and rape, yeah?
If you want to write a story that explores themes like abuse or trauma in a “dark romance,” then treat it with the seriousness it deserves. Show the damage, show the consequences—don’t frame it as desirable or excusable. Stories like that should make readers think, not trick them into mistaking abuse for love.
Woah jokes aside i agree a lot bc if people let "rapists" off the hook and scream abt how hot they are then we can write why this isn't a good thing romanticize abt like we all can agree that all rapists STAY rapists regardless even if it is fictional yall have to remember a handful of people ACTUALLY went theough this
YOU GO DIVA!!! (≧∀≦)
13 dislikes? these bitches insane
17 dislikes is crazy bro whatt
While i do agree with a lot of things you say, in terms of this fictional history, MC didn't have a lot of choices so ML was the most easy option for the MC, he had a lot of debt, poor education, an omega, an abusive father and a child so yes, while it's true that ML is the worst in the first chapters, if the author wanted this to be a glorification of rape, they would make him worse, like Pearl Boy THATS SOME RAPE GLORIFICATION THERE, in this is portrayed like that, ML also acknowledged it and that's why he chooses to get away in the final chapters and that's why he is "praised" by the fans, because he could just keep the balance MC wanted vut he choose to regret and make actions to be forgiven, specially since he was the reason for MC to choose living and stay with his little brother, yes, rape is bad, but the decision is also for the victim.
As a fellow SA victim, I'm tired of people judging how i wanted to deal with my abuser, there are no perfect victims, everyone deals with it differently, some choose to forgive and move ond and someone else choose to be angry, there are a lot of actions and that depend of the person suffering.
MC choose to love ML because even if he rape and abused him, he also taught him to love himself, that's the reason why i like this history, both characters had their opinion on their actions, both of them did things wrong, since MC also drugged ML AND decided to be violent at work, so they were toxic for each other.
I found interesting to find this kind of comment in a BL in which at least in the story rape isn't romanticized, there are a lot more in which the authors milk rape as a way to allure readers without any thinking aka jinx, pearl boy, painter of the night, between two kingdoms, etc. And guess what, they are 100% more popular than this one. Again, I'm not defending rape and abusers cause people like to point fingers, I'm just saying that this story acknowledges it, and portrays how much it impacts in life, MC had a lot of things in his shoulders, selling his body Is a plausible thing that can happen in that situations, and he even understand that being with the 2nd ML would have been better and more healthy but it wasn't what he wanted because in the end, 2nd ML wasn't the one who provided him with safety and money, he wasn't there for him when he was in the point of no return, MC is a broken person, a normal life could or couldn't be the path he wanted, but it was his choice.
Overall, I liked that both of them were complex enough to have this kind of debate, and the conversation of rape being used especially in BL manhwas for the sake of development is a conversation that i will always shout out, everyone milks it for love, but no authors want a enough complex character to deal with.
Also, people can have kinks lol, after all THIS IS a fictional story, I'm not gonna judge it as a real case that happened to a real person, that's why I'm not going into any BL with rape in it saying they should erase the work of the world, I just choose to close the tab and keep with my life, I'm not korean and this is a ilgal site so, who am I to go to the author to.complain?? I don't have the right haha, I can debate with fellow readers but that's all.
i really like your comment!!!
I appreciate that you shared your perspective calmly! I’m not invalidating real-world survivors' experiences or the complexity of trauma responses — people cope and react differently, and survivors should never be judged for their choices. However, my issue is with how the story frames and presents the relationship itself.
There’s a big difference between "showing how trauma warps love" versus selling that trauma bond as the romance readers are supposed to root for. This story (whether intentionally or not) asks readers to sympathize with an abuser because he’s sad, without fully addressing the weight of what he did.
That’s the problem. It romanticizes an abusive dynamic by trying to package it as tragic love. Saying “it could have been worse” isn’t the defense you think it is — rape doesn’t have levels where one version is suddenly okay.
Acknowledging that the MC "chose" to love him doesn’t erase the abusive power imbalance either. In fiction — especially popular media — how you frame a relationship matters. Just because a story isn't as extreme as others (like Pearl Boy or Jinx) doesn’t mean it’s above criticism. "Less bad" is still bad.
At the end of the day, everyone’s free to like what they like. But if a story normalizes or downplays abuse under the guise of romance, it deserves to be called out, because media shapes how people view relationships.
This story still started with coercion, rape, and manipulation — and no amount of regret erases that. Pointing out that "they were both toxic" doesn’t balance things out either. Two broken people hurting each other doesn’t magically make it okay — it’s still a relationship rooted in trauma.
You basically acknowledge the abuse happened, but your defense seems to boil down to: "The MC chose to love him anyway, so it’s fine." But choosing to love your abuser doesn’t make the abuse go away. It doesn't transform a toxic, manipulative relationship into a healthy or beautiful romance.
You can portray complexity without romanticizing it — but this story, intentionally or not, feels closer to Stockholm Syndrome than it does to a true healing arc.
What kink are you talking about here about the story? Rape? You’re right that this is a fictional story, but fiction still reflects and shapes how people view real-world issues—including abuse. Saying “just close the tab” doesn’t change the fact that the story normalizes abusive dynamics by framing them as tragic romance. Also, what does “I’m not Korean” or “this is an illegal site” have to do with anything? Criticism isn’t limited by nationality or where you read it. And actually, you do have the right to complain and criticize—freedom of speech still stands. If you choose to ignore these problems, that’s on you too. Anyway, you do you.
Aww thank you!! (≧ω≦) I'm glad we’re on the same page!!"
I'm not going to change your opinion tbh, neither do you, kinks exists and yes, there are people who can feel sexual arouse by being but in a "rape" situation, not real obviously, that why roleplay exists, in fiction we can explore those kind on situations without putting real danger in real people.
And i don't say we can criticize somethings because we are not korean or we are not reading this on official sites, im saying we can't COMPLAIN, we can point how toxic and romanticized this is and how this trope does damage, because we don't are part of the statistics for the author, who will follow the trend and abuse IS A TREND FOR BUYERS for some reason, thats why a lot of manhwa authors for romance use it, not only in BL.
Again, I'm not against any kind of portray of abuse in any form, for some reason splatterpunk exists and extreme horror can be found, we cannot point out this BL and say this is the worst. Yes, less bad is still bad, but i enjoyed it better.
I'm against manhwas not having age restrictions, oh but they have on official sites, a minor can take seriously this kinds of tropes and romanticize it, but they need parent supervisor, adults should understand the line between fiction and real life.
And i didn't say it was fine because the MC stayed with ML, i say that it was the option he chose, my opinion? It's not fine, he should stayed alone.
So? Whats next? I mean, we don't help
Haha my comment got posted before i finish it
I was gonna say that criticizing a BL manhwa on a illegal site is not going to do any real change, after all we are not supporting the work here, and we are not helping real victims so, i think that kind of comment is more helpful on social platforms or in the official site, again we are not the public for this.
To be clear ABUSE IS BAD, THINKING YOU WANT SOMETHING LIKE THIS IS BAD, BE AN ADULT, GO TO THERAPY AND TALK WITH YOUR SOCIAL CIRCLES.
I get where you're coming from. Thanks for explaining calmly. I agree that media literacy is really important — especially making sure minors don't romanticize these tropes. I think we both can agree abuse is never okay in real life, and that fiction needs to be consumed responsibly. I just think it’s still important to critique how abuse is framed in stories, even when we recognize fiction and reality are different.
And criticizing harmful tropes, even on an illegal site, can help educate and raise awareness among the millions of readers using that platform. Thanks for the convo!
Tnk u to you too! It's always interesting to have this conversation about manhwas, honestly this SA tropes on manhwas are the reason why i prefer CN danmei novels and japanese mangas.
Also, in this site you can read other users topics so, stop being a bully around here haha
Bully? Sure whatever helps you sleep at night! You're welcome you cute adorable peaa thing
Yo I'm sobbing like a pussy because of this