Okay, I'm sorry, I have to say my piece. I love, love, love, love, love this manhwa, it means so much to me, but dude that Mi-ok thing was not it.
I actually love how Mi-ok was first introduced. Sure she was baited as Mr. Kwon's ex, but it was only for a cliffhanger and the misunderstanding was cleared up right away. She immediately got along with Ho which I thought was adorable.
I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt during those chapters when she was acting all phobic and I was so curious to hear her side of the story. It was just a subplot, but her reason for leaving Seoul and returning home was so intriguing to me and I wanted to know so bad.
And then the reveal happened. Most of the comments have already said this, but her reason for leaving and then being against Mr. Kwon and Sung Ho is so weak like there is no reason for you to be hateful over something like that. I don't know if my opinion will differ from others here, but I don't think it is a Mi-ok problem. I think it is a bad writing problem. Of course, no hate to the author, this story is amazing, but the payoff just isn't as good as what they hyped it up to be. They hinted it and dragged it on across multiple chapters making it seem like once we see her side of the story, we can understand her. That is why a lot of people were speculating that she is a girl-kisser and projecting her internalized homophobia onto them. To me, hurt from a mother neglecting you does not translate well into homophobia because it isn't normal. She never said anything to Sung Ho or Mr. Kwon about parenting, being worried they won't be good dads, etc. so it's like she just connected two random things to be homophobic.
I don't know, I'm probably not writing this as well as I wish I could, but I just don't think her explanation came across the way the author wanted it to. Even in this new chapter, Mr. Kwon and Sung Ho consider her side of the story and try to empathize with her. If this was real, no one would even hear her out because her explanation is just so ridiculous.
I guess I'm just writing all this because I'm a little disappointed with the direction they decided to take Mi-ok's character. I thought her opening up about what happened in Seoul would bring her and Mr. Kwon closer together and develop some side character stories, but this reveal went in the complete opposite direction. If you guys have similar thoughts, though, feel free to discuss. I would love to hear other opinions.
and that is called good chemistry and build-up.
I have read wayyy to many manhwas/mangas where they begin as enemies/rivals/just don't really like each other, etc and slowly begin building up to having a relationship. And I swear EVERY SINGLE TIME WITHOUT FAIL, just when the build-up was getting to the good part, they just somehow have sex and skip to the next stage in the relationship. LIKE IT'S SO FRUSTRATING! YOU WERE JUST GETTING TO THE GOOD PART!!! And of course I am not here to police anybody's work like do whatever you want, but it feels lazy and unsatisfying. I want to see characters naturally start to like each other despite their previous hatred. I want to see them slowly fall in love and not be thrown into this awkward "we hate each other but we just fucked so now we have to figure out the aftermath." Those kinds of stories can be fun, too, but the slow buildup, teasing banter, and slowly falling in love will always be PEAKKKKK. I love it so much. Nokyoung and Junil have amazing chemistry and I feel so upset that I probably won't find anything like this for a long time.
There were a few things that I didn't really like about Junil's character though, mainly the part where he lied about Hyunjae wanting to drug Nokyoung. Like your boyfriend is a full-grown adult, he doesn't need you shielding him from Hyunjae and treating him like a child. That scene actually gave me chills like it was icky how he lied like that. Hyunjae isn't a great person by any means and he deserves to be in prison, but I don't think Junil was right to discredit his character growth like that. Again, I don't really think he deserves redemption, but I still don't like how Junil made up such a lie.
Finally, I love the mother's character. It's so good. That's all I wanted to say. I just love how she never properly shows up in the series, but she is intertwined so deeply with the plot. The reader is able to know so much about her, and she only shows up in minor flashbacks and when sent Nokyoung back.
That's all for my review, hehe. I have a lot more to say, but I don't think I have it in me to type it all out. This was a great read though.
Mangas like this are actually pretty common but because it's shounen ai, I feel like a lot of people reading it don't typically read stuff like this which make the comments very polarizing ahaha
Oh, I don't mean it's polarizing because it's shounen-ai rather than yaoi. Most shounen-ai/yaoi readers read for the romance but this is a psychological horror so there is going to be some messed up stuff in here that goes beyond just murder (like how there was graphic torture, etc). I was just saying that I find it pretty interesting reading the comments because this kind of manga is pretty typical in the horror/gore/violence field but since most people are expecting it to be more romance-y, they find it hard to accept Shirayuki's torture methods.
Of course, there is nothing wrong with finding this disturbing or disagreeing with some of what Shirayuki has done.
Here's my full review of the manhwa. I just finished it, and I have a lot of thoughts.
I honestly only started reading it because I found it on the home page and saw that comedy was one of the tags and I love comedy manhwas so I thought 'why not?' Uhm... THIS WAS NOT THE ROMCOM MANHWA I THOUGHT I WAS SIGNING UP FOR.
I usually try to avoid this stuff at all costs and my heart actually sank when I first found out that Taesoo and Chunwoo had that kind of relationship. I don't usually read plots with unhealthy love triangles and this amount of angst, but honestly, I kind of loved this. The story is very realistic to me. It shows how relationships can be extremely multi-faceted. The portrayal of loneliness and trying to overcome trauma was very impactful and overall, I just really liked the characters. Now, after saying all this, I would also like to say that this story really fucked me up omg. I need to read a lot of no-conflict romance mangas in order to recover from this.
Other final thoughts: I really love the main story plotline. While I did feel incredible frustration and pain reading through some of the character's choices, none of it ever felt unrealistic. The characters were really human. The epilogue and sides, however, are a completely different genre and vibe. It leans into slice of life where plots blur together and nothing is really too serious for too long. While it is cute, it got boring to read after a while and now I am just waiting until they drop more shit about my boy Woojin. When he's not in the chapter I lose interest ngl sjflsdjfa;slj I just really want to see him and Yitae interacting more. To me, their relationship is one where they both really like each other, but they would never in a million years say anything to the other, which is my cup of tea. That's the kind of romcom that I want to be reading right now.
Oh well, I haven't really done my opinions justice in this word vomit of a review, but I just have a lot to say about this manhwa and I am too lazy to form a cohesive essay.
ewwww i was on board with this until the newest chapter, I was rooting for the MC to keep a distinction between his work life and sex life and now I don't even know if I want to continue it's too weird