Isn’t it like 3rd or 4th hiatus since the beginning of this season? I mean the previous ones were just a chapter getting released a bit later but still, for a manhwa that updates every 10 days it seems like more often than not, an update is just a notice of another hiatus rather than a chapter ╥﹏╥
Author might be going through artist block
Nope, the season is already finished. Its mire likely a hiatus for the translation team.
Only started reading it cause of the cover (I like the buff bottoms) but this is a quiet masterpiece. Most importantly, I love how freely they communicate their feelings and how natural everything feels. It’s just a normal, human relationship. The way they so openly talk about their relationship, their future, heck, even sex. But another thing I really appreciate how they portray gay relationships and being gay in general, in a societal setting. It seems in lots of BLs it’s either a fantasyland where that’s just the accepted norm or it’s simply not brought up at all. And here we have the portrayal of coming out, the anxiety and uncertainty that comes with whether your friends/people in your life in general will accept you or not. As of now, it’s just such a perfectly written story… ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶
I was worried this will turn out to be this “suffering and abuse just for the sake of it” stories, especially seeing people’s comments on various chapters. But it turned out to be much more complex.
It’s obvious how toxic Jiwoo was, but Eunsung was such a surprise. It seems like he would willingly subject himself to suffering (choosing specifically unavailable red flags), knowing the other person will end up getting attached, and then cut ties the moment they actually start to return his feelings. Which isn’t that rare. The thing is, it seems like the reason he would distance himself wasn’t because he wanted to break free from the toxic partner, no. He did it knowing the other person would crawl back and it will be his turn to make them suffer. It’s so morally perplexing - sure, the other person was shit, toxic partner hurt him unprovoked and they did it first. But it kinda seems like Eunsung entered those relationships to have an upper hand in the end. Like he was also planning to hurt and emotionally torture them from the beginning. You know, like taking a few first punches so he can fight back and have people perceive it as self-defense or revenge. I hope you understand what I mean? Becoming a victim first, so that later his actions are viewed as justified?
(Of course, I can be totally wrong. And in the end, if the other person, such as Jiwoo, wasn’t an asshole in the beginning, he would never be provoked to hurt them too. I hope I don’t come across as victim blaming, it’s just my interpretation of his character.)
It’s a portrayal of deeply troubled people who are frustrating to watch, of course, but they aren’t created to be villains and heroes/main characters. They are both just broken. They are confusing to healthy, less troubled people, but if you think about it, their set up makes sense? Jiwoo - obsessed with the idea of one true lover, a relationship in which people prioritize each other over anything, even their own kid, cause his parents were like that, deeming a romantic love the most important and telling him that if he wants to be happy, he should find a relationship like that. So maybe he tested his lovers to find someone like that - someone who would never abandon him and always prioritize him. And Eunsung whose parents got divorced so you can assume their relationship was hurtful/toxic but they ended up forced to get back together anyway, due to his mother’s illness. We don’t know too much about it, only that he and his brother stayed with their dad. But maybe the reason why he is filled with disgust when he starts to mistreat his lovers and they show him love and care - because he watched his dad take care of his ex-wife in her last days, despite the fact that she “abandoned” them? This one is just a theory tho.
And what I like about this story, is that it’s not romanticized at all. All of the people around them, their friends - they react the way normal people would. They worry, point out the toxic behaviors, sometimes even react to the mistreatment when the person involved doesn’t. The story doesn’t pretend to be a “dark romance” and use that tag to brush over its characters behaviors. It acknowledges that the relationship it portrays is toxic and so, it’s more of a psychological story. As soon as I realized it shouldn’t be perceived as a simple romance, I started to really enjoy it. There are lots of bl stories portraying toxic relationships but most of them pretend it’s “romantic” and the characters and their development completely ignore the way that human mind/relationships actually work Like they are created in some weird alternative reality. (rape victims falling for the perpetrators and such, pretending trauma isn’t a thing, you know what I mean). But this story doesn’t normalize or romanticize it at all, so as a reader you don’t sit there questioning the morality and sanity of the author, you can just sit back and enjoy watching the shit show.
(shit, I didn’t plan to write an essay but I just kept going, sorry lol)
i gotta say i really like your analysis on this series. i wasnt too sure what i was getting into based off of the comments but while reading i couldn’t help feeling bad for everyone. i think the author did a good job at creating such complex characters, where no one is inherently evil but both have their flaws. i honestly enjoyed it but i hope anyone who finds themselves in this kinda relationship can understand that they deserve better.
Glad my thoughts resonated with you! (reading it back my comment is so messy lol)
The complexity of the characters created this interesting reading experience. If just one character is the “bad guy”, then no matter how sad his backstory is, as a reader you will probably still root for the main character and wish the bad one all the worst. You side with the victim and don’t really care about villain’s journey, just the end result. But since both of them are ….less than ideal .. I ended up trying to understand and cheer for the characters that I would normally probably dislike and dismiss their reasons.
I completely agree on the romance to psychological pipeline because there are so many stories that I would feel would be so much better if the author meant for it to be psychological. Like the author of sadistic beauty and the side story with the two men. The author is clearly incapable of writing a healthy story involving men and yet she never embraces a psychological tag, which would make me view her stories in a more positive light. I think the same goes for this, where it’s much more of a psychological than a romance, as it’s debatable to whether the characters are in love or if they drained each other of so much respect and pride in themselves that they feel comfortable being on the same level now. Honestly, Minji describing a relationship where you date and wait until you like the person, which was then applied to Eunsung and Jinwoo, just made it feel a lot like Stockholm syndrome lol. Anyways I really like your view on their relationship
I usually bookmark the chapters I find especially cute / hot but I would have to bookmark the whole story with this one~~ (=・ω・=) Will just have to reread it one day.
(haven’t gotten to the second couple yet so can’t say whether I will fill the same way about them - stating it just in case it has some abuse and someone calls me out for calling it cute/hot lmao)
He and his brother look so much alike it’s unsettling to watch him fuck around with some girlie… I get blood relatives but they all look identical, their father too. I only recognize it’s the brother cause of the earring…. And the first time the dad popped up, I realized it wasn’t the ML only after reading the comments… (￣∇￣")
Nahh, no way, is that black-haired child the ML? Damn, why do the MLs in these manhwas always look like pre-puberty boys (and usually act the part) while there’s a MAN right there, next to the FL. I will forever be haunted by the 2nd ml syndrome……
I think this whole friends with an ex bs is my final straw and I will leave it to marinate. It’s like it started raining over a spark that we watched with anticipation and hoped would turn into a flame. Slow burn turned into slow ignition, there’s only some smoke for now （ーー；）
Agreed. Yumin is not a stupid hopeless fl in all aspects of the story, but with her ex she just becomes completely immature and dumb. This throws away the whole story progress and how far Hyeondo has come at least. I don't dislike her, but she frustrates me so much I need to take a break till there are more chapters.
Right??? I’m the last person to get mad at FLs for being hopeless romantics, it takes me like 3 years to get over someone so Imm on their team. But come on, you were in a relationship with him for 7 years and learned that he never once viewed you romantically throughout that whole time. If he crawled back and admitted he realized he loved her after losing her - I could excuse her being swayed. But he came back asking to be friends??? And didn’t say anything about his personal feelings such as idk “I miss you, I feel your lack in my life” but it was “my father will be happy to be able to see you”??? It’s so clear he only tries to keep you in his life out of pure obligation, come on. What do you think will change by pretending to be friends when he didn’t budge throughout a long-term relationship and he clearly doesn’t really care about being friends with you either? I get it might be too early for her to look around and fall for someone else, but I hoped that Hyeondo at least taught her how a guy in love acts and she started to realize she deserves nothing less and her ex only ever did the bare minimum to keep his conscience clear.
Ah fr, sorry for ranting, you just seem to get me TT I can never hate you Yumin, I love you, but girl you need to stop living in a delululand and face the reality. I really tried to be understanding of her but damn
Preach sis! I just can't understand how after 7 years she still sees him as the "hot dude I wanna put on pedestal" despite all that has went down. Like she can't even name a single special thing about his personality except that he was friendly and considerate...so are million others out there! My girl is in her 30s yet in her love life is stuck in teenage years. Hyeondo should just slap her back to reality instead of apologizing ╥﹏╥
Yessss, suffer. Let the regret eat you up. Let your cock forever be flaccid, so you can only achieve pleasure while being haunted by the face of an angel you hurt. Get reminded just how badly you fucked up every single day. He still has some pride left but I hope it will crumble soon enough. If I didn’t want to see some happy Dan chapters, I could watch him grovel and sink further and further for the whole season. Redemption arc? Don’t care about that. Everyone deserves to become a better person and change after hitting the rock bottom, but he better do that far away from my boy.(▰˘◡˘▰)
Let his cock swollen from rubbing it too much cus he aint get em up none other than kim dan's glory hole
…if the other person is so distant to you that you didn’t even know they were married and just found out they divorced, what makes you think you have the right to interfere in their personal business? I get it if they were closer, she knew her work bestie had a husband and felt somehow morally compelled to do so - either to tell the guy she’s taken so he doesn’t get his hear broken, or cause she had a suspicion her bestie is a cheater and it didn’t sit with her well. But think about it for a sec: your coworker never mentioned her marriage and suddenly brings up divorce. My first thought would be “oof, it must be some complicated relationship, if not abusive, I better be careful about the topic”. NOT: oh, she’s probably lying about the divorce and possibly cheating with this young hot dude, I better butt in!!! Like, what are you trying to achieve??? If she’s divorced, then it’s their business what’s going on between them. And if you think she lied about the divorce - on what basis??? You’re not close enough to know she’s been married, why do you think you know her well enough to tell thar she’s lying?