beta
at this point yall are we even surprised. u knew this was gon be a toxic bl—crime, murder, age gap=nuclear bomb~ ヾ(☆▽☆)
the most toxic relationships are bred by a variety of things, but a lack of communication is one of the major ones, and here it is in this manhwa, exhibit A.
another big co-factor is underlying mental health issues and that is also very rampant in both of our protagonist’s heads. they were a train heading for disaster from the beginning.
Hell, the author even said it in the author’s note if you had read it. If cha taekyung and heeseo hadn’t been traumatized by the death/murder of heeseo’s mother(that clearly affected them in different ways), maybe they woulda had a healthy, cute relationship(with heeseo probably pursuing him as an adult). Cha taekyung would be better at communicating his feelings and thoughts with Heeseo, and Heeseo would be a brighter, more independent individual, with more friends and a community to support him and prevent him from developing dangerous codependent relationships like he did in reality. It woulda essentially been “quiet ball of sunshine” x “outgoing ball of sunshine.” Unfortunately, they were not born into such an ideal world, where nothing terrible like murder, deception, debt, and trauma exists. RIP our meet-cute story with our main couple ╥﹏╥