chlorine's Manga

It was cute, but it wasn't super good. I loved the concept, an Angel falling in love with a Demon is very classic. And while it did take me a while to understand the plot twist near the end, I did really like that too—the added layer of angst was just great, if perhaps a little needlessly convoluted.

Considering the story revolves around Angels and Demons, I do wish that the story used that imagery a bit more. By the end of the story the religious motifs—which were already incredibly small—had all but vanished. Just from an aesthetic standpoint, it would've been visually interesting to see the Angel have more panels where you can either see his wings or he has an illusion of wings, or at least a halo. The same goes for the Demon, who actually gets nothing whatsoever; the demon imagery in this story is limited purely to . . . Robes, for some reason?

As mentioned before, I really liked the plot twist near the end. Before it happened I was actually already thinking how odd it was that we hadn't really seen the Demon fall in love with the Angel, it was more like a love-at-first-sight thing, it just already is the status quo. So there being that history there already was a really good plot twist, and I loved the angst of how them being together just destroys each other. The fact that the Angel is willing to deal with dying just to be with him was the type of romanticized shit I live for.

. . . Meh. Just very meh.

I feel like its potential just wasn't reached. And I'm not sure if it's the actual writing or more so the quality of the translation, possibly both, but the story just didn't really hit for me. I feel like the plot, realizing your friend was stealing kisses while you slept, offers so much potential and so many routes to further develop it, but the comedy was just so tonally off, mainly because it just wasn't funny. At all. I didn't laugh. I didn't even smile. The story could have been so much more, you could have made it dramatic, or sexual, cuter even, but . . . Funny? IDK.

This was just a really fucking adorable story, and quite funny too. There was just so much about this story that I loved; the humor, the art style, the characters, the plot. It was all basically perfect. Usually I hate when a second couple is introduced and they take up a lot of focus, but I actually really loved the new couple as well.

The plot is a bit messy so I'll try to describe it as best I can—Heesu gets a rumor spread about him that if you go to him for love advice, what he says is sure to help. This then causes a ton of people to come to him with their woes and worries, including Seung-won. He asks Heesu for advice on how to get the one he wants, unknown to Heesu that he's the object of Seung-won's affection. This is then in parallel to Heesu's deep, unrequited love for his best friend, Chanyoung.

The unrequited love was something that I thought was handled incredibly well. It felt very real, in a way. You find out that Chanyoung knew of Heesu's crush, and he ends up helping Seung-won try to win over his heart because of that—because he knows he can't be the only one in Heesu's life, but he finds Heesu's friendship so valuable. He doesn't completely disregard it or let Heesu's crush on him shape how he views him or their friendship. He's helping Seung-won try and get with him exactly so that he can make sure their friendship stays where it is. There's just something about the way that whole subplot and dynamic was written that I adored.

Obviously the actual romance is the highlight of the story, between Heesu and Seung-won specifically. The second couple was great as well but you just can't compare them to the OGs. If they were their own story, they'd be four stars in their own right as well though. But Heesu and Seung-won is just so . . . Messy, but in such a great way. In a really fun way. In a really cute way. As I mentioned before, I loved seeing the slow development of Heesu falling out of love with Chanyoung and gradually falling for Seung-won, but also the small angst that follows of the fact that he thought he fell in love again with another man he'll be left to pine over. That he's no longer in love with his best friend but his situation hadn't changed. This story didn't have a lot of angst, but when it did, it hit. It was so good.

There were a few things I was left a bit unsatisfied with, being mainly that Heesu and Seung-won had come out to Seung-won's parents but not to Heesu's family. We know that the sisters caught them kissing but the characters don't, so I would have liked to see that, and I'm complaining just because I personally feel like it had built up to that (on a side note: the way the sisters reacted to accidentally seeing Heesu and his boyfriend kiss was great. They all varied in reactions but all stayed respectful, if not concerned). Also didn't like some things with the side stories but whatever, they're side stories. The main story is still great.

The deep visceral reaction I got from the final chapter makes it so that this story is something I can't rate any less than four stars. It was just such a beautiful ending to the story.

I didn't really know how I felt about this story until I got to the ending, and honestly, even after completing it I'm still not sure just where in terms of severity the flaws of the story fall for me. While it was a very emotional ending and I found the payoff of the threads the story had created to be beautiful, I did find the major conflict in the latter half to be a bit . . . Not necessarily unrealistic or out of place, just kind of frustrating. It was frustrating and kind of annoying. It was the miscommunication trope which I think just says everything.

Another thing that to be frank was just poor writing was that near the end of the story, it switched POV for a little bit and we saw the internal monologue of Minseok. But like. This isn't something happening in real-time where it's an omnipresent narrator. This whole story is Byunghoon recounting his youth. He obviously wouldn't know what Minseok was thinking, and it's not portrayed as Byunghoon taking a guess at his mind either . . . It just is him.

For what I loved though, I mean I've already mentioned the ending but really, that fucking ending. Wow. What a gut punch of emotions. As soon as Minseok walked through that hospital door I just fucking lost it. I broke. Obviously with the way the story's set up you don't really expect a happy ending, and while this is more so bittersweet than explicitly happy, it was still more than I expected. Them finally meeting again after all these years just made me break into tears, but then when the realization that Byunghoon is on his death bed so this can't be anything more than a last goodbye, a last chance of resolution, settled in, it made it so that the tears just wouldn't stop. It was just such a beautiful ending. At the very least they got to see each other one last time and perform one last song together, even if it could only serve as a goodbye.

Man fuck even just writing this and thinking about the ending is making me teary-eyed again.

Another thing I really liked was obviously the love story between them, their dynamic. I mean it's why the ending of them meeting again after all those years hit as hard as they did, because they really were perfect for each other. They were the epitome of "right person, wrong time." They helped each other grow as people so much, they couldn't really do it without the other person. They are who they are thanks to what relationship they had. It's so beautiful.