chlorine's Manga

I liked it. I didn't love it, I didn't hate it, I just liked it.

I'll start with what I did like, since it's pretty simple: the two main characters, Taeho and Yeon. Yeon was incredibly sweet, he was just this ray of sunshine throughout really the whole story. He wore his heart on his sleeve and I loved that. And Taeho really balanced him out, kind of brought him down a bit and acted as a really nice anchor. He has this kind of dry, direct personality that I thought was a fun read. He's much more lowkey and reserved compared to Yeon.

The relationship between the two itself was something I did end up enjoying—I will say I was getting worried near the end that it would be all just slow burn with no actual resolution, but for me, I do feel like the last chapter paid it off well enough. You know where they stand with each other. It was almost quite bittersweet, and while I know not many people will like that, I personally love that.

And what I didn't like . . . Man. I almost gave this story two stars over it.

Let's just bring my biggest issue to the forefront: Yeon's ex-girlfriend. What the fuck was that? It was such a hamfisted bullshit excuse for angst. It was introduced or at least took its biggest focus in the side chapters and I just fucking hate that shit—don't introduce shit in the side chapters. Side chapters are for either bringing resolution to plot points that weren't really attached to the main plot, or having cute little one-off's because the author can't let go of the character. But this was neither of that. This ex-girlfriend wasn't really a thing during the main story, and if it was, it wasn't introduced until the ending which everything I said still stands. On top of that, it added nothing to the story! Nothing! Yeon didn't have any baggage specifically about relationships until the side story. It was the definition of unnecessary. And then there's a whole chapter during the side story where he goes and tries to reconnect with her? For reasons that I don't think were ever really explained. It felt like just complete disrespect to the relationship we just spent a whole story seeing developed. Fuck that trash ass storyline.

Also the stuff about Yeon's curse is, like, super vague. You never find out anything about it, so if you're actually interested in that mystery, it's better to just try and forget about it. It's more like a prop than an actual plotline.

Anyways, despite my ranting, there was stuff I liked about this story. It was cute. It was fun. It even had a bit of bittersweetness to the ending that I wasn't expecting.

FUCKING PEEEAAAK

OK so my rating might come down a little after I have more time to sit on this, but I just haven't read a BL in so long that was so thoroughly entertaining and suspenseful with characters that were so rich in complexities. Neither Jesse nor Law were really good people, and the actual plot was very morally questionable but in a way that was just so good to read.

Jesse and Law were great characters, and their relationship was so complex and frustrating but never actually hard to read. It was frustrating in a way that made you root for them, in a way that made you want to see it to the end instead of just putting it down. Both Jesse and Law were kind of these emotionally stunted men who couldn't really communicate well, but it didn't fall into the death-trap of miscommunication just for the sake of it. The way the characters acted felt very natural to who they are.

The actual mystery of the story was very engaging, as I was reading I kept making my own assumptions and theories and I felt as confused and disjointed as Jesse did as new information constantly kept getting revealed to him. And the actual payoff was great, it wasn't underwhelming, it didn't feel like it came out of nowhere. It was perfect.