lowkey could be really interesting if the author were to pit jeoh and seongrok against each other, given the psychological aspects of this manhwa and seongrok's unpredictable position as a murderer. makes u wonder how sustainable their 'relationship' really is. but if the author is not gonna treat this scene for what it is, which is rape, then it is honestly just poor writing on the author's part to characterise jeoh as an ex-prostitute with sexual trauma and have seongrok sexually assault him, then romanticise it.
author conveniently forgets she wrote this set in the modern era. yh the modern era where characters own phones and are capable of using said phones to communicate to their literal significant other. i get that eunhyeok might not have been ready to confide in sooae but seriously 8 years mf
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
i don’t think jiho is entirely wrong here. yes he should’ve communicated with inwoo first but i think it was always inevitable that inwoo needed to speak with his mother. not to forgive her, but for inwoo to forgive himself. it is very much clear that his trauma is rooted deeply not only from the abuse he suffered from his father, but from his mother abandoning him in that abusive household. his mother is selfish and unforgivable not only for leaving her child then but never even bothering to seek him out now, if not for jiho.
his illness started from his mother’s abandonment. even in his adulthood, inwoo is still filled with resentment and has never truly been able to move on. rightfully so. his mother’s indifference during this meeting only further confirms that. previously, everything was sort of unconfirmed about why his mother did what she did but now we know that really she’s just a pos. inwoo did nothing to deserve that and hopefully he can take that information and not be further entrapped by his past. and i think outsiders like jiho needed to see that too, that family is not the same for everyone and reconciliation is not always the answer.
i can’t help coming back to this manhwa. there’s a hint of realism to it where neither inwoo or jiho are entirely perfect beings but it’s done in such a tasteful way. even the sex scene in ch 64 just feels so intimate and relevant to inwoo’s current prognosis and how his partner is trying to respond to that, so far as to go seek out inwoo’s mother himself. characters are guided by their own morals and it feels very authentic. regardless of the outcome with his mother, as the reader, i can’t help but root for inwoo.
duo that matched each other's freak