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I think one of the most ironic "criticisms" leveled at me in the wake of my discussions about this webtoon is the idea that I simply can't handle dark and taboo themes. I could sit here and talk about the nature of the art that I regularly create and engage with but I'm not going to because I simply don't have to prove myself to anyone who doesn't care (if you want recommendations though, by all means, ask). The reality is it's not that I can't handle the toxic/abusive relationship presented in Jinx—on the contrary, I think this webtoon could benefit from leaning even more into it. It would make it a stronger story overall AND it would make it a somewhat stronger romance overall.
I'm not saying it was the author's intention to explore the complexities of an abusive relationship, nor do I think she has any particular obligation to do so. But the simple fact of the matter is that Jaekyung is abusive towards Dan. The author has chosen to include that as a key aspect of their relationship. And so, in light of that, one does have to think about how its being portrayed here, whether or not it's an accurate and/or nuanced depiction, and how it serves or harms the story overall.
Something that I think the story actually did well in its setup is providing good justification for why someone like Dan would end up stuck with someone like Jaekyung in the first place—the circumstances one would have to be in to end up in a Jaekyung's hands. We learn very early on the Dan is and has been struggling to make ends meet, that he is deep in debt, and that he has a terminally ill grandmother to take care of. These all provide sufficient and believable motivation for why Dan would not only end up in what is basically sexual slavery to Jaekyung, but also why he would "choose" to stay with him, despite all of his awful treatment—financial support and security. This isn't even to mention the threats of physical violence, amongst other things, that Dan might face from refusing him, but I digress.
What those circumstances don't really explain to me personally is how and why Dan would eventually come to uncritically fall in love with Jaekyung—to not have any doubts about his own feelings towards Jaekyung in the face of all the abuse, emotionally, sexually, physically, etc. Love doesn't typically have any set logic, but also...it kind of does. And stories undoubtedly tend to abide by some type of logic, or else they become incoherent to the reader.
We know that Dan was raised by his grandmother, but she was perfectly loving and caring of him—so she couldn’t have been the source of a bad model of love and relationships in his life. We do know that he was sexually assaulted by his former boss, but he hadn’t liked that former boss. His former boss made his move of his own volition, and Dan seems to have been able to recognize the wrongness in what his former boss had done to him. So how is it that he can fall in love with Jaekyung without seemingly recognizing the wrongness of their relationship, of what Jaekyung has been doing to him? Why is his only concern when he starts catching feelings is that Jaekyung won't reciprocate them? It reads like he is a completely naive and inexperienced/unknowledgeable teenager who has been conditioned by his parents to think that if his schoolmate teases and hits him, it's because he likes him. Dan is innocent and kind to a fault, yes...but he's also a grown ass adult.
What I think would make Dan’s uncritical love for Jaekyung seem more plausible is if the story explored patterns of abuse and conditioning from loved ones in his past. Like, for example, a parent or parents that equated financial support to love, even though they were emotionally distant/absent and/or outright abusive. Or if Dan had been in romantic relationships that involved elements of financial coercion before—a partner who gave gifts but always with the subtle pressure of getting something specific out of Dan, the idea that Dan should "make up" for said gifts. These are real things that people experience, and can set them up for engaging and getting stuck in abusive relationships in the future. It would make more sense for Dan to be forgiving and unresentful of Jaekyung and to even fall for him if that was something that he was taught to do in the past. But we simply don’t get that. Jaekyung is never kind to Dan in a way that seems to me like it might perpetuate the cycle of abuse—he is abusive from the get-go and does not change at all. He doesn't make any promises to treat Dan better to lure him into any false sense of security or hope, as is what commonly happens in abusive relationships. If anything, he gets worse as the webtoon progresses.
And worse yet, up till now, we have no understanding of WHY Jaekyung behaves the way he does, other than because he is simply a selfish, ungrateful, entitled prick. We don't know what happened throughout his own life for him to have become how he is as we see him. And honestly, at this point, for me at least, we have missed the narrative window on a backstory being something that might make me extend empathy towards him, or change my view of him. You could tell me he was bullied through all his years of school and I would not care. I bring this up mainly because another reason why people tend to choose to stay in abusive relationships is because they feel some sense of empathy for their abuser, or they feel responsible for making them better—the infamous "I can fix him." We get moments of Dan showing empathy towards Jaekyung and the stress he endures as a public figure and as an MMA fighter at that, and the insomnia he suffers from which...while fair, still does not really explain the sheer extent to which Dan is seemingly willing to forgive and/or excuse Jaekyung's actions and behaviors, and blame himself instead.
tl;dr the story could've benefited in a lot of ways from delving deeper and more seriously into its portrayal of abuse. it would've made the story more believable (to me) because the characters, their thoughts, feelings, and motivations would've made more sense, and would've been more interesting.