
I was never into BLs. But the moment I saw Moondae and Cheongryeo's fanarts and read their interactions in novel, it evoked something in me. And to this day, I ship them so bad it's not even funny.

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It's been a while since i last read the novel so i could be wrong about some parts.
Iirc, Cheongryeo used to have the ability to regress everytime he dies and used that to his advantage many times. But he lost that ability once Moondae regressed. That's why he wanted Moondae to die and see if he, along with Moondae, regresses back in time. He told Moondae that it would be advantageous to both of them, like moondae could avoid many problems he faced in the reality show and cheongryeo could deal with the scandals his group would face beforehand. Cheongryeo wasn't 100% sure tho that Moondae would regress but still tried to convince him to die. Bonus spoiler: he did all this convincing with a hammer in his hand.

I don't think he did. There is so much of the novel left after this and they develop a special kind of understanding. Like cheongryeo is obviously not right in the head but he eventually tries to fix his life after this and becomes a better person. It's not a romance story so we are obviously not gonna get a forgiveness arc, but Moondae did beat him up pretty bad after the kidnapping incidence so I think it's only fair they have a better relation after this lol

Nah that was lowkey offensive, especially since i avoid toxic stories like plague. And the reason is you mentioned is also why I don't read bls. The kidnapping arc is pretty early on and that's really not all to their relationship, so me liking their ship doesn't really count as stockholm syndrome. You shouldn't judge my taste when you haven't read the novel and don't know what their relation actually is. I didn't mean to write a whole paragraph on my taste in couples but I just wanted to clear this up.

Fair enough, I judged too quickly, my bad. I’m just pretty sensitive to romanticizing this kind of relationships because I also try to avoid toxic couples like plague and hate yaoi fandoms with a burning passion. In that case maybe you would like Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint, it’s also not a BL but their relationship makes it hard not to ship it

Agreed, you should try out the novel too if you haven't already it's even more of a masterpiece. Tbh, even I have this occasional "are they really straight?" thought, but I like their protagonist and reader relationship more. Like yk? How kdj relied on yjk's story his entire life so I see it more as how you look up to someone your entire life then finally you're able to fight by their side. Companionship, as you would call it. But I totally get the appeal of a romantic ship.

Ykw? I'm happy that the black hair isn't the ml. FL's values obviously doesn't align with his, and I would hate for her to change her perspective on everything because of him. And at the same time, I would also hate it if she actively tried to change him, tho I don't mind if he himself decides to change.
I don't think I would enjoy an "us against the world" trope here, and since the emperor is already a great ruler I don't want the black haired guy to succeed with the treason or whatever.

I don't think there has been any hint indicating that fl liked kaito romantically. It's only from anji's pov, but even he admitted that everyone naturally admired kaito so it could be the same for fl. And the first few panels of the first chapter pretty much confirms this theory.
I would love to have a fl having a close non-romantic bond with a male character for once, even though he is not alive anymore.
AGHHH LESSGOO FINALLY SHOECREAM TO THE RESCUE