not me tearing up in the middle of a zoom meeting reading this i already finished the novels, am caught up with the raws, but it still hurts me deeply whenever i read how dearly joyoon and taejung love each other but they're simply not meant to be. i wish for them to be happy with their own paths, and maybe in another life, they could meet in the right situation and their love is given a gentler epilogue
sure, but i only know the ridibooks links and as far as i know the novel's untranslated
manhwa: https://ridibooks.com/books/3247628/
novel: https://ridibooks.com/books/2657000001
oh sorry wrong link for the manhwa. https://ridibooks.com/books/4118000040
SPOILER BELOW (tw: ableism)
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this is a spoiler from the novel that's not drawn in the manhwa but i feel paints an important arc in taejung's development.
in the novel, during the reunion, a nameless classmate asks taejung why yoon isn't with him and said how yoon used to always follow taejung around in high school, commenting how he found yoon creepy and autistic. taejung got mad and got into a fight with the classmate, saying how he doesn't know yoon and doesn't get to make these insults about him.
i think the novel describes taejung's story more empathically. i ended up feeling for him a lot, and i really wished at the end he'd move on and find his own happiness. through his arcs, i got to see him become truthful to himself of his lingering love for yoon, his regret and his determination to make things right. he knows he has hurt yoon badly, and i appreciate how he never tried to barge into yoon's life again. taejung is also hurt, confused, conflicted, but he never thinks of wanting to hurt yoon again from this point on. he really is a good person, but he's stuck in a difficult situation and faced with a near-impossible choice. i could never be in his position. i think he (and yoon, really) needs a lot of therapy lol, there's a lot of unresolved emotions there. i really wish him the best.
i try not to bitch about translations when i'm reading it for free (because i already bought the raws so i don't want to spend twice the money) but how can an official translator get the NAMES wrong? it's taejung, not taejoo. the hangul is different. he's an important character who shows up multiple times, is there no quality control in place? also, the seme should be kwonjoo not kwon, and the uke is joyoon. even the fan translation got it right...
Oh, you HAVE to translate those extras! The sexy scenes are just way too hot to handle. I love the faces Hikaru makes when he's feeling good, sensei's art is just way too heavenly <3