regretting all the awful things you did AFTER realizing you love the person you did all those awful things to is... an interesting choice as a writer lmao
THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN THINKING SINCE CH 70 bc like.... why DOES jk like dan?? what does jk even like about him?? i can't pinpoint when it would've started or what could have triggered it. honestly the writing is making it feel like jk's conflating his affection for dan with his desperation to win (dan is just a requirement in the formula). guilt shouldn't stem just from seeing someone as a romantic partner
Yeah, up until JJK lost his match, injured his arm, and KD left, JJK held absolutely no respect or affection for Kim Dan.
While this isn't my favorite form of romance, especially with the way they threw in JJK's back story almost as if to justify his actions, I do recognize that this is Mingwa's style. It plays on the trope of 'only realizing what you had when you lose it'. Her previous work BJ Alex is pretty famous for doing the same thing. It's a writing style that's easily covered up by having the ML pine. As you mentioned, it's a workable formula but not likely to go down in BL history as anything remarkable.
so the final chapter came out today
spoilers
i know huijae not knowing the ml's name is their gimmick but you really mean to tell me this 18 year old (i'm pretty sure 20 is his korean age, not international) was in a relationship with an older man when he DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HIS NAME??????? the fact that his name was already in the description from day one really undermined the moment huijae found out. this didn't feel like a final chapter and the events before this didn't feel like it was building up to a final chapter. it's like there should've been a few more chapters to resolve any misunderstanding between them.
huijae cumming when ml told him his name was funny af tho LMFAO
i read the raws so i might be mistaken but i don't think beomjae (ml) ever apologized for. you know. raping huijae? and i had a feeling he was never going to apologize because to him (and as an extension, to the author), it wasn't rape. he always referred to it as "fucking" thus it was still "in character" for him. like sure. it didn't /cause/ huijae's phobia, but it sure as hell triggered it for MONTHS after. even in the last chapter i feel like they barely talk about his phobia and how important it is. and in the end beomjae says "why didn't you tell me" instead of apologizing. they don't make any mention of the fact beomjae was the one who triggered it by his assault on huijae.
the audacity to give huijae's assault real repercussions yet write in a loophole by making beomjae's touch "different than the rest" is.... gross actually. and the worst part is that it was completely unnecessary. the author ALREADY had a good opportunity to trigger huijae's phobia via witnessing beomjae murder someone. the rape was written as beomjae's attempt to "become the bad guy" so that huijae doesn't feel bad about him leaving the island i guess??? even now i can't understand the reasoning behind it, both as a character motive and as a plot point. even if you tried to ignore it, the events in season two literally would not let you LMFAO like what was the point??
i'm really disappointed because i really liked the premise of this story and the characters in season one were cute but ever since the season one finale the writing has been deteriorating. like what impression was i supposed to leave with? what was the author trying to say with this story?? that if you assault someone with a social phobia they'll grow immune to you??









right in front of everyone's salad