I absolutely thought for sure that being a Dare eventually messed someone's mind up so much they went insane. That is why all the Dares so far have been young and the one guy's dad is so strange but he still lives with him. I thought the brunet had the ability to take one's gift, so he made the blond fall for him so they could experience a romance and the blond could learn to love again. Then, the brunet would take his Dare ability to spare him that future and be all self sacrificing.
WHAT HAPPENED IS SO MUCH WORSE. MY HEART IS IN TOO MUCH SHOCK TO SHATTER. IT IS COMPLETELY FROZEN WHILE MY BRAIN IS LIKE, "But, wait... what the fucking fuck?"
HOLY EFF, THIS IS INCREDIBLE. What a mind fuck. <(°Д °;)>
(That face looks like me doing crunches, like, "please, make it stop".)
As someone who endured a similar situation with a person that was my closet friend since childhood, being taken advantage of by him, and left reeling from the incident in solitary agony... I really love this story and the way it captures the struggle between Chiwoo's established affection towards his best friend and the revulsion towards his abuser. I agree that you can love different people in different ways and you can love the same person while also hating parts of them. It is such a deeply painful combination of emotions and the way he dealt with it and took steps to move forward was perfectly measured out in balance with reality. I am proud of Chiwoo's character for holding out hope in the end and extremely pleased with the author for creating a story that provided an authentic sense of growth and ambiguity. What a wonderful, wonderful webtoon!