Jaerim is a high schooler with one problem: he’s ugly.
And much to his dismay, that means he is pretty much at the bottom of the social hierarchy at school.
What frustrates him most though, is another student: the top heart-throb, Yuri. The latter refusing to let him exist in peace.
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I remember this sucking me in, to the point where I stayed up until 4:00 in the morning to read it lol. It was the first manwha that got me really invested.
The premise is simple, but it was intriguing; it’s not often you see an “ugly” character leading a romance story. Especially one who stays ugly without going through an “ugly duckling” or “Cinderella” transformation.
I know he’s meant to be unnattractive, but Jaerim is really cute imo. He’s so sweet, even though he’s also pretty dumb.
I liked Yuri less than Jaerim, mostly because he’s the fairly typical “hunk-douche”, in the beginning anyway. When he got his shit together and actually got together with Jaerim, he was so cute too. I’m a sucker for pining and clinginess in romance lol.
There a multiple couples in this, but out of 4 pairings, I only really liked 1(our main duo), with me actively disliking 2(I’m neutral about the last one).
The one I liked the least was Aerak-sunbae and the blonde dude. I mean, everything is based on superficiality and lies. If Aerak came out and confessed the truth about who he was before, and blondie repented for what he did in the past, then that might have changed my mind, but as it stands, this couple just makes me feel icky, even if I know that they stay together and grow old together... oops, never mind, just remembered that blondie even cheated on his boyfriend, f this.
I don’t have much of an opinion on the handsome black-haired guy, and the mischievous brother. I don’t like them, as their dynamic seems toxic, plus I just don’t like either party(black-haired dude is a manipulative shit, brother creates unnecessary drama).
The childhood friends couple was actually really cute... aside from their start. I get that the jock felt insecure about his nerdy interest in his new environment, but still, why did he have to go out of his way to bully glasses boy? And essentially sexually assaulting him by forcefully kissing him?
When jock finally got over himself, apologised, and confessed to glasses boy, their relationship was so nice and fluffy. Hence why I feel torn/neutral; beginning was toxic garbage, but the end was some real good shit.
I my think an issue with this story is the lack of likeable characters.
While most seem fairly realistic(somewhat) a lot of them just come off as being unlikeable in one way or another: manipulative, mean, selfish, overly insecure, etc. With too few redeeming moments or qualities.
The worst example is definitely the “mean girl”.
She’s just awful through and through; nothing positive to be said about her. And I think that’s a shame, as it seems like a wasted opportunity. I’m well aware that every story needs an “evil”, but I would have liked if there was more closure about her character, rather then just dooming her to do the same thing over and over again. I guess this is just my personal gripe with the whole: positive female characters are not allowed to exist in bl.
Anyway, the art in this is gorgeous.
The muted colours make give a rather unique appearance when compared to most other romance manwha, and it really works here. It also makes it look almost... otherworldly? Less cartoony, and it suits the themes that the story chooses to tackle.
Never Understand