little_king_trashmouth's manga / #established relationship(53)

I really enjoyed this - it started with Kwon-Young being a petty bitch, but it was obvious he fell for Juha and I'm glad Juha knew what he was up to the whole time so there wasn't a big misunderstanding. That's actually something I liked in general, they communicated well for the most part and weren't shy about expressing their feelings for each other. After they got together, there was no big drama or evil ex threatening their relationship, just an established couple dealing with life together. Sometimes you're petty or angry or jealous or insecure, it happens no matter how good your relationship is. Juha was such a sweet little ray of sunshine, despite having had a hard life. Very much a puppy top. I LOVED Kwon-Young's total power bottom-ness, he was hot as hell and it fills my horny little heart with joy to see bottoms who initiate and enjoy sex, and aren't embarrassed or timid. This is one off the very very few times I've seen a character say "more" and "fuck me harder" instead of "wait, stop" and "no more." It's so, so much hotter and more satisfying to read. MORE POWER BOTTOMS. ... Kwon-Young's family sucks balls tbh, his father really created an environment where his self-esteem would be obliterated. It's sad but not surprising that he ended up resenting Juha - it wasn't Juha's fault of course, but being constantly, unfavorably compared to someone and hearing your father say you're a pathetic disappointment who isn't half the man the other person is... you can't NOT develop feelings of resentment. I'm actually disappointed that we only got smut for the side stories - I mean it was hot, but what I really wanted to see was Kwon-Young finding his place in life, preferably becoming a teacher or doing something like the study room full time. Seeing the way he reacted to seeing that he could actually help the kids was adorable - it felt like he blossomed in that environment. I would have loved to see an additional side story where we time skip a few years and find that he got his teaching certification and started working as a middle school teacher or something. Maybe Juha would have been promoted to team leader as well. I think it would have been a more satisfying conclusion than more smut. But I usually want less smut in yaoi anyway, tbh. STILL. ... It really pissed me off that ANYONE made Kwon-Young feel like jt was his fault that Juha's mother died. He was a tiny child who was already buckling under the anxiety and expectations of his father. He ran away from a school trip because he needed to finish the work HIS FATHER GAVE HIM so that he wouldn't get yelled at and belittled. When Juha's mom found him, he was on the sidewalk. When she crossed the street, the walk signal was on. It is no one's fault but the drunk driver who drove through a red light and up onto the sidewalk. It upsets me so much that anyone even remotely blamed him for that instead of treating him like the traumatized child he was. Especially because I feel like if Juha's mom knew that she would come back as a ghost and curse all those motherfuckers, UGH. UGH. UGH. ... The art changed quite a bit from start to finish, and I did prefer the earlier style, but it was always good. I missed Kwon-Young's purpley-silver hair and am glad it came back.

This was really cute, refreshing read. Nothing crazy dramatic, just a nice realistic slice of life. I really liked the main couple, so at first I was a bit disappointed that season 2 and half the epilogue revolved around the side couple. I never got quite as into Bumchul and Kim Jaehee (mostly because Bumchul annoyed me a lot), but I still enjoyed their story. Arguably they were more interesting than Sunjin and Wooseung, who have a pretty easygoing relationship without much conflict. Bumchul and Kim Jaehee have very different personalities and ways of showing affection, so there was more to navigate and compromise on. Both couples communicate really well, especially the latter, and the problems they do run into are realistic and not contrived just for plot purposes. I really appreciate that they all look like normal people with normal dicks, as opposed to office workers who are somehow secretly super jacked with dicks the size of hydro flasks. There’s lots of sex, but it never felt particularly smutty. And a big gold star to this story for always showing fully consensual, mutually enjoyable, SAFE SEX! In one instance Wooseung even asks if they can do it without a condom since they ran out, but Sunjin shoots him down. That’s huge and SO uncommon in yaoi. Their friends are great, but I particularly loved JJ. It’s the first time I’ve seen an explicitly asexual (likely aromantic as well) character, and as someone on the ace spectrum, it means a lot to see that representation. It was done really well, too - his view of love and attraction and what he would want in a relationship were all very relatable. The fact that he would still want a relationship without sex wasn’t treated like some kind of contradiction either - Kim Jaehee took the time to look it up and in some ways identified with where JJ was coming from, even if it wasn’t his own situation. There are all kinds of relationships, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that acknowledged before. It made me really happy.