Lex's manga / #Beautiful Art(188)

Sarah, the tough girl accidentally meets Elios, a blind young man her age. Elios is very mysterious and makes Sarah curious. Is Elios hiding something? Will Sarah fall in love with him? ---------- I absolutely loved this. Elios' character is mesmerizing, fascinating, intriguing and deep. I loved Sarah's earnest and mischievous personality. Sigit's complexity and aloofness. Every single side character had something that made me want to keep on reading about them and their stories. I became so invested in this story in a way that I hadn't been for a long time. I loved to see each plot device being resolved, every obstacle being overcome and the characters' traumas being addressed and tackled with such realism. Nothing felt rushed or brushed over. Be it the friendships or the romantic relationships within this, I loved to read it all and got excited for what would come next. There is such a nice balance between the more comedic and more serious storyline. It managed to feel light-hearted to read at times, then, then thing you know, it would feel so heavy and serious. Such a masterpiece. I was taken aback by it in every way possible.

Seung-chan is stressed. He has enough on his plate with the long hours at work, and now he can’t even get any rest at home! Every night, the lustful moaning and violent banging from the apartment upstairs keeps him awake. Just as he’s at his wits’ end, he chances upon the gorgeous, enigmatic Hyesung outside his building. Surely all those filthy sounds couldn’t be coming from such a pretty mouth? But as Seung-chan soon finds out, there’s a lot more to Hyesung. ----------- This was simply beautiful. Seung-chan & Hyesung's relationship blooms slowly. The author takes you on the smoothest ride, starting from mutual interest and crush, it slowly turns into having both characters fall in love. I really liked how the abusive Jihyuk was portrayed as what he is. I'd have liked to get a few more chapters, properly dealing with the issue, showing us his trial and Hyesung seeking therapy to recover from his traumas. But the way that the author handled it still felt like his character was given proper closure and a promising future in a healthy relationship with Seung-chan. So I'm not too upset about it. All in all, this was a really nice read for the realism it made e feel. Of course as I said, it's not perfect, but it has a lot going for it that many BLs fail at such as the way that the main relationship was handled, the way that a crime was treated as a crime and we actually got to see Jihyuk pay. I was shocked at how the author suddenly broke the pattern, and explicitly showed us the last sexual assault scene. I hate that it had to take place after Hyesung was finally recovering and whilst I'd have preferred that he just disappears into thin air, I also really liked the fact that the author did actually go through with the plot. This made the story feel much more realistic and tangible. It wouldn't have felt quite right to never see him pay for his acts. And whilst I hate that Hyesung had to be assaulted once more, I also understand that, as there was no proper evidence against Jihyuk thus far, had the latter not been caught in the act and arrested in such a way, it'd have been tricky for the author to get him to be imprisoned and pay for his cimes at all. And while I preferred the way that the past sexual assault he'd committed against Hyesung were only implied since that shocks way less, as said previously, at first, we'd be shown the act, but it wasn't in any way explicitly depicted. Just enough for readers understand what had happened. But then again, this way of breaking this pattern, thus shocking the reader is what was quite good. It made me feel even more invested in the story and its characters afterwards. So the discomfort it brings also has its benefits in its own twisted way. In conclusion, a very well handled piece of work. Really nice job of the author.

I'm slowly losing more and more brain-cells with each chapter, and worst part about it is that I'm okay with it.