they both were playing with fire, except alex never foresaw himself being burned. it's ironic that clark ultimately caused alex's demise, even when he was in a hostage situation. it was hinted in the beginning of the story that clark poisoned that cat, which revealed that even he had some secrets to hide. clark is manipulative and enjoys uncovering crime stories for his own pleasure. alex is a control freak who desperately wants someone to stay with him, but struggles to convey his feelings in a healthy way. since feelings are fleeting, he'd rather preserve them and keep them in their prime, even if that meant killing the person before they had a change of heart. it's interesting to see their relationship dynamics come into play. a dominant, cool-headed uke and a puppy-like, murderous seme. the characters were quite original, and it would've been nice to see these two in an alt universe without all the fuck-up aspects of this story. the ending wasn't that surprising but wasn't disappointing either. after all, this is a psychological manga (death is a motif), so someone has to fucking die. even if they continued to live, i don't think they could be in a healthy relationship (pointing out the obvious). i know that's not the point of this bl, and i wasn't expecting this to be like warehouse. she was one-of-a-kind, and probably will stay that way in this genre. i don't ship them, since their feelings were never sincere and clark especially only entertained alex for the sake of his hobby, but it would be nice to play around with the idea of them being a couple in this realm. i do believe alex was trying to change, he was shown in earlier chapters trying to tell himself not to think unhappy thoughts. my heart goes out for him, and i think he just met the wrong person at the wrong time in his life. he was shaped by the conditions of his lonely childhood, with no guidance from friends or people willing to help him reach a healthy form of happiness. he found consolation in someone who was also mentally unstable, and we all know it's hopeless to find redemption from someone who can't give out more than they can take. a good song to capture the vibe of this bl is [psycho by red velvet] without the "hey now we'll be ok" part lmao
Interview with a Murderer