lilithespark's manga / #lezhin(6)

SPOILER WARNING Review: I know you what you’re thinking. Five stars? Really? Yes, really. To be completely genuine, I liked this story more than “Love Shuttle,” and that’s saying something. Choi Yule is such an arsehole throughout the entire story. He asks his friends to r@pe Kyung-soo. Multiple. Times. He even let his own brother r@pe him just so he could come running back into his arms. Bulgogi beef guy goes crazy, too, at one point. Maybe “crazy” isn’t the right word, but they’re all mentally unstable. I think Chapter 67 was my favorite out of all 73 chapters. Choi Yule did “like” (and probably still does) Kyung-soo. He’s a terrible person, but he has emotions. I really liked that because not all bad people are “psychopaths” who are incapable of feeling human emotion. Above all, I’m especially glad he didn’t have a redemption arc. What he did was unforgivable. The epilogue was a nice way to put an end to the main story, I think. I, personally, wouldn’t associate with a rapist of mine (theoretically; i haven’t been SAed), but the main character chose to deal with that in his own way. There is so much detail in the manhwa. For example, whenever Kyung-soo thinks of Yule, he’ll wrap his arms around his s3x partner’s neck. Kyung-soo really likes Taiyaki for some reason, and although Yule doesn’t show it conventionally, he pays attention to Kyung-soo. He wants to see him smile happily like when Kyung-soo is with Bulgogi beef guy. This points to why he stabbed himself in the stomach near the end (no idea how he survived that btw) because he couldn’t imagine living with Kyung-soo dead. Kyung-soo definitely has some form of Stockholm Syndrome. If not that, then he truly believes he can never escape from Yule. He loved him so much. In one of the extras (when he’s supposed to end up with Donghyuk), he thinks of Yule when they’re doing “it.” It reminded me of the saying that said that love is irrational. You can still love someone who has done the unthinkable to you. As for the epilogue, readers can actually see Yule’s “development” as he stays away from Kyung-soo and watches him from afar. They say their “hellos” again which is a direct parallel to the scene where Yule looks at Kyung-soo from the stairwell. The ending wrapped it up quite nicely. (pretty open tbh) I’m pretty satisfied with it as Kyung-soo doesn’t end up with anyone. But! Yes, there is a “but.” There are bad details in this story, The main plot points are just “r@pe, r@pe, r@pe.” The whole storyline is a game of tug-of-war between Yule and Bulgogi Beef Guy, grappling for Kyung-soo. The story had me so invested; you wouldn’t understand how angry I was at Kyung-soo’s r@pists. It is likely that the nsfw scenes were included to make more money, but they disgusted me to the point where I wanted to throw up, and that’s not even all. I wasn’t even empathizing with Kyung-soo. I read this from an outsider’s perspective. When I tried to imagine myself in that situation, it felt sickening. I liked the story, but the author(s) definitely lazily handled specific parts of the story. It’s either that or they didn’t know how to write. Anyways, this story has its flaws, and I can see why past me couldn’t make it past Chapter 1. It’s a story not meant for everyone. This manhwa gave me a twisted sense of enjoyment? I don’t know if that makes sense, but I liked the feeling of being so entangled in a story. That’s why I said I was satisfied. If you can handle heavy topics like r@pe, su!cide, depression, and overall general mental illnesses, I would urge you to give this a try. I liked the reading experience, so maybe others will, too.

Review: I loved this so much and got so invested that I feel empty now that I’ve finished the story. This was such a journey. The storyline was magnificent, and the art — I cannot even describe. This manhwa was perfection. I loved everything about it. There are more to the characters than what you see at first glance, and I am so glad that I got to see that side of them. This manhwa had just the right touch of realism, and I live for it. This was such a good read.

Chapter 6.