Wait so what exact reason was he thinking was why the uncle and the brother liked him? In ...

Same I don’t really get the reason as well. Especially the point when he lost interest - I’d say he should have gotten interested as soon as tay pointed the gun at him?

Fr

Honestly, this one took a bit of extra thinking on my part as well, when usually I never have issues picking up anything. This is just my speculation, but it begins with a bit of character analysis of Ilay.

So, Ilay most likely believes himself to be superior, especially when compared to others. He probably feels like he was born this way, and it’s something as logical and normal to him as breathing. There are probably 3 categories of people in his world: Superior, Acknowledged, Sheep/Non-human which is everyone else. Jaeui is probably someone who he thinks may be like him, superior from birth, and the uncle is someone who he has probably acknowledged for other reasons/qualities. This may be his intellect, rationality, business acumen and some other things.

Due to this, he probably had some expectations of Taeui to be similar to one of his relatives in some aspect. Yet, upon meeting him, he couldn’t sense any of the intrinsic superiority which his brother had, nor did he possess the kind of qualities his uncle had. He didn’t know enough about Taeui to complete his evaluation so that’s why he maintained a slight interest as something may be potentially revealed. He was uncategorised at this point.

When the cafeteria incident happened, he lost interest in Taeui and categorised him as the third category, a sheep, an NPC, an idiot who doesn’t realise the difference in their strength. Ilay probably finds the people who try to take his life to be the peak of stupidity, as they cannot understand the difference between them and there is simply no way they could kill him. A mouse trying to kill a tiger is just idiotic. What he probably dislikes even more is when someone knows this yet acts irrationally based on their shallow motivations/emotions and tries to kill him anyway. More than stupidity, he most likely hates irrationally more, which is stupidity x100 in a sense.

Initially, Taeui comes across predictable, stupid, not capable of judging the strength between them or irrational whilst trying to be a good person when he raises the gun to Ilay. However, the fact that the gun was not loaded crosses stupidity off the list; he was aware he could not kill Ilay whether it was loaded or not. In his actions, there is both rationality and irrationality present. He is not predictable, at least not in the way the others are, and this unpredictability is something Taeui continues to demonstrate. Predictable is also crossed off the list. Irrationality can’t quite be crossed off, however the motivation behind what most have and what Taeui has seems a bit different, they both have stopped caring for the safety of their own life for temporary fulfilment of their desires, yet it is different in a way.

This is enough for Ilay to maintain some interest in Taeui. The reason he thinks why his brother and uncle may like him, is definitely the unpredictability, but also the loveableness of someone very ordinary, good-hearted and irrational in a way different to everyone else, even said to be rational within its own right. It’s not as if he doesn’t think or is completely stupid. He is superior in a way different to Ilay and Jaeui, although he is not on the same level as them, and he acts according to his own values.

People judge and categorise all the time, most not as extreme as Ilay. But in Taeui a strange equality is seen, as if he looks at everyone the same. None placed on a pedestal above or underfoot below. Taeui appears to be someone who Ilay is not able to categorise, and stands out due to that. He is unique, which is enough reason to like and be interested in him.
He may have thought only someone superior or acknowledged could understand or form some type of actual connection with him, but sees it may be possible with Taeui who is neither. That’s enough reason to like him too.

The more time they spend together, the more this will be revealed and consolidated. Taeui becomes a person he wouldn’t want to be hated by, and ignored by.

I really enjoyed reading your analysis and it was really eye opening as well! This helped me getting a clearer picture of the characters too!

Especially the part on ilay immediately thinking tae being just the same as the others who tried to kill him. “They don’t know their limits, their place.” Which exactly fits into ilay’s god-complex. But the gun being empty really bombed his (in his opinion) all mighty foreseeing. I believe tae outsmarting him and running away while telling him how much he despises him might just pulled a trigger inside him as well.

What an interesting take!!

Thank you for the beautiful analysis! Really helped me understand him more. Plus love the in depth information you've provided on Ilay like you were picking at his every move, behavior, and thought process with examples (⌒▽⌒)

This was so wonderfully written! You should do chapter blogs I would read them

Sameeee! It reminds me of how someone does that for the webtoon Silent Screams