FYI

I'm not sure the implied "have sex with me or our fuckbuddy relationship is over" legally qualifies as coercion. Particularly in Korea. But the law doesn't decide what's right or wrong.

Coercion is ore than simply using someone. It involves a threat to the person or someone else. It is more than pressure. Simply leaving is not a threat in this sense. He's a n asshole, but we did not see rape.

Whether it technically counts as "rape" or not, I still think this is rape (or at the least it's sexual abuse).

Just because Dohyun was smart enough to trick Sungho into participating without physically holding him down, doesn't mean it wasn't rape. Sungho was never doing it because he WANTED to.

Threatening to not be his friend is still a form of coercion if it works. Just because other people wouldn't let that be enough to coerce them, doesn't mean it didn't coerce Sungho. It's easy to say "just do this or that" about someone else's life.

I think it's best to consider it in a court setting. Would the court consider it rape? And I think it's not. Dohyun wants to break up their sexbuddy relationship if there's no sex. That's not rape. Sungho verbally consented.

I really don't know the laws of Korea to say for certain how this would be handled there but where I am, Sungho and Dohyun's teenage relationship would have a good chance as being deemed rape in a court of law. Rape isn't just about force but it's also about who has power and how it's being used.

It seems like Dohyun became Sungho's only friend in high school. The need for companionship is one the strongest needs we have as human beings because we're social creatures. When people spend time alone unwillingly because they can't form relationships, when they finally do form them, they can become clingy and desperate to keep the relationships, even when they're bad. Through that desperation, whoever becomes a friend or lover or family to that person, gains power. So it's a misuse of power to threaten to renege the relationship when sex isn't provided.

I think you're wrong about how it happened. Dohyun didn't "threaten to renege the relationship". When Sungho didn't want to do it anymore, he just lost interest and walked away. And Sungho wanted to keep Dohyun's interest. He wanted him to stay and agreed to do it. Dohyun didn't do the power play thing that you speak of. Dohyun wasn't obligated to be friends with someone he didn't like. It was a fuckbuddy relationship and if there was no sex, he wanted to move on.

I agree. I don't know much about the legal definition of rape, but Dohyun has obviously suffered from what happened to him.

If a sex relationship with Dohyun was something Sungho had wanted in High School, he would be more focused on getting Dohyun back than he would about making Dohyun experience the same abuse. (Of course it's not exactly the same, because Dohyun personality isn't one that can be coerced in the same way. Dohyun "doesn't need anyone" to be friends with him.)

You need to look up the legal definition of threat because you used that word deliberately to accuse Dohyun. Walking away like Dohyun did was not a threat by definition. Dohyun did not threaten Sungho verbally or physically. There's no basis to accuse him

What you're saying is basically exactly what i was saying, just in a different way.

I agree that to Dohyun it was a "fuckbuddy relationship and if there was no sex, he wanted to move on." But this just means that that Dohyun was truly the one with power in the relationship. They say that when you haggle for something, you have to be prepared to walk away without buying, and this is what Dohyun was doing. He had nothing to lose if he walked away, and if Sungho did what he wanted then that was just an extra perk.

But Dohyun knew that Sungho wanted to be friends (he badly needed a friend), and ONLY friends. Dohyun could have let their relationship stay as friends - or if he really didn't want to be friends with Sungho, he could have just broken it off. He's the one who instigated the "fuckbuddy" part of the relationship.

Ultimately, the relationship meant almost nothing to Dohyun. He was the one with the power, and he used it to his advantage.

They weren't fuck buddies. If they were it would have been reciprocal. Af far as I can see for the chapters that have been released, never once did Dohyun pleasure or offer to pleasure Sungho which is why Sungho called him selfish.

Without spoiling too much, you'll see in the later on in the chapters that Dohyun really used Sungho and he wasn't the only person Dohyun used. I'm not saying Dohyun deserves what he's getting but he really is an asshole. He threw away people all the time when he got tired of them.

From the way things are drawn, you can see the naitivity on Sungho. He genuinely thought they were friends and their friendship would grow if he did what Dohyun asked. Those two were really on two different pages but Dohyun was wrong simply because you don't do those things to people. While it was never explicitly established that their were friends, who let's someone for no reason without asking for anything in return? It wasn't mutual. Sungho liked doing what he was doing, Dohyun knew that and never offered anything in return or even established that it was just sex.

Depending on where you live in the real world, that could get you in some serious trouble. It's always good to have a definite yes and establish and define what exactly a relationship is.

Eh but Dohyun did want to break off. Sungho was the one who didn't want it to end. They were on different pages what the relationship was. It was a sex buddy relationship to Dohyun and he would break off otherwise. He didn't force Sungho into it. Sungho knew this. He wanted friendship and since he couldn't, he agreed to be sex buddies hoping it would become platonic friends. I don't see how that's considered Dohyun raping Sungho. He never threatened Sungho in any way. Note that a lot of stuff was just internal dialogs going on inside Sungho's head. When you look at their meetings, actual conversations and behaviors, Dohyun didn't do anything illegal.

I don't want to go too extreme because I'm not a lawyer and I promise you that I'm not an SJW but there are legally times when yes means no and an imbalance of power can create one of those situations.

For example, a spouse threatening divorce if sex is withhold.

Spousal rape is a legit thing isn the western world. One isn't entitled to sex simply because one is married so if a spouse says no then no means no. But if one spouse tells the other "sleep with me or I'm leaving you" and then they do have sex, it can be considered rape because ultimately, that person didn't want to do it. They did it because they valued their marriage and loved that person enough to not just throw them away and a whole host of other reasons why they'd do something they didn't want to do. They might have children or mutual debts they can't handle on their own, for example. Whatever the reason, they did chose to sleep with their spouse, the point is, they didn't want to and they did it because the marriage was threatened. In a court of law where marital rape is legitimized, that's against such the law.

Another example that happens a lot in the real world is boss-coworker relationship. If a boss tells a coworker that they need to sleep with them for whatever reason (gain or loss; they'll lose their job or they'll get a promotion, for example). If the coworker then proceeds to sleep with the boss it is rape because it is an abuse of power.

I think the difference is in the intent.

Certainly Sungho appears to have "agreed" to it because he knew he'd lose his only friend if he didn't. But this isn't the same as agreeing to a sex relationship out mutual respect and desire.

It's Dohyun's intent that makes this rape. He knew what Sungho did and didn't want. Dohyun cared more about getting what he wanted out of Sungho, than what Sungho wanted - short term or long term.

Dohyun can't claim innocence just because he "didn't want the relationship". There was no one who gave Dohyun the two options "if you can't get Sungho to break off the relationship, then you have to have sex with him".
It was Dohyun who gave Sungho the options, "have sex with me, or have nothing with me." "have sex with me, or I'll have nothing to do with you." It was up to Sungho to take the bait, but Dohyun was the instigator and set the terms.

Dohyun was toying with Sungho, and never had to step across a legal line to do it.

The spouse telling the other, "Sleep with me or I'm leaving you" and the coworker saying stuff about the coworker losing their job if no sex. All of those examples you described indicate a 'threat', which is illegal in court. It's not the same in the manhwa at all because Dohyun did not threaten Sungho to withdraw the relationship. That was the stuff going on inside Sungho's mind. During their encounter, Dohyun just stood up and left him. That doesn't constitute 'a threat'

Think of it this way.

Let's say you had a friend who constantly fought with his girlfriend. Let's say every time your friend didn't agree with his girlfriend she threatened to leave him. Let's say it started off with small things like her threatening to leave him if he didn't buy her flowers or take her out to now the big thing. Let's say she asked for him to sleep with her and he said no because he wasn't ready and she said "If you don't come over tonight, don't talk to me ever again."

Let's say later on your friend revealed that he did go to his girlfriends house and slept with her. And when you asked, why, he said he didn't want to lose his girl.

Would you not consider that rape or at the very lease emotional abuse?
Do you think the very same argument you just use can apply and be seen as fair? Should the girlfriend be allowed to carry on without any kind of repercussion for her actions? Technically the girlfriend did ask to break things off so after that, according to your logic, it's the boyfriend who wanted to keep things going so it's his fault he got hurt.

It may not legally constitute a threat (I wouldn't know), but whether Sungho could ever bring this to court and win or not, this was still rape.

Sungho may have only thought these things in his mind, but Dohyun knew what he(Dohyun) was doing. And while Sungho DID tell him, "I don't want to do those things anymore", Sungho NEVER told him "ok, I do want sex with you. I want sex because I want the sex, not because I just want to stay friends with you."

Sungho never verbally agreed to the sex, just as Dohyun never verbally threatened him.

Whether there are legal grounds to say "Dohyun raped Sungho", mentally for Sungho it was still rape.

Exactly!

I'm saying that depending on where you live in the world, if a legal claim were to be filed and this situation were to go to court, Dohyun would have a good chance of going to prison for his actions.

The practical and financial consequences of what you describe are different than merely losing a friend. In the case of someone who is married or capitulating to sexual harassment, there is already a legally binding relationship in place (spouse or employment). Such relationships impact income, financial security, and possibly the quality of life depending on the situation. I understand emotions can be strong, but they are not the same as threatening someone's livelihood or ability to care for their children. A person has much more choice when it is just emotions on the line (though I understand feelings can be serious).

I don't agree. If all evidence of rape has been legally proven as false, I don't understand any of your basis for claiming that it's rape other than sheer stubbornness or the desire to win an argument. Just because you think something is true, it doesn't make it so. When you have sex with someone, you don't ask and wait for the other person to say, "ok, I do want to have sex with you" to do it every time. Consent is generally implied and Sungho did consent via his actions. He made choices to take his own clothes off and do other stuff. Dohyun didn't handcuff him, physically push him down whatsoever.

Anyway, I'm tired. I really have no more desire to discuss this further with you.

Different situations. Girl threatened the friend. Dohyun did not. He walked out of Sungho once.