The novel goes into way more depth!! This only 1/6th of the actual story and it develops more of this idea of revenge. Wooyeon admits that inseop did get his revenge because he becomes completely hopeless, anxious, stressed, and experiences the hardest emotions and internal conflicts when inseop is not with him. Hr constantly says that his plan worked because he becomes a fool for anything inseop does. He says something specifically in the novel, when I find it I can send it. And it’s actually crazy because I think it was inseop who initiated a break up and Wooyeon lost it. There was so much depth in that event but basically Wooyeon couldn’t eat and his insomnia flared to extremely bad conditions and he did not sleep for days. It was constant nightmares of losing inseop and terrifying hallucinations. It was everythingggg but that ultimately led him to drop everything and move to America with inseop. There is so much more story left
And in the novel Wooyeon transforms over the event of Inseop getting stabbed. He becomes insanely obsessed with Inseops health and he mentioned if there was a god out there he would turn into a believer and beg and kiss its feet if that meant ensuring inseop had good health. When they’re in the car he constantly checks his surroundings and all the cars around him to make sure that stalker incident never happens again. And in the story, if inseop were to just get a cut he’ll carry him to the hospital with no hesitation. He even made inseop swore to always listen to him if he were to get hurt and that he has no say whether to go to the hospital or not. And he also records Inseops weight.
Inseop had insane amount of stuff happened to him in this volume (this manwha) but further on it sets the relationship crucially. It’s hard to see inseop get injured so much but it definitely takes a toll on Wooyeon moving forward. CEO Kim mentioned that Wooyeon gets more pale than inseop when inseop is injured and his hands start shaking uncontrollably. And I don’t want to spoil but there’s consequences to wooyeons actions and events where things happen to him in the future.
And one last parallel I think inseop getting more injured then Wooyeon was created to be a key part in their story. Because inseop is physically weak, while all of Wooyeon’s conflicts are mental. Like they address how they’re kind of opposite because inseop is always the one who’s stubborn in his beliefs because he has a strong sense of his morals and doing what’s right. But Wooyeon doesn’t always understand the significance of that/ has to teach himself. And for physically speaking, inseop has had heart problems since he was an infant while it was mentioned that Wooyeon has never had a cold or sickness ever, even as a kid. So in a very rough conclusion a lot of things physically happens to inseop now in the beginning so they in store balance later with Wooyeon mentally
Oh? This makes me way way more hopeful. iirc they did this bullshit rushed ending at the expense of the plot with a bunch of other manhwas too (oh, S-Class Guide as Sweet As Honey) so I'm somewhat not surprised... I feel like I really need to read the novel now to get a better idea of Inseob's character development. Do you have a link to where I can? I was really looking forward to Inseob finding himself despite all the setbacks of his revenge and I feel so upset with the way they went about the webtoon.
I do definitely understand the parallels of all the physical injuries and constant dangerous situations that Inseob goes through in contrast to Wooyeon. I suppose I was frustrated by it for the very reason that you mentioned — that it was supposed to mean something in the story but ultimately never did. I'm assuming the novel will actually follow through on it?
Thanks for sharing all this, btw!
Upon reread, all I can say is that following this manhwa while it was ongoing is such a different experience from reading it as a whole. It's so much worse.
The thing about characters like Wooyeon is that he has become a staple in Korean BL manhwa, so I can't even say he was disappointing bc I simply didn't expect better from him.
The real tragedy to me was Inseob. He tolerated so much from Wooyeon that I genuinely expected his lash-out and revenge to be twice as big. And that... never came. To the very end. We never got it.
I get Inseob's backstory. Like, it's genuinely my favourite part of this story. His tumultuous friendship with Jennie (who herself is a deeply flawed teenager tormented by bullying and abuse and suffering from bipolar disorder) is bound to shake him up through guilt in indescribably ways when he loses her to her demons - and this is especially compounded by the fact that it happens the one and only time he stands his ground and speaks his mind. It's such a complex and human thing to be so scarred by the guilt that standing up for himself is bound to feel impossible.
What I wish the story had showed was that it actually was possible, just difficult. I wish Inseob could have discovered that for himself. Instead, all we got was Wooyeon discovering the human experience of emotions violently as he chipped more and more of Inseob away until he had nothing left but an unhealthy sense of self, leading to his dependency on Wooyeon. Yes, Wooyeon learns to respect Inseob, but Inseob had no hand in that. He never fights for it - not in any significant way. The choice to respect Inseob continues to lie in Wooyeon's hand, and Inseob makes it explicitly clear that he will continue to love Wooyeon even if he stops doing that again. Almost as if his guilt of letting someone down is bigger not only than himself, but even the feeling of the love he feels for Wooyeon itself.
Honestly this story is a tragedy to me. We all knew from the beginning Wooyeon would have some semblance of character development, but it was just so devoid of meaning. It's not like he actually lost anything. He just had a couple of freakouts over the IDEA of losing Inseob, and that's it? Meanwhile, Inseob's getting stabbed, assaulted, slapped, spit on, draining some fuckwad's piss. Man.
Inseob was the real disappointment to me. He should have gotten at least one slap in on Wooyeon. And you know what? That freak might have even liked it, and THAT would have been more meaningful than whatever bullshit it is we got as a conclusion.