I really dislike when people view this as a romance when that is no way the case, it’s psychological. We see both’s backstories, and we see their relationship develop yes. However you need to keep in mind what the actual dynamics of their relationship are, and how it is in no way romantic. Even with the ending, with Sangwoo calling out Bum’s name, it wasn’t fully out of love, of wanting to see his ‘lover’ one last time to apologize. It was more realistically out of wanting to at least have someone he knows with him before his last moments, someone who he feels was part of actually shaping him. We see that Sangwoo’s feelings toward’s Bum are never straight forward. Sangwoo states multiple times he’s not gay, and while I don’t fully agree with that, I have to agree that Sangwoo doesn’t love Bum the way Bum wanted him too. And Bum knows this throughout the entire story, only towards the end did he feel more comfortable sharing his thoughts with Sangwoo, and even then he often felt afraid of Sangwoo. Reasonably so mind you. I think when reading the ending you have to also keep in mind the scenes where Bum is shunned by everyone, even people who try to help him don’t fully understand him. They view it as ridiculous he would actually feel ‘love’ towards Sangwoo when he abused him so badly. But in reality you can wholly feel in love with an abuser, but it’s mostly trauma bonded. Sangwoo stayed by Bum’s side, and while yes it was mostly because Sangwoo couldn’t let Bum telling the public or police about what actually happened, Bum didn’t keep that in mind most times since Bum did warn Sangwoo’s trust. I could really talk about this for ages and may make more comments as my thoughts and feelings towards this story develop more
I really dislike when people view this as a romance when that is no way the case, it’s psychological. We see both’s backstories, and we see their relationship develop yes. However you need to keep in mind what the actual dynamics of their relationship are, and how it is in no way romantic. Even with the ending, with Sangwoo calling out Bum’s name, it wasn’t fully out of love, of wanting to see his ‘lover’ one last time to apologize. It was more realistically out of wanting to at least have someone he knows with him before his last moments, someone who he feels was part of actually shaping him. We see that Sangwoo’s feelings toward’s Bum are never straight forward. Sangwoo states multiple times he’s not gay, and while I don’t fully agree with that, I have to agree that Sangwoo doesn’t love Bum the way Bum wanted him too. And Bum knows this throughout the entire story, only towards the end did he feel more comfortable sharing his thoughts with Sangwoo, and even then he often felt afraid of Sangwoo. Reasonably so mind you.
I think when reading the ending you have to also keep in mind the scenes where Bum is shunned by everyone, even people who try to help him don’t fully understand him. They view it as ridiculous he would actually feel ‘love’ towards Sangwoo when he abused him so badly. But in reality you can wholly feel in love with an abuser, but it’s mostly trauma bonded. Sangwoo stayed by Bum’s side, and while yes it was mostly because Sangwoo couldn’t let Bum telling the public or police about what actually happened, Bum didn’t keep that in mind most times since Bum did warn Sangwoo’s trust. I could really talk about this for ages and may make more comments as my thoughts and feelings towards this story develop more