Yeomin, My Goat

Yeomin is one of the most likeable protagonists I’ve seen in a BL in a long time. Given the tropes of this story, the author totally could’ve made Yeomin a flat and uninteresting sunshine character, but he’s not that at all. He’s an absolute sweetheart, but he knows when to put up boundaries. He doesn’t let that brat he tutors mess with him and he refuses to let Mr. Yeon meddle with his debt, for example. He’s not completely helpless, and even though there are times when he’s crying and Mr. Yeon has to pick him up or help him, those situations are completely reasonable. Like if I got kicked out of my apartment, had all my things thrown out in the rain, and got beaten up, I would be crying too. Even when he basically loses everything, he still thinks about his plans of what to do next. His strong drive to survive makes you want to see him succeed. You can also tell he’s very intelligent, not only in school, but he’s very socially aware of his circumstances. He doesn’t stick too close to people at school because he knows it might be dangerous for them and because he knows they judge him for his circumstances—he also doesn’t have any time. He’s aware that his landlord treats him like garbage, but he stays there because he can’t afford anywhere else. A poor writer, in comparison, would probably make their sunshine character completely unaware of the mistreatment they receive from others to preserve the sunshine quality of the character. Yeomin doesn’t need that since his bright personality still shines despite his poor circumstances. The only times where he’s not very rational is when he’s with Mr. Yeon but that’s only because he loves him so much. His love for Mr. Yeon is reasonable too because Mr. Yeon has been the only person that he’s been able to rely on in dire circumstances. That hyung Yeomin is friends with is a close second, but he isn’t able to fully support Yeomin the way he so desperately needs. Mr. Yeon is not a perfect person by any means, but in his defence, he cares about Yeomin’s health, safety, financial security, and shows him physical affection outside of sex, so I understand why Yeomin is so attached to him. I would say most of Yeomin’s flaws come from his reluctance to accept help and his inability to understand his and Mr. Yeon’s relationship (which I will say is not Yeomin’s fault since Mr. Yeon makes that hard for him). He doesn’t think he matters that much to Mr. Yeon, which is why he prioritized working (when he still had debt) over spending time with him and is now prioritizing school. It can be frustrating to watch him act this way, but you can still blame this on Mr. Yeon’s inability to use his words properly—an “I care about you and want to see you often” would work wonders on Yeomin compared to “Don’t crawl out of the house without permission.”

Basically, Yeomin is a very well written and likeable character in my opinion—he is kind without being stupidly altruistic, he’s driven to a point where you really want to root for his success, and he’s intelligent.
If you hate him, I think you should die.