Cheol (top) and Minyoung (bottom) are the couple. They both have very tragic pasts, Cheol was neglected and abused by his father and Minyoung is an orphan with problems connecting with people. Both are mentally fucked up because of this. Cheol full on age-regressing at one point. Minyoung noticed Cheol's silent abuse, Cheol noticed Minyoung's lack of connection with the people around him. They bonded over these hidden truths and eventually started dating. Minyoung became very protective of Cheol because he saw him being abused and saw the look on Cheol's face occasionally that gave it away. He made a vow to himself that he'd grow stronger to protect him because he couldn't at the time.
The whole crux of the story is that at some point back in high school, Minyoung outed Cheol to his father. We don't yet have the context as to why. This resulted in Cheol's father exploding on Cheol, Cheol breaking up with Minyoung to please his father, and then living a fake "straight" (he says "normal") life and marrying a woman.
The story starts later on in life, Cheol's wife has just divorced him after years of him living like a husk of a man, running away from his gay feelings for Minyoung. He's had a certified crash out. He fell into gambling, tanked a cafe business he'd been given, etc. His father ruined his life. Minyoung is back now that they're divorced. He'd been watching and waiting for the ruse to end.
Minyoung never gave up on him, he'd apparently been driven to the point of wanting to kill Cheol for abandoning him, but when he went to do it (yes, they're both crazy at points), he found out Cheol still loved him because he said Minyoung's name in his sleep. So he just sort of let Cheol do what he was going to do in this effort to please his dad, biding his time and building himself up to be able to get revenge for Cheol on his dad and younger brother. Cheol's father favored the younger brother because he had an inferiority complex towards his older brother and Cheol looks like his brother. It's Cheol's uncle that becomes his father when Cheol runs away from his father. Minyoung is back now because the fake life is over and now he can protect Cheol from his father and let him live as himself. But there's a lot of denial Cheol is working through throughout the story so far, that's what all the anger sex is about. He refuses to accept that he loves Minyoung still, but very, very unsuccessfully. He's getting there, the biggest step was him confronting his father and it left him age regressed for awhile. But that first step is huge.
Cheol's ex-wife gets that there's something going on that has absolutely just fucked Cheol and left him stagnant, but she doesn't know what. She tells him that he needs to stop being a coward and make a move for himself or he's going to be left by everyone he loves. That he needs to "grow up", and this is spot on, he's stuck in his childhood. This is what spurs Cheol to try and confront his dad. Cheol ends up beat up, so Minyoung goes and beats his dad's ass. Things are different now, they're not high schoolers anymore. Minyoung has just "come out" (not about being gay, about being in love with Cheol and that he's going to do anything to protect him) to Cheol's real father (the uncle) and now here we are. Side note: seems like Cheol's ex-wife might have a thing for Minyoung's secretary? They had a moment where they both looked stunned by each other.
At this point we're just waiting for the outing loose end to be tied up, which age-regressed Cheol hinted would be resolved if Minyoung would apologize. I'm sure that will come soon.
As I was reading, I kept having the thought that the intensity didn't match the happenings, like they were overreacting to things, but this is resolved once it starts going into the abusive father. The outing was so damning *because* he was outed to his abusive father. His father was just that bad. As was the extent of the psychological damage he'd already been subject to up to that point. The reason Minyoung makes crazy yandere faces all the time is because Cheol's past was just *that* tragic to him. It became his entire life's purpose to protect him. He's literally ride or die.
Summary (of the 25 chapters so far):
Cheol (top) and Minyoung (bottom) are the couple. They both have very tragic pasts, Cheol was neglected and abused by his father and Minyoung is an orphan with problems connecting with people. Both are mentally fucked up because of this. Cheol full on age-regressing at one point. Minyoung noticed Cheol's silent abuse, Cheol noticed Minyoung's lack of connection with the people around him. They bonded over these hidden truths and eventually started dating. Minyoung became very protective of Cheol because he saw him being abused and saw the look on Cheol's face occasionally that gave it away. He made a vow to himself that he'd grow stronger to protect him because he couldn't at the time.
The whole crux of the story is that at some point back in high school, Minyoung outed Cheol to his father. We don't yet have the context as to why. This resulted in Cheol's father exploding on Cheol, Cheol breaking up with Minyoung to please his father, and then living a fake "straight" (he says "normal") life and marrying a woman.
The story starts later on in life, Cheol's wife has just divorced him after years of him living like a husk of a man, running away from his gay feelings for Minyoung. He's had a certified crash out. He fell into gambling, tanked a cafe business he'd been given, etc. His father ruined his life. Minyoung is back now that they're divorced. He'd been watching and waiting for the ruse to end.
Minyoung never gave up on him, he'd apparently been driven to the point of wanting to kill Cheol for abandoning him, but when he went to do it (yes, they're both crazy at points), he found out Cheol still loved him because he said Minyoung's name in his sleep. So he just sort of let Cheol do what he was going to do in this effort to please his dad, biding his time and building himself up to be able to get revenge for Cheol on his dad and younger brother. Cheol's father favored the younger brother because he had an inferiority complex towards his older brother and Cheol looks like his brother. It's Cheol's uncle that becomes his father when Cheol runs away from his father. Minyoung is back now because the fake life is over and now he can protect Cheol from his father and let him live as himself. But there's a lot of denial Cheol is working through throughout the story so far, that's what all the anger sex is about. He refuses to accept that he loves Minyoung still, but very, very unsuccessfully. He's getting there, the biggest step was him confronting his father and it left him age regressed for awhile. But that first step is huge.
Cheol's ex-wife gets that there's something going on that has absolutely just fucked Cheol and left him stagnant, but she doesn't know what. She tells him that he needs to stop being a coward and make a move for himself or he's going to be left by everyone he loves. That he needs to "grow up", and this is spot on, he's stuck in his childhood. This is what spurs Cheol to try and confront his dad. Cheol ends up beat up, so Minyoung goes and beats his dad's ass. Things are different now, they're not high schoolers anymore. Minyoung has just "come out" (not about being gay, about being in love with Cheol and that he's going to do anything to protect him) to Cheol's real father (the uncle) and now here we are. Side note: seems like Cheol's ex-wife might have a thing for Minyoung's secretary? They had a moment where they both looked stunned by each other.
At this point we're just waiting for the outing loose end to be tied up, which age-regressed Cheol hinted would be resolved if Minyoung would apologize. I'm sure that will come soon.
As I was reading, I kept having the thought that the intensity didn't match the happenings, like they were overreacting to things, but this is resolved once it starts going into the abusive father. The outing was so damning *because* he was outed to his abusive father. His father was just that bad. As was the extent of the psychological damage he'd already been subject to up to that point. The reason Minyoung makes crazy yandere faces all the time is because Cheol's past was just *that* tragic to him. It became his entire life's purpose to protect him. He's literally ride or die.