I absolutely love this and love you for writing it.
I love when people like the ACTUALLY morally grey characters. Not the "Oh he's kinda grey but in love / grey for everyone but her but ACTUALLY grey. A guy who's got actual problems that don't get validated because he's not the male lead and therefore his problematic behavior is inexcusable.
Characters, especially men, who don't get forgiveness because they're portrayed as thoughtless antagonists to the male lead are always my favorites even if they're just plain old crappy.
Another thing you notice which I think you somewhat pointed out, he doesn't have the guts to live the gangster life Taeha can without much hesitation. Unlike Taeha who could storm in and beat them all to a pulp for touching Haesoo, Taehee sits and drowns his sorrows in alcohol and drugs and sex - so he doesn't have to think about what he's doing, and he had to leave actually harming Haesoo to a bunch of other people instead of doing it himself (If I remember the chapter right)
Even though Taeha was the "hidden", "hated", and the "illegitimate" son, Taehee still has to fight him for his name. In usual circumstances, illegitimate children don't inherit or inherit very little, yet he's being treated as if they have an equal chance at what he should have the right to, and that's his prime motivation right now.
Mental health issues in dysfunctional families is SO common.
Does it excuse anything? No. But does Taeha have any excuse for his actions other than "For Haesoo", either? Not from what I've seen.
Side characters are always so much more fun to overanalyze
THANK you for reading all that, and my god I stood up and applauded. You write astoundingly well. I always appreciate it when I see another person standing ten toes down on business when it comes to these things. So often you see people cherrypick morality and problematic behaviour based on what fits their needs, which is normal and I just did that, but because they can't admit to finding nuance in something socially frowned upon they project their own discomfort with themselves at others, preaching about moral soundness and social justice to people who embrace the fact.
Good fiction is a gift, because it allows even your local Jacquard to theorise about and perceive in detail an otherwise inaccessible scenario and its background (regardless of accuracy or realistic relevance), without the pressure of projecting reality's social prejudice. I think through fiction we can have honest conversations with ourselves and others more easily.
And thank you for your addition on Taehee, it's an excellent observation and that's also all I could focus on during those chapters when he orchestrated that trap for Haesu. That he couldn't do it himself.
I absolutely Love that you said "at what *should* have the right to'', and beyond it being the way of the world, he also can't let go of the way things should be in his mind. He's wrestling with the contrast between the values that belong to him and those that belong to his father. The unprecedented competition threatens to put him face to face with the truth that they don't align, so this helplessness he feels materialises into misplaced anger towards Taeha and he descends further into drugs and sex and everything you've listed. And even Then, he can't bring himself to hurt Haesu in his own power.
There's no such thing as being too sensitive, but his sensitivity doesn't align with the lifestyle. It's the indifference that makes Taeha and Taejoo thrive, and it's what Taehee consistently fails at. I didn't really make a clear connection in my comment.
There's so much information about everyone in this story and there are so many comments every chapter saying go give us nothing because they don't read a story for what it is but what they want and demand to see. I think there's a whole lot to say about Taeha and Mincheol as well. Mincheol is especially interesting due to that dramatic shift in demeanour.
I feel like your connections were very clear! And I love, LOVE finding people who really discuss in a comment section! I love watching people break down their actual thoughts even if it's messy, instead of an "lol" or an unexplained rage.
And yes! Mincheol is interesting as well, and way more that just the "cheating scum" everyone sticks to calling him. Is he cheating scum? Yeah. Just not the way everyone lumps it up into.
Mincheol too absolutely strikes me as someone who has SOMETHING undiagnosed.
While he was fine early highschool, his problems started showing (hypersexuality, lack of reality, impulsiveness, controlling behaviors he didn't consider controlling...) later (as we see when he starts forcing himself on Haesoo without really realizing or caring that it's what he was doing), which is SO common.
Not only that, but all of the decisions he makes comes from someone else. His idea to cheat of Haesoo to "respark" their marriage for example. Or the way he sees other men talking about their wives, or older women in general. None of his thoughts really seem to be his own entirely, but rather a collection of negative influences and "quick fix" solutions to his problems.
It doesn't excuse it, of course. He was and is absolutely terrible to Haesoo, but there's definitely more going on than "Oh he's a jerk".
I doubt he could (or, at least, would) have gotten that help even if he wanted to. It's known that he came from a well off family he had to trouble runnign away from, and then the social stigma of a man getting mental health on top of his already existing pride. It was probably easier to live that way.
And Taeha is 100% a case of neglected-mommy-issues with a good chunk of daddy issues on top of it.
It feels like he's using Haesoo as a way to "fix" the problems he had growing up, and since apparently he'd seen her and her conditions many times in the past, she's the one who stuck in his mind.
He's someone who seems very childish, someone who wants desperately to depend on someone even if he's entirely self sufficient. Who better than a mature mother figure to take pity on him?
If he can make all her problems go away, it prevents the fate of his mother from happening again, and she will stick around for whatever reason he can get her to. He would be the "better" version of his father.
And Haesoo, who is stuck in her past, broken down by an abusive man twice over (Father and husband), poverty, the loss of a child... And so freshly cheated on and trying to move on, of course she wouldn't be thinking rationally. Of course she's going to be angry, and even clingy, and stick to the one person who wants to save her even though she completely expects the same thing to happen as before. If she didn't have Taeha, who would she have anymore?
Before she was hit with her recent traumas, she resisted him like a regular woman would - he's a decade younger, so of course she would. But everyone is worn down eventually. And even then, as far as she is aware, they were both adults when they met and therefore there isn't too much moral grounds to hold over her. It's so easy for the readers to call her weak, stupid, etc... but she really is strong for everything she's gone through. She's in constant pain. People just need to realize that not a single character here is morally correct, and not a single character here is black or white. They're all wrong, but are right in their own means of survival.
And what you said about sensitivity, absolutely. His sensitivity doesn't align with his lifestyle, and that's honestly how I feel about everyone here. It's a bunch of overlapping cycles of abuse meeting on all the wrong turns.
Forgive the grammar (⊙…⊙ ) I can type I swear
Fuck, I swear this was relevant like two chapters ago, but I need to get this off my chest. Taehee is peak yearner material and I need him BAD. His struggles and the way he responds to his trauma also feel strangely familiar to me both as an individual and a woman. So I'll gather my thoughts about the way I see Taehee so far for a hot minute (with a little reaching).
Taehee is emotional and sensitive (his mother can vouch for this) expressive and verbal, and is struggling to build the mental fortitude it takes to be a gangster, unlike his father and Taeha. Taejoo's abusive behaviour was destructive for both brothers, but while it reinforced Taeha's aversion towards him, it had the opposite effect on Taehee.
Taehee became desperate for his genuine love and validation. He wants to be loved by his father for being his son and for being himself, not a tool to inherit his business, and he wants that to suffice. He doesn't seem to fully grasp that he never had and never will have the luxury of receiving that. He doesn't realise he's already been discarded, from as early as when he was born. And I believe he's half-consciously preventing himself from realising it, because he's deeply afraid of abandonment and because he has a fragile sense of identity.
The reason is that from a young age, he was taught to seek acknowledgement from Taejoo otherwise he was worthless and deserving of punishment. But at the same time, he wants to follow his own desires, which his father was never there to honour. So his own satisfaction feels inadequate. Taehee's in denial about this, but he can't survive without validation, and he desires security and connection within a conditional dynamic, which leaves him vulnerable and erratic.
So he desperately depends on others to feel self-fulfilled and important to make up for the absence of his father's love, and he regains control by hanging around and leading bad crowds, as well as repeating destructive behaviour that he learnt from his childhood. He desperately wants his existence to matter, so he hurts Taeha just to prove that he has an effect on somebody (beyond taking revenge for stealing his father's gaze from him by being everything he can't bring himself to be).
Taehee is like a little sea anemone trapped between two massive fucking whirlpools (Taejoo & Taeha), neither of whom give a shit about his existential struggle which, for him, is a big deal. And that's debilitating. Granted, Taeha has got every right not to care and in fact he should choke him harder next timeWHO SAID THAT.
Meanwhile, back when Taehee was remotely relevant, I remember seeing a few comments critisising him for being spoiled, overdramatic, delusional, and that provoked a thought. That it's what women are usually critisised by, for being too clingy, emotional, manipulative, for not abiding by men's expectations. Women are frequently presented to be the problem, vilified and misdiagnosed with emotion dysregulation disorders like bpd, when a big truth is that they're just surviving under the patriarchy and a world that scrutinises them (Shaw, C., & Proctor, G. (2005). Women at the margins: A critique of the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Feminism & Psychology, 15(4), 483–490).
While it's not exactly the same and won't ever be, I think that's similar in principle with Taehee's case, who deals with his trauma in a socially unacceptable way and has even been called psychopathic and sociopathic from what I've seen by being unemployed in the comments. I think the type of critisism he stirs really reinforces this feeling of familiarity for me. And while he obviously bears responsibility for his actions, the biggest perpetrator who deserves scrutiny is his sexy(upss I slipped) nasty father.
To me it seems like he's just not meant for the thug life and that's not the life he wants. Well, what can I say, Taehee you may run fictionally only into my loving arms now, I'll give you that premium pavlovian reconditioning so you're dependent on me instead. ....I'm kidding. But in all honesty, I believe it's near impossible for him to unlearn codependency, so it's better to embrace it and make it a healing experience instead, which only selectively enables self destruction, and other times discourages it. Balancing act.
That's all, toodles.