- Junhan and Sanghyuk went out and got drunk, Sanghyuk passed out and Junhan went to take him home by driving his car, but hit somebody and ran away. Sanghyuk woke up and thought he was drunk driving and ran someone over. Junhan was building his career and didn't want the scandal so he let Sanghyuk think he did it. He justified it in his head by saying Sanghyuk's family is loaded, so they'll be able to handle it.
- Junhan was a bully in high school. His "bullying" of Habin is a grey area, I don't personally fault him for trying to bully him to get rid of his stalker, but his bullying of the innocent chubby kid that he made a target of the bully group was less justified.
Besides the above, he's just sort of an asshole to many people. That seems to be his real personality, he's always "playing nice" to everyone at school. He says that he learned from his childhood to be mean before others can be mean to him and he loses their love. So how he naturally acts is kinda mean as a defence/cope mechanism, how he presents is acted. The facade starts to crack as he's put under pressure by Habin and his father's reappearance and he snaps at Sanghyuk a few times.
Now going into all this:
His "friendship" with Sanghyuk is part of the act. He doesn't really care about him, this is made clear as early as Chapter 2, when the group seems confused on why Junhan hasn't contacted Sanghyuk despite the life event that just happened to him, the car accident. They tell him "he's your best friend" and he pretty casually thinks "Oh yeah, I forgot about him with everything going on". He doesn't seem to feel guilty. Junhan actually goes into this to say that it's always actually been Sanghyuk sticking to *him*. Sanghyuk kept pestering him to do the short film and the only reason he did it was for the benefits until it got him into the spotlight and he saw how much money he could earn off of his acting. But all he cares about is the money, he has no passion for acting, he doesn't want to learn about it or get better. He just wants to do what he's doing and get paid. He's even a bit annoyed having to keep pretending to care about acting. He doesn't want to have to deal with the acting group or practice.
So from his perspective he helped Sanghyuk with his short film, ended up being recognized for his talent and discovered a way he could make money and then Sanghyuk convinced him to go to acting school by promising a discount on tuition and an opportunity with someone he knows, which resulted in Junhan becoming an influencer at the woman's advice and landing much more opportunities from other clothing stores.
Junhan was in a position where he had nothing and had to accept whatever scraps he could get, so yes, he used Sanghyuk. That's their real relationship. Even as early as Ch 1 at the bar you see him envious of Sanghyuk's wealth when he sees the car. He's in a position where he has nothing and can't afford to care about other people's feelings.
What he did to Sanghyuk is pretty obviously black, not grey, but most people don't care about fucking over what, connection-wise, is essentially a stranger you don't care about. I feel like people are viewing this as "Junhan fucking over his best friend", but I think that would actually be worse. Though this is still bad enough even to a stranger. The fact that it's a rich stranger clearly also helps dull the care for what Sanghyuk's possibly going to go through when he decides to frame him.
Onto the bullying, he says in plain wording that he took to bullying because it was something he could control while he could do nothing about his father and his circumstances at the time. He had just had his savings stolen by his father and that made him nearly attack him in his sleep. Not a justification, but a reason, and the reason make him more sympathetic. For me that equates to not necessarily wanting his downfall. I'm fine with him having to own up to Sanghyuk that he's the one who crashed the car, but I feel like he's been through enough and deserves to keep what he worked for. I view that separately to that. He put Sanghyuk through a hard time and he should be held accountable, but I don't feel like that equates to that he should have his life ruined brutally. Which takes me to spoilers:
I've seen that he has his life completely ruined and ends up basically pathetic like his father... This is so sad to me. Like, after being abandoned by his mother and having to deal with his father, after he's managed to achieve some level of success via his own talent, now his "comeuppance"/"karma" is *that*? It's disappointing. I really liked Habin's "I'll always be there for you" approach to winning him over up to this point. I could also see some hope there, considering Junhan literally fucked him twice. It felt like maybe that sincerity was starting to get through. But apparently Habin ends up just exposing him and ruining his life to isolate him and then they live happily ever after with Junhan none the wiser that it was all orchestrated by Habin.
I'm going to be frank. The bullying of that kid was shitty, but it's in the past... He's even grown out of it, saying earlier in that he can't just punch Habin for the Stalking like he used to because "they were just kids at the time". Not that the guy would be in the wrong if he ever felt like holding Junhan accountable, I guess I'm just making the point that it hasn't come to that. Seems time moved on and so did everyone. To me the main thing here is definitely framing Sanghyuk, which I think he deserves to have to face, but maybe in a personal 1 on 1 where Sanghyuk decides what to do? Habin is just using the situation.
As far as his bullying of Habin, the only time where I feel he was in the wrong was when he was an asshole when Habin confessed to him. There was no history there and no knowledge of him being a stalker, he was mean for no reason calling him disgusting. After that is all a reasonable reaction to being hardcore stalked. He even kissed him while he was sleeping... He woke up being kissed in a closed off classroom by the guy he rejected.
I really just want his dad to like... Die. I don't care what happens to him seeing him showing up and tormenting him again like this. He's even going to his school, trying to extort 200 million out of him... He's disgusting. I hope he dies slowly in a fire and it depicts it.
Idk, I guess the ending I wanted was a happy one for everyone. One where Habin won him over with his (crazy) sincerity rather than manipulating him and ruining his life. I really liked how he was consistently telling him "I like you" and you could see it was having an effect of some kind. There was progress. I was starting to think maybe he would actually fall for him normally and get over the stalking and then the stalking would stop, but no...
Key things he's done shitty:
- Junhan and Sanghyuk went out and got drunk, Sanghyuk passed out and Junhan went to take him home by driving his car, but hit somebody and ran away. Sanghyuk woke up and thought he was drunk driving and ran someone over. Junhan was building his career and didn't want the scandal so he let Sanghyuk think he did it. He justified it in his head by saying Sanghyuk's family is loaded, so they'll be able to handle it.
- Junhan was a bully in high school. His "bullying" of Habin is a grey area, I don't personally fault him for trying to bully him to get rid of his stalker, but his bullying of the innocent chubby kid that he made a target of the bully group was less justified.
Besides the above, he's just sort of an asshole to many people. That seems to be his real personality, he's always "playing nice" to everyone at school. He says that he learned from his childhood to be mean before others can be mean to him and he loses their love. So how he naturally acts is kinda mean as a defence/cope mechanism, how he presents is acted. The facade starts to crack as he's put under pressure by Habin and his father's reappearance and he snaps at Sanghyuk a few times.
Now going into all this:
His "friendship" with Sanghyuk is part of the act. He doesn't really care about him, this is made clear as early as Chapter 2, when the group seems confused on why Junhan hasn't contacted Sanghyuk despite the life event that just happened to him, the car accident. They tell him "he's your best friend" and he pretty casually thinks "Oh yeah, I forgot about him with everything going on". He doesn't seem to feel guilty. Junhan actually goes into this to say that it's always actually been Sanghyuk sticking to *him*. Sanghyuk kept pestering him to do the short film and the only reason he did it was for the benefits until it got him into the spotlight and he saw how much money he could earn off of his acting. But all he cares about is the money, he has no passion for acting, he doesn't want to learn about it or get better. He just wants to do what he's doing and get paid. He's even a bit annoyed having to keep pretending to care about acting. He doesn't want to have to deal with the acting group or practice.
So from his perspective he helped Sanghyuk with his short film, ended up being recognized for his talent and discovered a way he could make money and then Sanghyuk convinced him to go to acting school by promising a discount on tuition and an opportunity with someone he knows, which resulted in Junhan becoming an influencer at the woman's advice and landing much more opportunities from other clothing stores.
Junhan was in a position where he had nothing and had to accept whatever scraps he could get, so yes, he used Sanghyuk. That's their real relationship. Even as early as Ch 1 at the bar you see him envious of Sanghyuk's wealth when he sees the car. He's in a position where he has nothing and can't afford to care about other people's feelings.
What he did to Sanghyuk is pretty obviously black, not grey, but most people don't care about fucking over what, connection-wise, is essentially a stranger you don't care about. I feel like people are viewing this as "Junhan fucking over his best friend", but I think that would actually be worse. Though this is still bad enough even to a stranger. The fact that it's a rich stranger clearly also helps dull the care for what Sanghyuk's possibly going to go through when he decides to frame him.
Onto the bullying, he says in plain wording that he took to bullying because it was something he could control while he could do nothing about his father and his circumstances at the time. He had just had his savings stolen by his father and that made him nearly attack him in his sleep. Not a justification, but a reason, and the reason make him more sympathetic. For me that equates to not necessarily wanting his downfall. I'm fine with him having to own up to Sanghyuk that he's the one who crashed the car, but I feel like he's been through enough and deserves to keep what he worked for. I view that separately to that. He put Sanghyuk through a hard time and he should be held accountable, but I don't feel like that equates to that he should have his life ruined brutally. Which takes me to spoilers:
I've seen that he has his life completely ruined and ends up basically pathetic like his father... This is so sad to me. Like, after being abandoned by his mother and having to deal with his father, after he's managed to achieve some level of success via his own talent, now his "comeuppance"/"karma" is *that*? It's disappointing. I really liked Habin's "I'll always be there for you" approach to winning him over up to this point. I could also see some hope there, considering Junhan literally fucked him twice. It felt like maybe that sincerity was starting to get through. But apparently Habin ends up just exposing him and ruining his life to isolate him and then they live happily ever after with Junhan none the wiser that it was all orchestrated by Habin.
I'm going to be frank. The bullying of that kid was shitty, but it's in the past... He's even grown out of it, saying earlier in that he can't just punch Habin for the Stalking like he used to because "they were just kids at the time". Not that the guy would be in the wrong if he ever felt like holding Junhan accountable, I guess I'm just making the point that it hasn't come to that. Seems time moved on and so did everyone. To me the main thing here is definitely framing Sanghyuk, which I think he deserves to have to face, but maybe in a personal 1 on 1 where Sanghyuk decides what to do? Habin is just using the situation.
As far as his bullying of Habin, the only time where I feel he was in the wrong was when he was an asshole when Habin confessed to him. There was no history there and no knowledge of him being a stalker, he was mean for no reason calling him disgusting. After that is all a reasonable reaction to being hardcore stalked. He even kissed him while he was sleeping... He woke up being kissed in a closed off classroom by the guy he rejected.
I really just want his dad to like... Die. I don't care what happens to him seeing him showing up and tormenting him again like this. He's even going to his school, trying to extort 200 million out of him... He's disgusting. I hope he dies slowly in a fire and it depicts it.
Idk, I guess the ending I wanted was a happy one for everyone. One where Habin won him over with his (crazy) sincerity rather than manipulating him and ruining his life. I really liked how he was consistently telling him "I like you" and you could see it was having an effect of some kind. There was progress. I was starting to think maybe he would actually fall for him normally and get over the stalking and then the stalking would stop, but no...