i haven't finished the bonus chapters but i wanted to give my 2 cents. despite the obvious problems with their ages, i wanted to give this a shot because i love longer stories and the art was beautiful. the story is very compelling but there's so many ways to work around their ages without making woojung into a pedophile creep groomer , for example: 1. jiho could've been lying about his age, and told the truth that he was turned 20 instead of 18 on new years. 2. same premise kinda with jiho being 20 but he didn't lie about it but the reason woojung is holding bimself back until he finds out jiho is 20, is because 19 is a still a teenager and too young in his eyes. like both these scenarios with the age gap are still questionable but it doesn't go into the pedophile allegations territory. honestly woojung would not be able to fight the allegations as it stands in canon because he definitely brought jiho in because he thought he was pretty, and him telling jiho that over and over again is a form of grooming. there's a third option of how this could've been handled if he just didn't say those things and didn't have those reactions to jiho being half naked and to jiho smiling. im rambling this has little substance but this was on my mind while i was reading. i think my two scenarios would've worked way better, idk why you'd want to make out your character into a pedophile tbh p.s. also wanted to add that. the author may have wanted to make a conflicting and hard to root for pairing, and they thought that by making them 17 and 30+ that'll be it. but that's just lazy writing. im not saying that all of the story is lazy writing but that aspect definitely is. because the beauty of writing is making your audience question things and their own preconceived notions. I cant say that even after enjoying this story that there will ever be a point in my life in which i wont find a romance between a minor and someone twice their age morally deplorable. However, if they had flipped it, if they made it about two adults where everyone would obviously be like "this is fine and legal and nothing is wrong with this" if they managed to somehow turn that into the same reaction you'd have upon reading a romance between a 17 and 30 year old , that would be a lot more intriguing and complex writing
i haven't finished the bonus chapters but i wanted to give my 2 cents. despite the obvious problems with their ages, i wanted to give this a shot because i love longer stories and the art was beautiful. the story is very compelling but there's so many ways to work around their ages without making woojung into a pedophile creep groomer , for example: 1. jiho could've been lying about his age, and told the truth that he was turned 20 instead of 18 on new years. 2. same premise kinda with jiho being 20 but he didn't lie about it but the reason woojung is holding bimself back until he finds out jiho is 20, is because 19 is a still a teenager and too young in his eyes. like both these scenarios with the age gap are still questionable but it doesn't go into the pedophile allegations territory. honestly woojung would not be able to fight the allegations as it stands in canon because he definitely brought jiho in because he thought he was pretty, and him telling jiho that over and over again is a form of grooming. there's a third option of how this could've been handled if he just didn't say those things and didn't have those reactions to jiho being half naked and to jiho smiling. im rambling this has little substance but this was on my mind while i was reading. i think my two scenarios would've worked way better, idk why you'd want to make out your character into a pedophile tbh
p.s.
also wanted to add that. the author may have wanted to make a conflicting and hard to root for pairing, and they thought that by making them 17 and 30+ that'll be it. but that's just lazy writing. im not saying that all of the story is lazy writing but that aspect definitely is. because the beauty of writing is making your audience question things and their own preconceived notions. I cant say that even after enjoying this story that there will ever be a point in my life in which i wont find a romance between a minor and someone twice their age morally deplorable. However, if they had flipped it, if they made it about two adults where everyone would obviously be like "this is fine and legal and nothing is wrong with this" if they managed to somehow turn that into the same reaction you'd have upon reading a romance between a 17 and 30 year old , that would be a lot more intriguing and complex writing