Responses
Did they ever catch his old boss? Or did they just abort mission. I feel like he got too much ‘screen time’ I thought it would lead to something
nope, from what i remember , theres no proper reunion
I don't think this should be binge-read, and it should be experienced slowly. I regret reading everything in one night because the repetition of some themes became tiring, although it makes sense for the plot as it is about the ML's growth, regret and redemption - and this journey isn't linear for real people either, so it felt realistic.
The narrative is poetic, and this is one of the few manhwas that got me opening the dictionary while reading it, and it had so much information that I actually learned a thing or two in the process.
Namkwon is dislikeable in many, many ways and committed not only mistakes, but crimes, too (and God, he is an overthinker. He should be on some prescription. If we remove his thought balloons, we'd only have 50 chapters).
However, considering that Mokhwa took a life and walked a rough path, it is more understandable for him to believe in someone's determination to right their wrongs than for other bottoms who are always portrayed as an immaculate soul who keeps being mistreated and are 100% pure-hearted and end up in a situation of constant power imbalance.
Their relationship starts like that, but when there is a shift in who holds the power, we can see different facets of both characters who are introspective, thoughtful and profound adults who also have redeemable characteristics about themselves that make you remember that not everything is black or white and there are several shades of grey in between.
Then they slowly work towards becoming equals, and it is nice to see them finding a common ground in a normal way that is not over romanticised, or that makes you think the uke should be put in therapy immediately.
I also think they didn't explore enough of some themes (the mafia part and the fact that the money for the coffee shop came from Mokhwa, not Namkwon) that felt as if we didn't have enough closure plotwise. I'd have liked to see Mokhwa choosing Namkwon when the mafia boss called him back or something, that'd remove a point of conflict between them that feels like it still be a problem in Namkwon's head forever.
Now about the smut ratio in this... I understand and ok, but I can't help but be frustrated that they spent a whole week at the hotel going at it, and I just got to see a little bit of it. SHOW ME, LET ME SEE, I WAS HERE FROM THE BEGINNING, please? Why did you make them so hot and edge'd me so much? We had like 4 smut scenes, 1 was rape, so bleh, 2 they didn't even kiss, and the other was cut short.
Namkwon has the potential to be an ass eater and worshipper. He didn't get that uke to cry and ask for more, not even ONCE? Every time they were doing only missionary. I want the sides, and they better have expanded their repertoire because Namkwon is a PERV and he LOVES this man, he was salivating more than a dog in front of a rotisserie chicken that he couldn't eat. With the amount of wait in this slow burn, I was expecting to witness a massive fire, but it ended up being a flame that could be put out with a glass of water.