Classic harem protagonist
I think you're totally right!! The last paragraph hits the point for me. And this bolder men see something submissive and fragile in her, even though that's not what she would want to show off. Once I wrote a comment here about that and someone gave a good response.
I wrote:
"All men around her are psychos.... I kinda feel like neither of them actually likes her, they just created a weird obsession over her, and it's weird, because she's not remarkable at all, no judgment though, but just kinda of feel what they like is exactly this, she's so fragile and naive that they see on her a women they want to control. I don't know.. it feels like they want a soulless doll that is devoted for them?"
And someone answered:
"I feel like the slight difference between them is that ML wants to devote himself to her and also wants her to be happy while big bro ex needs her to be devoted to him to fulfill his own happiness."
thank you, im glad someone agrees with me.
also the response makes total sense, thank you for quoting it again for me. im glad im not the only one with these thoughts. the author must have very good experience with men because when it comes to dating, men can also project and idolize this type of girl a lot
just because eunkyo is more of a quiet and stereoypical “feminine/shy” type doesnt mean she is submissive. but that gets mistaken
I think this author is one of the fews josei authors that actually has a dating and sex life lol
She's really good at portraiting some patterns men have with women and REALLY good creating sex scenes that would actually feel good for a women. The last part should be the bare minimum, but Its crazy how 97% of sex scenes elsewhere forget about the clitóris '_' .....
Ah! One more thing. Something that really catches my attention is Eunkyo outfits'. The author almost always put her in a "dirty" white, I dont know if this choice is also made because a super white would be the same colour of the speech bubbles, BUT it's also a clear choice of making her look dull. She's almost always using colours out of her colour's pallet, she would look SO much better with darker colour's.
I find your thoughts and the ones of the other comments on this post truly intriguing, but will have to slightly disagree. Maybe it’s just based on my own personals experience, but I find the characters and their dynamics to be unrealistic. I just can’t imagine someone being so obsessed, for such a long time and form so much of their life around the object of their obsession.
I’m not saying that things like that don’t actually happen, but imo there has to be way more emotional connection/ building up for an obsession of this degree to form. And for it to stay at such a high intensity for such a long time? I think some type of “outlet” would have to happen.
With that I mean that this intense obsession that creates a type of subconscious conflict in the psyche would have to be “resolved” to relieve the person of the caused emotional distress. Living in this highly uncomfortable state (of unfulfilled obsession) for such a long time? People typically don’t enjoy suffering.
Which is why one sided crushes tend to find their end eventually. It could surely take some time, depending on the character traits of said affected person, but for it to last forever? I struggle to believe it.
To me it just seems like a typical case of the author coming up with an idea and then building up the characters and their behaviour to fulfill imagined idea. Not building up characters and then creating the idea/ plot in harmony with the characters.
Had they done the latter Heda and the ml wouldn’t have held on to their obsession for so long… but that’s just my opinion haha. Or the ml should have had more basis and fuel for his obsession idk.
Anyways !! I still truly enjoy this plot and actually ship the mc with the ml. I think they make sense for each other and do seem to have chemistry :). It may also just be my lack of experience or imagination that makes me doubt the plausibility of the characters behaviour idk ~
I think it’s such a smart analysis and make total sense as to why all these (quite similar guys) are into the more dull her, but the degree of obsession just doesn’t make sense to me… it reminds me of twilight for example, where even just the fact that men of this caliber have so many interactions with all kind of charming women makes the plot quite unlogical. There are plenty of women who are like the mc and may be more charming in places that she isn’t …. Why stick to her?? Being into her I understand but obsessing to this degree? I remain doubtful haha
So true !! I love when women write/ draw sex scene one can always clearly see the difference!! That’s why I mostly can’t stand porn made by men … the build up, the intense gazes and soft touches - everything that builds up that sexual tension and is simply “sexy” (!!) is often lacking in male made porn imo (not all but almost all )
when i first started reading this, i constantly thought - why are so many men interested in eunkyo ? she doesn’t do much, doesn’t seem fun nor does her beauty stick out much. i have been re-reading the story after seeing that the officials were posted and tried to pay more attention to what makes eunkyo likeable as a woman.
but i think the description i just gave is exactly the point. to dohyun, and hedas event-ceo-friend (whom he tried to set up with eunkyo, who notebly has a similar vibe to dohyun) eunkyo feels like a safe choice. she is pretty, but in a way that doesnt outshine the other much. she is neat and not flashy. hard working and down to earth. she seems easily-agreeable and submissive. in a country like south korea these are probably much valued traits to have in a woman. dohyun enjoyed dating / cheating because he knew he was very much loved by eunkyo and that, if the cheating ever came to light, he would be forgiven. as for hedas ceo-friend, she politely drew a line, which assumingly was a welcomed challenge in his eyes. he is in a “marrigeable” age, and eunkyo to him seemed like perfect wife-material. winning her over would feel satisfying, too.
for jaeheon, i think it was multiple things. first, she is an older woman. idk much about boy-fantasies, but i think getting with an older woman at a young age always has a certain thrill to it, wether theyre aware of this or not. second, she is hardworking and sincere. jaeheon is from a wealthy family and always has been good looking, and easily got good grades. people around him always wanted to stick close to him because they could benefit from him in certain ways, which he was always aware of. his parents being occupied by their own problems and barely showing interest in him on a deeper, personal level probably deepend his loneliness. eunkyo notices him and greets him sincerely. she doesnt know him- to her, he is only the son of her professor. she cant benefit from him, but she still chose to be nice to him. to him, that smile was pure affection. this is how the crush starts.
teen jaeheon mentally critisizes eunkyo for being a pushover for enduring his fathers verbal excuse, but despite her crying, she will always try again, ask for his opinion again, says she will do better over and over. jaeheon realizes that, she might be emotional, but she is also a mentally strong person who will get up no matter what. the other love interests see her as naive, but through jaeheos eyes we see a strong but yet kind woman. she doesnt use other people around her to achieve her goals, unlike the people around jaeheon. she seems more mature than a lot of adults in jaeheons life, which makes her appealing to him. so seeing her getting pushed around by dohyun triggers something in him.
we dont know much about heda, and how he started liking eunkyo and why, but heda too describes her as soft and feels protective over her. jaeheon sees heda as an obstacle to get eunkyo for himself, because he realizes that hedas feelings for her are as pure and sincere as his; at some point he even compares himself to heda. we can assume that heda also sees more in eunkyo as just “wife-material”.
eunkyo is primarily “wanted” by men with bolder personalities; they are independent, are in positions of power (job or status) and usually try to control people and situations to their benefit. and the appeal of eunkyo is that her introverted, down to earth personality balances theirs. she does not outshine the male, and seems non-threatening.
i wrote my thoughts and one go and didnt proofread. i am not sure if what i wrote makes much sense at all. if youve read this, thank you. do let me know if you agree or not.