People keep saying, "Nanjo should've known better" or "Mokyeon was honest about being a bad person," as if that somehow changes the situation. It doesn't.
Being transparent about your intentions doesn't suddenly make coercion or manipulation acceptable. If someone openly says, "I'm going to use your feelings against you," and then does exactly that, the fact that they warned you doesn't erase what they did.
What also gets ignored is perspective. Almost everything we've seen so far has been filtered through Mokyeon's POV. We barely know what Nanjo is actually thinking. From Nanjo's perspective, Sunhwa appeared to be someone he genuinely cared about and wanted to protect. Readers already know more than he does because we've been shown things he hasn't. Judging every one of Nanjo's decisions with information only the audience has is unfair.
And if, later in the story, Nanjo realizes Sunhwa wasn't the victim he believed him to be, that still wouldn't retroactively make Mokyeon's actions right. A revelation about one character doesn't rewrite another character's behaviour. Two people can be wrong at the same time.
That's why I don't understand why some readers act like exposing Sunhwa automatically absolves Mokyeon. It doesn't. If anything, it just proves the story is full of flawed characters. The interesting part isn't deciding who's a saint it's seeing how each character deals with the consequences of their own choices.
People keep saying, "Nanjo should've known better" or "Mokyeon was honest about being a bad person," as if that somehow changes the situation. It doesn't.
Being transparent about your intentions doesn't suddenly make coercion or manipulation acceptable. If someone openly says, "I'm going to use your feelings against you," and then does exactly that, the fact that they warned you doesn't erase what they did.
What also gets ignored is perspective. Almost everything we've seen so far has been filtered through Mokyeon's POV. We barely know what Nanjo is actually thinking. From Nanjo's perspective, Sunhwa appeared to be someone he genuinely cared about and wanted to protect. Readers already know more than he does because we've been shown things he hasn't. Judging every one of Nanjo's decisions with information only the audience has is unfair.
And if, later in the story, Nanjo realizes Sunhwa wasn't the victim he believed him to be, that still wouldn't retroactively make Mokyeon's actions right. A revelation about one character doesn't rewrite another character's behaviour. Two people can be wrong at the same time.
That's why I don't understand why some readers act like exposing Sunhwa automatically absolves Mokyeon. It doesn't. If anything, it just proves the story is full of flawed characters. The interesting part isn't deciding who's a saint it's seeing how each character deals with the consequences of their own choices.