A long rant about the ending, gonna put on spoiler just in case

I reread this again after years, and it reminded me that I actually kind of dislike MC near the end.

The way he kept pushing ML to forgive his parents, even saying that he envied ML because he and his brother still had their parents while MC’s parents had already died, really felt like toxic positivity to me. Just because someone is in a different situation doesn’t mean their situation is automatically better. MC never really seemed to consider how ML actually felt. ML had every right to be angry and resentful toward his parents. They abandoned and neglected him simply because he wasn’t a dominant. And when they finally tried to reach out to him, they didn’t even apologize. Instead, they basically expected him to take care of his depressed brother.

That really gave me the ick.

Even if you eventually forgive the people who hurt you, you’re not obligated to let them back into your life or pretend that nothing happened. Cutting people out of your life because of how badly they treated you is also a valid choice. Having a happy ending doesn’t mean you have to go all “happy-go-lucky” and welcome back people who treated you like shit just because they’re your family.

The same thing happened with Hyesung, and I really hated Dojin and Byul for continuing to meet Hyesung’s mom behind his back. At least Hyesung eventually made the choice to end that relationship for good and decided that he didn’t want to see his mom anymore.

And honestly, that’s just how life is. Sometimes forgiveness means letting go of the anger and moving on, not letting the person who hurt you back into your life. And sometimes the healthiest happy ending is simply choosing not to have those people in your life anymore.