beta
I would just like to say On or Off was fire. MC is smart and super capable to the point where he grew his own company. Not only that but the story has female characters that are cherished and appreciated unlike many bl slop. Speak nicely. Second of all, Work, life, balance is more slice of life than romance because the manic characters are together. Do I wish, they would drop the NTR adjacent theme, yes. Mostly because focusing on the MC’a relationship with his friends would be cool. But I understand this story is exploring the life aspect of work in a bl romcom way. Maybe later on everything will get fleshed out. The curse though is genuinely the funniest thing ever though.
I have to say that the older characters were so well written. Like I genuinely loved the grandma and Jaekyung’s coach’s I really appreciate how much they were a positive influence on the characters lives. As a child it’s so important for you to have good adults around you. And I feel like those two characters were exactly what an adult should be for a child. Especially a child growing up in a rough situation. Truly everything outside of the main romance was so well written that I’m genuinely not even too bothered by the ending. There’s this strong theme of destruction by circumstances that is applied so well to every aspect of the story. The consequences going from “you were just there” to “this is because of what you did” was very compelling. And good way to depict the question, “when will you stop blaming your past?”. However I think where the author falls is handling and trying to understand sexual abuse in and out of relationships. It’s handle in the same way a subplot of high schools girls gossiping and get their consequences would be. They fail to see and connect that Dan wasn’t just sexual abused by Jaekyung, but by the doctor, and by the loan sharks. Portraying this repeated abuse as just “annoying” and something that is to get over, dampens the series and pulls the reader out of the story. Sexual abuse is it’s own horror and should be written like one. Like a murder or a demon attacking someone. Just like the effects of stalking and death in the story, the sexual abuse should be handled in the same way.