Aiden forced himself onto Steven out of jealousy and poor communication, and then Steven asks Aiden to kiss him afterwards because he wants to be treated affectionately again? Dude.
MC just gave a flashback about a fox he saved and the reveal that ML is that fox. Did they mention that before? If not, that's a really weird thing to bring up. It's not a plot twist for us because it's written like it's information we're supposed to know, but I'm really confused.
And again: stop doing the "I knew you since you were a child and I was a grown adult" trope, please! And the MC hasn't aged AT ALL. I'm not mad at him, but dang.
Between the reconciled lovers, the missing son plot (that took a long time to rev up despite being the catalyst) and the cult, there's a lot of moving pieces with this. It is interesting to see a story conversing the unique nature of Christianity in South Korea--even if the current version of it is more cult=like--though I'm trying to wrap my head around everything. Also, someone was suspecting this was a precurser to an omegaverse story. Interesting if that's true, though I think that'd make the story feel more bloated. We're already on Chapter 20, and I don't feel like much has happened.
Like, it just gets worse and worse through this season. Like, they've literally gone backwards. Now we have a seme who'd rather take advantage of an innocent uke because he can't articulate his feelings, and an uke who's been gaslit into believing he did something wrong by not sharing every detail of his life.
The whole thing about the side story is that the seme is being stalked on social media and the uke is concerned, but he holds off on saying anything because the seme doesn't seem bothered by it and would probably deleted his social media to make the uke feel better, and the uke knows that would be unfair to him. However, the uke tries to get rid of the stalker, and the stalker just keeps showing up. Eventually he confesses to the seme, and the seme deletes his social media. The stalker isn't caught or arrested, and the uke's concerns came true.
Kwon Inwu actually looks better without his hair combed back. That's the case for a lot of male characters in BLs, tbh. I'm sure he's supposed to look disheveled, but he just looks hot. I'm still mad at the common BL trope of demonizing the side character with glasses, tho.
(Also I'm American and I'm sitting here like "why a knife instead of a gun?" and then I remember it's South Korea, lol)
S1 was really cute, but S2 has proven problematic, bordering on toxic; you have a dom seme who doesn't communicate in a healthy way and just takes it out on the sub uke during their plays (ie when he's jealous or in his feelings about something) and the uke is so desperate to be with him that he overlooks the fact that he's not being treated the best. It's horrifying when someone thinks they're the problem when it's actually their partner. It feels even worse since the sub uke is the "old man" who's naive about BDSM and is just trying to please his partner.
Also hate how the author gave the seme a backstory of being drugged and SA'd by their ex and yet we see him behave problematically with his current lover (if it was related, it'd be one thing, but no one's bringing it up, so I guess it's not). He didn't deserve the crazy ex's treatment, but the ex saying "you made me like this" makes A LOT more sense now. Plus it's very messed up to me that the uke clearly doesn't understand what their relationship is for the longest time, and the seme's friend--the same guy who's said to have trash taste in men, IIRC--has the nerve to be like "you're too nice with him" and he LISTENS? So many issues have arisen from the seme being worried about other people, be it his friend or the uke's friend.
I love that both parties have legit concerns; the seme is worried about the uke being attacked, but the uke actually wants to work and draws a line when the alpha tries to force himself onto him.
Also side note, but I love that the alpha MC has a best friend who's an omega (I thought he was a beta), and he's so gorgeous and nice.
MC's past life having been mentioned to have given birth to alphas for other men is an interesting concept to me. Does he miss his kids, and will that ever come back into play? It reminds me of MC's siblings and fathers being mentioned briefly but them not really playing a major part in the story.
Due to the length, I can't remember a lot of it. Though I do know I wish the antagonists were more of a challenge and there were more consequences for MC and ML's criminal activity.
I knew this was gonna be a throuple story looking at the author's other work, but...they failed to make the best friend someone I wanna root for. He's incredibly controlling and manipulative, whereas the team leader hasn't been nearly as problematic. And then MC's brother just tells team leader to look after BOTH of them because they have stuff going on. Um...no? That's not team leader's responsibility. NGL, I feel like MC just can't really establish his feelings, and if he did, he'd probably end up with team leader, but no one's gonna make him make a choice or really address the friend as problematic.
The whole thing that started this story was ML looking for his son, and the author neglected that for a long time just to have MC and ML reconcile, which makes ML look negligent AF. The flashback of what ML named his son feels so annoying to me because we could've just seen that in real time so it feels like ML has concern and care for him.
Yeah, it's repetitive and dragging on, but at least the art is cool! And we have very few male gamblers, and the ones we have are very repetitive: Aoi, Kaede, and Rin all wanted to beat, prove themselves superior to, and/or be acknowledged by Kirari. Aoi was broken but apparently bounced back quick? And Rin is has been humbled as well but is still involved in the gambling. At least Kaede still has his own goals of being on top. I'd like to see him achieve them. It's neat seeing a character in anime/manga who isn't a goofball or an antagonist--well, he was an antagonist, but he isn't now.
I've been begging for this not to be one of many BLs where we get a powerful uke who ends up being easy to defeat/take advantage of--but now it's becoming that. ML has been assaulted and now trapped by his ex, and I'm not crazy about that since it means the seme MC is probably gonna have to come to the rescue. I like him, but the victimization of ukes is exhausting.
I was hoping for something more wholesome rather than toxicity. The L is on me.
Back in February, the artist for the story posted a mini-comic related to Jerome's birthday, and I was curious if anyone could translate it.
The woodcutter asks the imoogi for a wife in exchange for having provided his desirable scent to him. The imoogi agrees, but doesn't want to lose out on being with the imoogi, so he disguises himself as his bride--but is male in form. The woodcutter, being naive and innocent, doesn't notice until the imoogi reveals it, and just keps up with the lie of being a human and uses a sob story to keep the woodcutter from casting him out--and tops him. Most everyone is none the wiser that the bride isn't an imoogi--heck, they don't even know his human form is male--with only a town official knowing that he's inhuman.
I do feel bummed out seeing how kind the woodcutter is, since the imoogi comes off as both selfish and manipulative.
This is a tricky situation. On one hand, Hoje needed to lie in order to keep Hohyeong from murdering him--but on the other, he didn't have to convince him in a sexual way. Plus Hohyeong's earnest efforts to help his "family" and offering his breasts to Hoje (Hoje said he would suckle when whining from hunger, so wouldn't that imply his "brother" gave him breastmilk?) make it feel hard to really enjoy, since he's acting as a brainwashed brother who's younger brother made sexual advances on him.
I get every author needs a gimmick, but I think the supernatural elements and sexy art do the heavy lifting without the situation needing to fall into faux-incest. This is a short story, so I'll let it slide. Also interesting how many supernatural Joseon-era BLs have been releasing lately.
9/10, the guy with glasses is either goofy or a conniving jerk. In this case, it's the latter. This is what makes it frustrating. Plus I don't think the drama is necessary wince it doesn't affect the romance. Why not let them have a smooth work life? Really want more BLs with characters who wear glasses, as well.
Someone introduced the term "black flag" when I talked about this series, and after looking into it, that's pretty accurate. I honestly thought the story would be Myung-il eventually getting out of the prison and leaving the guys behind, but I guess I should've realized that isn't the case. Both of the brothers are problematic AF, but I'm freaking out considering he's developing feelings for Heonjae, but the reason Heonjae is in there is pretty terrifying...