chlorine's Manga

This isn't good. Like it's genuinely just such a complete mess. I will be reading tho

My biggest issue so far is that Jacque seemingly has amnesia, but it's just never mentioned even once in these (as of writing) twelve chapters. I imagine it'll be brought up later but like, it's kind of important to be brought up now considering Teri is just repeatedly assaulting him—which, like . . . Why? It's obvious that Teri and Jacque had some type of relationship before the amnesia, so why is Teri just raping him instead of talking about it? It makes no sense to me. It's frustrating.

The art is the one thing that I think is super strong so far . . . Usually at least. The chibi(?) portions aren't really funny or cute so I don't understand their inclusion, and Jacque is just kind of odd. He has a fucking great body, huge tits, but his face is just . . . Bad? Like there's no other way to put it, his face is drawn bad. Especially when compared to Teri, it's almost like Jacque's face is in a different style from everything else it's so weird

At the end of chapter twelve, there's a pirate on a floating pirate ship that's flown into the town, and that does genuinely look intriguing. I didn't really expect his story to have plot. Is he a devil pirate? That'd be cool. Or maybe a ghost pirate. That'd be cool too

OK so as I'm writing this, it's only chapter 13 (of official translations), and it's relatively slow in terms of the relationship so there's not much to talk about too in-depth. With that said, I am enjoying what I'm reading. I'm not really someone who's typically too engrossed with secret agent thrillers like these, however, I do find the action to be really entertaining. The main character, Taekjoo, is really quick on his feet and kind of brutal. It's refreshing to have a main character who can actually pull their weight. Zhenya is great tho. He's truly brutal and psychotic. When he showed up on the helicopter with a fucking machine gun I loved it. It was biblical.

I'm also really liking the dynamic between Taekjoo and Zhenya. There's a bit of push and pull, a bit of bite, which is always fun to read.

I will say, the most recent chapter as I'm writing this is chapter 22, and we have no idea who the Bogdanov's are. But it's so fucking obvious that Zhenya is totally a Bogdanov to the point that I worry that the impact of the "plot twist" won't really be felt, because there's not really a twist. I could see it coming from a mile away.

Ex-convict who's secretly a softie x corrupt police officer. What's not to love?

As this is still being updated (up to chapter 55 as I write this), obviously my opinion is subject to change. But as the story is now, I'm quickly finding myself loving it. I love the characters, I find the plot enjoyable, and the budding relationship is something I think is a really great read. I love things that are rather morally questionable, layered, and complex, and that's exactly what this relationship and these characters are.

To get it out of the way, the corrupt officer (Nakwon) rapes the ex-convict (Mokhwa). This happens in the first few chapters, and happens again not much later after it. Surprisingly, and despite how contested this plot point seems to be, I actually thought the rapes were handled rather tastefully. For one, they actually impacted the characters, their relationship, their psyche; it wasn't a thing that just happened to fill some smut quota. It served a purpose. But secondly, the scenes themselves were graphic, but not explicit. They weren't really pornographic scenes.

The characters were easily the best thing about this story, as it should be obviously but considering it does have a plot, I thought it'd be worth saying. They are what makes this story. I loved how Nakwon initially had such a sick interest in Mokhwa; he wanted to push him, to watch as he breaks and finally takes revenge on those that wronged him. It was like he was attracted to the fact that Mokhwa was seemingly so close to breaking and becoming violent, and I loved that. It was fucked up. I love fucked up, toxic relationships. Obviously he does mellow out, eventually at some point it stops being a case of a cat playing with its prey and just becomes a man who wants the affection and attention of another man. Something about Nakwon I liked was his insecurity, jealousy—the complex he had about where he stood with Mokhwa. He felt like Mokhwa put everyone and everything above him in terms of importance, and I just loved that this character was one with such deeply rooted flaws. Needless to say, he wasn't a perfect character. He's toxic. I like toxic.

Mokhwa . . . He's the love of my life. First things first, he has gorgeous, big eyes (tits). I stared at his eyes (pecs) all the time. His eyes (badonkadonks) were so mesmerizing. Mokhwa is the typical trope of a big, scary man who's secretly a softie, and I'm just always weak for that trope. He's a quiet, brooding man, who found stability after he was released from prison by working as a florist. Doesn't that just sound amazing to you? He's a man of few words, much to Nakwon's frustration, but he has this undying, unquestionable loyalty to those that he was close to. A trait of his I loved was the fact that his one major weakness is that he's incredibly impressionable to affection. It's why he lets Nakwon constantly come around despite the assault, because Nakwon has this caring side to him that he just couldn't ignore or not let affect him.

When it comes to the plot . . . It's kind of meh, I'll be honest. The first chapter left me confused as fuck honestly, but I don't know if that's because the first chapter was confusing or I was just too tired to properly follow along. Regardless, simply reading the story makes the plot become apparent and it's . . . Fine. It's a little generic, I think. The police officer is trying to track down some big crime lord and uses the ex-convict as a bridge to get to him, and ends up falling in love with said ex-convict. The falling in love part, great, everything else, I didn't care too much for.

I really do think this has the possibility of becoming a classic, at least to me. I thought it was great.

I'm really 50-50 on this story, because I like it a lot, but there are certain aspects that frustrate me. Mainly it's just really obvious that Taehyuk really is the reincarnation of Hyo-Un's lover, but despite how blatant it is, neither of them seem to be able to just do one plus one here.

Like before Taehyuk is even an adult he already has this inexplicable connection to Hyo. He would sit, stare, and sleep in front of the giant portrait his family had of Hyo while he was a child. That alone should have made Taehyuk question if they're connected. Secondly, Hyo falls incredibly ill as soon as Taehyuk talks about leaving SPECIFICALLY to find Hyo's mate. That's screaming out, "don't leave, you're my mate." But instead, it just goes right over his head? Is Taehyuk stupid? (yes). It seems to be tackled head-on in season two if the initial flashback chapters are anything to go by, but goddamn, we do not need all this fucking around.

Also, there was brief conflict when Taehyuk confesses to Hyo-Un that he never was his mate and he was just using him . . . But like . . . I'm pretty sure Taehyuk already confessed to that previously? So I'm confused why he would confess again, and this time have it cause this huge fight when it didn't really do that previously, if I'm remembering right. But beyond that, I also feel like Taehyuk was being pretty obvious that he's not really Hyo-Un's mate? I dunno, the whole thing just felt contrived. But, there's still good to this story.

I loved the characteristics of Taehyuk and Hyo-Un. At first Hyo-Un was cold, silent—he was the dark and brooding type. But then when he falls into his fits of fever, he's so desperate and needy; obviously in the sexual sense, but also just to have Taenyuk around. That type of personality is so rare for a top in these stories so I always appreciate it. When they start an actual relationship he's just incredibly clingy, and I really like that. It's to the degree it's a tad (okay, super) unhealthy but that's what makes it interesting.

Taenyuk is a very direct man. I like that. Also quite selfish; he started the story not being above lying to a Dragon (which basically acts as a God) for his own personal gain, only to slowly lose that self-centered exterior the more they fall for each other. It was a very nice read to watch him develop so much into someone who ended up being incredibly caring, putting himself into a position of sadness just to help the man he loves. I liked it a lot.

It's giving Wattpad. One of the better Wattpad stories, but still Wattpad. The characters are hot though, and the art style is nice

There's a lot to this story but something that I just want to say due to how universal it is: the art style is beautiful. And while, yes, quite on the nose, I love how the art resembles a water painting (or something to that effect) and the plot revolves around a painter. It's simple but really effective in tying the art style to the arts themes.

Speaking of story—wow. That is A Lot. Personally, I do love very heavily psychological stories that romanticize the dark and abrasive nature of it, but I'm surprised to say that this isn't something this story really did? Yes, there is rape. Yes, it employs the "questionable" trope of the rape-turned-consent. But the thing that separates it from the "problematic" categorization is that Na-Kyum one) has a backbone. And two) later on in the story, when he starts getting comfortable and starts falling for Seungho, he's actually directly made to question whether he really likes the man, or if it is just a subconscious reaction to help him cope with the situation. And while it's obvious what's going to end up being the case, the fact that this is a question brought up at all shows that our MC still has his mentality in check. He's aware of everything. It adds actual complexities and nuances to their relationship that's often lacking within these types of stories.

This is such a cute fucking story. The miscommunication near the end of season one was a bit frustrating, but beyond that, I thought it was rather clever how the story played on and subverted expectations. Seeing the characters just fawn over each other was adorable, and there's cute little comic panels that just tug at my heart so bad. Also, in season two, as soon as they start dating, Seo Yoonseul is immediately just like "I want to live together forever let's do it immediately" and that's sooo relatable I too blindly rush into relationships. AN MC FOR THE PEOPLE!

It's still ongoing so it's obviously something that can change, but with how the story has progressed so far, this is easily one of my favorite BL's. The art is some of the best I've seen, it's genuinely just gorgeous, and of course the story is right up my alley as well. The development of the characters is slow, but it's not dragged—we slowly see their dynamic change and (at this point, seemingly unconsciously) fall for each other. It's a slow burn.

UPDATE: I'm writing this directly after the season 2 finale, and will be mostly about season two.

I'm a person who prefers to binge read; it's rare for me to pick up an ongoing story, much less continue to read each week as the chapters come out. But for Lost in The Cloud, it just pulls me in each week, it keeps me thinking about it between the days as I anticipate the newest chapter. To me, this is one of the best BL's being published, possibly even just at all.

With that said, season two has a bit of a dip in quality to me—it felt like the chapters were shorter with a bit less happening. I don't actually know if it is that way, as I binge read season one but was reading season two in real time, but regardless, the slow & short chapters are an issue. The story is definitely one best read once completed. Will I wait for season three to be done to read it? No fucking way, I like it way too much to. But it does leave me a bit annoyed after the chapters are done. And genuinely annoyed, not in the "omg that was so good I need more!" way but in the "is that really fucking it." type of way.

Even with that, season two is still fucking PEAK. Like top tier BL, easily fucking wipes all the other BL coming out. Puts them to shame. Shits all over them. Season one was more about the situation Skylar was in, the plot, while season two took a step back and digged deeper into the characters, was more character driven than plot driven, which I did like. The stuff with Cirrus . . . Let me just say:

FUCK CIRRUS' CHEAP ASS FUCKING DAD AND FUCK THAT FUCKING BITCH HE BROUGHT WITH HIM, THAT LOWBROW TRASHY FUCKING BITCH. FUCK HER AND FUCK THE DAD. AND FUCK THAT FUCKING TEACHER TOO THAT FUCKING FAGGOT ASS PEDOPHILE. that is all.

I just wanted a special moment to comment on the season two finale as well . . . I've never read anything more perfect. It was such a good finale that I would have been perfectly content with that being the series finale; it just ended so perfectly. Skylar coming over with fireworks to light with Cirrus, Skylar asking him if they'd want to be roomates in college so Cirrus isn't alone, and the way Cirrus asked to kiss him after that and the scene ended with them tentatively kissing in front of the fireworks like oh I'm sobbing

Only three stars for now as it's currently only two chapters, but this story has started out super, super strong.

The smut is hot as fuck while also having a really cute relationship developing between each smut scene. Beom and Dowon are just really adorable when they have those cute moments between them.