Since a lot of people are confused and getting some details wrong, or feeling there is no progression, here is the summary of what happened so far.
- Dohu and Juheon reunited after 4 years. Juheon pretended not to know Dohu.
- Dohu tricked Juheon to reveal himself, but Juheon didn't want anything to do with Dohu. He went as far as to pay Dohu to quit his job. Dohu refused.
- Juheon found out Dohu's drunken habit now includes Dohu going back to Juheon's old apartment. Juheon momentarily let Dohu in. Dohu used this chance to tell Juheon his feelings. Juheon was shaken, but steadfast in rejecting Dohu.
- Juheon noticed Dohu hasn't been eating, so he invited Dohu to eat. Once again Dohu used this chance to ask Juheon if there was other reason to him leaving.
- Juheon didn't tell Dohu, but it was revealed Juheon's aunt threatened Juheon in regard to Dohu. Combined with his trauma of being abandoned, Juheon chose to leave Dohu.
- Juheon's shooting got sabotaged by Park Gitae, Juheon's fellow actor and Dohu's childhood bully. Gitae was jealous of Juheon, and the sabotage ended with Juheon getting injured.
- Dohu once again confronted Juheon. Juheon in severe pain, decided to play the bad guy and hurt Dohu to make sure Dohu leave him once and for all, but he couldn't 100% go through with it. The two had a very uncomfortable sex.
- Dohu didn't buy Juheon's act to push him away. Instead he reasserted his love for Juheon and forced Juheon to eat medicine and brought him to hospital.
- The two made a pact that they will meet 5 times and if it didn't work out, Dohu had to leave. Though Dohu had no intention to leave.
- Behind the scene, Juheon hired a private eye, most likely to investigate his aunt. He had some kind of a plan to bring her down. It seems that his aunt has been stalking him and made his life hell in the last 4 years, so Juheon chose to be an actor in a retaliation.
- Juheon also used the private eye to investigate Dohu relationship with Park Gitae, of which the private eye didn't tell him that Dohu had been taking medication this whole time.
- Dohu rewritten the script as a way to get back to Park Gitae, and Gitae ended up being embarassed by Juheon during shoot.
- Gitae realizing it was Dohu's fault, confronted Dohu and Dohu who had been feeling unwell recently, ended up fainting.
- Juheon brought Dohu to hospital, met with Dohu's sister and discovered Dohu has been taking medication all this time. In anger, Juheon asked his private eye why he didn't report this to him.
Anyway, those who said there is no progression are not paying attention. It is slow, very slow, but there is almost always some kind of progression each chapter. We have gone from Juheon pretending not to know Dohu, blocking Dohu's phone, to now the two having more intimate moments and learning more about each other.
We are now at a very pivotal moment, as one of the biggest reasons for Juheon leaving Dohu is his own assertion that Dohu would be fine without him and his fear of being abandoned by Dohu. Now it is revealed that Dohu is absolutely not fine without him. This opens the door to Juheon realizing that his assumption about Dohu has been wrong all along.
For the first time, the root of Juheon's problem is revealed. Even right from the very beginning, Juheon has the tendecy of assuming everything on his own. From mistakenly believing Dohu had a crush on him, to believing Dohu would be fine without him, everything was all in Juheon's head. No matter how much Dohu tried to talk to him, nothing would go through if he already made up everything in his mind. The first step for this relationship to work is for Juheon to stop assuming things in regard to Dohu.
This author really likes to make their uke suffer and be walked all over. While the story is very well written, I'm not sure if I enjoy this archetype. Baekhee believed he has no way out of the situation, so he is choosing what he considered the best for himself, even if it's making him miserable. Pride be damned as long as you survive. Everything makes perfect sense and I feel for him, but at the same time, I wish there is a bit more backbone in this character, like a bit more fight in him. It's frustrating to watch him being walked all over, and he is self aware of what is happening, yet does nothing but accepts it.
The most unrealistic part about this story is Taeyang being unpopular. Are the people in this story blind? He is like the hottest and sexiest man in the entire series, and no girls are gawking over him? Nobody before Hyesung tell him he is hot and sexy? Extremely unrealistic. The fact that only 2 guys are into him is just unreal. It's even weirder considering his personality, mature, kind, cordial, and always helping others. The only way to make sense of this is if the story is seen through the eyes of Hyesung, and Hyesung somehow sees his hyung in rose tinted glasses and the real Taeyang is average.
Jokes aside, Taeyang is really a great character. I enjoyed the story for the most part, but Taeyang is the main reason why this story is amazing for me. I have seen some people asking for recommendation of characters like him. Despite reading a butt load of BL, I honestly don't remember anyone quite like him. Normally, cool characters tend to be more aloof, and Taeyang isn't quite aloof. Mature characters tend to be older, and Taeyang isn't that old. Physically weak or sickly characters tend to be more meek, and Taeyang despite his past is anything but meek. Sexy alluring characters tend to be promiscuous, but this dude has close to zero admirers and zero dating life. I have to say Taeyang is one of a kind, which is very rare to find in the mountain of slops era nowadays.
Considering the amount of content, this series should have been more than 1 volume. The pace is breakneck, and too many things going on and underexplored as a result, which is a shame because I enjoyed the concept, and the characters are endearing. I was pleasantly surprised by Yuito. He looks like a generic pushover at the first glance, but he is anything but that. He also knows the art of roasting which is great.
I can understand where Yuuji is coming from, however, when he said Kirato doesn't understand the feelings of being abandoned, the first thing I thought was, isn't that what Yuuji is doing to Kirato? This resembles a cycle of abuse. Just because one is being abused doesn't make it right to do abuse others. Just because Yuuji had been abandoned doesn't make it right for him to abandon Kirato. Yuuji is too deep in his own self hatred that he doesn't see Kirato's feelings. By that, I don't mean he doesn't see Kirato's feelings for him, he clearly sees that. What he doesn't see is Kirato is being hurt by him. It's unfortunate, but quite realistic. When you are drowning in your pain, you won't have the capacity to worry about others.
This isn't the first time a perfectly good novel adaptation got ruined because they decided to add smut scene far earlier than the original. It's like the authors are terrified that the readers are losing interests because it's missing mature content.
I actually find this story and characters interesting. There is a fight between rationale and emotions, where they try to fight their attraction, use logic to justify their choices, but in the end, they can't fully get away from their emotions. Is their desire the by product of fated names, or the fated names merely a vehicle to trigger the first step? While in real life, we don't have fated names, we all have innate preference of what we like. Acquired taste or grooming to like something we don't naturally like is possible, but we can't completely get away to what we innately like.
Souichiro is a prude. He will never be outright affectionate, nor would he admit their relationship in front of others. That's his personality. What you need to see is his action. How he is always supportive of Morinaga, even willing to take him into his family.
Those who keep saying there is no progress in this manga, what you wanted isn't progress, but personality change. It's like asking an introvert to be an extrovert after they fall in love. That's unrealistic. Being a prude is who Souichiro is. He isn't going to change the very core of his personality, and Morinaga falls for him for who he is, with all his flaws, because deep down Souichiro will always have Morinaga's back, and Morinaga knows that.
The logo is blushing too!
Man, I love this series. It's easy to follow, funny, cute, wholesome, but it also has mystery and an intriguing plot, lovable main characters and side characters, top it off with a tinge of angst. It's my favorite blend of genres.
Side note, I would love to have a Talon dragon plushie. It's so adorable.
A lot of people seemed to be frustrated by the progress of the story, but I feel many mistakenly attributed it to the time skip. I personally enjoyed the time skip because it expanded their relationship and characterization. I don't mind the angst either as long as it's well written.
That said, I do have a problem with the story. I didn't really notice it early on in season 3, but the latest chapter showcased it. I'm not a fan of this vague storytelling that the author has been employing in season 3. Basically, the characters are withholding so much information from the readers, so we ended up with a bunch of conversation that lacked context, making it very hard to follow.
I don't understand why the author chose to write like this. I still enjoyed the characters and the story, but this shouldn't be a mystery story. The author decided to write it like it was one. It's ironic whenever I heard people saying they hated misunderstanding trope, but usually in most stories, misunderstanding trope requires us the reader to be in the know. With this series, we were given only fragmented flashbacks, cryptic conversations, and vague monologues. I often finished the reading the chapter thinking, what are they talking about again?
Like this latest chapter, the author should have just revealed what the characters are talking about, instead of making it a mystery to be revealed in the next chapter. It would probably work better as a cliffhanger as opposed to leaving the readers utterly confused.
I really hated the chapter last week, even though I know exactly why the author chose to go that route. From chapter 1, we know Juheon would rather hurt others to protect himself. He now took it a step further by also wanting to self destruct while hurting Dohu. However, as expected, he couldn't fully commit to it. Dohu ended up calling him out for it.
All his life, Juheon believed he needed to be good and useful to get people to like him. So he couldn't understand why Dohu could still like him even when he showed all of his ugliness. Now, Dohu has completely cornered Juheon. Juheon has no more bargaining chips left and has to accept that Dohu's love for him is real.
That said, I wish the author chose other method to convey a similar message instead of this tired trope of rough forced sex. I know why the author chose this route. This is afterall an X-rated series, so having smut is to be expected. Hopefully, this is the last time we see such a scene. I really love the story even with all the angst. It doesn't need a random inserted sex scene to prove a point.
This is probably the first chapter that I don't like from this series. A lot of people wanted to see hate sex, but I was originally happy that the story didn't go that direction. I liked the drama, push and pull, and didn't mind that the author took their time to develop their relationship. In fact, i would rather they have 50 chapters to clear whatever problems they have instead of this. I know sex sells, so some authors insert them so frequently even though the story doesn't need it. This series was great at avoiding common BL pitfall, and yet it just decided to plunge at it. It's disappointing. The draw of Juheon this character was that he may look like a typical bastard love interest, but in reality he was just a wounded soft boy inside. Now, he is no different from thousand other horrible love interests. I thought for sure that no matter how hurt he is, he won't resort to hurting Dohu. I know that he is doing the typical "I hurt you so you will hate me and leave me", but I prefer the earlier version where his words and actions didn't match, hence why Dohu couldn't leave him alone. Now, the author is taking things a step too far. I wonder what it is with Korean BL that it always goes this way. What a shame.
Manga in general is so underrated in this site. This manga is even more so. It has great characters and writing. The development and chemistry are also top notch. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
A lot of people don't seem to understand why Dohu is so persistent despite Juheon adamantly refusing the guy. If Juheon truly hated Dohu, I'm sure Dohu would understand and leave. However, Juheon's action doesn't match his words. Despite the claim of wanting Dohu to leave, Juheon still clung onto Dohu, as if Dohu is his last reprieve. Juheon's action is so contradictory because he loves Dohu so much that he did everything he could to protect Dohu, and yet that very same love made him unable to resist Dohu. Dohu knew this, that's why he couldn't give up.
Just finished reading this in one go. While overall enjoyable, I feel it could have been better directed. There are too many moments where the tones look serious, only to be undermined by jokes a panel later. Plenty of emotional high and build up get ruined because of it. Also, the plot with the father get dragged way too long for my liking. The father character is a stereotypical trash father with no depth, yet he took way too many screen time.
That being said, some of the plot, especially the ones in regard to the aliens are really well written. The reveal about how Sihwa came to be, and his parents backstory is easily the highlight of the story. I think the author has a lot of talent, as their latest work Office Hero is a mark improvement in term of direction. Definitely be looking forward to their future works.
Yamamoto Kotetsuko was kinda my gateway to BL back in the day. Although I enjoyed her works, I wasn't a diehard fan. Her stuff in general is sweet and wholesome, but also not particularly deep.
That said, nowadays Mangago is flooded with Korean BL, and the vast majority of them are poorly written slop. They often lack chemistry, and the plot are often written with smut in mind rather than romance. So, I suddenly have this appreciation to plain ol' sweet and wholesome BL like this one. It's not a manga with a lot of depth, but it doesn't change the fact it's more enjoyable than most of the recent BL slop that I read. It made me miss good old Japanese BL.
Since a lot of people are confused by what happened, let me try to explain.
The red head is stupid. By stupid, I mean very stupid. He doesn't think far in regard to the consequences of his actions. That said, he is not a bad person. He is just really that slow.
When he "betrayed" Chanyoung, he didn't realize how badly his action would hurt Chanyoung. He only realized it years later, so he came back wanting to apologize. He expected Chanyoung to still be upset at him.
What he didn't expect is that the incident traumatized Chanyoung, hence why Chanyoung apologized first. This infuriated the red head because he believed Chanyoung did nothing wrong. It was his karma and his apology to make. He hated that Chanyoung made him into the victim despite it was entirely his fault.
So the red head being an absolute dumbass, punched Chanyoung in an attempt to provoke Chanyoung to punch him back. He didn't want Chanyoung's apology. He wanted Chanyoung to stand on his ground and not apologize as Chanyoung did nothing wrong.
Hyunjin's injury is a complete accident, which happened very similarly to how Chanyoung accidentally hurt the red head. The red head has no intention of hurting Hyunjin. It was Chanyoung's own assumption that the read head wanted revenge, when it was the opposite.
Anyway, you are free to hate the red head, but if you do, at least hate him for the correct reason. I see way too many people who misinterpreted his intent and character.
I have seen a lot of people wanting Dohu to give up on Juheon. That won't happen. If there is a consistent thing about Dohu is that the man doesn't know when to give up. He has already stated his objective right from the start of the season, he won't ever give Juheon up.
In this chapter, Juheon is implied to have already discovered Dohu being bullied in the past, and has purposely made himself the target for Gitae's harassment. Juheon has seemingly given up on himself, and despite realizing Dohu does actually love him, he has too much baggage to carry, and he fears dragging Dohu with him.
Unfortunately, or fortunately for Juheon, if someone is still madly in love with you after being ghosted for 4 years, I doubt anything would ever change that person's mind.
Those who are worried about the red hair, he isn't a bad guy. He is just a big dumbass. He won't get in between the two, and he is here to give the final piece of puzzle of why Chanyoung the way he is right now.
Those who are worried about the angst, don't worry, it will get resolved fairly soon. The series only has 6 chapters left, and don't worry, the ending is not rushed and it ends in a pretty satisfying note. Though I do hope for some side stories.