(unless it's woojoon and it's in the prostate)
I bet Simon would be like, “oh~so u r into playing rough?””
as a lover of "bland" stories, this initially was boring to me. soohyun's obsession seemed cliche, and eunsung's fuckboy attitude was all but original. but as i stuck around, things changed. their relationship is anything but typical, containing a unique power-struggle dynamic seldom explored in most manhwa stories. i could sense that the author truly put their blood, sweat and tears behind this work. and that projects in various ways.
firstly, soohyun is singlehandedly the most interesting character i’ve seen. as a perpetual rereader i somehow manage to learn new things about him every chapter, every reread. he’s clearly abnormal, as demonstrated by his mindset, his actions, his ambiguous emotions that are unclear even to himself (and by extension the audience as well). since he was the audience surrogate for the first part of the story you learn a lot about the way he thinks and acts. he’s rash and impulsive while seeming calm, as mentioned in the authors note. in my opinion TAN has “balanced” his character in a fascinating way so that he can’t be described with simple adjectives. one scene that opened my eyes was when he pretended to get drugged by moon-seob to gather information. i mean, any other sane person would’ve kicked the creep away when he started undressing them … but not soohyun. every action he makes has some sort of rationale and goal behind it, but still comes off as weird.
also, his character trait of having inferiority complex is written incredibly well. it’s not just a surface level description but rather a fundamental of his disposition. in the beginning it dictated his every action to the point where almost that came out of his mouth was either
1. a lie
2. a projection or
3. a wisecrack -
all of which show his bitterness of the world (and eunsung in particular) that has hurt him so much. by the end, this is still prevalent in the way he never voluntarily puts himself below others, prefers receiving affection rather than giving it. but his acceptance of eunsung’s love at the end while admitting his own (even without direct communication) is development in and of itself. his negative, positive, feelings all “mellow out” after the conflict is over, but don't disappear entirely.
overall you can see how he has all the ingredients for a psychopath, but isn’t really one, medically speaking, since he experiences emotions even though they’re foggy to himself and us.
onto eunsung: his depiction of having talent and being judged and taken advantage of for it is startlingly real. in fiction, those with talent are often depicted as privileged, however eunsung is taken advantaged of, judged for, and outed for his talent, showing the true colors of how being different can separate one from society. while he is shown to be an arrogant asshole at first, we slowly learn that this is his defense mechanism to protect himself from harm. he actually acts on his empathy (contrasting soohyun) and takes care of others quite often despite being hurt himself. his feelings mellow out too at the end, but since he’s less radical than soohyun in nature, it’s slightly less obvious.
i also truly enjoyed the relationship between the two main characters, especially the lack of a dramatic confession. they’ve become mature adults at the end, all without the dramatic angst of their teenagehood and first meeting. but based on the characters’ personalities, it makes total sense for there to be a lack of confession since they communicate in more subtle ways.
all the side characters have their own quirks that make them stand out, most notably minseok, shinhae, and heewon. amazing writing there. my only critique is of moon-seob. his antagonism was never elaborated on beyond obsession with eunsung and manipulative nature, but he’s actually a terrible manipulator, an example of which would be when he kidnapped soohyun and sent a picture to blackmail eunsung … and acted surprised when eunsung came and punched him in the face. why would he even make tea? did he really expect eunsung to drink it? or did the author just want a handy excuse to burn his house down? anyway, point is, his actions have little to no rationale. if everything else is character driven, moon-seob’s actions are purely plot driven. also, soohyun is completely right in his assertion in chapter 25ish that he’s not afraid of moon-seob, not because he’s brave, but simply because he isn’t scary. yes, he’s an old creep with lots of money and power, but he himself isn’t intimidating at all. if anything, he’s pathetic. somebody like that would never realistically make it to the societal standing he did.
great story overall. i’d highly recommend it to those who enjoy “blander” stories like me or any bl enthusiast in general who’s looking for a fresh dynamic.
bros willing to risk anything for that ass
impressive. let's eat some legumes and oysters