I revert back to the opening statement often and in a lot of ways it’s referred to differently depending on the character. Aya appearing from the past, Kota refusing to shed light on the past that Aya wasn’t apart of. For Erika, it feels like she tries to chase after both of their “starlight” wanting to replicate Aya’s to become a source of light for Kota and wanting Kota shine once again. The scene when Kota asks if they should date she stands under a street light it’s artificial. Now that I think about it both Aya and Erika have been shown under stage lights, hmm. Realizing she can’t catch up to Aya she writes on a tanzaku wishing for her to return, she could’ve wished for Kota to return her feelings but didn’t. I interpreted her doing so in a way she wishes for Kota to get her light back but she knows it’s stuck in the past with Aya.
Part one:
https://www.mangago.me/home/mangatopic/22593942/
The hallway scene in chapter 74 is remembered differently in Yuwon’s pov Dohun was instead standing besides him not behind him and gets hit. This is a very clear look at how vividly Yuwon can write Dohun into his story, while Dohun’s POV would prove he didnt follow the script. When Yuwon helps him up his hands are conveniently covering “Dohun’s” name tag. They are later brought in for questioning for the death of the first bully and the night they were locked in the storage room was mentioned as apart of the investigation. As previously mentioned in part one memory and reality seem to bleed across both of their povs making it harder to grasp what’s actually happening in the moment.
In Yuwon’s pov apart from the obvious identity confusion or rather the assigned role disarray he projects, every core event did happen and technically everything spoken has been said but again memory and reality clash when events are told from his pov you can’t trust who says what or the actual timeline these were actually said. At the center of this distortion is his suppressed memories of him being the victim and the surrounding suspicion of Dohun’s involvement or lack thereof.
While Dohun does provide a more reliable narration for whatever reason he’s missing a massive portion of their shared past. There are gaps in his pov that are crucial moments in Yuwon’s and little details that are quietly forged to keep him in frame: neither recalls who actually spilled the soda on the bullies but a bruise magically appears on his face that Yuwon pointed out was already there before the bully threw the can, Dohun has no memory of them sitting together after the seating rearrangement, the scenes we don’t see Yuwon’s face from his memories strike me as odd too, he wasn’t brought in for questioning either despite supposedly being in the storage room with Yuwon. He wasn't even a suspect… Furthermore, the very pivotal scene where Yuwon tells him he wants the bullies dead wasn’t shown either but brought up three seperate times in Yuwon’s memories. This disconnect made me question whether a lot of their memories were actually shared with each other. All these absent details in Dohun’s recollection leave us with one missing variable: who was Yuwon really with?
The thin line between memory, reality, truth and lie can be drawn by the yellow tags. But it raises the question: what clues are we left with when those tags are completely absent? For instance, when they are in their gym uniforms, when they were shown in the basement studio, at their part time jobs or when Dohun was with his family? I theorize when the tags display their names it shows some truth but when they appear blank it signals both of their attempts at erasing certain key moments and an even more desperate attempt at erasing a certain person to fit a narrative they’ve created: that Yuwon still moves without thinking for Dohun. I also concluded that the blank tags shows when a character step into another’s role. Here are the roles I know are for certain: The Victim, The Hero and The Bystander. I wonder if the 4 tulips have anything to do with this of course none of those roles would exist without a fourth role, The Villian. They are also the shade of yellow the name tags were idk I believe Dohun followed what Yuwon says to him about minding his own business from the very beginning starting from the day he first transfers and a hidden character acts as his stand in for the role of hero while he played the role of bystander.
"who was yuwon really with?" oh fuckkk you really made me develop a new brain wrinkle holy shit.
I love this theory, btw I don't recall anything regarding that black haired girl that recognized yuwon when she first joined the company. it seems like dohun remembers her and that's why he spoke to her, idk maybe she's involved somehow but she hasn't been brought up again after that
Thank you! I do remember there is a seating chart shown in chapter 42. The classroom was made up of columns each one alternated between the boys and girls but bc there were more boys in the class two guys would always be paired together. Prior to soda can scene in chapter 68, Yuwon was watching two friends playing on a gaming console if you notice they are sitting in the intended column (vertical) for boys. We know before the seating rearrangement Yuwon sat closer to the front of the class. It’s highly likely that he sat in the same horizontal row as the boys playing on the console. There is a shot from Dohun’s pov after the soda can was thrown someone stands up. Upon first glance you would think the person standing is Yuwon and Dohun watches from seat next to him until you look at their desk. Whoever is standing was desk mates with Yuwon and he’s clutching his head. Dohun doesnt react to the guy standing until he looks off screen and the sfx *whoosh* pops up Dohun looks again and Yuwon is now standing. Dohun watched this all go down from a completely different column but the same row I hate how that was worded. I do want to point out that Yuwon told him not to sit with him and despite him getting hurt he doesn’t interfere further proving my point that he was an obedient bystander it feels fitting that he ends up being a cuck.
I think the console was intentionally mentioned both in the past and in the future for a reason. I have no doubts that he was sitting where that boy with the console sat at. With that being said going off of the seating chart and the fact that a pair a guys already sat in a pair then Dohun had to have been sitting by a girl. On Dohun’s first day Yuwon was initially sitting by a girl we can also make the guess that Dohun sat by a girl too since two of the bullies were seatmates in the beginning. The new hire could very well be any of those girls, who knows.
In chapter 71 it would seem like Dohun’s brother can recall phone calls with Yuwon meanwhile the contents of Dohun’s and Yuwon’s phone calls from his own pov were never brought to light. It makes me rethink what Yuwon says about the emoticons he uses “they don’t suit him”
I’m so sorry I never shut up lol it took me a while to get to the point with my last reply too oh god-
I remember ppl pointing out that the new hire lady resembled Dohun a lot. I also noticed she had a mole under her eye a while back I remember ppl were speculating that maybe Hanseob would have a mole too (assumptions made based off of the mc from authors other work, emotion)
What if he looks like the new hire? She does have darker hair and it wouldn’t really come as a surprise if he resembled Dohun they’re brothers after all. That would make what Dohun told her after her welcome dinner even stranger assuming Yuwon wasn’t hallucinating it
Everybody has trauma responses they are automated survival reactions most are familiar with the two trauma responses: fight or flight. Yuwon shows a lot of signs of fawning especially in chapters 72. Edit: Many people that fawn may experience identity confusion and develop codependency patterns I find his character reflects both. Coincidentally, Dohun identifies with the deer in his story book that’s saved by the tree (Yuwon). I keep referencing the last scene between Yuwon and Seungmin but didn’t the yellow lights behind Seungmin resemble the spiked chestnuts the tree drops to save the deer? If the present is shown to parallel the past then who is the tree in Yuwon’s pov and how does he know about that story?
Pause- Haerim isn’t dense surprisingly he actually pieced things together quick as expected of a reporter. Hmm and him waiting outside of the hotel what are the chances he’s planning a stake out to take photos of the two bye he has the opportunity to be the best home wrecking cockblocker ever he better not fumble
I did wonder if he leaked info from Taeyang’s laptop and was the one to spread the rumors but he heard that from a coworker. Maybe he further spread it but who could be the first mole besides the wife, taeyang and or one of the ml’s past relationships? The timing is too convenient with the drug scandal the wife is trying to hide idk
Janus is also the name of a Roman God. The month January was named after him and he’s often depicted with two faces one facing the past, the other facing the future.
The flooding every morning is probably a metaphor for something. The seagull guides her up the island and mentions all these berries that will soon ripen all of which bloom from very late spring to early summer but she wears a beanie and a winter uniform. Together they pick flowers and berries she can be seen whistling. At the end of the day while the tide is still low she visits that girl who like her is dressed warm. She feeds her the berries and flowers she just picked she whistles once more. I saw this as a way to “feed” her memory alive. The wind picks up causing the petals to scatter and the tide rushes back in before going back to shore she rips her hair to tie it to the string. You know what they say, hair holds memory. I imagine her house is once again flooded after all tides rise and lowers everyday.
Their names have meaning that I find ties their relationship. Shiro meaning “White Castle”, Hiro standing for “generous, abundant or even tolerant” and Mio “beautiful path or thread” The opening scene is often repeated throughout the story. Hiro says he kept his head hidden bc the mountains behind Shiro looked scary. They’ve grown up around these mountains all their lives so what’s changed? In contrast to the dark mountains Shiro can be seen as a white knight Hiro mentions that he didn’t look at his face but like always he protects him and hung on his back. As the story progresses you see that flashback was a lie Shiro recounts on that same day he runs away. He turns his back on him and sees Hiro is crying watching him we don’t see his eyes but the tears streaming down his face. Shiro wonders, was that really you? Rather than the crybaby he’s used to seeing I think he saw a stoic Hiro.
When he visits Shiro in the future he asks Mio if her body is alright her answering yes I interpreted as him confirming Shiro no longer has use for him. I find chapter 4 seems to parallel the conversation he has with Shiro in the kitchen. The ending I assume Hiro thought that Shiro would leave just as he did as they were kids and once again when he leaves for college each time running away from him. He mentions the life Shiro would have with Mio knowing his attempts at being normal. He confesses knowing it would scare off Shiro, at what he thought would be their end but alas…
Long before Yuwon was revealed to be the victim his name tag would show up blank whenever he acted as a hero but what does it mean here in Dohoon’s POV?
Rereading the soda can scene from both of their povs in chapter 41 vs 68. The name tags shift constantly when reality and memory begin to overlap almost like they’re erasing the names to better suit their narrative. Dohoon’s narrative being Yuwon actually hadn’t changed as for Yuwon it’s that he still moves without thinking. Both coming to the conclusion that Yuwon remains the Unchanged Man.
I feel like all the animals and insects in this are all intentionally mentioned. The fly, centipede, cicada, deer and in later chapters, a sparrow… I wanted to go over my observations surrounding the centipede on Seungmin’s collar in chapter 15. I shared in my first analysis that Yuwon must’ve grew up being blamed and that’s why he blames Dohoon when they first meet and in the future. Anyways, I came across this poem about a centipede. It tells the tale of a centipede once asked by a toad which one of your legs move first after overthinking it began to struggle to crawl. The poem later inspires the centipede effect. It occurs when an act performed unconsciously is questioned it becomes harder to perform? Worded very poorly sorry. Most examples I came across included walking, a horse galloping, the centipede crawling (breathing- if you want to take it that far) and take a pro athlete for instance once they over analyze a maneuver they struggle to perform it. All these examples are done by instinct or done enough times it becomes natural. For Yuwon it’s protecting others. It has been hinted he’s protected others and to think he’s said in the times that he has he moved without thinking. In the case that the centipede is directly linked to that poem it begs the question, how many times has he protected others for it to be an unconscious act to him and what was Yuwon’s childhood really like? We only see what he wants to believe ☹ Back to chapter 15, dohoon says he got the sudden urge to kill before killing the centipede. I feel like it symbolizes his desire to break his pattern.
It’s also revealed Yuwon does the same for seungmin as well. I suspect that’s why it was on his collar idk. Here’s the link to my first analysis:
https://www.mangago.me/home/mangatopic/22306283/
When Dohun first met Yuwon he makes a wish that he would take his unhappiness. To begin with that was always an odd choice in wording but I think it was very intentional. At first glance this is just cute wishful thinking when you read between the lines he made the wish for his own selfish reasons. I always thought that Yuwon blaming him was always form of self hate being deflected off of him and unto Dohun. He actually is fulfilling his wish by taking blame he’s becoming both the source and the relief/cure. He’s making himself an inseparable being from Yuwon’s suffering.
Naturally you would think taking away someone else’s unhappiness equals a person’s happiness? Every effort made has the opposite effect they even break up idky that’s so funny to me. It only pushes Yuwon further away and into Seungmin’s arms. He even says, “it’s true I need Seungmin by my side bc apart from loving you I have other needs that need to be met” despite being given a better living situation, food, financial stability the deer would do similar for the tree. These are all his Dohun’s ideas of happiness btw he has no idea how to make Yuwon happy.
What would those needs he mentioned be? Seungmin once asks Yuwon do you love Dohun? He lists all these reasons why he doesn’t believe he does. He can tell he’s uncomfy around him and questions how he can breathe around him but not his bf. Isn’t that sad a coworker provides more relief for him than Dohun does. Dohun thinks the solution for this is to take him away from the workplace all together but Yuwon says he doesn’t want that. Staying at home would make him feel useless he’s not some houseplant. What an interesting comparison. Leading up to their breakup Yuwon would ask for sex from Dohun and when he didn’t give it to him he’d feel uneasy. He needed reassurance and one of the last things he asked for from him was honesty. Dohun couldn’t provide that.
It all goes back to his mom he was thinking of her when he made it. He thinks of her at times when with Yuwon too. I mentioned before, making Yuwon the tree in his storybook is symbolic bc it depended on the deer during a drought, it also failed to fend for itself after the first time bc his moves became predictable and it can never leave the way the mom does
It all goes back to his mom he was thinking of her when he made it. He thinks of her at times when with Yuwon too. I mentioned before, making Yuwon the tree in his storybook is symbolic bc it depended on the deer during a drought, it also failed to fend for itself after the first time bc his moves became predictable and it can never leave the way the mom does