Sol's Favorite

The chapter is literally showing y'all the WHY behind Eunhyeok's behavior—and if you’re too blinded by hate to see it—that’s on you.

First: I keep seeing people still shipping Soo-ae with Dohwa. Yes, Dohwa is a safe option, the "right" one, but let's be real: he's not a romantic one. People only ship the ‘nice and stable’ character because it fits their comfort, not because it fits the story exactly. Have we forgotten that attraction isn’t something you can manufacture just because someone is kind? If you think Dohwa is the better choice for yourself, great—but Soo-ae isn’t you. She’s her own person. And yes, this manhwa is called Operation True Love, but true love doesn’t mean choosing someone simply because they’re the easier, safer, or more convenient option. Real feelings don’t work like that. And don't make Dohwa someone Soo-ae chooses out of convenience—not love. He deserves so much better than just that.

Second: Calling someone a ‘coward’ is the easiest insult when you don’t understand what’s actually being portrayed, right? Right. People don't look further into the behavior that this steams from shame, regret, emotional paralysis, attachment trauma, self-loathing, and the fear of hurting someone you love.
Silence doesn’t AUTOMATICALLY EQUAL apathy. Sometimes silence means more than people realize. Sometimes it’s fear. Sometimes it’s being overwhelmed. Sometimes it’s years of unprocessed emotions finally crashing at once.

And while everyone is acting like Eunhyeok is some kind of "supervillain", can we remember they were teens? Kids, basically. You’re demanding adult-level emotional intelligence, fully developed communication skills, from a frontal lobe that wasn’t even halfway done forming. Not everyone grows up with the tools to express emotions cleanly. Not everyone understands their feelings at that age. And with his upbringing? that’s even harder.

And let’s be real: even as adults, Eunhyeok is still carrying the same trauma he lived with growing up. Losing his mom. Isolation. Guilt. Emotional neglect. A lifetime of believing he didn’t deserve anything good. You don’t just walk away from that unscarred. You don’t "magically" become securely attached at 25 just because ‘time passed.’ He’s not behind because he doesn’t care; he’s behind because he never had the emotional safety to grow in the first place.

Also, people forget that in real life:
some people DO freeze,
some people DO fail to communicate,
some people DO self-sabotage
precisely because they think they don’t deserve love.
That’s what this chapter is LITERALLY showing.

And to the people hating him—there is no way you’ve never found yourself in even a similar situation. Finding yourself saying nothing, backing away, avoiding a conversation, hurting someone unintentionally because you panicked, or misjudged what "protecting them" looks like. You’ve done it too. Which makes the moral superiority here more than a little hypocritical, honestly.

We’re seeing a boy who grew up believing distance = safety.
In his POV, he thinks he’s protecting her from himself.
In her POV, it hurts her.
Both can be true. That duality is the entire point.

For those confused about why he said she ‘scares’ him? Here's the thing: she’s not scary in the literal sense.
His feelings for her ARE.
She’s the only person he’s ever been that vulnerable with.
The one person he regrets losing the most.
The one person he feels unworthy of.
That level of emotional intensity IS frightening, especially when you’re carrying trauma you never healed from.

This chapter isn’t simple "oh, another chapter where he's yearning."
This one is psychological.
It’s the first time we’re shown the emotional machinery that shaped him.

If you can’t empathize with a flawed, complex character finally confronting a wound he’s been stuck in for YEARS, that doesn’t make the writing bad—it just means this story isn’t for you.

If you want to hate him, fine.
If you want to drop the story, go ahead.
But at least hate him for the right reasons—not because you refuse to understand the reality this story is trying to portray because it's getting tiring atp.

( P.S. Just to be clear, I wrote this not with the intention of “defending” him in the sense of excusing the pain he caused Soo-ae. I’m defending the psychology behind it. There’s a difference. You can understand why someone acted a certain way without saying that the hurt they caused is justified. If anything, acknowledging his trauma and emotional paralysis makes both sides of the story more realistic here—Soo-ae's hurt and his shame can coexist even in the reality of relationships.

At the end of the day, understanding someone doesn’t mean you’d wait for them, tolerate their silence, or stay. You can empathize with a person’s wound and still choose yourself. Empathy isn’t the opposite of boundaries. It’s just the opposite of hypocrisy.

These characters need to heal before they come together. That, in itself, is already visible. )

I understand that there’s a collective of us who want to see the main couple—how they’ll figure things out and get back together—but we also need to see how things will unfold with the second couple, especially since she’s somehow tethered to the second male lead and still has a tinsy bit of lingering feelings for him (may it be in a romantic manner or not). Let’s all be patient, please huhu

P.S. I also want to put up an appreciation message for how the story is progressing. Some manhwas/stories barely give the second couple enough screen time, so it feels a bit weird when we just see them all lovey-dovey without knowing how things actually developed between them—or whether it’s truly love or just mere infatuation.
(๑•ㅂ•)و✧

Next week’s chapter will be epic, y’all! Also, I’ve read some comments here saying Taeha’s motive is slowly turning into a revenge plan just to destroy that ahole—but isn’t that literally part of the point? He’s doing it for her.
And about the perfume thing? At first, I didn’t think it was planned by Taeha—just an unexpected circumstance since there was a woman assisting him and all—but dang, that was actually smart of him, ngl. It was a test to see how much our girl pays attention to him. The fact that she noticed even the smallest detail? That’s a confirmation he needed for himself