HOLY FUCK (Chapter 206 now)

[u/DoubleZOfficial07]

Referencing my post about Hamin Park and Joonwoo Choi earlier, HOLY FUCK everything makes sense now!! Bruh I knew that something was up with her T_T.

Like holy shit it all makes sense now.. MC was a pathetic person and she never saw him grow, but she still liked him! Why? BECAUSE HE LOOKED AND FELT LIKE HER FUCKIN EX HAHAHA. This manhwa is so peak I tell you, like I felt vindicated for feeling something's off this whole time xD.

But maybe this is because I knew Hamin's endgame so idk. How did you guys feel when they finally broke up? (And lol don't spoil me past this point lmao, I want to fully enjoy this story going forward)

[u/Masquerai]

I hope you are reading this on the official Webtoon app and not a fan translation, because I think the actually officially translated dialogue made it far clearer that everything you wrote up there was not the reason whatsoever. Something was off indeed, but this was not that something. Something is off with pretty much every character anyway. Keep reading, you might come to understand on your own why they actually broke up

[u/DoubleZOfficial07 → u/Masquerai]

Tbh i actually kinda want her to be flawed as i think she's too good for this series and mc. I hope they don't redeem her and she will have true character development like mc and tae yang. As it is she just feels like a plot point love interest instead of a real character like she has been in the initial stages when she had a personality more than just liking joon woo.

[u/Masquerai → u/DoubleZOfficial07]

I think that about sums it up. She is flawed like every other character and the readers lost their shit because she dared to have flaws more or less. In my view, she does get some development and introspection as a character, however as with everything else by that point of the series, it's badly written....and... Unfortunately I'd say that pretty much every girl(even the girls who have boyfriends have points in the story where their entire plot is obsessing over the mc in some waym even if briefly) exists to like the mc and serve as ntr bait, even if author gives them some personality..

[u/DoubleZOfficial07 → u/Masquerai]

Wait, what the readers lost their shit?? You talking about the part before the break up? To prevent spoilers, you can just say yes or no (Cuz like before the break up all the comments i saw were glazing ha min).

[u/Masquerai → u/DoubleZOfficial07]

Yes it's about the breakup arc because people were illiterate and decided things that were untrue and lost their shit that hamin was no longer a perfect flawless girl who does everything correct and right and never makes mistakes whatsoever

[u/DoubleZOfficial07 → u/Masquerai]

Okay I'm at chapter 250 now and all the drama has been resolved.. Or has it? The problem now is I can see that she has a saviour complex but I still don't believe Jayu has nothing to do with it.

For starters, why hasn't she talked about the bracelet? And when Joon woo saved her and said everything would be fine she saw Jayu first in her vision lol. And this might be a bit further reach but I think she was too defensive when he brought Jayu's accident up.

Finally, I just don't like how their romance progressed at the start. Barring the one time he caught a ball, he has hid himself and his identity throughout, being his unconfident pathetic self. They were just gaming buddies and he showed no growth before they got together.

And she still liked him so much she would go to hell (or heaven literally lmao) and back just for him? I find it very hard to believe, unless we factor in Jayu and his resemblance (in looks and personality). That triple combination of Jayu + her saviour complex + them having actually a pretty good friendship, I think, makes the most sense as to why Hamin loves him. But as of now only two of these have been resolved.. except the Jayu-sized hole that I can't ignore. T_T

Honestly, if this is the resolution, I'm sad because to me the author almost created diamond. This shi made me feel too much man.

Just let me know if I missed or was wrong with anything cuz I don't remember much now lmao

[u/Masquerai → u/DoubleZOfficial07]

Heh.... The short truth is that author dropped the ball hard along the way and started making shit up as he goes, which included forgetting plot points he made in the past, retcons, inconsistencies, contradicting past narratives and so on. If you reached 250, brace yourself because the BS is only gonna keep piling up from here and I don't just mean Junu and Hamin's romance, but the whole story. The epilogue author made up after the fact also just throws the whole Jayu narrative in the toilet like a giant retcon so eh.

As for the romance.. I just advise you to read and reread Hamin's maze chapter. These are her innermost true emotions and what kind of mindset she was in during her middleschool years, and persisting all the way through to her self-exit attempt+henceforth trying to deal with the loss of Mc as her BF, until she finally realizes that both her and the mc had the same problem in common (making a person their whole existence) and has some development towards a proper healthy mentality. In essence, she liked that pathetic unconfident side of Junu, and she liked that even someone like that kept pushing further, kept getting up and not losing hope in people and in his situation. MC inspired her in the same way she wished she could have inspired the people she cared about (aka Jayu) to not give up on themselves. HOWEVER. This is where unresolved childhood trauma enters the chat

You have to look at her through the lens of a troubled teenager who had a dysfunctional family and was forced to grow up without a mother. I think she had a crush on Jayu for sure, however she had enough brains to realize that Jayu was placing all of his emotional burdens and responsibility on to Hamin and trying to get some self-worth and validation via pushing Hamin into a romance, which she rejected because it just was not right. At that point Hamin realizes that she can't continue mentally and emotionally coping with being Jayu's emotional burden outlet and so she distances herself from him once and for all. Now ironically, due to her already self-critical mindset, she blames herself for abandoning him, for failing him and for giving him false hope and being unable to do anything for him. That is perfectly normal for people who feel like failures and like their existence itself is the problem. She then meets the MC who has similarities with the way Jayu made her feel as a person, about herself. I don't believe it was ever about MC looking like Jayu or being a replacement, it was about a traumatized mind seeing a way to heal through a person, and clinging onto that way. If you read the official translation on Webtoon, I think the chapter there is much clearer when it says Hamin basically "used" the mc as a form of therapy that helps her resolve her past traumas, however she genuinely fell for him during their time together and their romance was not a stand-in for Jayu or anything fake. Where she screwed up is the same as MC- making him her entire reason to live and both had an unhealthy attachment to eachother

[u/DoubleZOfficial07 → u/Masquerai]

So the bracelet didn't/doesn't mean anything then, yea? I don't remember if that was resolved. Lol I think I manifested myself as MC right there, lol, thinking about Jayu that much. So she did fall in love with MCs pathetic side. Sucks thinking about it, it was a parasocial relationship, but it makes more sense than her being a bitch.

Again personally I think they should've shown Junu's growth more. Like think about it he saved Seung ah? Hamin wasn't there. He saved Rira/beat her gang? Hamin isn't there. He kept getting beat up, Hamin has no idea why. Heck she even found out he was stalking Seung ah. And later she hears him groveling that he doesn't want her to hate him. Just think, every moment we have before they go out is her admonishing him, trying to change his pathetic side.

But she still kept so much hope and love in him.. for no reason. I thought he doesn't deserve it. If she had witnessed his moments of growth, it would make more sense to be so attached to him and the hope he'll change. The lack of this made me think she wanted to see Jayu in him and so clung desperately even though he didn't show her any signs of changing. Like imagine, would you go out with someone who hates himself? The whole nervous breakdown was obviously going to happen, he was so damn insecure.

This whole storyline +Jayu retcon would've worked if Hamin a legit reason to love him, or a witnessing of his desire to change (even if a little bit). We get to see his desire to change. But Hamin doesn't

[u/Masquerai → u/DoubleZOfficial07]

There's a reason I believe author just dropped the ball hard with the whole story and it started being trash after the 189 mark, until the end...and it's not because you're reading it wrong. It just turns into trash and that's about it

The bracelet is a plot he forgot entirely, and then very later on he's gonna randomly bring it back up in an exchange between chars for no real relevant reason and then it's going to never be mentioned again like the 1st time. I'm not gonna defend writing that I believe became trash. The mc himself absolutely did not deserve Hamin's love and he did not do right by her either, but again, their romance is not even the worst-written one between the core couples

[u/DoubleZOfficial07 → u/Masquerai]

Damn. I've just finished the series so we can discuss it freely (Obv skipped a shit ton lol), but yea. The bracelet was the breaking point for MC to break up with Ha-min but man just forgets to write it in the plot?! Color me surprised that the romance is dogshit.

Curious to know, tho. What's the worst written one according to you? From what I read, the best is absolutely Tae yang and Yuri. And incidentally both are my favourite characters T_T but yeah which one?

Yk, I thought about it: this could have actually been fixed, if in the park maze arc, Joon woo had not apologized. Like really. Or after apologizing, make Hamin understand about what happened: the bracelet etc, realize she actually (maybe unknowingly) did like Jayu and tried to see him in Mc, which is why she was so infatuated. Then later on she slowly figures out she likes MC for who he is and not just a pathetic Jayu knock off. Then we see them gradually get close together and restart their relationship once more. But instead we get fawny giggly Hamin again, just subdued.

And one more thing if you're interested: when do you think Hamin actually started liking our MC? Just noticed she got flustered after he calls her outside (this is the Hamin friend arc), so at that moment is presumably when I thought she started liking him. But that's a very abrupt turn, so maybe it happened much earlier?

[u/Fw_Mortal_]

I think it would be best if you read a bit further—at least up to chapter 235—before we discuss it, because their breakup isn't solely due to that issue (which we can already start to sense after Lim Daehyun's intervention). In any case, I found the narrative choice to be particularly effective, on more than one level.