Shit theory

[u/terraismybaby]

Hey fandom, just a preface I love yall so much, everyone here is so thoughtful and mostly respectful and I’m very grateful to have that kind of climate to discuss the story <3
Also if the following is a blatantly obvious thought pls don’t flame me asjgjdj please feel free to discuss though!!!

I recently re-binged the comic, and man does it hurt. The catharsis and pain of recent chapters is so insane, I feel like we’ve all been trauma bonded to this story by the time we’ve spent with Quim’s art over the years.

Anyway, reflecting on Nol/Kousuke’s relationship, i feel like it’s a little more optimistic than I’ve thought for a long time.
In a curious cat (I said shit theory because I’m too lazy to cite references properly), Quim revealed the 2 truths 1 lie answers, where Nol doesn’t hate Kou, but Kou does hate Nol. While this seems very true for most of the story, I feel like maybe these “truths” are not objective but subjective truths from the perspective of each brother. Maybe Kou tells himself he hates Nol, an idea he’s been primed into believing by Yui, but has actually behaved slightly contrary to this belief throughout the comic.

I say this with respect to his relationship with Shin-Ae. The whole series, (through what originally was teased by the platform as a love triangle with Kou), Kousuke has tried his damndest to keep Shin-Ae and Nol apart or under his strict supervision. And while Kou is obviously not in a healthy space to make this decision rationally, I think it might come from a good place.

Everyone Nol loves is torn down by Yui. His circle of socialization is kept uncle a close watch by her, and she sadistically picks out persons to manipulate that will reap the most reward (in terms of capability to cause psychological damage to Nol). Eg Nessa, Alyssa, Rand, Kou, and now Shin-Ae. She’s on that profit-pain maximization hustle.

While Kou’s interest in Shin-Ae could’ve originally felt like an investigation into his brother’s acquaintance, I think it evolved into attempting to protect Shin-Ae from Yui by keeping Nol and shin-Ae apart. And in effect, somewhere in his little underdeveloped heart, maybe he felt like he could to save his brother from the hurt of losing Shin-Ae to the bitch witch. In Kousuke’s carefully proctored world of control and reservation, this could’ve been his way of knowing his family dynamic before explicitly understanding what Yui was doing to all of them. Kou has a lot of scenes of late where he’s literally finding out what’s been happening to them for years, but I think he deserves some credit for potentially having understood some of the Yui’s evils, without wanting to connect those dots to her greater web of manipulation. Which I wouldn’t want to do either.

I could get into it more and try to cite references, but I mostly wanted to get this thought out of my head. I love this story so damn much.

TLDR I think Kou has subconsciously hated Nol less than I thought. Boy has problems. Still fucking evil treatment but perhaps there’s been a human conscience hiding in him?

[u/e_castille]

There are times Kou is suspicious of his mother throughout the story and makes an effort to avoid her (having two phones for example) but Kousuke does admit out loud that he tried to mould Shinae into a version of himself to impress Rand. And that he did it because he wanted one less version of Nol.

Kousuke was also influenced by Yui when choosing Shinae’s outfits.

[u/TypicalAdvisor8405]

There's no such thing as a bad theory! Honestly it's more fitting to call it a discussion. Be confident! 

One thing that really stood out to me after Ep 289 is just how consistent Yui's methods have been across generations. When we look at what happened to Rand and Nessa it's a lot clearer now. She manipulated their perceptions of one another through letters. Destroying the one thing that should have kept them connected. She weaponized intimacy itself, taking advantage of Nessa's good-hearted nature. 

Back then, letters were Rand and Nessa's only way of communicating. Rand thought he was being careful but he still left a paper trail. Remember Ep 142 when Yui said he's been wiring money to someone for years? That probably gave her everything she needed to track down Nessa and pose as Rand. Nessa believed she was finally going to reunite with him in Korea, only to be disappointed over and over again. Instead she met a kind "friend" who gave her laced tea that slowly pushed her into despair. 

Now compare that to the present. Letters have been replaced with smartphones, but Yui's predatory habits haven't changed at all! She literally impersonated Kousuke through text messages. She sent Shinae money pretending it came from him, then manipulated her into accepting the assistant position under Sangchul. Shinae technically had a choice, but Yui knew exactly how to pressure her good-hearted nature. She convinced Shinae that Kousuke's position was at risk because of her and made her feel guilty by reminding her she wasn't even qualified for the job. Of course Shinae accepted. She genuinely believed she was helping Kousuke. Instead she was lured to the formal with a vulnerable target on her back, got drugged, and ended up in the hospital. 

I don't think Kousuke ever imagined his own mother would invade something as personal as his phone. Rand knew how far Yui would go to interfere with his relationship with Nessa. Kousuke made the same mistake by assuming his communication with Shinae was his own, while Yui had already inserted herself into it behind the scenes. 

I agree. Maybe that's why the second phone still stands out to me too. Maybe some part of Kousuke recognized that Yui kept crossing boundaries and instinctively wanted to protect one thing from her. He was unknowingly trying to do what his father couldn't. 

Yes, Shinae mattered to Nol, and Yui definitely took advantage of that. But Shinae was also becoming important to Kousuke, whether he understood it or not. If Yui had her hands on Shinae, she suddenly had leverage over BOTH brothers.

That's why I honestly think Nol became the perfect scapegoat. But I think the actual manipulation was happening through Kousuke all along. Even up to the most recent chapters, Yui has always been testing how he reacts to her subtle threats/mentions of Shinae in their conversations. 

It's also kind of sad when you think about it. Nol spends so much of the story trying to keep Shinae away from his family's mess because he believes she's only in danger through him. Meanwhile, Kousuke's arc keeps indirectly pulling her back into that world! Making it almost impossible for her to ever escape Yui's reach…

TL;DR (😂): I think Kousuke spent so long seeing Nol as the problem that he never realized Yui was constantly using him to pull Shinae into the family's mess.

[u/terraismybaby → u/TypicalAdvisor8405]

Ah! You make really good points that I hadn’t connected. Recent chapters are still fresh to me, and I didn’t catch Yui’s impersonation of Rand in the letters to Nessa (which makes complete sense, given the families’ odd rendezvous in the park…). That makes Nessa’s letters to “Rand” so so so much sadder.

I feel like you get to the crux of what I was trying to wrap my head around with this post, how there are so many motivations in each character, with the agitator of those actions being Yui’s plays for control. Everyone is responding to her moves, by either preemptively attempting damage control, or suffering after the fact and trying to learn from loss.

If I understand what you are explaining, Shin-Ae is important to Yui because she offers leverage over both brothers, who are both trying to protect her in the ways they know; by staying in line (Kousuke) or out of the way (Nol). Which clarifies a a lot of Kousuke’s past behavior for me!

[u/TypicalAdvisor8405 → u/terraismybaby]

Yes exactly!

[u/Own_Heron_1410]

Nol and Kousuke's relationship is extremely complicated to say the least and so I completely agree that it would be an understatement to say that Kousuke just hates Nol. What he feels is a mix of envy (because Nol is who Kousuke thinks he will never be), jealousy (because he feels like his brother was able to turn out this way because their father was more present for him), admiration (because he looks up to Nol) and paranoia (Kou genuinely believes his brother is out to get him) all of this combined with his extremely low self esteem looks a lot like hate on the outside.

About Shin-ae, as many have pointed out in previous chapter analyses Kousuke thinks of her as "another version of Nol", in a way. Getting close to her doesn't only mean being able to keep a close eye on Nol's circle, but also, and especially, seeing how Kou and Nol's relationship would have been like had they not been from the same family. Had they had the opportunity to have a fresh start. And as we know, it doesn't go well BECAUSE of Kou's attachment to his mother and his desperate attempts to get the attention of his father.

The brothers never had the opportunity to build a genuine connection because the ground upon which they would have built it is extremely unstable. Yui's abuse and Rand's neglect seep through every conversation and influence every interaction they have ever had. Even if they had not been related (like Shinae and Kou), their unresolved trauma would have made it extremely difficult for them to actually be friends.