Ok so I was honestly going to upload so many pictures of Sangwoo’s face this chapter because holy shit it was fucked up. I’ll restrict myself to these. Now I know I said I thought Sangwoo was going to be low key sympathetic and maybe give Bum a hug but I dunno what I was thinking because that would’ve been way too ooc and to be honest I love what Koogi has done here.
Sangwoo has literally snapped and that’s caused him to reject Bum which in turn has caused Bum to snap. To be honest in a relationship as co-dependant and reliant on approval as theirs it was bound to happen. The thing is though, I don’t think Sangwoo is going out of his way to be intentionally cruel to Bum here. It’s his mindset. Sangwoo rejects weakness and values strength above all other things. He potentially murdered his parents because they were abusive towards him so he can’t see Bum’s apparent acceptance of his uncle’s treatment as anything other than consensual. If I was to put money on it, if Bum had tried to hurt his uncle I think Sangwoo would’ve been a lot more sympathetic. He’s disappointed someone he’s put so much time and effort into could allow themselves to be treated in such a way and I guess he thinks that reflects badly upon him which is why
Chapter 26 also gave us a window into Bum’s history of self harm (another thing Sangwoo will probably think Bum lied to him about) and it’s definitely up there in my list of emotionally charged scenes in media. Bum has been rejected by Sangwoo and so he literally rejects life because without Sangwoo it’s not worth it. Tbh I don’t think Bum will have cut himself that deeply and he’s probably just fainted from the panic attack caused by Sangwoo’s rejection. However Bum hurting himself is the thing that sways Sangwoo. It’s almost as if he’s triggered his protective instincts again because Sangwoo genuinely looks scared. This is the turning point in their relationship. Bum has made a statement that he doesn’t want to live in a world without Sangwoo/doesn’t want to burden Sangwoo with someone so disgusting now it’s up to Sangwoo to decide whether to agree with Bum or to save him. Obviously he will decide to save him but this is the ultimate turning point in their relationship – much more so than Jieun ever was or ever could be. It’s incredibly fucked up but after chapter 26 there’s not going to be any turning back for either of them.
Do you guys get it now? That this isn’t about Bum and never was to begin with?
Yoon Bum may be the main character but Sangwoo is the protagonist of his own story. He only wants to make Bum a part of his own life, not to incorporate himself in Bum’s.
For Sangwoo a life outside his does not exist. He is incapable of seeing or caring about anything that doesn’t concern him and he is unable to be happy from someone else being happy. Everything is connected to him and his own enjoyment. He is incapable of caring for someone else’s.
These two people aren’t in a conventional relationship, they aren’t “murder husbands”, or boyfriends, they aren’t even in love with each other.
This is the story of a twisted dependency and helplessness and I can’t bear it when people refuse to see this.
Sangwoo will never become your cute villain bad boy who is actually a teddy bear on the inside.
What gets me from the new chapter is how defenseless Bum was and still is, he went from that piece of garbage of a uncle to the hands of another moody man that beats and abuses him too but for his own amusement. All he has known in his life is abuse, wtf it makes me angry how unfair that is. Bum deserves better than this shitty life he’s living.
I wouldn’t really call Sangwoo a winner. He is experiencing a lot of pain through PTSD and worrying about Yoon Bum abandoning him, but he is just very good at deceiving and hiding his pain while Bum can’t do the same. It wasn’t that Sangwoo refused ton back down, but he broke and killed his parents while Yoon Bum’s breaking was a bit different, you can even almost say Bum was stronger since he didn’t resort to something so primal to cope with his trauma.
Sangwoo didn’t build a good life for himself, he had “a good life” already. He had a house, he had food, he had a car, his family had money and he just had very shitty parents to add to that.
Bum on the other hand was broke to the point where his uncle had to beg a woman so he doesn’t have to pay a bit more than two thousand dollars to her.
They were both beat, yes, but Yoon Bum lived through it while Sangwoo turned things around for himself and became unhealthily “proper”.
Between the two of them, it’s actually Sangwoo who is broken to the point where he doesn’t function as a human at all anymore while Bum has moments of clarity and has wavering morality. If anything, Bum is the winner for being able to stay as a human while suffering from all of this, even as it was painful.
Sangwoo on the other hand just gave everything up and his inner child shrivelled inside him and hid somewhere. Something inside him broke irreversibly. Sangwoo lost the ability to feel anything, whoever’s fault it was, and I really don’t think that counts as a win or a good life.
However it does seem like that, so you are sort of right.
Sangwoo looks like he is perfect. This is how Sangwoo tricks everyone into thinking he is the cool and charming guy they want to get with, and it seems like even though people who read KS are aware of this, they still get tricked by the very same façade.
Archive 