Theory

I'm thinking over what has sort of happened the past few chapters and I'm wrapping around a running theory. I think this might be a time loop.

Sisyphus is all about doing a task in the hopes of accomplishing it only to fail and then have to repeat it over and over. Like rolling the boulder up a hill only for it to fall back down.

What if time is repeating somehow in an attempt to have something change and Jinwoo is deeply involved in that change. Guwon has an intense feeling of needing to protect the town, like there's something inside of him that knows the town is destroyed in another timeline. He even says he woke up and "it was like everything had already been decided".

Guwon, a pretty inhuman being, is specifically is changing and is seemingly craving that change and Jinwoo is the catalyst. We can see him change in his reaction to Jinwoo.

He likes Jinwoo, but he begins by not engaging much with kissing. Then his attitude switches after Guwon is tired. For the first time EVER he falls asleep because Jinwoo is next to him. He specifically notes this after he wakes up and sees Jinwoo sleeping next to him having been by his side the whole time. After that he starts kissing him WAYY more passionately like he recognizes Jinwoo is different on a fundamental level. They have sex and he specifically says about wanting to learn more from Jinwoo, like he's trying to evolve. Jinwoo asks why Guwon gave him the ring and he replies "It means you're my one and only in this whole world." This phrasing is I think intentionally vague and meant to make you think of it in a romantic sense, but I think it's meant to mean more than that. Like Guwon has recognized that he needs Jinwoo. In this latest chapter he is ECSTATIC that he was right: Jinwoo IS DIFFERENT and calls him out when he's wrong.


Jinwoo as well has memory issues. He can't remember much before he was hit and it was clearly something traumatic. The memories he could be struggling with could be previous timeline memories. That's maybe why he always has nightmares and why he attacked Guwon in his sleep at the beginning of the story. In chapter 14 we see his nightmare: he is surrounded by the towns people who blame him. "This is all your fault. You did this. In the end, we all died because of you." We can see Gyeongha and the doctor hovering over him with blood on them like they were dead. Jinwoo questions why he keeps having nightmares. This is before Jinwoo finds out about Guwon's violent side so he has no reason to fear for their lives yet. Why IS Jinwoo having these nightmares which seem new to him and involve the town folk blaming him for their deaths? Likely because that's exactly what happened in the other timeline and he is having fragmented memories of that time.