This made me SO MAD!! We're supposed to believe that this life's Taehwa is completely different from the Taehwa of the alternative timeline? BULLSHIT. The only reason he was somewhat better than their previous life is because Cheonghyeon put in all the effort to make it a kinda healthy relationship by being submissive to him. He's still the same exact huge red flag who would be 100% ready to hurt him, confine him and rape him again in case Cheonghyeon decided to leave him. THIS IS NOT ROMANCE PEOPLE, THIS IS STOCKHOLM SYNDROME. What's with all the people continuously defending him and considering him a green flag (based on b*to comments)?? If your partner is like this call the police and file a restraining order what the fuck. He had ZERO respect for Cheonghyeon's desires and personal boundaries and again, would gladly ABUSE and RAPE him again in this life even if he as much as started refusing to sleep with him. Just because he doesn't do it outright doesn't mean that there are no signs (which I could see VERY clearly). The last chapter's monologue from Cheonghyeon made it even more clear to me that the poor guy is just gaslighting himself into thinking that what they have now is a healthy relationship. It pisses me off even more how we're supposed to feel like Taehwa is a good lover because the author threw in this tragic backstory in which he went to jail and died to protect him. Ok, nice, I acknowledge that, but how is that supposed to erase the fact that he was an abusive asshole? Had he been the classic toxic gangster 2nd male lead in love triangle BLs almost everybody would have considered all this deserved redemption on his part and rooted for a puppy main male lead, but in here he's supposed to be the best option (when in reality he did the exact same thing as that other gangster, with the difference that he mostly abused him sexually, which is actually worse imo, while the other guy mostly beat him up). The only one with common sense in this story was Taehwa's subordinate, who even shut up Taehwa's guardian in their previous life. As for Taehwa's guardian: my God how much he pissed me off blaming Cheonghyeon, THE FUCKING VICTIM of his sweet dear boy, like that! He made me develop anger issues in that one chapter. As the subordinate said, has Cheonghyeon ever asked him to do any of that? NO. He did whatever he wanted against Cheonghyeon's wishes as always. It's like saying that a domestic abuse victim should be grateful to their abusive partner because after beating them up he worked day and night to buy them the house of their dreams or some shit. While exagerated this is exactly how abusive relationships work and how the victims stay in them!! I was honestly confused about the author's intention, because they made it SO obvious to me how toxic the seme is to this day and how much of a self-gaslighted victim the uke is that I can't not think that it was done on purpose to make the readers rethink this kind of relationship. Idk, overall it was entertaining to read (even though I expected more from the regression plot) but I still don't like the male lead, sorry not sorry.
This made me SO MAD!! We're supposed to believe that this life's Taehwa is completely different from the Taehwa of the alternative timeline? BULLSHIT. The only reason he was somewhat better than their previous life is because Cheonghyeon put in all the effort to make it a kinda healthy relationship by being submissive to him. He's still the same exact huge red flag who would be 100% ready to hurt him, confine him and rape him again in case Cheonghyeon decided to leave him. THIS IS NOT ROMANCE PEOPLE, THIS IS STOCKHOLM SYNDROME. What's with all the people continuously defending him and considering him a green flag (based on b*to comments)?? If your partner is like this call the police and file a restraining order what the fuck. He had ZERO respect for Cheonghyeon's desires and personal boundaries and again, would gladly ABUSE and RAPE him again in this life even if he as much as started refusing to sleep with him. Just because he doesn't do it outright doesn't mean that there are no signs (which I could see VERY clearly). The last chapter's monologue from Cheonghyeon made it even more clear to me that the poor guy is just gaslighting himself into thinking that what they have now is a healthy relationship. It pisses me off even more how we're supposed to feel like Taehwa is a good lover because the author threw in this tragic backstory in which he went to jail and died to protect him. Ok, nice, I acknowledge that, but how is that supposed to erase the fact that he was an abusive asshole? Had he been the classic toxic gangster 2nd male lead in love triangle BLs almost everybody would have considered all this deserved redemption on his part and rooted for a puppy main male lead, but in here he's supposed to be the best option (when in reality he did the exact same thing as that other gangster, with the difference that he mostly abused him sexually, which is actually worse imo, while the other guy mostly beat him up).
The only one with common sense in this story was Taehwa's subordinate, who even shut up Taehwa's guardian in their previous life. As for Taehwa's guardian: my God how much he pissed me off blaming Cheonghyeon, THE FUCKING VICTIM of his sweet dear boy, like that! He made me develop anger issues in that one chapter. As the subordinate said, has Cheonghyeon ever asked him to do any of that? NO. He did whatever he wanted against Cheonghyeon's wishes as always. It's like saying that a domestic abuse victim should be grateful to their abusive partner because after beating them up he worked day and night to buy them the house of their dreams or some shit. While exagerated this is exactly how abusive relationships work and how the victims stay in them!!
I was honestly confused about the author's intention, because they made it SO obvious to me how toxic the seme is to this day and how much of a self-gaslighted victim the uke is that I can't not think that it was done on purpose to make the readers rethink this kind of relationship. Idk, overall it was entertaining to read (even though I expected more from the regression plot) but I still don't like the male lead, sorry not sorry.