Responses
It's bc in the recent chapters he's portrayed in a different way from before. Since these chapters are a lot more recent, you kind of only remember that part of the character and the bad shit he did before turns a lil fuzzy in your mind. It makes you forget how much of an asshole he was to Iltak before & how much fucked up and embarrasing shit he used to put him through
The author did also give him some decent character development tho so ig that's why his send off makes you so saddd. I still wouldn't have liked it if they had ended up together tho.

Idk about others who are liking orange haired hyunjoo more than our black hair hyunwoo.... but i am glad that iltak is choosing hyunwoo. Honestly they both were good, (after saving iltak) but keeping the past instances in mind, I would've totally not liked it if hyunjoo became iltak's bf...