Excellent analysis!!!
I agree with almost everything you said. TJ's a fantastic, well-written character that doesn't need a redemption arc or be reborn into something he's not. He twisted his love into power, he lives his true. He had amazing chemistry with Ian. But he wanted to keep Ian a secret, at his beck and call. He manipulated him. He oppressed him and harm him emotionally and physically, he was the cause Ian couldn't leave the gang (broken leg) and become a biker in Florida. But Ian stayed for the reasons you already mentioned and his own fabricated guilt. He loved fiercely as much as he wanted to control Ian. He decided their future by planing his rise to power. He's tragic indeed because he didn't realize that the love they mutually shared at some point, distorted into something darker.They were using sex as their form of communication, like a tool to avoid facing themselves because that's what's expected of them taking in consideration their backgrounds. Both of them can't let go of the other and that's painfully beautiful. They're loyal to each other but there's also so much damage between them. They're so broken...
"Joe’s love is clean, safe, tender. But Ian doesn’t burn for him, he just tries to breathe around him."
Yes, Jo's love sure was clean at the beginning. Jo is the pleasant option. He tried his best to appeal to Ian, like the non criminal person living a non criminal life. Taking him out on dates and acting all chummy because he wrongfully thought Ian was just a closeted person. But when Jo didn't helped that dying man and snapped at Ian inside the apartment, in their heated exchange / fight, Ian asked Jo what more he can give up for him and Jo responded 'Everything'. Jo was in disbelief but clearly very excited about what this 'nice man' is able to do so he won't lose him. Something so different of what he's used to and almost fell into the same toxic pattern he has of using sex as coping mechanism.
Also, Ian always took notice of Jo's eye colour before and said something like he would give himself to him and wouldn't mind burning to death in those blue eyes. Making comparisons between Jo's blue eyes and burning flames because they get bluer. That he wouldn't have to worry about tomorrow ever coming. I think this happens at the beginning of season 3. Ian's 'love' has evolved too and he wants to be chosen.
There was a time that Ian wanted what he has with Jo but with TJ, but at his negative, like you said 'not selling a dream he can't give', and calling him out about the bike incident, Ian realized or kind of accepted that things weren't the same a long time ago. So he's not so indecisive anymore. He left behind his hat, which he purposely left in TJ's flat imitating the lipstick that woman left behind so he would keep coming back to TJ, and, in the recent chapter, we know that when he went into hiding, he left his earrings and necklace too. Little by little Ian's is breaking the pattern but he won't be completely free of TJ. Never. They have an unbreakable bond and that's beautiful.
I love how these characters are multidimensional and the narrative is always changing so nothing is written in stone. My take is that TJ will pretend that he's death and disappear from Ian's life or a heavily wounded Ian's found by TJ, time passes and he never reunites with Jo at the gas station. At the end of the day it's not about Ian's love life, more like his bonds with those people, his road to a life of freedom and personal redemption.
And Chiwoon, TJ's right hand man, must live, he's my fave.
Thank you and honestly, I really appreciate how you explained TJ without flattening him into “the toxic love interest.” That balance is rare in discussions about this manhwa, because people tend to pick one extreme or the other. But like you said, TJ’s tragedy comes from how real he is. He loved Ian in all the wrong ways because no one ever taught him a different language for love. And he held onto power because that was the only form of safety he ever knew.
What you wrote highlights something I agree with deeply: Ian and TJ’s connection wasn’t “pure,” but it was true. It was born out of their history, their trauma, their survival, and all the ways they hurt and held each other without knowing how to separate the two. It’s painful precisely because their bond wasn’t built for longevity it was built for coping, for clinging, for meaning in a world that offered neither of them a place to land.
And yes, Jo exists on the opposite end of that spectrum. His love is clean in a way that almost feels foreign in this narrative. He sees Ian without the shadows, without the weight of their shared past, and without the instinct to control or possess him. That’s why stories like this often guide the MC toward someone like Jo, a symbolic exit from the life that shaped the plot. A quiet future after the storm. A safer promise, even if it lacks the same fire.
But my attachment isn’t about choosing sides anymore. It’s about watching how these relationships illuminate different parts of Ian; it’s watching the emotional truth of each bond unfold. TJ represents history, raw and messy and carved into Ian’s bones. Jo represents possibility, gentle and steady, a life untouched by the blood and guilt that shaped Ian’s world. Neither connection is meaningless, they just speak to different parts of who Ian is and who he could become.
And like you said, Ian can’t be completely free of TJ. Not emotionally, not psychologically. TJ is woven into him; not as destiny, but as imprint. That will always matter, no matter what direction the story takes. It’s the kind of bond that doesn’t rely on endgame to be significant.
In the end, I don’t need a particular couple to win. I just want the narrative to stay honest to the characters — their trauma, their desires, their failures, and the small, quiet moments where they try to be more than what the world made them. I’m invested in the emotional honesty this manhwa keeps delivering. That honesty is what makes this manhwa so compelling, and why every chapter feels like it carries more weight than the last.
Whatever Ian chooses, I’m staying for the writing, the emotional nuance, and characters like TJ who are allowed to be flawed, loyal, damaged, and painfully human. And for me, that’s what makes following their journey so riveting, no matter where it leads.
P.S girlie pop i was first in line for Chiwoon!
The more I read this manhwa, the more I realize I’m not actually attached to Ian as a character. He’s indecisive, he runs away from his own emotions, and half the time he doesn’t even know what he wants. He walked away from TJ more than once, only to circle back when the loneliness hits or when he remembers what they used to be. At some point, it stops being romantic and starts becoming a pattern. And that’s fine, it’s realistic for someone who lived between trauma and longing but it also means I don’t put my heart in his hands.
The one who actually holds my interest is TJ.
And not because I desperately need Ian and TJ to be endgame (even though the chemistry between them is insane). my heart leans toward TJ not because I’m chasing an endgame, but because I appreciate him as he is. I don’t need him rewritten into a savior or sanitized into something softer. I like him flawed, loyal, stubborn, and painfully human. His presence adds depth to the entire story. a reminder that some people love fiercely but don’t know how to escape the world that shaped them. TJ is one of those rare characters who is impossibly loyal, unbelievably damaged, and painfully self-aware. He’s honest about who he is in a way Ian never manages to be. He doesn’t pretend he can leave the life he’s known just because love asks him to. He doesn’t sugarcoat his limitations. He doesn’t sell Ian dreams he can’t give.
TJ is tragic not because he’s broken, but because he understands himself too well.
That’s why I strangely love TJ as he is.
I want Ian×TJ, yes — the gravity between them is undeniable, the history is thick, the connection is carved into both of their bones but I also don’t want TJ rewritten into someone he’s not. His love is messy, rough, and honest. It’s not the fairytale kind, it’s the kind born from surviving things most people never come back from. And that truth adds a depth to their dynamic that no soft, peaceful relationship could replicate.
Meanwhile, Joe represents the usual narrative direction: the “healthy option,” the calm life, the symbolic future that healing stories tend to lean toward. And there’s nothing wrong with that it’s a valid path. But Ian’s scenes with Joe always feel… gentle, but hollow. Joe is a good person, he really is, but the chemistry isn’t explosive. It’s steady. Simple. Almost too normal for someone like Ian, who’s been shaped by violence his whole life. But that’s exactly why stories like this often steer the MC toward the “Joe” character because healing arcs usually choose comfort over fire, calm over chaos. Joe’s love is clean, safe, tender. But Ian doesn’t burn for him, he just tries to breathe around him.
Stories like this typically choose the Joe-type ending.
The quiet home after the storm.
The peaceful life instead of the familiar pain.
But here’s the truth I feel as a reader:
TJ and Ian have a connection that doesn’t care about “typical endings.” It’s soul-deep, wrong in all the right ways, and right in all the complicated ones. It’s the kind of relationship that isn’t easily replaced, even when the plot wants to push the MC toward a clean exit.
Still, even if Ian ends up choosing Joe or neither. I’m not here to beg for a specific ending. I’m here because this story is written with a maturity and emotional weight that makes every chapter feel alive. I’m here because TJ’s character is one of the most compelling pieces of this entire narrative. I’m here because the world feels real, the relationships feel lived-in, and the emotional conflict is too good to look away from.
If the author wants a symbolic ending, Joe is the obvious future.
If the author wants emotional truth, TJ is the one Ian keeps orbiting.
But if I’m being honest? It doesn’t even matter who Ian chooses because Ian can’t even choose himself half the time. Whatever direction Ian chooses, this story has already given me more than enough to feel. And that’s why I’m here.