Chapter 67 - Season 2 Chapter 2 Spoilers . . . . . A waterpark filled with people bustling with noise and laughter. Jingi, Heonjae, and their Mom sit under the shade enjoying their snacks there.
Heonjae drinks some medicine to strengthen his constitution, and his Mom praises him for being able to handle the bitter drink.
She looks over at Jingi and sees the fading bruise on his arm, "Jingi, this is the last one, right? Once this heals, you won't be hurting anywhere anymore."
Jingi reassures his mother, "Mom, once this heals, I'll be all healthy." And in concern for his mother's own injury on her hand that is wrapped in a cast, Jingi reminds her not to get it wet in the pool.
The Mom smiles in endearment, and they spend the day in the waterpark.
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On their way home, they unfortunately run into the husband's older brother (a.k.a Jingi and Heonjae's creepy uncle), who burst out yelling,
"Your husband is missing, and you take the kids to the pool!?
It's been two weeks since your husband disappeared! Two weeks!"
The Mother apologizes, she took the kids to the pool because the weather had been hot.
The Uncle says that his little brother was not the type to disappear without a word. He demands they return to the house and check one more time.
As they headed towards the car, next to them was the police station, where a boy not much older than Jingi's age was getting kicked out and scolded by the police, "Go home!! Your parents are waiting for you!"
The rebellious child answers back "Tch. I'm telling you, they're not waiting. Mind your own business, mister".
The Uncle sees this scene from a distance, he is silent and his stare is fixated, observing the vulnerable child from afar.
Jingi notices his Uncle staring at the boy and is confused of why he would be staring like that.
---------------------------------------------
1 week later, at the household. The Uncle sits and drinks on the table. He asks the mother if she knew about her husband's debt. She is shocked and says she had no idea.
The Mother tells him, "He kept handing over money, telling me to buy household items, so I thought that things were actually going well..."
"He didn't want to worry you, that guy. Even took on debt... When it came to his own hardships, he didn't talk much." The Uncle frames the situation of his brother's debt as an act of self-sacrifice and responsibility.
He then brings up the status of the missing person case he raised for his brother. "The prosecutor says there's nothing they can do without physical evidence. Sigh. That Prosecutor Sungu... he sure took favors gladly when I helped him. This is a criminal case, you bastard."
The Uncle gets up to go to the bathroom, "And you. I know this is a hard time, but try to keep the house clean. There's a strange smell in this house, it keeps making me cough." he walks through the cluttered house.
He then wonders, "But who stands to gain from my brother's disappearance?"
"Hm. At least the bathroom is clean.", he looks around as he washes his hands in the sink.
His train of thought continues, "A person who benefits from my younger brother disappearing. There were debts… so was it a loan shark after all? Did those bastards kidnap my brother? ...if they’ve already sold his organs…" He begins to despair, thinking about what could possibly have happened to his little brother.
He crouches below the sink "Where are you, Choi Hocheol?" he begins to sob. "There’s a limit to how much I can find out about him just by sending people out."
He then sees a few strands of hair sticking out the drainage below the sink "Black hair. Hocheol’s hair is like that." He picks up the strands that reminded him of his brother, "Hocheol…"
In desperation, he turns to Jingi and Heonjae trying to get any information he can about the disappearance, "You kids, when did you last see your dad? Did some stranger hang around your house or anything? If anything suspicious happened, please tell me…"
"The last time I saw Dad was… the Monday before last", Jingi answers.
The Uncle latches onto Jingi's bit of information and asks more questions, "Nothing unusual that day? What were you doing?"
"Just… playing with Mom and Heonjae.", Jingi hesitantly replies.
"So, he just vanished the next day?! Did some stranger come by at night?! No one came after Monday? Otherwise there’s no way someone disappears without a trace!!", the Uncle asked in frantic.
Jingi is starting to hesitate how much he can answer, "We went on a trip to the hill behind the school and ate lunch..."
"So, was there someone or not?!", the Uncle tries harder to find any person that can lead to his brother.
"Uh… it kind of felt like some man kept watching around our house…", Jingi being carefully vague in answering.
"I knew it!!! What did that bastard look like?! Huh?!", the Uncle explodes in aggression, thinking to have found a possible culprit.
"What would the kids even know", their Mother intervenes.
She continues, "He was the type to deal with things alone… He never spoke about those kinds of problems. He probably didn’t want to worry us…", returning back the same statements the Uncle had claimed his brother to be like.
"No one came to the house, but… Maybe my husband met someone elsewhere?”, she said calmly.
The Uncle, still anxious to know anything more that could help him find his brother, continued to ask questions, "We at least need to grab even a small clue. Jingi, tell me more about that man you mentioned earlier."
"But- but… he could’ve just been someone passing by", Jingi realizes the danger of having spoken too much and now begins to retreat his words.
The Uncle internally thinking, "his story’s changing again?"
He notices Jingi and Heonjae's current state, "Now that I look at them, they’ve been trembling this whole time."
"Alright. I’ll take that into account.", he says.
But in his mind he thinks, "It’s like they’re hiding something…"
"I’ll come back soon." He leaves and heads to his car.
As he's driving out of the driveway, he starts listing suspects in his head, "if my younger brother disappeared... who would benefit?"
"Debt collectors", his first suspect. "And... the wife and those kids", he starts building his suspicions from there.
"My brother disappears, and they’re running around going swimming. Must be living comfortably, huh?", he scoffs.
"I know my brother used to beat his wife and kids", unbothered by the awareness of the abuse.
"If my brother were still around, they wouldn’t have even dared to think about swimming pools or anything like that",
the Uncle saw their freedom as an act of defiance that they were taking advantage of now that his brother was gone.
It was irrelevant to the Uncle whether his brother was abusive to his wife and children, and the uncle's dismissal of the abuse as a cause for concern seems to be what held off any suspicions related to his brother's disappearance.
That is until the Uncle reaches into his pocket for a stick of cigarette, but instead finds the hair strands he picked from the drain... and notices the stain of blood stuck to it.
---------------------------------------------
We cut back to the house, where the mother was in a state of distraught from the Uncle's visit.
"Mom… Mom! Let’s move. Can’t we go live somewhere else now?", Jingi tries to bring his mother back
He tries convincing her of their escape after sensing the danger they were in, "not this house… Dad’s gone now, right?"
"Jingi… maybe. Maybe… I might have to be separated from you", the Mother already thinking about the consequence of prison.
Heonjae who didn't understand anything asks, "Mom, where are you going?" only understanding that their mother was going away.
She starts breaking down, "Why did I do that… I’m sorry… why did I… I think I’ve gone crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy…”, the mother begins dissociating and enters into a panic loop.
"I should’ve planned more. Why did no one help me. What do I do… fuck." her regret from the lack of strategic planning.
"I told myself I wouldn’t fall apart anymore. As a mother, all I do is ruin you… Now… now I can’t even see you."
Seeing his Mom blame herself, in tears Jingi tries to comfort her, "with Dad, it was Mom who had it the hardest... I didn't feel burdened at all."
The Mother briefly returning to clarity, "Jingi, listen carefully. Whether we’re separated or not… your uncle will find out eventually. Your uncle will--"
"No! He won’t! He doesn’t know!!!", Jingi says immediately.
"I’ll say Dad just went somewhere!
And that he told me not to tell anyone anything. So I’ll say he’s never coming back.
I’ll stay with you. With you, Mom. Don’t go. Stay with me", Jingi pleading with his Mom not to leave them.
"Mom… where are you going? Don’t go", in pure innocence Heonjae also begs his mom to stay, not even fully grasping the situation, only scared that his Mom would be leaving them.
The Mom laments, "what am I supposed to do… my babies…" she cries out in love and despair.
But when she turns to look over her shoulder-- the Uncle... was looking in through the window...
...standing on the steps of a ladder to reach the height of their window, in silence, and without interruption.
The Uncle had listened and waited there until the entire truth was exposed...
---------------------------------------------
News reports of a woman who had murdered her husband and left parts of his remains buried in a hill near a school. The murder was prompted due to the prolonged physical abuse of her husband.
It was said that the perpetrator deliberately burned her own hand in order to conceal the cut wounds sustained during the crime.
An interview of a mother and a daughter was previewed, stating that the daughter was in the same class as the murderer's child. The little girl looks over her shoulder and mutters her classmate's name, Jingi.
The news also states that there is an ongoing investigation to see if the children were involved in the crime.
In court, a trial is being held against the accused, Mrs. Kim for the murder of her husband, Mr. Choi.
There, the Uncle was engrossed in his thoughts over his younger brother, "They say most of it was missing. What was recovered… apparently were just parts of the torso, a few toes, from what I heard. I fainted several times at the spot where the torso was found."
"He was someone who never once showed how hard things were for him... and he ended up dying like that.", enshrining his brother in memory.
Just then, the Uncle was reminded of Jingi having sided with his mother, ["with Dad, it was Mom who had it the hardest... I didn't feel burdened at all."]
"Cunning little things…", the Uncle looks to Jingi and Heonjae in contempt. "To their own father… they're the same as that woman."
The judge calls the Uncle for his statement, "Witness, do you have anything further to add?"
Standing on the podium as a witness, the Uncle makes a request,
"Please spare her the Death Penalty,"
But it was not made out of mercy for the Mother.
"Death wouldn’t be enough. All three of them. I’ll make sure they live in hell, day by day," the Uncle had decided in his mind.
He requested not for her life, but for her continued existence.
The mother sobs in apologies, "I’m sorry. I’m sorry," perhaps not to her husband or to the Uncle, but to herself and her children.
The uncle continues his request to the court with calculated restraint, "My brother was at fault too, and I also stood by and did nothing,"
A performance with controlled admission of his "faults", enough to sound like a reasonable and forgiving person.
Enough to sound like someone who can be entrusted with the custody and guardianship over the two children that the convicted would leave behind...
---------------------------------------------
At a distant relative's house, the Uncle drops off Heonjae to be taken in by the family.
"Why are you leaving this kid at our place?", the relative seeming irritated at the sudden responsibility of a child being left in their care.
"Help me out. I’ll keep sending money", the Uncle promising to provide as long as Heonjae is taken in.
Heonjae whimpers, anxious and confused at his unfamiliar environment.
"It’ll be fine. Uncle will come visit from time to time," he assures Heonjae.
As the Uncle leaves him there, he tells him "If you just endure it, it’ll pass."
We see the house's door close behind Heonjae, leaving him inside, to his own new life there.
---------------------------------------------
Jingi arrives at his uncle's house.
"Come in", he steps in to let him through.
The Uncle's thoughts continue, "don’t even think about escaping through suicide", as if already anticipating Jingi would want to.
Jingi walks into the living room.
On the couch he sees a boy with dull, vacant eyes.
It was the same boy from the police station.
"You’re from back then... your hair’s different now" Jingi noticing the yellow dyed hair.
The boy looked at him without much interest, as if Jingi's arrival was nothing new.
The Uncle calls Jingi's attention and gestures to a room.
"Come here. I’ll explain how you’re going to live from now on."
"Okay…" Jingi answers.
He steps inside the room with the Uncle.
The boy with tired eyes followed behind them naturally, as if by routine.
The door closes, leaving Jingi locked inside with them... this is where Jingi’s life sentence truly began.
As if time passed, the scene went dark, only the still image of the door remained.
The door stayed unmoving, unchanging for several panels.
Implying the abuse behind closed doors and never actually showing it, was the best most discreet choice.
The implication being exactly what we fear with the final scene of the door.
This visual storytelling was careful and deliberate as the manhwa refuses to aestheticize the abuse.
Reason why author chose this way instead of just showing it, is because explicitly showing it would risk fetishizing the abuse or end up making the scene come off as petty shock factor instead of truly acknowledging its horror.
This way forces the reader to take this part of the story seriously, to make you sit with dread, feeling sick and disgusted by it, and if you did feel those, that means it worked.
Because in BL, you know exactly what sexualized and fetishized abuse looks like. It's basically a genre around here.
BUT this scene is drawing a clear line from that, which is good. It's saying that THIS part is truly disgusting and unspeakable even.
That in no way is this part of the manhwa's BL service, but a real story point that drives the narrative and speaks about the abuse in a serious tone.
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The repetition of the door transitioning into darkness might be the same scene growing darker each second Jingi was in there.
Or it could be the same door, over the course of many different days.
As the panel image of the door repeats, time collapses. Maybe the door wasn't staying closed, but it was being closed again, and again, and again.
Saying that the abuse was ritualized and went on for a very long time. It didn't just happen once to Jingi, it became his life there.
Even the words the Uncle chose were "I'll explain how you’ll live from now on."
Not house rules, not suggestions, but "how you're going to live from now on."
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The boy with dyed hair is the final hint of the kind of abuse Jingi would suffer in that house.
The dyed hair has already been established in the story as the Uncle’s marker for victims.
Jingi doesn’t understand it yet. But the audience does.
And the purpose of the boy already being in the house before his arrival is to show us that Jingi is not the first.
Showing that this whole disgusting operation didn't start because of the Uncle's revenge.
It was already ongoing, Jingi and his family just ended up getting entangled in it.
-------------------
There were two doors that closed this chapter. Either visually or symbolically. We know of Jingi's dreaded door at the end. And there's the door that closes after Heonjae is left with the relatives.
The doors could represent their environment. Heonjae's door is left in white, while Jingi's turns dark.
Heonjae being sent away isn't because he's younger or less culpable in the Uncle's eyes. He was removed to remain untouched... for now.
Heonjae is being preserved as leverage, possible replacement-- or threatened to be a replacement if Jingi ever dared to die or leave. Saying that there would be Heonjae to take his place.
The Uncle is already anticipating that Jingi will want to run away, knowing what he’s about to subject him to. How to break him down to the point he considers suicide as an escape.
But to prevent that, Heonjae is held captive in his control.
We know that Jingi has been struggling to stay alive. We've been given hints that Jingi has wanted to end it all, especially when he first arrived in prison, eating random objects or stabbing himself over and over.
But with Heonjae ending up in jail as well, Jingi probably has no choice but to stay alive to protect him.
He had Heonjae moved to the same prison to watch over him, had to ask the Uncle's help to reduce Heonjae's sentence.
The only reason Jingi has held on until now, the only reason he's still under the Uncle's subjugation, was for Heonjae's (and previously also the Mother's) protection.
But now... their Mom's gone and he never even got to see her again. And Heonjae has turned his back on him.
Jingi has been suffering for so long...
And what does he get?
Heonjae's betrayal of Jingi!!
HEONJAE YOUR BROTHER SUFFERED FOR YOU!
Just for some bussy you're going to abandon him and work alongside his abuser :'(((
And the worst part is, Jingi can't even tell Heonjae what he's been through. Of course he wouldn't want him to know.
But how will he ever explain to Heonjae why he can't tell him anything, why he keeps so many secrets from him, why he keeps lying to him.
And so, in turn Heonjae feels in the dark by Jingi, seeing that he's so distant and closed, which then breaks Heonjae's trust in him... -------------------
"Jingi, this is the last one, right? Once this heals, you won't be hurting anywhere anymore."
Is the saddest irony in this chapter.
Believing that after getting rid of the father, the bruise on his arm would be the last pain Jingi needed to heal to make it all go away, not knowing it was far far from the last.
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Anyway, it took me a week to write this because I couldn't explain it very well. I'll try to do the next one faster!
Chapter 67 - Season 2 Chapter 2 Spoilers
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A waterpark filled with people bustling with noise and laughter. Jingi, Heonjae, and their Mom sit under the shade enjoying their snacks there.
Heonjae drinks some medicine to strengthen his constitution, and his Mom praises him for being able to handle the bitter drink.
She looks over at Jingi and sees the fading bruise on his arm, "Jingi, this is the last one, right? Once this heals, you won't be hurting anywhere anymore."
Jingi reassures his mother, "Mom, once this heals, I'll be all healthy." And in concern for his mother's own injury on her hand that is wrapped in a cast, Jingi reminds her not to get it wet in the pool.
The Mom smiles in endearment, and they spend the day in the waterpark.
----------------------------------------
On their way home, they unfortunately run into the husband's older brother (a.k.a Jingi and Heonjae's creepy uncle), who burst out yelling,
"Your husband is missing, and you take the kids to the pool!?
It's been two weeks since your husband disappeared! Two weeks!"
The Mother apologizes, she took the kids to the pool because the weather had been hot.
The Uncle says that his little brother was not the type to disappear without a word. He demands they return to the house and check one more time.
As they headed towards the car, next to them was the police station, where a boy not much older than Jingi's age was getting kicked out and scolded by the police, "Go home!! Your parents are waiting for you!"
The rebellious child answers back "Tch. I'm telling you, they're not waiting. Mind your own business, mister".
The Uncle sees this scene from a distance, he is silent and his stare is fixated, observing the vulnerable child from afar.
Jingi notices his Uncle staring at the boy and is confused of why he would be staring like that.
---------------------------------------------
1 week later, at the household. The Uncle sits and drinks on the table. He asks the mother if she knew about her husband's debt. She is shocked and says she had no idea.
The Mother tells him, "He kept handing over money, telling me to buy household items, so I thought that things were actually going well..."
"He didn't want to worry you, that guy. Even took on debt... When it came to his own hardships, he didn't talk much." The Uncle frames the situation of his brother's debt as an act of self-sacrifice and responsibility.
He then brings up the status of the missing person case he raised for his brother. "The prosecutor says there's nothing they can do without physical evidence. Sigh. That Prosecutor Sungu... he sure took favors gladly when I helped him. This is a criminal case, you bastard."
The Uncle gets up to go to the bathroom, "And you. I know this is a hard time, but try to keep the house clean. There's a strange smell in this house, it keeps making me cough." he walks through the cluttered house.
He then wonders, "But who stands to gain from my brother's disappearance?"
"Hm. At least the bathroom is clean.", he looks around as he washes his hands in the sink.
His train of thought continues, "A person who benefits from my younger brother disappearing. There were debts… so was it a loan shark after all? Did those bastards kidnap my brother? ...if they’ve already sold his organs…" He begins to despair, thinking about what could possibly have happened to his little brother.
He crouches below the sink "Where are you, Choi Hocheol?" he begins to sob. "There’s a limit to how much I can find out about him just by sending people out."
He then sees a few strands of hair sticking out the drainage below the sink "Black hair. Hocheol’s hair is like that." He picks up the strands that reminded him of his brother, "Hocheol…"
In desperation, he turns to Jingi and Heonjae trying to get any information he can about the disappearance, "You kids, when did you last see your dad? Did some stranger hang around your house or anything? If anything suspicious happened, please tell me…"
"The last time I saw Dad was… the Monday before last", Jingi answers.
The Uncle latches onto Jingi's bit of information and asks more questions, "Nothing unusual that day? What were you doing?"
"Just… playing with Mom and Heonjae.", Jingi hesitantly replies.
"So, he just vanished the next day?! Did some stranger come by at night?! No one came after Monday? Otherwise there’s no way someone disappears without a trace!!", the Uncle asked in frantic.
Jingi is starting to hesitate how much he can answer, "We went on a trip to the hill behind the school and ate lunch..."
"So, was there someone or not?!", the Uncle tries harder to find any person that can lead to his brother.
"Uh… it kind of felt like some man kept watching around our house…", Jingi being carefully vague in answering.
"I knew it!!! What did that bastard look like?! Huh?!", the Uncle explodes in aggression, thinking to have found a possible culprit.
"What would the kids even know", their Mother intervenes.
She continues, "He was the type to deal with things alone… He never spoke about those kinds of problems. He probably didn’t want to worry us…", returning back the same statements the Uncle had claimed his brother to be like.
"No one came to the house, but… Maybe my husband met someone elsewhere?”, she said calmly.
The Uncle, still anxious to know anything more that could help him find his brother, continued to ask questions, "We at least need to grab even a small clue. Jingi, tell me more about that man you mentioned earlier."
"But- but… he could’ve just been someone passing by", Jingi realizes the danger of having spoken too much and now begins to retreat his words.
The Uncle internally thinking, "his story’s changing again?"
He notices Jingi and Heonjae's current state, "Now that I look at them, they’ve been trembling this whole time."
"Alright. I’ll take that into account.", he says.
But in his mind he thinks, "It’s like they’re hiding something…"
"I’ll come back soon." He leaves and heads to his car.
As he's driving out of the driveway, he starts listing suspects in his head, "if my younger brother disappeared... who would benefit?"
"Debt collectors", his first suspect. "And... the wife and those kids", he starts building his suspicions from there.
"My brother disappears, and they’re running around going swimming. Must be living comfortably, huh?", he scoffs.
"I know my brother used to beat his wife and kids", unbothered by the awareness of the abuse.
"If my brother were still around, they wouldn’t have even dared to think about swimming pools or anything like that",
the Uncle saw their freedom as an act of defiance that they were taking advantage of now that his brother was gone.
It was irrelevant to the Uncle whether his brother was abusive to his wife and children, and the uncle's dismissal of the abuse as a cause for concern seems to be what held off any suspicions related to his brother's disappearance.
That is until the Uncle reaches into his pocket for a stick of cigarette, but instead finds the hair strands he picked from the drain... and notices the stain of blood stuck to it.
---------------------------------------------
We cut back to the house, where the mother was in a state of distraught from the Uncle's visit.
"Mom… Mom! Let’s move. Can’t we go live somewhere else now?", Jingi tries to bring his mother back
He tries convincing her of their escape after sensing the danger they were in, "not this house… Dad’s gone now, right?"
"Jingi… maybe. Maybe… I might have to be separated from you", the Mother already thinking about the consequence of prison.
Heonjae who didn't understand anything asks, "Mom, where are you going?" only understanding that their mother was going away.
She starts breaking down, "Why did I do that… I’m sorry… why did I… I think I’ve gone crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy…”, the mother begins dissociating and enters into a panic loop.
"I should’ve planned more. Why did no one help me. What do I do… fuck." her regret from the lack of strategic planning.
"I told myself I wouldn’t fall apart anymore. As a mother, all I do is ruin you… Now… now I can’t even see you."
Seeing his Mom blame herself, in tears Jingi tries to comfort her, "with Dad, it was Mom who had it the hardest... I didn't feel burdened at all."
The Mother briefly returning to clarity, "Jingi, listen carefully. Whether we’re separated or not… your uncle will find out eventually. Your uncle will--"
"No! He won’t! He doesn’t know!!!", Jingi says immediately.
"I’ll say Dad just went somewhere!
And that he told me not to tell anyone anything. So I’ll say he’s never coming back.
I’ll stay with you. With you, Mom. Don’t go. Stay with me", Jingi pleading with his Mom not to leave them.
"Mom… where are you going? Don’t go", in pure innocence Heonjae also begs his mom to stay, not even fully grasping the situation, only scared that his Mom would be leaving them.
The Mom laments, "what am I supposed to do… my babies…" she cries out in love and despair.
But when she turns to look over her shoulder-- the Uncle... was looking in through the window...
...standing on the steps of a ladder to reach the height of their window, in silence, and without interruption.
The Uncle had listened and waited there until the entire truth was exposed...
---------------------------------------------
News reports of a woman who had murdered her husband and left parts of his remains buried in a hill near a school. The murder was prompted due to the prolonged physical abuse of her husband.
It was said that the perpetrator deliberately burned her own hand in order to conceal the cut wounds sustained during the crime.
An interview of a mother and a daughter was previewed, stating that the daughter was in the same class as the murderer's child. The little girl looks over her shoulder and mutters her classmate's name, Jingi.
The news also states that there is an ongoing investigation to see if the children were involved in the crime.
In court, a trial is being held against the accused, Mrs. Kim for the murder of her husband, Mr. Choi.
There, the Uncle was engrossed in his thoughts over his younger brother, "They say most of it was missing. What was recovered… apparently were just parts of the torso, a few toes, from what I heard. I fainted several times at the spot where the torso was found."
"He was someone who never once showed how hard things were for him... and he ended up dying like that.", enshrining his brother in memory.
Just then, the Uncle was reminded of Jingi having sided with his mother, ["with Dad, it was Mom who had it the hardest... I didn't feel burdened at all."]
"Cunning little things…", the Uncle looks to Jingi and Heonjae in contempt. "To their own father… they're the same as that woman."
The judge calls the Uncle for his statement, "Witness, do you have anything further to add?"
Standing on the podium as a witness, the Uncle makes a request,
"Please spare her the Death Penalty,"
But it was not made out of mercy for the Mother.
"Death wouldn’t be enough. All three of them. I’ll make sure they live in hell, day by day," the Uncle had decided in his mind.
He requested not for her life, but for her continued existence.
The mother sobs in apologies, "I’m sorry. I’m sorry," perhaps not to her husband or to the Uncle, but to herself and her children.
The uncle continues his request to the court with calculated restraint, "My brother was at fault too, and I also stood by and did nothing,"
A performance with controlled admission of his "faults", enough to sound like a reasonable and forgiving person.
Enough to sound like someone who can be entrusted with the custody and guardianship over the two children that the convicted would leave behind...
---------------------------------------------
At a distant relative's house, the Uncle drops off Heonjae to be taken in by the family.
"Why are you leaving this kid at our place?", the relative seeming irritated at the sudden responsibility of a child being left in their care.
"Help me out. I’ll keep sending money", the Uncle promising to provide as long as Heonjae is taken in.
Heonjae whimpers, anxious and confused at his unfamiliar environment.
"It’ll be fine. Uncle will come visit from time to time," he assures Heonjae.
As the Uncle leaves him there, he tells him "If you just endure it, it’ll pass."
We see the house's door close behind Heonjae, leaving him inside, to his own new life there.
---------------------------------------------
Jingi arrives at his uncle's house.
"Come in", he steps in to let him through.
The Uncle's thoughts continue, "don’t even think about escaping through suicide", as if already anticipating Jingi would want to.
Jingi walks into the living room.
On the couch he sees a boy with dull, vacant eyes.
It was the same boy from the police station.
"You’re from back then... your hair’s different now" Jingi noticing the yellow dyed hair.
The boy looked at him without much interest, as if Jingi's arrival was nothing new.
The Uncle calls Jingi's attention and gestures to a room.
"Come here. I’ll explain how you’re going to live from now on."
"Okay…" Jingi answers.
He steps inside the room with the Uncle.
The boy with tired eyes followed behind them naturally, as if by routine.
The door closes, leaving Jingi locked inside with them... this is where Jingi’s life sentence truly began.
As if time passed, the scene went dark, only the still image of the door remained.
The door stayed unmoving, unchanging for several panels.
What horror was happening behind it, was unseen.
Until the very last panel,
...the door stayed closed.
Chapter End.
---------------------------------------------
Notes:
First, I'd like to say props to the author.
Implying the abuse behind closed doors and never actually showing it, was the best most discreet choice.
The implication being exactly what we fear with the final scene of the door.
This visual storytelling was careful and deliberate as the manhwa refuses to aestheticize the abuse.
Reason why author chose this way instead of just showing it, is because explicitly showing it would risk fetishizing the abuse or end up making the scene come off as petty shock factor instead of truly acknowledging its horror.
This way forces the reader to take this part of the story seriously, to make you sit with dread, feeling sick and disgusted by it, and if you did feel those, that means it worked.
Because in BL, you know exactly what sexualized and fetishized abuse looks like. It's basically a genre around here.
BUT this scene is drawing a clear line from that, which is good. It's saying that THIS part is truly disgusting and unspeakable even.
That in no way is this part of the manhwa's BL service, but a real story point that drives the narrative and speaks about the abuse in a serious tone.
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The repetition of the door transitioning into darkness might be the same scene growing darker each second Jingi was in there.
Or it could be the same door, over the course of many different days.
As the panel image of the door repeats, time collapses. Maybe the door wasn't staying closed, but it was being closed again, and again, and again.
Saying that the abuse was ritualized and went on for a very long time. It didn't just happen once to Jingi, it became his life there.
Even the words the Uncle chose were "I'll explain how you’ll live from now on."
Not house rules, not suggestions, but "how you're going to live from now on."
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The boy with dyed hair is the final hint of the kind of abuse Jingi would suffer in that house.
The dyed hair has already been established in the story as the Uncle’s marker for victims.
Jingi doesn’t understand it yet. But the audience does.
And the purpose of the boy already being in the house before his arrival is to show us that Jingi is not the first.
Showing that this whole disgusting operation didn't start because of the Uncle's revenge.
It was already ongoing, Jingi and his family just ended up getting entangled in it.
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There were two doors that closed this chapter. Either visually or symbolically. We know of Jingi's dreaded door at the end. And there's the door that closes after Heonjae is left with the relatives.
The doors could represent their environment. Heonjae's door is left in white, while Jingi's turns dark.
Heonjae being sent away isn't because he's younger or less culpable in the Uncle's eyes. He was removed to remain untouched... for now.
Heonjae is being preserved as leverage, possible replacement-- or threatened to be a replacement if Jingi ever dared to die or leave. Saying that there would be Heonjae to take his place.
The Uncle is already anticipating that Jingi will want to run away, knowing what he’s about to subject him to. How to break him down to the point he considers suicide as an escape.
But to prevent that, Heonjae is held captive in his control.
We know that Jingi has been struggling to stay alive. We've been given hints that Jingi has wanted to end it all, especially when he first arrived in prison, eating random objects or stabbing himself over and over.
But with Heonjae ending up in jail as well, Jingi probably has no choice but to stay alive to protect him.
He had Heonjae moved to the same prison to watch over him, had to ask the Uncle's help to reduce Heonjae's sentence.
The only reason Jingi has held on until now, the only reason he's still under the Uncle's subjugation, was for Heonjae's (and previously also the Mother's) protection.
But now... their Mom's gone and he never even got to see her again. And Heonjae has turned his back on him.
Jingi has been suffering for so long...
And what does he get?
Heonjae's betrayal of Jingi!!
HEONJAE YOUR BROTHER SUFFERED FOR YOU!
Just for some bussy you're going to abandon him and work alongside his abuser :'(((
And the worst part is, Jingi can't even tell Heonjae what he's been through. Of course he wouldn't want him to know.
But how will he ever explain to Heonjae why he can't tell him anything, why he keeps so many secrets from him, why he keeps lying to him.
And so, in turn Heonjae feels in the dark by Jingi, seeing that he's so distant and closed, which then breaks Heonjae's trust in him...
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"Jingi, this is the last one, right? Once this heals, you won't be hurting anywhere anymore."
Is the saddest irony in this chapter.
Believing that after getting rid of the father, the bruise on his arm would be the last pain Jingi needed to heal to make it all go away, not knowing it was far far from the last.
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Anyway, it took me a week to write this because I couldn't explain it very well. I'll try to do the next one faster!