he's probably above average face-wise, as in not ugly, cute but with seriously low presence, so not attention grabbing at all. so he could be dork for his horrible fashion taste plus his shy and awkward demeanor, making him further look like a dork. theres a kid in my class whos super gorgeous but shes so shy and very quiet with everyone except her friend, so everyone considers her a loner and awkward, not in a bad way, i think she feels most comfortable like that. in korea, loners are especially looked down on, like eating outside alone or going to a movie alone is seen as pathetic (but i love eating without talking, i can focus on the food!). jiwon on the other hand is celebrity-level gorgeous with a strong presence and has a lot of "friends." so they're both good looking, but on different levels (at least thats what i get from it). its their personalities that make the difference when it comes to how people treat them. low self esteem tends to show itself, and with dg it especially shows since hes a giant pushover (jiwon is miles better at hiding it), making others want to treat him like a pushover.
also, i think as you grow to like someone even just as friends you consider them more and more good looking as time passes on because its kind of like their face now has their personality on it (unless they actually are super ugly, then youll probably just like their personality alone). i think its the case for dg, the more you know him the more you like him, the better he looks (even if they are already good looking, just not in a flashy way). he was cute enough to get a blind date request from a girl hoobae as well as a good response from the photography class without his personality (or maybe his growing self esteem made him feel easier to approach? im reading too much into this ╮(￣▽￣)╭).
This is very spot on and accurate. I agree!
i think its like how korean netizens think people of certain visual levels can only do certain entertainment jobs. dg could be good looking enough to be an idol, maybe not the visual but probably a stan attractor, and jiwon could be an actor with his visuals even if he sucks at acting, but the boys been acting his whole life so he'd probably be a great actor. if dg became an actor people might shit on him for not being actor level visual, unless hes an incredible actor
The way the author drew him, I'd consider him attractive and Jaejin his friend calls him handsome all the time but literally everyone else calls him a dork without even knowing him and jiwon said dg is not someone he'd even typically take a second glance at. I'm so confused, is he a dork automatically because of the way he dresses or is it demeanor because if dg were attractive I don't understand why so many characters treat him like a loser. That's not to say you need to "look good" otherwise you'd be a loser, I just mean that the way they refer to him makes me think the characters think he is unattractive or something