You’re a genius I didn’t even realize that
yup korean paps and fans can be rly scary. if joowon had said "i did it to protect a friend" immediate digging into every single person joowon was ever close with would happen and ofc top of the list would be his step brother Haesoo. what Joowon did was not only smart but considerate. he has more to lose than haesoo if a scandal happens but haesoo would def be hurt by all the public scrutiny more because he's a sensitive guy. so yeah Joowon's rdy to fuck up his career for haesoo's emotional wellbeing (without expecting anything in return or being in any kind of romantic relationship right now) but i always kinda knew he would and had a feeling the story was building up to that. and it'll probably what pushes haesoo to be more honest with himself about his own feelings. or i hope so anyway. (i saw the raws and haesoo and joowon finally interact again in ch84. cant wait!)
What Jowoon is doing is likely trying to PROTECT Haesoo from the media. If it gets dragged out that he did it for revenge for another person, the media's going to dig into who that person was and Haesoo will be the prime choice, making his life even more chaotic. So Jowoon saying it was of his own accord will place all of the attention and blame on himself. He's literally ruining his career to protect Haesoo.