Great analysis!
hm but you gotta take into account that we're only 14 chapters into the new season. if s1 had 44, then i believe s2 will follow in suit. i don't think this assassination plot is the main conflict of the season because there's also inhun and seungho's father who might play a bigger role later on. for those reasons, i find it hard to imagine this having a tragic ending.
Yes I agree. But when i said end in tragedy it doesn't just have to be due to the assassin. We can see that SH is super emotionally unstable. And I honestly don't think these two are destined to be conventionally "happy" together. I could be wrong but i guess we'll have to see what the author has up her sleeve.
You know, the fandom might force the author to get their desired ending, no matter what the author wishes for. Like it's a super hyped manhwa... Even if author would like to end it with tragedy, they might force them (her?) to change it, even if just for the commercial needs.
This is the perfect analysis in my opinion. Nakyum just wants to be loved, so people better not blame him for being a ‘doormat’ if he wants to forgive seungho or return the feelings. He’s also broken as well.
ahh i get that, but the author also confirmed in a q&a that both seungho and nakyum will be happy in their own way. for now, idk how to interpret that.
Ok wow, it doesn't sound promising at all(⊙…⊙ )
True hard to say what that could mean. Maybe I'm just too melodramatic so my mind goes straight to something like Seungho is happy to at least know Nakyum has similar feelings, but they can't be together for whatever reason or he dies knowing that NK feels the same. Or Seungho gets his "happiness" by setting himself free from his emotional torment by dying. Who knows lol. I have a constant change of perspective every time I read this story. One moment it feels really predictable, but then it isn't. I was very vocal about calling NK a bit of a typical bottom that falls for the trash dom, but honestly his actions make sense and I don't think his reactions really mean that he is falling in love or in love quite yet. I also don't feel that Seungho is in love either he just yearns for something he never had or yearning for something he knows he can't have. And that is something I think both these characters have in common. They yearn for love they know they can't have so they are there to comfort each other the only way they know how. And this isn't me romanticizing their dynamic or anything just trying to see it from a psychological standpoint.
I notice the concern with how Nakyum will react to this sudden confession from Seungho. And all I can say is well DUH of course Nakyum is gonna be super conflicted. The man that literally kidnapped him and blackmailed him into painting, tricked him and took advantage of him and took him by force until he was half dying, that man who did all those things is lowkey admitting he is going crazy over him and wants to be loved by him. Like how would any sane person react in that situation?
But the thing is Nakyum is also a pretty broken individual. Nakyum is also desperate for love and acceptance. I don't know if NK will automatically accept SH's feelings or say he loves him too. But it is obviously inevitable. NK might not love him back in the conventional sense, but he will continue to allow himself to be embraced by SH. Inhun the one NK "loves" will never feel the same for NK. NK was pushed into thinking he wasn't worth of anything other than to be a prostitute. Now this noble is treating him preciously in his own twisted way and saying he might love him. As someone who feels alone and abandoned and emotionally vulnerable, they are gonna take whatever they can get. Also in a way I think NK is trying to take the time to understand SH. He has been asking questions to look into SH's past. He is curious to figure this man out because he knows SH is broken like he is but for different reasons. NK is like a super forgiving and selfless person too. It is either his major flaw or his greatest strength. And I think the reason he is like that is because I bet NK wishes he too could have been given a second chance. He wishes others, especially Inhun, would have given him the benefit of the doubt and not condemn him so harshly for something he had no control over. He has been treated like meaningless scum over something he never wanted in the first place. And now SH is treating him differently, showing him "kindness" when he doesn't have much to gain from it. Like SH could easily still force NK into having sex without pampering him with nice clothes, the best food, a warm room, the best medicine. What does SH have to gain by doing those things? If anything it only caused him trouble with the other nobles. I think NK takes those things into consideration too. Because, well, it's Nakyum. SH was treating him better than a servant without much to gain, whereas inhun only treated him with fake kindness when he needed something from NK. NK was vaguely aware of those parallels as shown in the chapter when NK remembered getting held by Inhun and feeling that similar warmth when SH held him too. But the difference was that Inhun didn't hold him with genuine intentions.
Anyway, do I think NK is gonna reciprocate SH's feelings in the next chapter? I don't think it is likely but it's gonna give him something to really think about. The final push will be the assassin out to get him and SH's desperate attempt to save him. This might really end in tragedy.