there are only six chapters so far, so it’s hard to say exactly what is going on here, but… from what i can tell, it seems to be pointing to a pursuit of someone (something) unfamiliar in the midst of the mundane familiar. dennis, a gentle and honest person, is susceptible to being manipulated by an alluring, mysterious person like todd. i think it’s possible that todd is representative of a change of pace that dennis simultaneously craves and fears—dennis seems to be quite dutiful, and works hard to serve a purpose, upholding the values instilled in him by his upbringing. he tends to the sheep because it’s the job that was assigned to him. nevertheless, he finds himself growing bored of the monotonous life he has acquired, and it would seem he bears some curiosity for what lies outside of it, opening his arms to a stranger even after being told not to trust anything out in the middle of nowhere… i.e. away from social pressures keeping him tied to his values. todd’s arrival throws a wrench in everything that dennis once knew, planting an uncertainty that creeps out from deep within. in a literal sense, dennis falls in love with todd and becomes intimate with him, in spite of the social norms of the time. the sheep are killed one by one as dennis grows more deviant, straying further away from the beliefs burned into him by the society he lived in.
as of now, i’m not seeing todd as inherently antagonistic… rather, i think his hostile role in this story is moreso symbolic of dennis’s fear of letting go of familiarity. to dennis, this feels destructive; even though the life he knows is boring and cumbersome, it’s comfortable to him because this how he has always lived. for someone to come into his life and break all of that in half—to have feelings like this for a man, even though that goes against everything he knows—it’s like a coyote coming out of nowhere and killing all of the sheep he had been trusted to care for. yes, it’s all entirely out of his control—it must be—or is it? i think this story is indicative of an internal struggle between conformity and honest self-fulfillment. dennis pursues his desires readily all while feeling deep down that he’s doing something wrong. even though he’s fully in control of his actions, he convinces himself that he isn’t responsible for any of it… that it wasn’t him who killed the sheep, but a coyote that ambushed him when his guard was down.
…but that’s just my two cents. i also might just be talking out of my ass we’ll see, i guess…!
i’m really happy that both jinhyeong and songrik found families that would love them even though they couldn’t stay with each other
i know yall love sex and i guess this one is especially hot but this whole sex arc has been boring as hell. how many chapters has it been of JUST sex i want more plot stuff
i see a lot of people arguing about which one is in the wrong, but i would say that BOTH have hurt each other immeasurably. songrik and jinhyeong were both deeply traumatized kids with poor impulse control and underdeveloped empathy. their actions are largely derived from what has been modeled to them—jinhyeong will sit on his high horse, take the easy route and succumb to his father’s pressure out of self-preservation, while songrik is inclined to be nasty and try to knock jinhyeong down because that’s how he has been hurt in the past. songrik undeniably took it too far, avoiding communication in favor of using brute force and humiliation… i do pity him, but he absolutely escalated the situation in a petty, immature way. nevertheless, jinhyeong was also immature for retaliating in the way he did. he knew just how much it hurt to be publicly humiliated, and he did it back to songrik as a kind of retribution… but it’s all too much. neither of them deserved this.
jinhyeong made the wrong choice by going back to his father in the first place. this has nothing to do with songrik and his complex about personal sacrifice and whatnot. for jinhyeong’s own sake, he shouldn’t have made that choice—this isn’t to blame him at all, because what jinhyeong had with his father was a strong trauma bond that made it incredibly difficult for him to break free from his grasp… but it’s important to recognize that songrik was NOT the only one who relied on harmful, maladaptive coping mechanisms to get by. this entire thing was caused by a series of poor choices and ignorance by both parties.
guwon’s behavior is reflective of his complete lack of perspective. he makes decisions based on guesses and assumptions about morality and rightness. he does seem to be fully aware that he doesn’t know very much… he clings to jinwoo for that exact reason. it’s not that he wants to be scolded or anything like that—he wants someone to guide him. he’s big and dangerous and threatening, and because of that people hesitate to challenge him at all, when in actuality he NEEDS to be challenged because he doesn’t know anything… he’s ignorant and unsocialized like a child who just recently came into this world, but he lives in the body of a giant man, so everyone just assumes he knows exactly what he’s doing, lol.
i would probably peg guwon as morally bankrupt, but NOT heartless… i think that’s an important distinction. he seems to truly care for the people in his town, and he does things like this as he deems it necessary for the greater good of the community, regardless of any emotional repercussions—it doesn’t matter if it makes him feel sad or causes him pain to kill someone he cares for, because as long as that person makes choices that harm the community at large (even indirectly), the individual must be eliminated to save the rest. it’s a serious moral debacle, because you generally want to presume that killing is ALWAYS wrong—that under no circumstances should you take a human life—but in situations such as this where resources are truly limited and cannot be disposed on people who aren’t providing anything, what is the solution? when stranded atop a freezing mountain, should you all starve together, or should the strongest survive at the dispense of the others? this is the question being posed here, and it’s clear that jinwoo and guwon are in opposing corners. i think a lot of you are seriously doing a disservice to this story because you’re all just debating whether or not guwon is a red flag, when that’s really not the point…
why are y’all SO sure guwon is a red flag just because he threw up did you not see how pleased he was anyways? my first thought was that he’s… y’know, a zombie, so he threw up after ingesting human bodily fluids. maybe he has been resisting eating people to keep himself from fully turning, and kissing like that was just a little too close. maybe he isn’t able to ingest ANYTHING? since he doesn’t seem to eat during meal times. of course, there are a lot of possibilities—something related to his past?—but in my mind, NONE of which include him being evil. this seems like an obvious red herring to me. i think you all are forgetting who this author is, lol! he may come to have some flaws or be a little weird, but i highly doubt he’s a full-on red flag.
at first i was sure i could get past the age gap since this has the perfect muscle bottom, but… it seems like ml acts even younger than he actually is LOL it’s difficult to overlook. he’s like an excited kid which just doesn’t pair very well with… sexual relations with your boss who is 14 years your senior
even though jinwoo has dirty fantasies like this, it would seem like the real guwon is actually a bit of a romantic and a flirt who wants to do things right… he’s setting the mood, building up to it carefully instead of talking nasty and immediately pounding into it like jinwoo imagines… lol
maybe this is a reach, but… is charcoal guy even actually a sex worker…???? i feel like mc kind of just jumped to that conclusion after seeing him get paid by someone… which could’ve been for anything. a misunderstanding like that would DEFINITELY warrant how rude he is to mc, even if it felt overboard at first
yall… i think he’s just good. he didn’t even make a creepy face or think anything freaky after jinwoo walked away. he just kept studying… he’s responsible but lacks social awareness. you guys should have some faith in 945 lol
aside from the sick and twisted stuff that happens at certain points, this series is sooo beautiful the way the author wrote the day-to-day conversations between ye-gyum and jooin really made it clear how close they were. i feel like oftentimes the relationships in webcomics seem superficial, but this didn’t have that vibe… they really liked each other, were trusting and wanted to know everything about the other. it’s just amazing that they actually talked to each other. when they made sacrifices for each other and appeared hurt at the other’s pain, it actually made sense because you could already see WHY they were so connected through every interaction they had. they’re compatible and have a closeness far beyond necessity or Sex All The Time… which cannot be said for most yaoi couples lol
here are my thoughts:
while it’s likely that guwon’s childlike behavior in front of jinwoo is not the full picture (given the reactions the townspeople have to his presence), i think we have reason to believe it isn’t a complete sham, either.
1. he’s obviously very strong. if he wanted to, he could easily have his way with jinwoo without all of this dillydallying, but it would seem that he DOES care how jinwoo is feeling and ultimately wants jinwoo to like him. given guwon’s seemingly broken moral compass and lack of common sense, i don’t know why he would’ve taken jinwoo’s wishes to heart and chosen to wait until he was ready if guwon was just planning on becoming forceful with jinwoo in the end. basically, i doubt he has the foresight to intentionally lull jinwoo into a false sense of security before jumping on him—if he wanted to jump on him, he’d just do it. on the contrary, i think he ACTUALLY wants jinwoo to feel comfortable around him.
2. based on this author’s history, it seems likely that guwon will be a considerate character who has a good heart in spite of misdeeds. we can see how guwon has a soft spot for children, given the fact that he accepted jinwoo solely because he was a teacher, and the kids needed an education. he continues to do little acts of kindness for jinwoo in a way that feels somewhat similar to what beom gunwoo did for yeo eui-joon in dangerous convenience store.
3. if we take guwon’s reaction to jinwoo’s statement in chapter 7 at face value, it would seem that guwon is drawn to jinwoo because he was the only person who really saw him. most of the other townspeople appear to be afraid of guwon. regardless of what is really happening beneath the surface, i believe guwon has some humanity that had yet to be seen or understood before jinwoo came along and treated him like a person. it’s clear that jinwoo is giving guwon a chance before making any negative assumptions in a way that others may not have, and guwon is clinging to that chance.