beta
As much as it annoys me to see these age old tropes, in a way it’s pretty realistic for the setting. Minhyuk is ultra obsessed with his public image and it’s not like being openly gay is all that acceptable in Korea. He is just regurgitating the same homophobic shit he hears all the time, so now that he’s in this position it must feel incredibly scary to realize he may be the “weirdo” he hates. Internalized homophobia is shitty, but it’s also very realistic, and this manga isn’t trying to display a utopia where gender norms and sexuality don’t matter. At the very least, they went for comedy instead of violence with the reveals here.