Lethargic's feed

The new chapter is actually one of my favorites so far.
It's heartbreaking and unassuming because it's not so much thrill and action but we get to see two characters speaking out what they are thinking: Mr Kim and Nakyum.
Maybe because for me I am well over the point of discussing the fictional morality of Seungho x Nakyum ( I am not a reader who can't live without social justice moral in my fiction, my favorite character is a Yakuza boss so if I am to demand my fictional characters to be punished by their behavior like they would in real life, my choice in Yaoi section would be really, really tiny). Anyway, since I am not in the least bothered by Seungho x Nakyum endgame and think the author heavily, massively promotes this ship like honey at the end of the tunnel, I think the fun of this story is really about watching how the author will write the path to that.
In the last chapter, we clearly see that both Seungho and Nakyum have conflicting feelings towards each other but they can't help but be drawn towards the other man. Seungho has fallen in love with Nakyum. Yes, it's a selfish, entitled way of love that only a man who grew up starved of affection but it's used to get anyone can have. He doesn't know how to love Nakyum any other way but taking it as if it was his right. At the same time, what Mr Kim said is really important. Why is Seungho so cruel to Nakyum? He goes from extreme opposites from torturing Nakyum to doing things he never bothered to do for anyone else. So why is he cruel to the person he clearly can't live without ? My theory is only that Seungho instinctively fights the feeling of being under someone's power. He feel in love with the lowborn but he hates him for it.
Nakyum on the other hand. I know people love to talk about Stockholm syndrome but I feel readers forget the early chapters where Nakyum and Seungho were already drawn for each others. Seungho always was alluring to Nakyum, he was already having erotic dreams with the master, in his sexual awakening and even during his torturous events, the fact is that Nakyum also got to see the very small glimpses of a human Seungho. Be when he was vulnerable having nightmares or when he was passed out drunk confessing, or when he once felt the 'warmth' in Seungho's embrace. So, as much as readers want to paint Seungho as only monster, the story is telling that Nakyum got close enough to see bits of a different Seungho. On top of it, Seungho fell for him and being cherished, even more by someone you know it's unattainable to you is a powerful thing.
Anyway, I think this chapter was beautifully crafted. It has even more signs that the story is following a classic formula of powerful man being tamed by a seemingly powerless one. Mr Kim, a man we know has been with Seungho for years, is canon saying that he knows Seungho is not heartless.... this is important too because the story needs to have Seungho as a damaged human that needs rescue as much as Nakyum. For all that Seungho did to Nakyum, there is also a part of Nakyum that got woken by Seungho and I am not talking about sex. It was Seungho's words in the market that provoked Nakyum to go demand from Inhun an answer about what he was for him. So it's not only one side being changed here. They are both shaping the other.