beta
Rating this story without the second couple I'd give it a solid 9.5/10. The story including the second couple I'd give it an 8.7/10. The smut, writing, and art of this story is amazing. The art is very good, and the characters are very expressive. Especially Yura's. From the start, you can easily tell the difference between the two alters, but you can tell when they start integrating, as their personalities start merging just from the show of expressions. The character designs are great, and all the characters are very attractive. Moving on, Yura's imagination really showcased the complexity of his emotions, and some of the panels were genuinely both awe-striking as well as bordering cosmic horror. But overall, horrifyingly beautiful.
I love yanderes, and I especially love well written ones. Yura's obsession with Jinsung is just such a guilty pleasure of mine.
Now I'll talk about the smut before moving on to the story. The smut is great. And I've read about maybe a 150-ish amount of BL, and I've never found the smut to be necessary in making the story good. Now sometimes the smut in BL can be good, but I've never sought out a story just to read the smut. But this one is just great. Obviously for me, the story is good enough that I feel like most people including me would read this purely for the story. But I definitely think the smut elevated the story and was relevant as it affected Yura's mindscape.
Talking about the plot is where I have both great things to say and some criticisms. The deep insight into Yura's fragmented mind is very good. I wouldn't say it's a perfect depiction of DID, mostly because I haven't experienced it or studied it enough so I can't give it a comment on it. But from a literary standpoint, I do think the characterization of Yura is well-written and complex. Now about our main character Jinsung, I adore him. I feel like he was definitely in a tough situation and was trying to make the most out of it. At the end of the story, he was very supportive of Yura and loved every side of him, which I find very sweet. Would love to be friends with him irl. While this isn't a criticism and more of a wish, I will say I wish we could have gotten to know him a little more as he is the protagonist. Like I don't think we even know what he studies? We know he likes video games, but that seems more like a passive hobby and more of something that's present for Hyunmin than him. How did he feel about his parents dying? Because it feels mostly as if an excuse to get him and Yura to live together, but it's not really a mention at all. Overall though, the lack of character exploration for him doesn't detract from the story, just something I feel like wouldn't have hurt the story to add in.
Now for actual criticism, I'm going to talk about the second couple. I didn't like Hyunmin at all, I felt very icked out from him. Jaepil is fine. I found his friendship with Jinsung very cute. But one thing I'll say about Jaepil is this: the author should not have put a character to serve as a medical advisor to the main character if their advice is going to be incredibly inaccurate. This very much broke the immersion for me. While I can't comment on the depiction of DID, I know enough to say this: if Jaepil did study psychology, why the hell is his advice to Jinsung so wrong?? Like for example, anyone who knows anything about DID would have recommended to Jinsung to have told Yura about his different alters and discuss the idea of integration and therapy. Now I do think he does talk about this later on in the story, but it feels very weird where early on to around the 40's chapters Jaepil tells Jinsung to never let Yura find out about the other personality or else the main personality will disappear. Which is like, not how that works??? Now obviously, this is supposed to drive the conflict and tension in the story, as now Jinsung is put to the challenge of not letting Yura ever find out about what he does with the other alter. But it just irks me that the main conflict of this story is essentially driven up by false medical advice. And it also confuses me because integration is essentially what happens anyways, so like did the author do her research legit or??
Another criticism is just how awfully timed the second couple always take the spotlight in the story. Like anytime there is suspense for the main couple, the story suddenly switches to the second one, and it just always annoys me because it just genuinely detracts the story for me. If hyunmin was a decently written character I would've been more okay with it, but he is just so unappealing to me. If the second couple was more relevant to the main plot I would've been fine with it, but they don't add anything aside from Jinsung's occasional interactions with Jaepil. I feel like the author should have put their relationship as purely side stories, because it's just not a good idea for a story like this that deals with a serious plot and heavy subject to randomly focus on something completely unrelated to it.