beta
I've been trying to wrap my mind around Jaewon's deal for a while, because I've found his character to be flat and one-dimensional, honestly repetitive from when he was a kid and first spoke to Seo-In in the hospital up until they were teenagers.
Personally, I dont think it's that he specifically wanted parental attention/love because we never see him particularly interested in his own parents. He even goes out of his way to upset them to get at Seo-In(literally outs the both of them).
My recent guess is the lack of control he has over his own life. The first time we really see Jaewon get sensitive about something is when Seo-In pokes at how sickly he is. My guess is that once Seo-In entered, he quite literally saw a version of himself that had everything and could do everything he would've wanted. Bc Jaewon can't do judo as well, spends a lot of time at the hospital, and can't take after his mom and model like Seo-In. Seo-In would be an embodiment of what his life would've been if he was healthy and capable.
As a result, he forces Seo-In into submission to be his 'shadow' and flaunts his control over Seo-In to make up for being 'lacking'. Kind of like a 'if i cant have a life, you cant either. You have to be worst off than me" to make jaewon feel better about himself.