I remember reading the manhwa in my early 20s when it started publishing and liking it, but then I forgot about it. I read it again and honestly, I'm a bit terrified. I remember that I just thought that it's your "typical Korean type of storytelling with rich, smart and very pushing ML" but now that I'm older, I was honestly disgusted with how his action was perceived as loving and everyone was cheering for them and waiting for the FL to finally give in and accept the romance.
The problem I have with this is... she didn't want any of this. I will have to put spoilers now, as I will describe a lot of situations from the first half of the story.
The FL kept explicitly saying she doesn't want the wedding or his help/influence in her life, that this is all too fast, it doesn't make sense, etc. Her thoughts, needs and opinions were dismissed under the pretense of "taking responsibility" and "doing the right thing". I guess most readers (including me when I was first reading it) were just happy that the man wants to take responsibility, she won't have to be a single mother, and we saw that he genuinely just wants to take care of her as he's falling for her.
Unfortunately, looking from her point of view, she had no idea about his feelings or thoughts. The only thing she saw was his eagerness to tie her by the knot, even though she was adamant about not wanting this marriage. She didn't have a moment to even think about this, he decided for her. I'm so happy that later she didn't let him change the topic again and she pressured him to finally tell her that he was sure they will get married and didn't even take the possibility of this not happening. That's why he made the preparations for the wedding before she even agreed to go on any type of dates with him, which were only excuses to him anyway, because he never really took under consideration her words of feelings. Sure, they were a good match, so if they talked about their reasoning and feeling, they would probably get to it anyway, but they only started to do it AFTER the marriage!
Imagine a real life situation when you end up getting pregnant through one-night stand, know nothing about the guy, have terrible family history and trauma about loveless marriage and then the guy states 'we're getting married' and you have absolutely no say in it, because he introduces himself as your husband-to-be to your sister, your family (on a wedding you didn't even invite him to!), everyone at your workplace, he screams to you to get into his car when he sees you talking with another man and many other pushing situation. Not to mention the language he uses. When she confronts him that it wasn't okay for him to tell the director that she's pregnant with his child and will marry him without her agreement or as much as consulting her, he gaslights her shouting at her that "Tch, If you didn't want me to step in, then you shouldn't have let the situation spiral out of hand like that'? Victim blaming, really? After basically deciding, they are going to be wed? It's like he actually wanted to tie her up with the baby.
The ML never once stopped to listen to her. He ignored her questions, literally deciding to put a jacket over her, instead answering her and proceeding with a question about here eating well. It's so patronizing that it's making me sick. She never once said or showed that she's cold or not eating. She's a grown woman who took care of herself for years and he treats her like a child who can't even take care of her meals or clothing.
This is very, very toxic.
I'm honestly appalled, because at first read I also thought it's sweet! I guess this is why women over 27 always tell their younger friend not to believe men over 27 who can't find girls their age to date. Most of the teenagers/young adults are probably too naive, inexperienced, good-hearted to understand that a man being kind while dismissing our input/feelings/thoughts is actually toxic and will not let us have our own say and opinion later on.
I'm seriously worried about everyone that thinks this is okay, just like I did.
I hope you don't get into this kind of manipulative relationships in real life. Stay safe everyone <3
(I didn't really hate it, but I gave 1 as I feel like the author romanticized the relationship in a way that a lot of readers doesn't see anything wrong with it, as if it's normal to be dragged into marriage without any of your opinions, thoughts and feelings being heard at all. It gives the vibe to readers that's it's okay to be manipulate, because 'he has good intentions'.)
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