This is a sweet story and have some philosophical moments about friendship, life, death.
It's quite short but the art is beautiful (the first manwha in full color that I ever read) and I really enjoyed.

Random pop song lyrics show up as "background music" occasionally, which translates weirdly to comic form. It treats suicide as lightly as any other "woe is me" teenager. The "backgrounds" are just blurred and 'watercolored' photos of backgrounds. The only real bit of plot is so brief and anti-climatic. This can barely even be called shounen-ai.

AND YET. There is just something about this one that I loved and it always leaves me wanting more. I think part of it is the pacing - it's much more slowly paced than most manga/manhwa, especially in this genre. You can actually believe them becoming close friends, and then possibly something more, instead of them falling into each other's arms instantly.

So, there's a lot of pros and cons to this manhwa, but in the end, I enjoyed it.

i loved this manhwa. a lot. in fact, it has easily become one of my favorites.

a lot of the art is actual photos and the characters are drawn in. it gave the story a more concrete, realistic feel to it and i fell head over heels.

since one of the characters loves photography, to actually see some amazing real-life photography was stunning. the symbolism of the photography being a form of self-reflection really does fit the art style of this manhwa and i was really impressed with how much effort the artist spent on it all together.

the actual story may not be action packed and riveting but i truly love how the story concentrates more on the characters themselves whom have their own weight to carry and the way they personally deal with it is also very real.

overall, this manhwa is gorgeous and the story is very well-developed.

i definitely recommend this to anyone looking to read a good story with beautiful art! (:

... Last updated on November 3rd, 2014, 12:00pm

I like how the artist/writer used the technique of photographic backgrounds. It gave a fresh depth to the story along with the use of bright water-colour appearing art. It played in well with the theme of what the seemingly mundane photos meant to the man on the run, and how he defined himself--and kept his sanity--from his terribly painful past.

From the perspective of a murder-mystery, the ending was terrible! It dissolves into a complete escape attempt at writing a true ending. Thankfully, the author choose throughout to not really focus on the false accusation of murder; rather, it was about the growth of these two individuals as they defined themselves through their tumultuous young adulthood.

It never deals with sexuality (other than as insults during an assault), but it does begin to delve into true intimacy, care for another and the brilliance that still shines from people's broken souls. In fact, I wouldn't call this boy's love at all. It never went beyond anything further than a love between men that could be a close brother type relationship or best friend tenderness. I admire the artist's ability to write such a touching relationship that I found compelling even without the sexual love apparent.

I was mildly disappointed because it seemed to wrap up much too quickly even for the self-discovery and growth of a deep, close friendship.

There were moments of vision and compelling characterization, but there was also something lacking in cohesion for the entire piece. I think, with practice and more experience this manhwa writer will improve in both story telling and art.

... Last updated on February 25th, 2010, 4:29am

Honestly, there's nothing interesting about this manwha. No story to keep you on your toes at all time, this is more of a laid-back type of story despite the photographer and the suicide kid running away together from the photographer's troubles.

First of all, the characters are beautifully designed in the first few pages, mostly because the background was included. Later as the two ran away together, no background was in sight...or at least not much of it. The colors are nice, gorgeous.

Second of all, the story is plain and boring. I think that's more than enough words to describe since there's not much to say.

And lastly, though boring, I did like the gentle pace it took during the middle of the story. But because it was so gentle, there was no more spark. Not recommended.

There is something about this manhwa which bothers me a lot. Something that bothers me to the point of making me enjoy the story and characters less than I normally might have done. You see, this manhwaga actually draws very little of her own manhwa. In point of fact, the only thing this manhwaga draws (and deserves any praise for) are the characters. Everything else--every background image we see, every interior shot, every panoramic view, even some of the items the characters carry and interact with (a soda can, for instance) has ALL been photoshopped in.

Now I know many of you probably think I should STFU because the characters do look pretty and the story is entertaining enough, so who cares? But in my opinion, this is something to care about. I pick up a manga/manhwa, in part, because of the art. If I just wanted a good story, I'd read a book. If I wanted amazing pictures, I'd watch a movie. But I'm just not getting enough of the manhwaga's actual art to justify continuing to read this instead of just picking up a book/watching a movie. Depending upon the chapter, only 25% of what we're seeing may have actually been drawn by the manhwaga! (It gets worse as the series goes on.)

Moreover, I think the photographs are negatively impacting the development of the story. Think about it: what the characters see and do is limited by what photographs the artist has on hand. This is a road trip manhwa. Rather than the characters visiting some of the more interesting places in Korea, as one might expect given the road trip genre, all they've done is drive around and go to hotels. I can't help but think that the adventures they could be having, and the investigating into Lee Hyuk-Soo's innocence they could be doing are getting shortchanged due to the manhwaga not having the photographs she needs to write the scene. (Whether it's because she doesn't have the ability to visit these places and take the pictures herself, or not being able to google up enough non-copyrighted images, I don't know.)

Setting all that aside, the story is mostly OK. For the most part, as I said, the characters don't really do much. Mainly they sit around and feel angst about their pasts. At times I feel sorry for them, but at other times I just want to tell Han Soo-Bum (in particular) to suck it up and move on with his life. (There's got to be more to these characters than just their sad pasts, right?) The good thing about all the talking the characters do is that we get to watch their relationship slowly develop. The bad thing about this is that it's also occasionally boring, and each chapter doesn't always leave much of an impression on the reader. For plot and character development, I can't exactly recommend the manhwa, but I wouldn't not recommend it either. Overall, it's a nice manhwa, but not much more than that.

... Last updated on December 5th, 2009, 2:23pm

The characters are REALLY gorgeous and it's all in color, which makes it just that much prettier. The relationship between the two characters is a bit different than a lot of other shounen-ai. Although there's an obvious stronger character, the other one isn't super girly or really weak, either. It also fully develops their relationship, it goes through those steps of how their feelings develop and so forth.

It also deals with some great issues, which makes it super angsty and depressing. I can't wait for more releases!!