This is bound to become a classic of the genre if it isn't already: Highly recommended, even for people not "into BL".
It starts out as this really funny, light-hearted read with Ewon -- the (for once) very personable and highly likable main character -- getting what was coming to him for being too much of player. Progressively the story gains depth and your heart starts doing unhealthy things: without realising it, you've found yourself caught up in this crazy, beautiful romance, much like Ewon and Mookyul.
The pacing of this story is so amazing that you don't even realise when you fell in love with them or exactly when they fell in love with each other, you just know they're meant to be, and that your heart will ache if something comes to disrupt this!
And it will ache, because the angst is delicious like that, and aside from a bout of excessive drama in the last chapters, it never feels like a clunky device there to spice things up but rather that the difficulties are present from the start and arise naturally from who and what they are, that shit was simply bound to happen.
Before you get there though, you'll have chapters and chapters of slowly rising, lovely UST (no easy "love at first sight" deal here) and great character development: background stories, unveiling of personalities, it's all very and well done and makes the characters three-dimensional. Because Yoo Hajin doesn't do clichés, or rather, she does them her way and that changes everything.
She put **such an interesting spin on
the seme/uke and 'childhood friends'
tropes.** I usually hate those clichés but here I didn't mind
! Mookyul's possessiveness for example, because it was convincingly rooted in his personality, and very much balanced by the affection he showed a ~cold-hearted Ewon, and how willing he was to put his heart on the line even when Ewon was liable to scram at any given time.
And that give and take is part of what makes the dynamics and chemistry between Ewon and Mookyul so awesome.
She wasn't able to totally escape all the clichés on two instances in the end, and that's why I didn't give it a 10.
One of the things that bugged me is that I-only-top-Ewon never got to top Mookyul (even though he offered several times, and that nothing showed he was adverse to it to begin with) and that we never got to see player-Ewon initiating a sexual encounter. Having Mookyul be an insatiable sex-fiend was fun for a while, and it fit his whole-hearted, giving attitude vs Ewon's reserved, protective stance. So yeah, it made sense at first, but it gets old, especially with Ewon always so reluctant at first. I would have loved to see that aspect of their relationship evolve as a final resolution rather than the OOC disappearing-act they pulled in the last two chapters.
The art was a bit off sometimes ( but after all, *what is anatomy? 😉 * ) but the stylised aspect was neat and efficient, if not beautiful. I don't usually care for clothes but damn were some of the outfits gorgeous, and likewise some shots of Mookyul (and of Ewon come to think of it) simply took my breath away.
In the end, between the emotional twists and turns, the angst and very sweet (but never sickeningly fluffy) moments, the humour with the adorable chibi faces, the characterization and exceptional talent for story-telling and pacing, this is without a doubt one of the best yaoi, nay, manga, I have ever read.
(-8)
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