Computer science major Chu Sangwoo is the epitome of an inflexible and strict rule-abiding person. While working on a liberal arts group project with freeloaders who don’t put in any effort, Sangwoo reasonably decides to remove their names from the final presentation.
But he didn’t imagine how involved he would become with the person whose study-abroad plans were messed up because of that project. The involved the campus star who everyone knows, Department of Design’s Jang Jaeyoung. He has everything from skills, looks, family background and good relationships except for 1 big Chu Sangwoo.
What happens when an engineer and an artist whose personalities are like oil and water have to work together? Jang Jaeyoung is like a semantic error in the perfect world of Chu Sangwoo. Will Sangwoo be able to debug this?
idk how the volumes/chapters work here on gr, but i'm currently up to date with the latest chapter (85) and i didn't expect to fall in love hard with the characters and romance but i couldn't stop reading. 😭 i've seen the kdrama adaptation a while ago but bc i've been in my manga/manhwa mood atm and i haven't been reading books as much this month, i ended up reading this instead and ngl, the manhwa hits different. i loved how the relationship was explored more and, despite some miscommunications, some scenes had me tearing up lol. i also loved seeing Sang Woo's growth throughout the story.
It pains me to rate this a 3 and it’s because I love the live action drama so much. If there ends up being a season 2 of the drama, I can’t imagine Jaeyoung acting the way he does in the manhwa. I agree with those who say consent isn’t well done here. Jaeyoung is more aggressive then I would’ve imagined him to be. He does stop but Sangwoo locking himself in the bathroom because he is overwhelmed by his desires and is too scared to act on them is understandable and it doesn’t help when Jaeyoung is demanding him to come out and talk. It reads as threatening even though I don’t think that was the intent. It could be the translation I read. Jaeyoung wants to force him to talk it out which communication is important but Sangwoo had to throw him off him to get space. He is worried it will go to far if he’s close to Jaeyoung which it’s kind of apparent in the art no matter how it’s translated. You wouldn’t lock yourself up like that if you weren’t worried. I think the manhwa gets away with it because nothing goes further, but the consent here is weak. With that in mind and I am fully aware of the problems but I can’t help but read through all the available translated chapters and again I know I’m biased because I loved the drama so much and root for the characters because I’m trash. Season 2 is still ongoing and I made it to chapter 58 for reference.
I suffer no delusions that this is a great book, and I still really want the one guy to respect the other's neurodivergence. (Or to even understand that he's not just "weird" or "OCD" in the nonmedical sense.) But damn if it doesn't have its hooks in me.
This was an excellent volume. Sangwoo Choo and Jaeyoung Jang, two college students who get on each other’s nerves, continue their strange friendship. In the previous volume, Jaeyoung tired to unsettle Sangwoo, who is a stickler to his routines and a bit OCD, and he succeeded too. Here, he changes his approach and becomes nice. Sangwoo has no idea how to take it.
But when Jaeyoung stops hanging around Sangwoo, the latter doesn’t know how to take it either, and his studies suffer again. To make matters worse, Sangwoo finds himself getting aroused around Jaeyoung, which isn’t how things are supposed to work in his very tightly organised world where sex is only between opposite genders for reproduction.
To get his life back in order, Sangwoo talks Jaeyoung to taking part in the game developing project again. They have a rocky start, they are so different, but manage to make it work. But then, bewilderingly to Sangwoo, emotions or maybe lust, get in the way. Jaeyoung gives Sangwoo an ultimatum: either they see where this leads or they call the project and their friendship off. The volume ends with this cliffhanger. It’ll be agony to wait to see how it goes.
This wasn’t as aggravating as the first volume. Jaeyoung especially is less annoying here. There are some scenes from his point of view and we learn that he has a serious crush on Sangwoo, which baffles him. Art continues to be excellent.
Cuando terminé la segunda temporada ni me lo pude creer. Demoré varios segundos en comprender lo rápido que me lo leí, por eso le doy las 4 estrellas. Desde que lo inicié no pude parar de leerlo, me cautivó.
I loved it so much! Their relationship the development and the plot was so good and I would recommend this to anybody who loves an enemy to lover story. I really wish we could see more from them😭
Okay! This volume was so much better. Maybe it’s because the tension got to sexual tension and they actually talked about stuff. If it keeps moving towards the relationship area, I may fall in love.
I liked how realistic Jang Jaeyoung and Chu Sangwoo's relationship progression is, along with Sangwoo's struggle with coming to terms with his sexuality.
Afaik the author has never mentioned Sangwoo being in the autism spectrum but from day one he can be read as neurodivergent simply by the peculiar way he views life and how he deals with everyday trouble and interacts with people. Even if the author's intentions aren't him being autistic it can be viewed as an accurate representation nevertheless.
There's some controversy about Jaeyoung's actions in this but i didn't find them as problematic tbh. I mean, of course jaeyoung has some issues...specially anger issues lol, he's definitely not right in the head by any means but that's why his difficulty to understand the way Sangwoo thinks is very on character.
The art of this manhwa is very beautiful ;_; Angy Kim is a great illustrator and i appreciate the bodies of the characters aren't extremely exagerated like in your common BL manhwa, lmao.
This is a slow burn with less issues than some BLs I've read. However, that's not to say that it's perfect. We have a story where one MC, Sangwoo, has some very backwards, conservative views regarding same sex relationships. Despite that, he's trying to work his attraction to Jaeyoung out of his system and the way that's executed is a bit questionable. Namely, there's a tension created every time Jaeyoung pushes past Sangwoo's boundaries and, as with most BLs, that's treated like an acceptable thing.
This is a story that has consisted of several instances where Jaeyoung knows Sangwoo's discomforting situations and orchestrates them anyway. Most of the time, he does that because he likes seeing Sangwoo react. It's... not unexpected for a BL, but it's no less irritating.
Anyway, the weaker parts of this series continue to be that BL trope (pushy ML and anxious ML that is basically harassed into love) and the weirdness that surrounds Ryu. She's been treated horribly by Jaeyoung and she's done nothing to deserve it. On top of that, she's like the unfortunate many female characters that show up in BLs and appear incapable of reading situations. I don't understand why she's chasing a guy that barely remembers her name, but that's the way things are in BLs. Someday, I hope someone writes a story about all of these female characters because it's really sad how many of them exist as unnecessary obstacles for the MLs.
me ha gustado este vol2 me gusta que el que tiene cara de fuckboy entendió al protagonista sangwoo en cuanto a lo de tener sexo, soy de las que cree que sangwoo va a ser más provocador una vez ya se suelte y se abra más con el cara de fuckboy jahsjsjs esperando por ese vol3 SI ALGUIEN SABE DONDE PUEDO LEER LA NOVELA LET ME KNOW
posdata: nunca me aprendo los nombres y escribo como el orto una disculpa
Estoy amando completamente, he disfrutado mucho más esta segunda temporada ahora que la releí y tuve una perspectiva distinta de cosas que no me gustaban como por ejemplo la forma tan negativa, y hasta fea, en la que Sangwoo se refiere a lo que está sintiendo por JaeYoung, con palabras como "anormal". Ahora entiendo que es por su forma de ser, no es algo agradable, pero puedo entenderlo un poco más al ser inexperto y hasta inocente en ese sentido.
Por otra parte, hubo una escena con JaeYoung que no me agradaba, y aunque me sigue pareciendo no del todo satisfactoria, puedo ver un lado de él que no todos los top de los manhwas tienen, tanto así que incluso puedo ver cierta tonalidad de banderita verde por eso.
"No te forzaré a nada. Y no haré nada a menos que tú estés dispuesto a ofrecerlo."
¿No es un hermoso? Dijo que iba a ESPERAR. ¿Dónde se ve eso tan seguido?
And it's still refreshing to see people talking with their words? I feel like we started seeing it more often in fiction and visual novels, but I'm glad every time I encounter it.
This is some of the most palpably intense chemistry I've seen in a BL. I think it's largely due to the fact that, somewhat uniquely in manhwa....both characters are really fighting with their attraction to each other, and spending a significant amount of time building a relationship that isn't anchored in the physicality.
The attraction from each of them - and their distress over being into someone completely unexpected - is so different and so effectively conveyed.
Jaeyoung had already held some level of attraction to Sangwoo from early on, and he's also not particularly bothered by his sexuality. He's pretty fluid, and while he hasn't dated or been romantically involved with guys in the past, the physical side isn't new to him. So he's more torn up by the fact that he's increasingly invested in Sangwoo - not just wanting to tear off his clothes to see what's making him tick underneath, but genuinely finding his personality strangely adorable, despite all the difficulties.
Sangwoo, on the other hand, has a very clinical idea of sexuality, which is to say: he assumes that one day he will fall in love, get married, and make babies, just as his parents did, and like any normal human being would. It's not that he's appalled by homosexuality on a moral level - he just doesn't understand the point of it, since biology and sexual urges are in place to spur procreation. Which you can't do with two biological males.
So when his body responds physically to another person for the first time ever - and that person is a man whom Sangwoo had been assuming he hated - he completely loses the ability to function around him.
This leads to a couple of decent scenes where Jaeyoung gets frustrated/hurt/offended by how strongly Sangwoo had reacted, and ultimately removes himself from Sangwoo's life, determined to get over him.
Sangwoo, however, likes being around Jaeyoung, and finally starts accepting that to some extent, becoming the one to approach Jaeyoung again and insist that they resume working on their mobile game together.
In the process (and through some social media browsing), he discovers more about Jaeyoung's family, personality, and interests, and gets more and more attracted to him, to the point where he even kisses Jaeyoung when he assumes he's asleep.
This volume ends on a note that in other manhwa would likely steer into kind of dubious territory, but Jaeyoung is honestly just...so good with Sangwoo. He's learning how to be patient and deal with him on his level, with things like announcing when and how he wants to touch Sangwoo, and giving him enough time to leave or stop him if he really doesn't want it. It's such a nice indication of how closely he's paying attention to Sangwoo and how much he truly likes him for who he is.
So yeah, still enjoying this quite a lot. I'm curious how similar it is to the novel, but right now, it's making me want to rewatch the live action!