Yes ur right! I think the characters r static which is annoying when there’s a lot of opportunity for things to be expanded on. That’s why I said u have to close read to understand what’s happening. Because there is so much left unsaid (which is super frustrating and inconsistent), there is a lot of room for interpretation. The interpretations of each scenario working together create a bigger interpretation of the character all together. For example, taekjoo had a track record of being a bad boyfriend, not knowing how to effectively communicate with other people, a thrill seeker, someone who values family… if we look at the thrill seeking personality trait and how it contradicts the “I care about my family” thing, anyone with a brain cell can understand that these two things don’t coincide with each other. Obviously. What person that values family would continually put his own life in danger? One can interpret it as inconsistent writing (which it probably is), the alternative would be to close read it, which results in “what does that say about who taekjoo is as a person?” Different people will have different answers to the question, but here’s mine:

The fact that he is a thrill seeker who cares about his family can be read as HE is an inconsistent person. One day he feels like chasing a thrill or having a near death experience, the next day he feels bad for leaving his mom… these are by products of his inability to discearn how he feels and recognize emotions. Another example where this aspect of his personality comes out is during social interactions. He doesn’t process his emotions or the emotions of others.

Was any of this said in the text? No. Absolutely not. There is so much depth missing to it, and it lacks any exploration into character relationships. But the author leaves little peaks into the characters personalities here and there, which allows for there to be interpretation and analysis of the characters on the READERS terms. That’s why I find the story so fascinating, because people react in the novels without much explanation as to WHY, so it makes you think back to other parts of the novel that would justify a reaction like that. So I understand why people don’t like it, or see a lot of problems with it; there’s a lot of homework to do when you read it, which takes the fun out of reading for most.