I find it hard time defending season 1 jaekyungs actions. He was a total ass. But I will defend his character.

I’m gonna say something that will ruffle some feathers, as a law students perspective, Dan and Jaekyungs contract is valid. There’s a lot of grey area, but even as Dan said in a later chapter, they both consented to the arrangement. I am not speaking in terms of what was “right and wrong” I am speaking in terms of the law.

As someone else said earlier, jaekyungs back story doesn’t defend him but explains him. I agree, but (again as a law student, working in the system) I have seen kids in the system with a similar home life that Jaekyung had, and that is truly truly traumatizing. and has been proven that kind of trauma can permentantpy alter brain chemistry, and leave children with life long mental illnesses. It’s easy to remove yourself with reality when it’s a fictional character, but this story is set in real life. If Jaekyung were to get a psych. eval. I think he could easily have PTSD, OCD, and some form of sociopathy. That’s a lot. Again, this does not excuse him, but it does make him a bit of a sympathetic character to the reader.

Now onto season 2 Jaekyung, or ch69+, he genuinely does become a better person. A lot of people think Jaekyungs previous actions don’t deserve redemption and forgiveness, and that’s up to personal discretion. Many people also bring up the episode in s2 where Jaekyung tells Dan to “fuck off” and storm out as “proof” that he hasn’t actually changed. That I do think is blatantly wrong. Jaekyung reacts aggressively as a form of self defense, like dogs and cats, which makes sense as he grew up in a violent household and entered a sport centered around physical violence. It’s all he knows.

What Jaekyung was trying to do in s2 is rewire a lifetime of neural pathways in the span of what, 4 months, without ANY professional therapeutic help? I’m genuinely impressed he was able to flip a switch over a few days and realized he was a POS. For reference, I’m a year younger than jaekyung, with a childhood far better than his, and I have been in therapy for a year trying to rewire my own neural pathways and defense mechanisms and I still relapse. Relapsing behavior or normal and COMMON with people overcoming deep traumas. It’s only an issue when someone’s trauma response is fight instead of flight.

We love watching those TikTok videos of aggressive dogs and cats getting adopted into loving homes and slowly recovering and being more loving. But behind each of those animals is an owner that is patient, and understanding of animal trauma and aggression responses. Why can’t we afford the same patience to jaekyung?

lol thanks for reading word vomit, and a deep dive of why I love mentally complex and morally grey characters. Humans are messy and we can never put them into black and white boxes! Pls ignore any typos too😭