haitangkitty

by Greensea, Zoy,
65 chapters
Lezhin

This was recommended on tumblr and apparently it has the same writer as Pearl Boy!
I had read a lot of manwhas with dark topics so I picked this up in hopes to read something lighthearted and wholesome.
But I was suprised because this story has twists and turns I had not expected from it. I was stressed!

It's set in the 80's and the couple is nerd x high school dropout artist. The manwha deals with homophobia and a secret relationship the couple meets at a secret gay hang out spot (Anemone theater). The main character Sungho has an abusive father who is the reason why the Sungho is so stressed about school and sees it as the most important part of his life. How can a nerd fall in love? Especially with a man! Gay culture is still underground and marginalized in contrast to the prestige of medical school and the good life the Sungho's father wants him to have.

It's a sex first feelings later type of romance. There is also a "i have to have sex to cure my illness" -triope which I love. The love interest, Duk-Gwang, could be cathegorized as a cool seme. He challenges Sungho in his perfectionism and social reclusion to let go and have some fun in life. They are both very independent and stubborn characters.The romance gets better during the story until the very end.

(spoilers below)

The twists in this story deal with the second season which suddenly out of nowhere introduce a love rival and the romance turns into a love triangle. I really hated that part of the plot but it kept me interested in the story I have to admit. TW: In third season the stress was not over. Unfortunately this manwha has a rape scene(although it was left open if it happened really or was it just a dream, either way there is a graphic scene). The main enemy and cause of drama on this story is the strict homophobic father. The last part of the story is an eight year time skip. First I hated the idea but I acually liked how it turned out. Sungho battled to his adulthood with expectations from his father. To be queer is to defy norms. The main character is a comformist and this poses the main dilemma in the story. Luckily, this story had a happy ending but it kept me on the edge until the end. Some of the plot points could have been executed better but regardless I liked the main couple and the overall vibes of the story.


4/5 stars

(this is a repost from my tumblr)

Since I finished this story, I was left a bit sad (and maybe unsatisfied )by the violent and bittersweet ending. The tone shift from the beginning is huge, as the author says S1 is more comical and the story gets darker as it progresses. But the comical and loving moments between Jooha and Dooshik are at the heart of Pearl Boy; to love despite the darkness.

(Spoilers below/Talk about the ending)

The final season takes place in Seoul, far from the coastal city from the beginning of the story, which Dooshik has escaped because of his troubles in Seoul. In the end of the story, the roles are reversed; they have returned to Seoul because Jooha's home is unsafe. They are further away from the sea, where their first meeting takes place. The sea is an interesting part of the story as it is part of Jooha's nonhuman features as is his family's seafood restaurant. Nature plays an interesting part in this story symbolizing home,love, income and Jooha's condition, although used mainly as a sexy vechicle in the story, Jooha's pearls symbolize his abnormal beauty and what value humans see in it. As human tend to do with nature, they want to conquer it and profit off it as it is in Jooha's case. Dooshik becomes his savior as he sees Jooha's feature a beautiful and valuable on its own.

In dark romance there is usually two types of stories: I want to lock you up (sadistic) or I want to lock you up (protective). In Pearl Boy, Dooshik is the latter one protecting Jooha from the first one: Pilwon. The main romance is between the abuser and his savior, not the perpetrator of abuse. This is also why many readers love this story despite it being dark, the main couple is not "toxic" as in typical dark romances. This does not mean that Dooshik is an innocent character. I personally hate reducing stories into "red flags" and "green flags" as some (maybe very young) people on fandom tend to do. Dooshik as a savior character bears much responsibility in the story: can his love "cure" the abuse Jooha has suffered? Can he revenge his abusers? How can he become a more impactful figure than Pilwon in Jooha's life? These are some issues Dooshik deals with in the story and specifically deals with in the end of the story as it gets more violent and Jooha gets abused again (making Dooshik feel like he has failed protecting him). In one scene, Dooshik's protective behavior takes a darker turn and parallels Pilwon's attitude in Jooha's eyes. I think that scene shows how protectivness can turn to abuse: wanting to own your lover despite what he thinks. But in this case, it was only a emotional moment and not a turn of character for Dooshik. His frustration of being unable to protect Jooha turns into violence towards his perpetrators; in this case the twins.

But why it isn't Pilwon who get killed by them? In the end, I think instead of torturing him the story gives a more satisfying answer. Pilwon gives them two options but Jooha choose a third option: his own in which he dies together with Dooshik. That way he creates his own reality and does not bend to Pilwon's will as he has throughout the abuse.

The story is not psychological in its nature, but it deals with trauma and abuse. We get flashbacks throught the story and the whole story is about how Jooha wants to avoid those things happening to him again. I think this is why the amnesia ending is an interesting decision, as it plays into how trauma works like a circle. They get temporarily a new clean beginning where the traumatic past does not exist. Victims of trauma are often unable to remember their trauma and sometimes they do only remember parts of it or certain triggers cause them to remember. In in the ending of Pearl Boy, returning to water works as a trigger for Jooha to remember. I would love a more psychological sidestory(or just a fic) of Dooshik and Jooha just living their ordinary lives and dealing with trauma because that is another battle to conquer.

How do you end a story that deals with with sex trafficing? Will the abused get revenge? Will they get a happy ending? Thinking about other similar dark stories usually get dark endings because there is no way out of the scene of organized crime. There is no happy ending, only happy moments, some light in the darkness. In some parts of the story, death might seem a happier end than living. Is it realistic? Yes. Will it make the reader happy? No. But stories don't have to be realistic nor make readers happy. I think Pearl Boy's ending is both happy and sad. You can't take away the trauma but what is most important is that love is stronger.