u/interesting-mug

Miserable in Love by Chamji

This is a very NSFW, possibly not safe for life, manhwa. It honestly put me in a bad headspace while I was reading it. And yet!!! Coming through the darkness and getting to the end was kind of healing. Psychologically astute, and uncomfortably honest— that’s how I’d describe the more surprising choices the author made, where instead of simply romanticizing obsessive love, the downsides are explored realistically. There were parts of this that resonated uncomfortably with me, which was not what I was looking for (I was looking for smut! Which I got, too).

The story revolves around the poor relationship choices of Woojin, a successful author and mentally broken twink who needs reassurance and love so much that he smothers those around him and turns people into their worst selves. When we start, he’s locked in a very unhealthy dynamic with Minho, a sexy rich guy with a few screws loose, who basically sees Woojin as his property and torments him. Yet because Woojin feels unbearably empty when he’s alone, and because they were once happy, he can’t leave this miserable relationship where he knows that at least despite everything wrong, Minho will never leave him.

Then, when Woojin sees a play, he finds one minor character deeply resonates with him, and he sends flowers to the actor, and keeps coming back to watch the show. He and Taehwan, this aspiring actor, develop a friendship that makes Minho jealously assault Woojin and then unceremoniously dump him, and when Woojin wakes up in the hospital with nowhere to go, he ends up crashing at Taehwan’s place, where the spark of friendship starts blooming into something beautiful, and then festers as the various mental issues of our protagonist interfere with the classic “love can fix you” journey.

It’s funny, this was a comic where I was like, “oh man, 120 chapters? That’s too long” (but I read because the description and title were perfect, and chapter 1 was just pure smut to pull ppl like me in) and then by the end I was just hoping for like 3 bonus chapters because I still had unanswered questions lol

I reviewed this elsewhere bc otherwise I forget which comic is which. So here’s my incoherent review, written in the middle of the night in complete BL ecstasy:

This manhwa is SFW but what it lacks in any semblance of smut— there’s maybe 2 kisses in 60+ long ass issues— it makes up for in beautiful sweet angst porn. Oh my. I read this with my heart in my throat the whole entire time, I don’t think I even blinked for like five hours, hands trembling, just like, about to puke from all the feelings this gave me. UGHHH. This was so well written. UGH. And it wasn’t all contrived like “oh I can’t tell him how I feel” like there are legit emotional reasons for those moments of reticence that make them so much more satisfying because they’re completely earned. Not to mention several twists that just… twisted the knife. Or the scissors, to be more precise.

The story, briefly (CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS): two childhood best friends, one (Skyler) has a crazy but rich mom who always buys people off. When they grow up, Yeonduk is basically worriedly following his best friend whom he’s in love with like a puppy, but Skyler loathes him even as he loves him, because his abusive mom has convinced him that Yeonduk is spying on him and feeding her info. It’s pretty twisted. What I loved is that it makes you hate Skyler and then really understand and love him. I love that kind of emotional whiplash. I wish there was just one more issue where the two of them make out and talk about how much they love each other lol (note: apparently there are new extras that are not translated yet)

Edit: this IS safe for work (unless crying at work is a problem) but I think my description flagged it…