Overhearing a conversation about what's going on in another part of the town, and it just happens to involve your love interest... Looks like a contrieved plot device to me. Come on, what are the chances?

Welcome, Deus Ex Machina.

If No-rae comes to the rescue before anything bad happens, etc, etc.. that will be even more cliché.

But okay, I can suspend my disbelief, because No-rae and Seol-a are really likable characters.

Well I mean, what did you want to happen? Would it have satisfied you if Ssamba went down a "realistic" route where Seol-a ends up getting date-raped, has to go through years of therapy to cope with it, and No-rae drowns her sorrows and regrets of being unable to save Seol-a with alcohol while spiraling into a state of depression? This is a romantic fictional manhwa, not some psychological based-on-a-true-story ball buster. I'd be surprised if anything that dark actually happened.

If we didn't have those "contrived" plot devices, it would probably take 30 years for No-rae and Seol-a to just hold hands.

I may be alone in saying I want Seol-a to beat this on her own. They call him the "champion" but this is Seol-a we're talking about, a beautiful, intelligent, hard working, and independent woman. I don't want some player thinking he can make her his next conquest. Though, I don't think it will work for her character as she is a bit naive despite all of her awesome traits. Of course, if she does fight it alone, I would want No-rae playing some part, like Seol-a realizes what the texts mean or at that moment Seol-a realizing she loves No-rae. I don't know if I want a parallel to what happened with the other guy.

I'd love it if Seol-a managed to overcome this on her own too. But I really don't think she's in a situation where she can physically defend herself. She's clearly drunk out of her mind, and Kyung-woo isn't.

I personally think if there's a parallel to the first time No-rae saved Seol-a, it will really strengthen their emotional bond, and connect the story together nicely plot-wise. In a world where everyone, man or woman, wants to take advantage of Seol-a, (except Ji-hwan and Min-jung), No-rae is kinda like her saviour. And I think if No-rae does save Seol-a again, she'll realize how much No-rae cares about her. Seol-a would question why No-rae would save her, when she was previously giving her the cold shoulder treatment. Who knows, maybe this would force No-rae to confess her feelings and explain why she wanted to ensure Seol-a's safety or why she was ignoring Seol-a before.

Even at this point in the story, Seol-a is still pretty dense/naive when it comes to love (for example when she said "Whether I drink a lot or not... is she my bf or what"). No-rae doesn't want to reveal her feelings for Seol-a. These two need events like this to catalyze their relationship, because otherwise it wouldn't go anywhere.

And a question that just struck me: Is there something wrong with Seol-a? This is the second time in not so many chapters (but far enough apart where it can't be the same 'cold'] where she's been feeling sick. I remember she also took a year off as well [although it was implied it was for an exchange program?].

Yes, Seol-a took a year off for studying abroad. Most of the time when she's "feeling sick," it's because something is negatively affecting her relationship with No-rae. The first time she said it, she was probably worried because Hee-jin told her about how it's difficult to become close to No-rae. And now this time, No-rae's cold shoulder attitude is really straining their relationship. I think her "feeling sick" is more like she's feeling stressed or worried about No-rae.

Can anyone translate the 3 best comments on Comico?

They aren't really anything special but here ya go:

kkyuiingiingiiheuii (their name has random noises idek okay)
my heart was pounding at the last panel and I'm willing to bet my wrist that he bought a condom

hubi
No-rae you need to run over there right now I thought Kyung-woo was the innocent guy but he's a "champion" and I thought Nam Ji-hwan was a "champion" but he's an innocent guy.lolololol I like this small sort of reversal

yuridaisuki
"I!!!!!!!!!!STAYED UP!!!!!!!ALL NIGHT!!!!!!!TO SEE THIS!!!!!!!!!UAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!I'M GONNA START A RIOT!!!!!!!!!!

Ch. 29 rough translation
http://pastebin.com/RassHaP6

If Kyung-woo does anything I'm gonna break his balls
pls no-rae save your wife

Also halmoni, I went looking at the Google Drive and noticed a "Special 2" folder was created. Is the next release another special or is that just a place holder for whenever another special is released?

QCO probably has her own way of organizing things, but I'm guessing Special 1 is going to contain the Chuseok Special from a while ago, and Special 2 will contain Ssamba's Q&A.

Oh I am very much aware of it here in the US. I attended a religious high school (Evangelical Christian) here in the San Francisco Bay Area in California and, they regularly preached about how being gay was a sin against god and you were automatically destined for hell. No ifs, ands, or buts.

A religious school preaching against homosexuality in one of the gayest areas in the U.S.? That's so ironic lol.

Yikes! Is this through all generations or just the older ones?

I know that a lot of older generation Koreans deeeefinitely don't like homosexuality. Like the really old people might even go as far as to claim that homosexuality was a "western disease" brought over by foreigners, or just flat out deny that Korean people can be gay.

I haven't had as much direct experience with the younger generation, but I think they're for sure more open-minded about it. Probably similar to younger generations in most other developed East Asian countries. The only thing is that Korea still doesn't have anti-discrimination laws for homosexuals, so stuff like firing people for being gay isn't illegal.

last edited at Apr 3, 2015 2:34AM

Koreans are avid readers of japanese manga (as are Chinese), that at least I know. They started to make their own (manhwa), and got really good at it. Some probably made the trip back to Japan and got translated there.

FF is full of japanese manga references in the way it's drawn, even if the story and background are unique, so I'm confident the author knows all the tropes of the genre. But the Korean culture additions are a nice exotic touch.

As for how same-sex couples are viewed in the Korean society, I have a hunch it's even more conservative than Japan in that respect, but that the younger generation are more open. Don't quote me on that though.

Manhwa/Manhua/Manga all have different origins despite their similarities, and they've all influenced each other throughout the course of history. There's really no point in comparing the three, since the content heavily depends on the author, not the stereotypical tropes in a genre. Like Ssamba (the author) said, they don't care about whether FF is labeled as yuri/GL/lesbian/queer; all they want to do is tell the pure story of our two protagonists. So tropes aren't really relevant to FF (and I personally haven't seen many typical yuri tropes in FF so far; that's one of the reasons why people like it). FF is not a Japanese yuri manga clone with an exotic hint of Korean. It's a Korean manhwa with its own unique story.

I don't wanna sound like a dick, but I do laugh a bit when people compare Korea/Japan, and talk about how Koreans are imitating the Japanese. I'm not going to go too deep into the details, but Korea was occupied by Japan for nearly half a century (early 1900's to 1940 something, I don't remember the exact years) when Japan went on its imperial raid of Asia during WW2. Everything related to Korean culture was forbidden: art, literature, language, etc., and the Japanese attempted to replace our culture with theirs. Anything "Korean" was considered to be second-class/trash/illegal or "below" the level of the Japanese. That's why Korea and Japan have a lot of similarities in their modern cultures today, and it's one of the reasons why quite a few Koreans still hold animosity towards the Japanese (mainly the government, not the people).

And yes, of course Korea is conservative about homosexuality. Most people choose to stay in the closet, since revealing your sexuality can have a lot of adverse effects (lose your job, lose your friends, etc.).

PPS: @halmoni: if you're gay for Seol-a's mom, I could say I'm gayer for No-rae's sister, Kim Geu-rim xxD
I have lots of headcanon with her meeting Seol-a for the first time....

The real question is who isn't gay for Seol-a's mom?

Trick question because I'm pretty sure everyone is

Anyway, the way Seol-a is drawn, she doesn't look like a "girl". She looks like a woman in her early twenties. It's maybe why I have a hard time believing in her innocence when it comes to relationships.

Or korean girls are more sheltered than western ones and it's just a cultural thing that eludes my cynical western way of thinking ?

Well she is a woman in her early twenties lol. Let's consider the facts:
-She was raised in a fairly wealthy family
-She's had trust issues with women ever since that high school incident, and so her "friends" were always predominantly male. So she's estatic when she finally makes a new female friend (No-rae).
-She has 3 older brothers who are probably very protective of her
-She said that she dated out of boredom, not because of romance

It's really not that strange for Seol-a to be naive about love. She may not be "innocent" when it comes to relationships, but it's true that she's never fallen in love before. The reasons why No-rae/Seol-a fell for each other aren't necessarily clear; I find that to be realistic. But I don't think Seol-a was head over heels for No-rae when they first met. It was more like she was just interested. And that interest grew to the point where she realized she had these "frustrating feelings" for No-rae.

Well, for one, she knows a lot about men, since she dated several of them (and almost got killed by one). I can't believe she's that naive, even moreso she's pictured as an intellectually brilliant person. Intellectually brilliant, naive and actually socially inept, but still dressing in style and taking great care of her outer appearance, while being a blushing maiden when it comes to a crush, it just seems off for me. But it's just my take on this.

I'm not sure how you got the idea that she was socially inept. She's one of the most popular girls in school, she knows how to behave appropriately in social situations (she was completely fine at MT's and parties), and she's smoother than the skin on a baby's butt when it comes to making No-rae flustered (recall when she said "Are you asking me out on a date right now?"). Socially inept means that someone has no idea how to interact with people; they're awkward, they have no idea what to say to others, or they reply with weird comments (i.e. replying to "Hey, how are you?" with something like "Did you know that the average glomerular filtration rate of a healthy human individual is approximately 125 mL/min snort "). Being ignorant about love doesn't make one "socially inept" or any less intelligent. Socially inexperienced in a way and naive? Maybe. But definitely not inept.

Knowing more about men doesn't mean that she's ever fallen in love with one before. Yes, you can be aware about the concept of love, but you'll never really know what it's like until you fall in love yourself. And since Seol-a falls in love with a girl, that makes it even more confusing. Does she like No-rae a lot as a friend because she's rarely had female friends? Or is this what love is? Keep in mind that Seol-a was raised in a strictly heteronormative society; she could even question if it's possible to fall in love with people of the same gender.

Of course she would know how to dress well. She's Korean. Fashion's in our blood. But seriously, most Koreans are taught from a young age that they should always look their best when they go out, even if we're just going to the supermarket. If you dress like a hobo in Korea or you don't follow trends, people will tend to look at you strangely.

last edited at Apr 1, 2015 5:37PM

Whenever someone asks if FF is going to have a het ending, I die a little on the inside. If FF ever ended that way, ssamba would be the greatest troll the world has ever seen.

Ch.29 rough translation
http://pastebin.com/uKdXEyqE

Getting deep with ssamba a short funny comic.

Some whiny douche said they couldn't read the raws with my translation, so I did a crappy rough typeset.
Enjoy lol.
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/nf32vb78d7or5/ff28

Last chapter (chapter 27), No-Rae was acting out of character since the very beginning of her dinner meeting with Seol-A. My question is why. There was no indication from Samba that No-Rae had realized anything at that point. Back on the class trip, she had fallen asleep on Seol-A and yet now, she's stuttering when Seol-A loops her arm through her own. What exactly was it about the dude's confession that started this? Why did she suddenly call Seol-A to meet up (no, legit question...I'm pretty sure it wasn't just because they were both in the same town; she must have had a deeper meaning) and then subsequently proceed to ignore her? I can understand the ignoring bit if she was afraid, but the more I'm reading this, the more it seems like No-Rae is angry, not afraid. I mean, the stuff that she's saying is pretty harsh (even oblivious!dude mentioned it).

It could be entirely possible that No-rae isn't comfortable with physical contact. From what we've seen, it's always Seol-a initiating the skinship, not No-rae. She might have fallen asleep on Seol-a's shoulder without realizing it (I do this a lot myself lol). But yes, we should also consider that No-rae likes Seol-a, whether she wants to admit it or not, so it's natural that she would get nervous.

I personally think that No-rae just called Seol-a to hang out. They're friends, and it's only natural that she would want to know what Seol-a's up to when they're in the same area.

I think No-rae is angry, but she's angry at herself. She never wanted to fall in love again, and that's why she's always been really careful about guarding her feelings; yet, she let Seol-a in. Chapter 28 sort of confirmed my speculations from the last chapter. No-rae has finally realized that she loves Seol-a, but now that she knows, she wants to distance herself so she won't have to go through the same pain again.

Ch. 28 rough translation
http://pastebin.com/zth1cZrR

Wasn't there another guy/girl called "Haggant" also?
Name's in the credits of the first 18 chapters.
Whatever happened to him/her?

Yep I believe he or she was the anon who was doing rough translations before me, for chapters 1-9 or something. But I started helping out when he/she took a long break due to being sick. I haven't seen them around in a while though.

And yes, you are correct about No-rae being a native Korean name, so it isn't written with any Chinese characters.

Oh cool! From what I gathered, it only seemed like a handful of folks working on FF. (I seriously thought it was something like... 4 people lol.)
And, TLC?

Before we moved to YuriProject, it really was just 4 people (me, Kanaria, jrdp_18, and Ryo) for quite a while. Once we moved there, more people wanted to help out with cleaning and stuff. TLC is translation check, or basically looking for any errors and making my translations sound nice.

How many are on the team exactly? Or at least, volunteering time to help get this series out to the rest of us?

I'm not sure on the exact numbers, but I think our current team is something like:
Translation/QC: Halmoni
TLC: Kanaria (possibly on break or she quit)
QC/Raws: jrdp_18, Gulf Standard
Rough typesets/Raws: Quick Cook Oatmeal
Cleaning: kubrick, winter, takachi
Editing/typsetting: Ryo

I may or may not be addicted to this series. Halmoni and co., if you guys are looking for cleaners I'll be more than glad to help. I'm pretty fast with photoshop. I was 3 seconds away in my excitement from using your rough translations to create some rough English scanlations but then I saw your comment above haha! So, yeah if your team needs help with photoshop let me know.

The more the merrier :) We have quite a few people working on cleaning right now, but more help is always appreciated. You can ask around and see how people want to divide the work.
We're currently posting our work at http://safe.yuriproject.net/res/16152.html

Nez Note

Welcome to the sort-of-new spoiler thread for Fluttering Feelings! All the previous discussion has been preserved here since almost all of it is stuff past where we have completed releases so you can just pick up conversation where you left off.

Couple of things to note. First, there is no need to mark spoilers in this thread. Since there's a big warning in the title, that's enough. Second, the rule about not linking to unfinished translations remains in place. You can link to the comico site, but that's it. Halmori can post what they're comfortable with of course, since they made the request in the first place and are doing to the work.

Have fun, and enjoy the discussion.

Thanks Nez! I think I'll post links for our finished chapters (starting with Ch.6, since we've moved to YuriProject), quite possibly my weekly pastebin links, and the comico direct links, since none of those will contain any links for raw downloads.

This might beat Pieta... Can anyone give me a link to where I can read ch.23-24-25-26? <3
Yes, yes I am new to this.

Just browse a couple pages back in this discussion, and you'll see directions on how to locate my rough translations. I believe I already mentioned this before, but if you need access to those raw chapters, look for the FF google drive link on page 7 or so of this thread.

You can also use points to read older chapters on the comico website, but it might be a little difficult creating an account if you can't read Korean.

last edited at Mar 15, 2015 7:49PM

Thanks so much Halmoni, as always, for the translations!!!

Wait hold on....can someone explain if No-Rae was the one to figure out her feelings first (which I definitely didn't expect, but explains her behavior), why is it "already too late"?? Gods, but this chapter was freaking amazing.

On a new note, Seol-A looked like she was going to cry....is it because she didn't think No-Rae believed her, or....?

Seol-a definitely knew during their MT that she has these "frustrating" feelings for No-rae, but she never identified them as love, or anything romantic. And we can see in this chapter how easily she calls No-rae a "friend", so it's likely that Seol-a still naively believes romance is only possible between a guy and a girl, even though her actions (getting all giddy when No-rae calls) clearly contradict her words. No-rae on the other hand, I believe, has sort of identified her feelings as being "romantic". Unlike Seol-a, she's been in love before, so it's no surprise she figured it out before Seol-a. It's "already too late", because by the time No-rae realizes she might love Seol-a, her feelings are so invested in Seol-a already, that she can't stop loving her even if she wants to.

I think Seol-a probably looked like she was going to cry because she asked No-rae to promise that she would never leave her alone like that. And No-rae simply ditched her without considering Seol-a's side of the story or keeping their promise.

So, the source I use has the chapters scanlated up to 22 and raws up to 27 and I'm pretty sure that's like, the official source. Are you using external translations, like the pre edited versions or something?

Yes, I do the rough translations every Sunday/Monday when the new chapters are released. Look a couple pages back on this discussion to find out where you can find my translations and the raw chapters.

last edited at Mar 15, 2015 1:36PM

Thanx for the translation, Halmoni~

At the end part where No-rae remembered what Ji-hwan said "Feelings are like that. But if you lie down and let them grow, one moment they'll suddenly push you out of nowhere. And once you've figured that out, it's already too late." while looking at Seol-a, that has to mean sumthin! No-rae's at the confuse stage now. I think xDD

No problem!

I think the last line ("And once you've figured that out, it's already too late") was meant to confirm that No-rae has feelings for Seol-a, and she just realized it herself.

last edited at Mar 15, 2015 1:05PM

Just to clarify, when Seol-a thought "Something like this happened before", she was most likely referring to the time when she slept over at No-rae's house, after being assaulted. I don't think it was a reference to her having any romantic feelings for her past friend. Like some others have said, Seol-a doesn't seem like she's ever experienced real "love" before, so I highly doubt she's ever liked anyone seriously. Otherwise, she wouldn't be so confused and frustrated towards her current feelings for No-rae.

People seems to be happy with the rejection but I feel a little uneasy. Her words after, "what am I saying," makes me think she feels something for him but was just scared of a relationship and was just making excuses. This makes me uncertain of the future and I don't think it's smooth sailing for No-rae x Seol-a just yet.
I tried to trim the black text so it wouldn't look like a big black box.

Already doubting?? I interpreted it as her thinking she went all deep and philosophical-like and was just embarrassed at what she said. Sort of like, "I can't believe I said something so cliched!!" And of course it's not going to be smooth sailing just yet. If it were it'd be over already like an Otsu Hiyori one shot.

This is the interpretation I was going for while translating. No-rae was embarrassed by all the cringey stuff she was saying to Ji-hwan lol (like about promises and love vs. like)

As long as there are people who want to read FF, I'll continue translating.

last edited at Mar 5, 2015 10:48PM