My analysis of Sumin's behavior is that he is a person with a very large inferiority complex but at the same time he is very egocentric. I never understood why she suffered this metamorphosis after the infidelity and the death of her parents.
I can understand her grief at the loss, she was attached to her parents, however, blaming Seju for her death and also yelling at him because she had removed the ring. The rings were the symbol of her promises, of her dreams, it is something unforgivable. Her breakup stems from that discussion, we already know what Seju does afterward, though it's never clear to me how she agrees to sleep with the bartender. Imagine calling your ex to listen to you while you have sex with someone else, accepting her gifts even though she had money to live comfortably, mentally abusing someone for a long time, going back to her when her superficial relationships weren't working, and it was because always I was looking for Seju in those relationships.
IMO Sumin and Seju were just childish and behaving their age: Sumin was being very dramatic during her grief, and Seju also overreacted and cheated. Fairly normal young person behavior, and doesn't mean they didn't love each other deeply. But then Sumin being tortured happened and that trauma-bonded them during the 10-year period after she is beat up.
What many seem to miss is that Sumin admits to Seju in one of the chapters that she still loves her. And after that, that's when she does everything she can to break the relationship in a clean way, including caring for Seju when she is hurt. She doesn't say these stuff, but she acts. If you think about it, if you can't forgive yourself for something you did but you still love someone, you try to give each other the chance to fully start anew and you try to "atone for your guilt". Sumin was coming back to Seju until the end, and Seju was the one that finally saw the light and decided to leave.
Sumin saw Sungji more as a chance to live a normal life, etc. You can see it in the final chapters as well. I don't think that's the same as the heatfelt love she had for Seju before the trauma. But she may not be able to feel that kind of love anymore.
So bad writing or not, the story can also be understood not as a healing story, but as a story of what happens when someone (Sumin) can't heal. The story shows Seju healed but Sumin did not.
You believe that in real life you can live with a clear conscience knowing that for so many years you intentionally hurt a person you loved deeply and then magically jump into another relationship while still having your ex close to you.
And remember that it was Sumin who returned to Seju, he even made an excuse that he had left a girlfriend because she was bad in bed. Excuses and more excuses for his selfish and cruel behavior. Another example. Sumin is the one who returns over and over to Seju, because there must have been times when he missed it, those short moments or long periods of time when they meant everything to each other, chapter27.
Seju is a wonderful and painfully human character, Except for her blind love for Sumin. That is why I think that the followers of Sumin are teenagers or people who do not understand the real nature of her behavior and like her because of her tattoo and personality of bad girl and womanizer.
last edited at Mar 22, 2021 11:26PM
