I have complicated feelings about the existence of ORV Side Story.

I am one of those few people who, for a pretty long time, avoided reading the Side Story, mainly because I loved the final SnS made for the Main Story—that bittersweet feeling you have when reading the last sentence, inviting you to read again and again the story that was doomed before its first words were ever written. Because the whole of Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint is just a collection of KimCom's memories of a man no one ever truly knew.

I like the idea of Kim Dokja as a person who is perceived as a distant, abstract being, that even he doesn't know who he truly is. Even after following him for 551 chapters, we—as his most loyal readers—still don't truly know who Kim Dokja is.

Well, at least that's the way i liked to interpret him—and his tragedy.

I firmly believe that a story doesn't need to give every character a "happy ending" in order to be a "good story". And more so a "second part" explaining again and again the things that were clearly mentioned—or not so clearly—in the beginning. So, when I discovered that the Side Story was truly the direct continuation of those 551 chapters... it really changed the way I viewed the novel.

I don't know how to explain myself with this... I'm just... a bit disappointed?. I have this inexplicable fear that the Side Story exists solely to force a "happy ending" onto a universe where everyone was always destined for tragedy.

And no, im not saying that the characters nor the readers don't deserve a happy ending where Kim Dokja is back. I too wish for an ending where that squid bastard is truly himself and happy, living in a big house with his companions. But—why forcing something that maybe was never meant to happen?

Actually—writing this weird post is a bit funny since one of the fragments of Kim Dokja reincarnated as a writer (Lee Hakkyung) for the purpouse of creating an ending where everyone is happy...

Anna CroftKim/Lee Hakhyun/41st Yoo Joonghyuk

THAT WOULD BE SO FUNNY PLEASE. Those two can not be near another for the sake of an apocalypse (and with just reason yes) but then you put the beloved star writer in the equation and there's a lot to unpack.