#yapping 101

All right, I have been seeing constant discussion about Haesol and it really lets me understand that most of y'all don't understand Kang Haesol as a character (Or you just don't have common sense) and that genuinely boggles my mind while letting me know that many people do not read Shoujo and do not understand Shoujo tropes because if you did you would understand her a lot better.

So I'm going to be breaking down the one Shoujo trope you have to know to understand Kang Haesol as a character.

Stoic male lead.

Yeonwoo's Innocence is not only a roles reversal but it is also a Shoujo deconstruction. If you read a lot of Shoujo and romance in general you can pick up on this pretty quickly. Therefore pretty quickly you should understand what type of character Haesol is.

Kang Haesol is the stoic male lead. Given this is RR she is the female lead but this does not change on account of her gender.

This male lead archetype are the ones who do not speak their emotions. They show them instead through action. THAT! is the character archetype that Haesol is based around.

Another thing about these Stoic characters is that they are obsessive. That is a constant trait that all of these stoic characters have in common and it makes a lot of sense given that because they constantly repress their emotions. When something happens and they lose their grip they are going to blow up and show themselves in ways that are not all that pleasant. (All that emotional repression does something to you and it's only a matter of time until it blows up)

The thing about Yeonwoo's innocence is that typically when this trope is put in a Roles Reversal setting the female lead is not exactly like the stoic male lead that is her counterpart. In an RR setting the female lead who is a reflection of this archetype is typically watered down and made a more feminine version of this archetype that loses all its flavor. as the story goes on but Yeonwoo's innocence does not do this.

Kang Haesol is a genuinely stoic character. She is not going to get all blushy and emote because she is STOIC! The Definition of stoic is someone who shows little to no emotion. Kang Haesol is the personification of this trope in female form and You all need to understand that. If you're expecting her to become some cold beauty who ends up a housewife or whatever TF don't. That is NOT her character and it never will be.

With Stoic characters, you have to actually pay attention to them to understand them. You have to WANT to understand them to be able to peel back the different sides of their personalities and Haesol is perfect for this. If you just look at her surface level you see nothing but a stoic person.

But if you actually LOOK at her and how she interacts with the world around her you understand her a lot better.

That is the appeal of The Stoic archetype. That mystery of who they are is what draws Shoujo readers to them and what makes them such interesting characters.

Kang Haesol is the female version of this archetype so don't treat her any differently. You don't tell male stoic characters to smile more or show more emotion so don't do the same to her.

Kang Haesol throughout the story stays consistent and her personality is still at its core that typical stoic male lead archetype. She's the perfect stoic character.

That is until she meets Yeonwoo.

Love at first sight is also a stoic male lead thing and it is done perfectly in this manhwa. (ah we love it when the calm one loses their marbles)

A character who has their emotions mostly in control but one person (that love interest) throws a retch into their usually calm waters.

Here's the thing though. Haesol is different.

Haesol has no grasp on her emotions. She can not perceive her emotions because of her trauma and how being a child model affected her (those who say we know nothing about her need to read the manhwa again because her backstory is literally thrown in your face in multiple moments of this manhwa) she can not understand her emotions because it is the coping mechanism she developed while she was being abused. If she showed emotion she was punished for doing so. So of course she locked them away. Then being with her mother only made things worse because she never truly cared enough to actually help Haesol and instead hurt her even more.

Which only made her retreat further.

Then she meets Yeonwoo.

Then she felt emotion.

Unbridled, overwhelming, EMOTION! for this "girl" and the confusion of it makes it worse. The confusion of why she's unable to get this "girl" out of her head and why everywhere she turns she sees this beautiful person wherever she turns confused and deludes but excites her.

Then she finds out that "she" is in fact a "he" and that she has a chance (Not like she wouldn't have a chance with a girl like have we seen her?)

Of course, she's obsessed!

Of course, she wanted to get closer to him. Of course, she will use whatever excuse she can to get near him.

Of course, she wants him desperately! He's the first person to elicit such strong emotion from her and it's positive! Not only is it overwhelmingly positive but it's all consuming and she's terrified because she's never felt this before.

Of course, she hides it away and shows nothing when showing emotion has only ever led to disaster.

Now that that is out of the way, the reason why I wanted to explain this is because people don't seem to understand her character, especially in relation to Yeonwoo.

Understand that this is a Shoujo deconstruction and a roles reversal manhwa. (it's a good one as well. the most well-written one I've ever read)

This is a two-in-one so unless you have experience with Shoujo/ romance and works that deconstruct popular tropes you most likely won't understand many of the things that are being done in this manhwa.

Haesol very clearly is obsessed with Yeonwoo.

It is painfully obvious and you don't even need to reread it to understand that. (though his manhwa has insane reread value) The moment you get to the scene where she turns around after Yeonwoo asks to go to the amusement park with her you should already have alarms blaring (if you read Shoujo) because you understand that's not what a stoic character would typically do.

In Shoujo, the first meeting with the stoic male lead most of the time is very one and-done. The stoic male lead most of the time does not turn back and ask the female lead anything much less talk to her.

It is mostly their second interaction that does that.

However in Haesol and Yeonwoo's interaction not only does she give him her umbrella but she also engages in a brief conversation asking if he's ok. Sure it's small and bearly a minute but it still matters. If you understand the context surrounding that scene you're going to understand that her giving him her umbrella means that she calculated that he has to give it back to her.

Furthering their conversation... and making sure she gets to talk to him again.

There are so many little details that have been put into this manhwa that need to be talked about more because this is just one of them.

Haesol is a character whom I've said multiple times you need to look at her actions and not her words if you want to understand her as a character.

Also given that she is a Stoic character her obsession is going to be deep, it is going to be unhealthy, and it is not going to be in any way light.

Given the fact that Yeonwoo in fact enables these tendencies of hers you all need to understand that is going to likely get worse. Not in a bad way Shoujo has a tendency to make obsession like this completely viable (as we should let the girls have their fun. I personally love it and fall for it hook line and sinker) but given that this is Esol we are talking about she will probably twist this trope on its head in some way shape or form.

ONG NARII ME TOO CUZ WTF!!!

WELP That all it took i forgive all your insanity

I SUPPORT WOMAN'S WRONGS SHE CAN DO ANYTHING! IT'S HER MONEY ANYWAYS GO KANG HAESOL!!!!!!

(First thought after she had a LITTERAL PANIC ATTACK is "Oh my beautiful/adorable boyfriend is crying (He's worried about her because she isn't breathing) let me wipe away your tears. Someone so beautiful shouldn't cry.

GIRRL IF YOU DONT GET A GRIP!

(incredibly incoherent and long rant incoming lmao)

FIRST OF ALL. THE UNDERWORLD. JAY WHAT, IN THE NICEST WAY POSSIBLE, THE FUCK??

I WAS EXPECTING POLITES. AND IT STILL HAD ME ON THE VERGE OF A BREAKDOWN. YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO ME JAY YOU CAN’T HIT ME WITH THE OPEN ARMS CHORUS WITH SO MUCH ECHO TO IT THAT IT SOUNDS EMPTY. POLITES IS THE LAST MF THAT SHOULD SOUND EMPTY STOP IT.

THEN YOU HIT ME WITH ANTICLEA? THE WAITING MOTIF WITH PENELOPE?? THE LITTLE “mum?” FROM ODY STOPPP. “I'M RIGHT HERE, MUM, CAN'T YOU SEE”??!?!? Jay. Sir you already broke my heart you didn't need to blend it as well wtf??

“I took too long” POLITES GET OVER HERE YOUR BESTIE NEEDS A HUG. LIKE BADLY.

AND THEN THE LAST CHORUS??? THE YELLING??? THE EMOTION???? JAY IS YOUR VOICE OKAY?? MY DUDE. MY PAL. MY GOOD FRIEND. WHAT.

AND THEN NO LONGER YOU?? BRO. BRO YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO MEEE. MASON ABSOLUTELY FUCKING KILLED IT. THOSE HIGH NOTES?? BRO IM LITERALLY A GIRL WITH A FAIRLY HIGH RANGE AND I CAN'T HIT THOSE WITHOUT GOING SQUEAKY??? LIKE DUDE BRAV-THE-FUCK-O

THEN THE “WHO”. JAY I WOULD LIKE TO REPEAT IS YOUR VOICE OKAY??? I'VE HAD THIS SHIT ON LOOP FOR HOURS NOW AND IT ALWAYS CATCHES ME OFF GUARD BECAUSE OF HOW ENRAGED IT SOUNDS??

AND MONSTER. HOOOO BOY MONSTER. YEOWCHIES. YIKES FOREVER. MMM NOTHANKYOU. OKAY FIRST OFF THAT FIRST NOTE REMINDED ME SO MUCH OF HORSE AND THE INFANT AND FRANKLY I’M NOT OKAY.

CAN WE JUST TALK ABT HOW. JUST. EMPTY IT SOUNDS?? BROO. BROOOO. THIS IS A FEDERAL OFFENCE. THIS LEVEL OF EMOTIONAL BLUDGEONING SHOULD BE ILLEGAL.

“I’ll become the monster” [intermission starts] THAT DESERVES JAIL TIME. ILLEGAL. YOU DON’T GET TO DO THAT TO ME. I’D BE SOBBING IN THE THEATRE SO HARD MFS ACROSS THE STREET WOULD HEAR ME

Ok listen I've cried because of Epic before. Several times. But never have I had a full on mental breakdown and had to start beating the everloving shit out of my pillow to cope with it. Jay, level with me here, how much crack did you put into this saga? JAY, WHAT THE FUCK???

Listening to this musical isn’t enough. I need it injected directly into my bloodstream.

They are the couple that you cannot see with anybody else because no one else is capable of matching their freak.

Like legitimately let's think about it. when you read that you might think wait Haesol makes sense for the situation she's a total freak for Yeonwoo. But Yeonwoo??? He's such a sweet being

AND THAT'S WHERE YOU'RE WRONG.

Yeonwoo is a character who may seem all sweet and cute but then you peel back the layers of his character and you realize... This guy's a little freak.

He's emotionally mentally and probably physically fucked up.

Literally Yeonsol are one of those couples who are absolutely detrimental for anybody who is not them. You cannot put them with anybody else because if you do it will only wreak havoc.

Like yeah sure they can have good platonic relationships but romantically speaking these two need each other.

Their traumas are so perfectly tailored for the other that if you put them with anybody else it is going to crumble them and the person they are with entirely.