Art of Life

so we all know that kihyuk was essentially screwed over by those close to him when he first comes to the residence. he initially gives off the vibe of someone who is a little trigger happy and doesn't trust anyone, and understandably so. he's in a really shitty place with people that are textbook gross, and any trust he might have had for anyone else was betrayed on the onset of him staying at eden.

moonjo plays right into that and promises him a metamorphosis. he's going to make him into a new man. we don't get to see it in action like we did with jongwoo, but my guess is moonjo did a lot of the things that he did with jongwoo. gaslighting, playing down the level of creepiness of the goshiwon as a whole, and obviously, the use of 'jagiya'.

and kihyuk went right for it. moonjo just does that to a person. even when you don't trust him, you trust him. kihyuk fell for him hook, line, and sinker (take that how you will), and became exactly what he thought moonjo wanted him to become.

but the end result wasn't what moonjo had wanted. he was a failure. personally, i think it was because he wasn't as unstable as jongwoo. jongwoo fantasizes about snapping and choking/beating people. jongwoo took down a fellow officer in his military days. jongwoo wrecked three high school kids who tried to corner him. jongwoo has all the setups for someone about two steps away from losing their shit and killing everyone around him, and that was what moonjo wanted. he didn't want someone who would take so easily to killing. he wanted someone in denial about it--someone who would break before they came back together. someone he could deconstruct and then reconstruct as he pleases.

now, as for how kihyuk would have felt about that if he were alive...that's an interesting thought to consider. there are a couple different angles i look at when it comes to comparing kihyuk and jongwoo.

first, jongwoo is tiny. he's skinny and almost frail-looking. he doesn't give off the appearance of someone who could rip you up one side and down the other. kihyuk isn't bigger by much, but he at least looks more intimidating. jongwoo's scariness comes from his ferocity, because it takes him the entire course of the drama to say 'fuck being a decent human' and lose his shit. kihyuk hasn't seen that. kihyuk probably doesn't notice the subtle hints of volatility that moonjo does. he won't get it, so he won't understand what moonjo sees in him, knowing just what moonjo wants to turn him into.

second, moonjo bends the behavior of the residents around jongwoo. my impression is that didn't happen with kihyuk. moonjo threatens nambok, outright kills one of the twins, and even talks down to ms. eom when she questions his interest in jongwoo. i don't know what kihyuk had to endure there before he let moonjo remake him, but i doubt it was made with as much care as what we saw with jongwoo. the residents at the goshiwon were absolutley unruly, and moonjo still moved them aside rather than getting rid of jongwoo.

i don't know if i want to say kihyuk would be jealous, but it comes close. he definitely doesn't understand, and considering his reason for falling under moonjo's influence in the first place was loneliness and betrayal, he'd probably be a ticking time bomb. he would eventually lose all self-control and go after either or both of them, and he's a dead man if he does so, because moonjo is obviously insanely protective of jongwoo, and jongwoo doesn't know it, but he reflects a part of moonjo inside of him by the end of the show, so he'll go apeshit if kihyuk kills/tries to kill moonjo.

i think the hardest hitter for me is the simple fact that kihyuk was bound by rules. moonjo, when he'd stabbed him with the needle, had announced "you know we have rules". kihyuk, who had thought he was doing exactly what he needed to do, was genuinely shocked.

jongwoo doesn't seem to be bound by those same rules. he does as he pleases, lashes out when he's upset, causes turmoil in the residence at times, and moonjo simply observes and lets it slide.