My Suha: Freedom

This is where you can read the manhwa.  https://www.lezhinus.com/en/comic/mysuha_en But be aware that this manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes. Here is the link, if you are interested in more analyses about manhwas https://bebebisous33analyses.com/2021/06/06/table-of-contents-of-analyzed-mentioned-manhwas/

In the American Declaration of Independence, we can read this:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” https://www.ushistory.org/declaration/document/

As you can observe, here freedom and happiness are not only considered as the most important values in a person’s life but also strongly connected to each other. In other words, without liberty a person can’t be happy. Now you are wondering how I could associate the manhwa “My Suha” written by Chahyun with the idea of liberty. This aspect is already present in the title: “My Suha”.

1. Possession and loss of freedom

Since Suha is referring to Lee Suha, the protagonist, then it means that the main lead belongs to someone. It was, as if the character had turned into a possession and object. With this title “My Suha”, the main character becomes an item and as such loses his right of freedom. The readers are led to believe that this title is referring to Park Jiwon’s view, the other main lead, since in different chapters, he declares that Lee Suha is now his. Striking is that this picture indeed displays Suha’s loss of freedom. Not only the latter should belong to him but Park Jiwon desires to even imprison his loved one. Because he is using the idiom “cage”, Suha appears to be perceived as an animal. Because of this statement, some people might judge the second protagonist as too possessive and obsessed with Lee Suha because he is wishing the main lead to lose his freedom. But this is not really true for two reasons. First, Park Jiwoon is not the only one claiming that Lee Suha belongs to him. Many people involved in Lee Suha’s life act as if the protagonist was their possession or a tool to their disposition.

That’s the reason why I chose the picture as illustration for this essay. In the framed picture, all these persons intervened so much in the main lead’s life that Lee Suha was no longer the true ruler of his life. From the right to the left, we have Park Do-Hyeok, then president Lee, Suha’s sister Minseo, Suha’s mother and finally Park Jiwoon. Therefore in this analysis, I will examine how the meddling of these persons affected Lee Suha’s life so much that he felt the need to build a huge wall around him and kept people at a certain distance.

2. Park Do-Hyeok

Let’s start with the villain of this story, Park Do-Hyeok, the favored grandson of president Lee. What caught my attention is the way our main character was introduced to him. Suha’s mother gives her son the order to serve Do-Hyeok, although we have to remember that Do-Yeok and Suha are just high-school students. The mother requires her son to treat the grandson as his future boss, hence he has to follow him everywhere and obey Do-Hyeok’s orders. In other words, the protagonist is already treated as an adult, not allowed to argue with his mother or Park Do-Hyeok. He can’t enjoy life as a teenager and make new experiences. He can’t refuse the mother’s request because he is not even asked. He is actually receiving an order from his mother. This picture is also interesting because it shows that the mother is actually responsible for Suha’s suffering and unhappiness too. First, she didn’t even question her son if he wanted to assist Do-Hyeok. Secondly, she is the one who pushed her son to the villain’s side, unaware of the repercussion of her action.

Consequently with this introduction, the hypocrite grandson can only consider Lee Suha as a servant and even as an object. He was told to treat the teenager as his slave and dog. The young man became a boss, even before being an adult, and no one ensured that the young master was mature and responsible enough to have Suha’s life in his hands. Due to his special position, he abused his influence and power over the main lead which has never been unveiled to other characters until now. Therefore this is not surprising that Park Do-Hyeok can only consider the main character as his possession. Striking is that the framed picture displays the nature of their relationship. Park Do-Hyeok has his hand put on Suha’s shoulder. He is declaring that this young boy belongs to him now. Hence it is not surprising if he judges Lee Suha as his toy whom he can share with his friend. Consequently for him, the main lead is either just a body or a toy, but at no time a human with rights. This leads him to the belief that as the real owner, he rules over Suha’s life. In this drawing, the antagonist states that he is the one deciding about Suha’s fate and he is just letting Park Jiwoon borrowing him. Besides, when he mentions raising, he could mean that he will turn Lee Suha into a good secretary and assistant, yet in my opinion, he is implying something else. From my perspective, he is declaring that he will change the main lead and turn him into the obedient person he was in his youth: blindly following his orders. As you can observe, the antagonist has not the impression that their long separation affected Lee Suha’s status. The latter was and is still his object and his slave. Thereby “My Suha” could be also referring to Park Do-Hyeok’s thoughts. This explains why Park Do-Hyeok sent his “boy” to his friend Kim Young-Wu in the past and the latter considers the secretary as a communal property.

But how did it come to this situation? Who is responsible for Suha’s loss of freedom leading to his unhappiness?

3. President Lee

In my opinion, president Lee is to blame for all this. She started meddling in his life, the moment Suha’s family got her support. Note that she doesn’t feel any shame, when she announces herself, she will be in their life for a long time. Since the family lived at the huge mansion with the president, the mother must have felt indebted towards her benefactor hence she couldn’t reject her request. From my point of view, when the mother introduces the vicious grandson to her son, she is already acting on president Lee’s wish. Secondly, we discovers that president Lee has already determined Lee Suha’s path and future right from the beginning. She envisages that Suha will become her favorite grandson’s assistant, hence she wanted to send the young man abroad for his studies along with Park Do-Hyeok. However, the former rejected the offer because he had just been betrayed by his “boss” and lover and realized his wicked side. Strangely, the president Lee accepted his refusal but this doesn’t mean that she gave up on her plan. So with her return, she tries to send the protagonist to her grandson’s son (chapter 34).

So in her eyes, her Suha was the perfect candidate to become her grandson’s secretary. What the grandmother failed to realize is that with her choices, she led Suha to his suffering which ruined her plan in the end. She might have accepted the secretary’s rejection (chapter 34), acting as if she was respecting his decisions, nonetheless I am quite sure, she is just changing her approach. In the chapter 54, it looks like she is pressuring Park Jiwoon again to give up on Suha as his secretary, since Jiwoon’s face oozes worries. I have the feeling that she is now acting behind Suha’s back. She asked Park Jiwoon to meet her at her office and Park Do-Hyeok was present. From my perspective, she will pressure the second lead to send Suha to her favorite grandson’s office. She might even suggest an exchange of secretaries. Yoon Hui should go to Jiwoon’s side and Suha to Do-Hyeok’s. That’s why I also judge her in a negative way. Not only she is prejudiced towards Park Jiwoon, but she is also blind to her favorite grandson’s flaws.

Furthermore behind her nice comments and her support, she treats Suha like a pawn in reality. For me, she is the source of Suha’s loss of freedom and unhappiness. If she hadn’t planned to send the protagonist to her favorite grandson as an assistant, if she had never favored him in the beginning, Park Do-Hyeok wouldn’t have come to the idea that Suha was just a possession or a body existing for his personal use. Moreover, she has not been respecting Suha’s liberty, as she played a huge role in his school, studies, job and position. We could say that she has been ruling over the main lead’s life, although the latter started to keep his distance from her family at some point.

4. Lee Minseo

Then we have Minseo, Suha’s sister. She is exactly 15 years younger than her brother. We discover that the brother also has to act as her guardian, although in reality his mother should be responsible for her. Therefore he is called by the school so that he can be present for Minseo’s career counseling. What caught my attention is that Minseo requests her brother’s presence revealing their closeness. Furthermore, it truly shows that in her eyes, Suha has always been a father figure for her. Due to the huge age gap and their familial situation (a widow raising two children on her own), we can clearly perceive that since his youth, Suha had to act as a responsible man. He had to take care of Park Do-Hyeok and his sister. Therefore I come to the conclusion, he didn’t have the time at his disposal. He could never enjoy his youth and his liberty.

5. Lee Suha’s mother

As for the mother, even after leaving the huge mansion, she still lets the president Lee meddle in their life as she only sees the benefit for her son: financially and socially. I would even say that the mother is not different from president Lee too. Back then, we can understand her action (introducing the grandson as Suha’s boss) because she felt obligated towards the president for her generosity. However, when the story begins, the mother is already planning her son’s life as well. She is bothered that Lee Suha is not married yet, hence she organizes a blind date without her son’s consent. She felt the need to act behind his back as the son had already rejected the idea of a blind date. As you can detect, she is living through her son’s life, choosing what looks right for her. This is not surprising that due to her action, Suha decides to leave home and live at his best friend’s flat, Siwoo hyung.

As a first conclusion, many people meddle so much in his life that Suha had no real freedom. He realized all this after getting betrayed by Park Do-Hyeok who used his feelings and his position to force Suha to have sex with another man, the vicious and brutal Kim Young-Wu. I believe, Suha’s fear of having a serious relationship isn’t just the result of Do-Hyeok’s betrayal and emotional abuse. For me, it is also related to his loss of freedom. He has already sensed that relationships could become a burden and even restrain his liberty, hence he is determined not to get attached to someone, out of fear that this person might “imprison” him because the partner meddles in his life.

6. Park Jiwoon’s transformation and its impact on Lee Suha

While reading the manhwa, it becomes clear that Park Jiwoon has always loved Suha but he could never get close to him due to president Lee’s intervention. Hence he chose to watch him from afar. Yet, remember that I started this essay with a picture of Park Jiwoon declaring that Suha would belong to him. Yet, this drawing doesn’t truly mirror his behavior in the story. In fact, Park Jiwoon’s attitude diverges so much from all the other characters related to the framed picture. First, the manhwalover witnesses his transformation, while there is no character growth in the president Lee, Park Do-Hyeok and Suha’s mother. All of them still considers Suha as their object, he can’t make any choice in his life.

First, the black-haired appears to be selfish and possessive as well. When the director decides to have sex with his secretary at his office, he is not really asking for his permission.Imagine, that they almost get caught which scares the protagonist. Strangely, the director Choi Jeong-Min, who belongs to another company but works with Park Jiwoon due to a project, reminds Park Jiwoon that he should not treat his secretary like that. She is even imagining that the main lead is more or less sexually harassing Suha. On two occasions, she pressures the man to respect more Suha’s life. For her, the director is pressuring his secretary to have sex with him and Suha has no real choice. He can’t refuse to have sex with him due to their respective position. Park Jiwoon is Suha’s chief. And her words leave such an impression that Park Jiwoon decides to listen to her words so that he starts distancing himself from Suha. Because of his reaction, the main lead feels the need to approach Park Jiwoon on his own, he is longing for sex and warmth. In other words, Suha makes the decision that he wants to maintain his physical relationship with him. The more time passes on, the more the second main lead allows Suha to make his own decisions. In other words, Park Jiwoon is actually the one who always gives Suha the liberty to choose. The latter is the one determining the evolution of their relationship. In this scene, the black-haired man accepts that they are not dating, they have just a physical relationship, although he has just confessed that he likes Suha very much. In the chapter 49, he gives the protagonist free reins in their relationship. As you can observe, the more their relationship deepens, the more Jiwoon gives him liberty that’s the reason why Suha can only fall more and more for him. Simultaneously he can open up as well. For example, he invites his boss at his flat which he has never done before. At the end, he is willing to accept Jiwoon’s love confession and to get committed to their relationship. This explains why Suha gets more and more happy because thanks to Jiwoon, he rediscovers freedom and can finally breathe. As a conclusion, Jiwon’s love helps the main lead to discover that relationship and freedom don’t represent a contradiction. In fact, love is liberating him. Thanks to Park Jiwoon, Suha is slowly forgetting his traumatic past. When Jiwoon declares this , he is showing that love is motivating him to give everything to his partner. This stands in opposition to Park Do-Hyeok’s request. The latter used Suha’s love for him to require from Suha to give him what he wants: This explains why Suha didn’t want to fall in love after his first bad experience. For him, relationship and love were just an excuse to restrain his liberty and make him miserable. And because of Jiwoon’s love confession, Suha is freed from the past. He remembers Do-Hyeok’s words, making him realize how selfish and vicious the young man was. On the other hand, the protagonist can enjoy more his life thanks to Jiwoon’s affection and regain the liberty he lost due to president Lee. Yet, his struggle is not over, because like I mentioned above, I am quite sure that president Lee is still determined to have Suha worked as Do-Hyeok’s secretary. That’s why I believe that Suha will have to become more firm in front of president Lee and even starts defending his lover, as he has already witnessed how biased her view is about her second grandchild.

As a conclusion, love is indeed liberating the main lead so that he becomes more and more happy, confirming that freedom and happiness are truly intertwined, just like the Declaration of Independence pointed it out.

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