Please support the authors by reading Manhwas on the official websites. This is where you can read the Manhwa: Jinx But be aware that the Manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes. Here is the link of the table of contents about Jinx. Here is the link where you can find the table of contents of analyzed Manhwas. Here are the links, if you are interested in the first work from Mingwa, BJ Alex, and the 2 previous essays about Jinx Why Sleeping Beauty Had to Bleed part 1 and part 2
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When does a curse truly disappear?
Episode 99 of Jinx initially appears to destroy the central superstition of the series. Kim Dan lies unconscious in a hospital bed.
(chapter 99) He is absent from the ring. There was no sex before the match, no ritual, no “luck,” no physical reassurance. And yet Joo Jaekyung wins faster
(chapter 99) and more decisively than ever before.
(chapter 99) At first glance, the conclusion seems obvious: the jinx is broken.
But then another problem emerges immediately. Why does this victory feel so horrifying? To the audience in front of the octagon, the champion no longer appears heroic. Baek Junmin’s face is totally ruined.
(chapter 99)
(chapter 99) The moderator repeatedly describes him as ruthless.
(chapter 99) The crowd boos when he leaves the cage.
(chapter 99) He refuses the interview,
(chapter 99), ignores the CEO
, (chapter 99), abandons the championship belt behind him, and walks away as though the victory itself had become meaningless.
Without the hidden context surrounding Kim Dan’s assault, the public sees only one thing: a frighteningly violent champion who no longer behaves like a human being.
And yet the readers know something entirely different. We know that Joo Jaekyung entered the octagon after discovering that Baek Junmin was connected to Kim Dan’s assault.
(chapter 99) We know that the fight was never truly about the belt. We know that the man appearing emotionally empty
(chapter 99) inside the ring is, in reality, entirely consumed by one person lying unconscious in a hospital room.
This creates the real tension of episode 99. While outsiders witness monstrosity and rudelessness
(chapter 99), the readers witness emotional clarity.
The chapter therefore reveals something far more unsettling. The jinx was never truly about sex at all. The real curse was hesitation and fear — the inability to escape the ghosts of the past. Kim Dan’s assault changes this completely. For the first time in the series, Joo Jaekyung stops fighting memory and focuses entirely on the present moment.
(chapter 99) That is why episode 99 feels simultaneously triumphant and tragic.
The “loverboy” insult
(chapter 99) intended to weaken Joo Jaekyung ultimately destroys the very hesitation that had governed him for years. But the result is terrifying to watch. The emperor wins, yet leaves the octagon looking less like a champion than like a ghost whose heart has already abandoned the arena long before his body does.
(chapter 99)
The Champion Who Always Waited
One detail becomes impossible to ignore once we revisit Joo Jaekyung’s earlier fights. Again and again, his opponents attack first. Randy Booker rushes him aggressively,
(chapter 15) Dominique lands the opening assault
(chapter 40) while the athlete tried to avoid his attacks before
(chapter 40), Gabriel initiates the violence
(chapter 87), and even Baek Junmin, in their first earlier encounter, attempts to establish control first.
(chapter 50) Joo Jaekyung’s usual fighting style therefore follows a recognizable structure. He absorbs the opponent’s aggression
(chapter 40), studies it carefully, adapts to it, and only afterward retaliates with devastating precision.
But Episode 5 quietly introduces a striking exception to this pattern. For the first time in the series, Joo Jaekyung attacks first.
(chapter 5) The moment is brief, yet Park Namwook immediately notices that something feels fundamentally different.
Despite training normally, Jaekyung suddenly appears unusually sharp, aggressive, and emotionally accelerated. Namwook asks whether he “did something special,” instinctively recognizing the deviation without understanding its source.
Retrospectively, the scene becomes deeply revealing. Episode 5 already foreshadows the connection between Kim Dan and the temporary collapse of Jaekyung’s hesitation. Long before Episode 99, Kim Dan had already begun interfering with the psychological structure governing the champion’s violence. Yet the difference between Episode 5 and Episode 99 remains crucial. In Episode 5,
(chapter 5) the hesitation merely weakens. In Episode 99, it disappears entirely. And this is precisely why the fight against Baek Junmin feels so terrifying. The emotional fragmentation that once forced Jaekyung to wait, analyze, and psychologically endure before retaliating suddenly vanishes. For the first time in the series, he no longer enters the cage divided between past and present. He enters it whole.
(chapter 99)
For years, however, this hesitation was misunderstood by everyone around him. Earlier in the story, an older coach
(chapter 75) remarked that Jaekyung performed perfectly during practice but somehow “fell short in important matches.” Park Namwook immediately interpreted this through the logic of sports psychology and asked whether the champion simply got “cold feet.” Episode 99, however, reveals how profoundly the manager and coach misunderstood him. Namwook consistently interprets Joo Jaekyung externally.
(chapter 99) Before the fight against Baek Junmin, he asks whether Jaekyung wants to warm up, whether he wants to hit the mitts, and whether he has slept enough. He notices that Jaekyung’s body feels “cold to the touch,” yet even then he still assumes that the problem must be physical, routine-based, or performance-related. This misunderstanding reveals something important about Namwook himself. First, it is clear that he is projecting his own indeciveness onto his “pupil”. Besides, he represents the institutional mentality of the gym, a worldview in which performance functions almost like a mechanical equation. Training, preparation, discipline, and focus are supposed to produce victory. To Namwook, hesitation can therefore only mean athletic anxiety or fear of failure. In his mind, the match itself is the most important reality in the room. That is why he keeps trying to solve Jaekyung’s silence through professionalism, routine, and ritual. But what the hyung never truly graps is that Joo Jaekyung is not merely an athlete struggling with nerves. He is a man haunted by memory. The “coldness” in his body was never simple fear of losing. It was emotional numbness.
(chapter 75) Joo Jaekyung entered fights carrying invisible ghosts with him: the father, violence, hierarchy, humiliation, fear of disrespect, and the expectation of punishment and rejection. The story repeatedly shows how his father enforced authority physically.
(chapter 72) The elder struck first.
(chapter 72) Resistance or even “presence” was punished. Submission and later avoidance became a survival mechanism. Even later, fragments of this mentality continued reproducing themselves through figures like Hwang Byungchul.
(chapter 74)
(chapter 74) As readers, we gradually realize something deeply unsettling. Joo Jaekyung unconsciously grants older men (Randy Booker, Dominic Hill, Park Namwook and Baek Junmin) the symbolic privilege of initiating violence. This explains why insults such as “baby,”
(chapter 14) “child,” and “lost puppy”
(chapter 96) carry so much narrative importance throughout the series. These words do not merely mock him. On the one hand they psychologically reflect his past fighting style
(chapter 99), on the other hand they reduce him to the subordinate boy once again. But beneath this hesitation lies something even darker. Joo Jaekyung is not merely afraid of losing fights. He is afraid that his father might have been right about him all along. When his father insulted him, beat him, and treated him as worthless, the violence was never only physical. It implanted a deeper psychological curse inside the child.
(chapter 54) Weakness became tied to identity itself. Hesitation became associated with inferiority. Emotional attachment became linked to failure and humiliation. This is why the champion’s mistrust persisted even after becoming the strongest fighter in the ring. Outwardly, Joo Jaekyung became “the Emperor.”
(chapter 75) Inwardly, however, part of him remained trapped before the father’s judgment, still unconsciously waiting for the older man to strike first. The hesitation therefore was not simple caution. It was fear itself. It was the fear that he might truly be weak. It was the fear that he might truly be inferior. And, above all, it was the fear that he might ultimately become exactly what his father believed him to be: A loser!
(chapter 73) And this is precisely why episode 99 changes everything. For the first time in the series, Joo Jaekyung stops fighting while carrying the father’s voice inside his mind. He is no longer hearing his voice, but only seeing his lover’s cold body.
(chapter 99) The assault against Kim Dan forces him into a situation where doubt itself becomes impossible. Suddenly, something matters more than hierarchy, humiliation, fear, or inherited shame. Love overrides the old curse. And once that happens, the subordinate child disappears instantly.
The Shotgun That Backfired
Baek Junmin believes he understands the former champion perfectly. When he leans toward him before the fight and whispers,
(chapter 99) he believes he has found the champion’s greatest weakness.
The insult is carefully calculated. “Loverboy” infantilizes emotional attachment and strips Kim Dan of dignity. Ironically, Kim Dan is actually older than Jaekyung — a hyung — yet Baek Junmin symbolically erases this hierarchy entirely. In his worldview, emotional attachment belongs to weakness, dependency, and humiliation. But there is another layer that makes the scene even darker. The antagonist uses the word “loverboy” through the logic of prostitution, possession, and mockery. For him, the insult reduces Kim Dan to an object of attachment, almost something transactional or degrading. Yet the wolf and Jinx-lovers know something Junmin himself does not fully understand. Kim Dan was not simply emotionally endangered. In the past, he was physically assaulted.
(chapter 91) The “hamster” clearly showed clear signs of PTSD during the restaurant encounter in Chapter 90.
(chapter 90) The trembling, the nausea, and the paralyzing fear were not just reactions to a “fight,” but to a perpetrator who had physically violated his agency. When the former hospital director attempted to “erase” the assault through further violence (the stabbing)
(chapter 98), it proved that to the antagonists, Dan’s body was merely a canvas for their malice.
Consequently, when Baek Junmin whispers “loverboy” in Chapter 99,
(chapter 99) he is unknowingly stepping onto a psychological landmine. He believes he is poking at a romantic weakness; in reality, he is mocking a victim of a coordinated assault. This is why the insult becomes so psychologically explosive.
(chapter 99) For Joo Jaekyung, hearing Junmin use a “diminishing” term to describe a man who is currently lying in a hospital bed because of Junmin’s own schemes is the ultimate provocation. It transforms a standard pre-fight taunt into a disgusting trivialization of Dan’s suffering.
The “Shotgun” fires a bullet of mockery, but because of the hidden reality of the assault, it returns to him as a cannonball of absolute, righteous fury. The word therefore unintentionally collides with the reality of sexual violence and trauma.
(chapter 99) This is why the insult becomes so psychologically explosive.
At the same time, Baek Junmin weaponizes morality itself. The implication is cruelly simple. While Kim Dan lies unconscious, Joo Jaekyung is here fighting for spectacle, money, and fame. The thug expects guilt, hesitation, emotional fragmentation, and inner collapse. Instead, he accidentally gives Joo Jaekyung the most powerful weapon in the entire series. Throughout the story, the “jinx” functioned as a psychological crutch disguised as superstition. The MMA fighter believed he needed the ritual beforehand in order to stabilize himself physically and mentally.
(chapter 02) This is why the superstition held so much power over him. Kim Dan unconsciously became transformed into something functional, almost mechanical: a stabilizer, a ritual, a lucky charm.
(chapter 87) But episode 99 destroys this illusion completely. The moment Baek Junmin says “loverboy,” Joo Jaekyung is forced to confront something openly for the first time. Kim Dan is not luck. Kim Dan is not a ritual. Kim Dan is not a tool. Kim Dan is the person he loves.
(chapter 99) And this realization changes the entire structure of the fight. The irony surrounding Baek Junmin’s title, “The Shotgun,”
(chapter 49) suddenly becomes extraordinary. A shotgun is a weapon of spread, chaos, and indiscriminate destruction. The antagonist’s psychological attack functions exactly the same way.
(chapter 96) He fires insults everywhere at once: infantilization, guilt, mockery, emotional humiliation, and social shame. But Joo Jaekyung’s response becomes the complete opposite: a trigger for retaliation.
(chapter 99)
Instead of psychologically fragmenting him, the attack compresses his entire emotional world into a single point of terrifying focus. Baek Junmin tries to blow Jaekyung’s mind apart; instead, he accidentally pressurizes it. This is why the fight immediately becomes so frightening to watch.
The moderator truly emphasizes that this is “not his usual style.”
(chapter 99) Joo Jaekyung gives Baek Junmin no opportunity to speak
(chapter 99), recover
(chapter 99), breathe
(chapter 99), or retaliate.
(chapter 99) Yet despite the overwhelming brutality, his precision never disappears. The knee strikes, liver shots, uninterrupted combinations, and perfectly targeted blows reveal not emotional chaos, but emotional concentration.
And then Mingwa introduces one of the most disturbing visual details of the entire chapter: Baek Junmin’s face.
(chapter 99) The shattered nose. The missing tooth. The blood covering his mouth. The trembling. Suddenly, “The Shotgun” no longer resembles a manipulative predator or rising star. He becomes reduced to raw, terrified biology. The smugness disappears entirely. And this is where the violence becomes deeply symbolic. Baek Junmin’s greatest weapon was never simply physical strength. His real power existed in his mouth:
- the whispers,
- the manipulation,
- the destabilizing insults,
- the weaponization of social morality,
- and the psychological games.
He attempted to use language itself as ammunition. Joo Jaekyung’s response is therefore horrifyingly surgical. By destroying Baek Junmin’s mouth, nose, and face, he symbolically dismantles the mechanism of the “Shotgun” itself.
(chapter 99) He silences the man who attempted to psychologically break him through words.
But there’s more to it. Baek Junmin’s identity as “The Shotgun” was never about his fists; it was about his mouth.
(chapter 96) His smirk was his armor
(chapter 96), a performative tool used to signal emotional superiority and untouchability. Throughout the series, he weaponized his smile to infantilize Jaekyung and degrade Kim Dan
(chapter 99), positioning himself as the puppet master of the “last laugh.”
(chapter 87) In Episode 99, Joo Jaekyung deconstructs this theatricality with surgical intent. He doesn’t target the body for a standard knockout; he targets the features of expression:
(chapter 99)
- The Mouth: The source of the “Loverboy” insult and the manipulative whispers.
- The Teeth: The physical foundation of the smug, predatory grin.
- The Nose: The center of the “arrogant” face that looked down on Dan’s trauma.
By shattering these specific points, Jaekyung pressurizes the “Shotgun’s” spread of insults into a single point of silence. The violence is not random; it is the literal destruction of mockery. The irony is absolute: the man who defined himself by his ability to laugh at others’ suffering is left with a face that can no longer form a smile.
(chapter 99) Jaekyung didn’t just silence the “Shotgun”—he dismantled the very mechanism Junmin used to enjoy his own cruelty. To the audience, it was monstrosity; to the reader, it was the only way to truly kill the insult. This is why the violence feels so different from ordinary sports brutality. Joo Jaekyung is not simply aiming for victory. He is erasing the source of the violation.
And the irony becomes almost unbearable. Baek Junmin believes the word “loverboy” will emasculate the champion psychologically. Instead, the insult destroys the final separation inside Joo Jaekyung himself. The “Emperor” might once have fought for titles, legacy, spectators, or survival. But the “Loverboy” fights differently.
(chapter 99) He fights personally. And that is precisely why he becomes so terrifying. The crowd boos because they expected a spectacle governed by sportsmanship, hierarchy, and ritualized violence. Instead, they witness sincerity stripped completely naked. The arena ceases to resemble entertainment and begins resembling execution.
(chapter 99) The public therefore interprets Joo Jaekyung as monstrous.
(chapter 99) But the readers understand the deeper irony. For perhaps the first time in the entire series, Joo Jaekyung is utterly sincere inside the cage.
The Crowd of One
To understand the true weight of the “loverboy” provocation in Episode 99, we must return to the subtle transformation that began much earlier in the story, long before Baek Junmin ever whispered the word.
The shift begins in Paris.
(chapter 87) Chapter 15 quietly introduces one of the most important structural changes in Jinx:
(chapter 15) Kim Dan’s transition from a private “function” of the jinx into a visible presence within the audience itself. At first glance, the scene appears insignificant. The arena is immense, saturated with blinding lights, cameras, and noise. Joo Jaekyung stands at the center of a gigantic machinery of spectacle that elevates him into the untouchable figure of “the Emperor.” At this stage, readers are still encouraged to view him primarily as a public myth sustained by victory, fame, and domination.
And yet something changes the moment Kim Dan enters the stands. For Joo Jaekyung, Kim Dan slowly becomes what we might call:
a crowd of one.
Before Paris, approval came from conquest itself. The cheers of the audience
(chapter 15), the fear of opponents, the attention of cameras, the authority of the CEO, and the symbolism of the championship belt all participated in validating Jaekyung’s existence. The Octagon was not simply a workplace. It was the symbolic center of his identity.
But once Kim Dan begins watching him fight from the side, the emotional hierarchy quietly shifts. The roar of the stadium slowly fades into white noise.
(chapter 40)
This transformation becomes unmistakable in Chapter 87.
(chapter 87) Mingwa deliberately changes the visual framing. Instead of emphasizing the scale of the arena, she places Joo Jaekyung behind the chain-link fence while a camera lens continues filming the “Champion” in the background. Yet Jaekyung himself looks beyond the camera entirely. His attention bypasses the world in order to search for a single face.
Then comes the deceptively simple question:
(chapter 87)
Psychologically, this moment marks a point of no return. Joo Jaekyung is no longer performing for twenty thousand spectators. He is seeking Kim Dan’s approval specifically. Public admiration has already begun losing emotional value because it is automatic, repetitive, and unconditional as long as he keeps winning. Kim Dan’s reactions, however, remain uncertain, emotionally complex, and therefore meaningful.
(chapter 87)
Paris therefore functions as the silent diagnosis of Episode 99. Long before Baek Junmin calls him “loverboy”,
(chapter 99) Joo Jaekyung has already begun emotionally abandoning the arena. The “Emperor” slowly hollows out from within because another identity quietly begins taking shape beneath it:
the lover.
And this is precisely why Episode 99 feels so unsettling.
(chapter 99) Once the fight against Baek Junmin ends, Joo Jaekyung behaves almost as though the Octagon itself no longer exists psychologically. He does not celebrate. He does not acknowledge the audience. He does not look at the championship belt. He ignores the interviewer. Even the CEO becomes irrelevant. Instead of remaining beneath the lights as the symbolic center of the spectacle, he walks away immediately.
This refusal profoundly unsettles the public because spectators expect ritual closure. A champion is supposed to stand proudly beneath the lights, receive the belt, address the crowd
(chapter 40), and transform violence back into entertainment. The spectacle depends on emotional resolution in order to preserve itself. But Joo Jaekyung refuses this transition entirely. He leaves the violence unresolved and emotionally raw.
(chapter 99)
This rupture becomes visible even in Park Namwook’s reaction afterward. Earlier in the story, Namwook constantly spoke about Joo Jaekyung with possessive familiarity
(chapter 40), treating him almost as “his” champion to manage, interpret, and direct.
(chapter 88) But in Episode 99, his praise suddenly feels hesitant and emotionally uncertain.
(chapter 99) The stutter in “G-good job, Jaekyung!” alongside the visible sweat drop transforms what should have been a triumphant moment into an awkward and deeply uncomfortable interaction.
Namwook instinctively rushes toward the champion as though trying to restore the old ritual structure of victory: praise the fighter, normalize the violence, and emotionally transition the spectacle back into professionalism. Yet Joo Jaekyung no longer participates in this structure at all. He does not emotionally return to the arena, the manager, or the system surrounding him.
For perhaps the first time, the manager appears confronted with something he cannot interpret, regulate, or emotionally reclaim. The discomfort visible on his face suggests an unconscious realization that the champion standing before him no longer truly belongs to him and the world of the Octagon anymore.
And this is where the “Crowd of One” dynamic becomes crucial.
(chapter 99) Baek Junmin intended the “loverboy” insult to make Joo Jaekyung appear emotionally small, weak, dependent, and pathetic. Ironically, however, the insult produces the exact opposite effect. Instead of diminishing him psychologically, it radically compresses his emotional universe until everything outside Kim Dan disappears completely.
The crowd loses meaning.
The CEO loses authority.
The championship belt loses symbolic value.
Even the identity of “the Emperor” begins collapsing.
Only Kim Dan remains. And paradoxically, this narrowing of the world is exactly what makes Joo Jaekyung so terrifyingly effective inside the cage.
(chapter 99)
Earlier in the series, he always fought amid psychological noise.
(chapter 75) The expectations of others, the father’s ghost, the burden of hierarchy, fear of emotional weakness, public image, and the pressure to sustain the Emperor identity all occupied space inside his mind simultaneously. Part of him always remained divided between the immediacy of the present and the weight of the past.
But in Episode 99, that noise disappears completely.
(chapter 99) By trying to weaponize Jaekyung’s attachment, The Shotgun inadvertently strips away the ghosts that had governed him for years. The father’s lingering shadow, the burden of legacy, and the fear of vulnerability all collapse beneath a single emotional imperative:
protect Kim Dan and his dignity.
And once this happens, Mistrust or doubt becomes impossible.
(chapter 99)
This is why the fight appears almost inhuman to spectators. The audience and the moderator witness a fighter who no longer seems connected to the ordinary emotional economy of sports entertainment.
(chapter 99) There is no vanity left inside him, no desire for applause, and no hunger for symbolic recognition. The crowd cannot understand what it is witnessing because Joo Jaekyung is no longer fighting for public validation at all.
He is fighting for someone specific. That is also why the booing carries such narrative importance. Earlier in the story, crowd approval still mattered
(chapter 15) because the audience helped sustain the identity of “the Emperor.” But by Episode 99, the crowd has already lost its emotional authority over him. The boos therefore sound strangely hollow. They belong to a world Joo Jaekyung has already abandoned internally.
This is also why Mingwa’s depiction of the crowd earlier in Episode 99 becomes so significant retrospectively.
(chapter 99) Before the match begins, both groups of supporters remain visibly divided. Some cheer passionately for Joo Jaekyung
(chapter 99), while others support Baek Junmin with equal enthusiasm. Yet despite this rivalry, the audience still shares the same emotional framework. They participate in the same ritual structure of sports entertainment: choosing sides, anticipating victory, and emotionally investing themselves in the spectacle. But once Joo Jaekyung abandons the belt and walks away from the Octagon, this division suddenly disappears.
(chapter 99)
The rival chants collapse into a single unified sound:
(chapter 99) In other words, the crowd briefly becomes emotionally unanimous precisely at the moment Joo Jaekyung rejects it entirely.
Symbolically, this reversal is extraordinary. Earlier in the story, the collective audience helped sustain the identity of “the Emperor.”
(chapter 75) But by Episode 99, Joo Jaekyung has already emotionally abandoned that entire system. The boos therefore no longer possess true emotional authority over him. They belong to a world he has already left behind psychologically.
(chapter 99)
Ironically, while the crowd finally speaks with one voice, Joo Jaekyung himself no longer hears it at all. This is why he can leave the championship belt behind without even turning around. For years, the belt represented worth, hierarchy, legitimacy, and survival. In Episode 99, however, Joo Jaekyung silently chooses a fragile human body over the indestructible gold object waiting for him inside the cage.
(chapter 99)
In other words, the insult intended to diminish him emotionally ultimately liberates him from the need to remain “the Emperor” at all.
The Ghost in the Ring
This emotional transformation explains why Joo Jaekyung appears so deeply unsettling throughout Episode 99. Mingwa repeatedly depicts him with shadowed or completely obscured eyes
(chapter 99), while the backgrounds dissolve into blackness, fragmented speed lines, and empty space. The visual language of the chapter gradually strips away the surrounding world until only the violence remains visible. At first glance, this eyeless imagery makes him appear monstrous, detached, and almost inhuman. Yet the deeper irony is that the opposite is actually happening.
Joo Jaekyung is not emotionally absent because he enjoys the brutality of the fight. He appears ghost-like because emotionally he no longer wants to be there at all. This becomes especially important once we remember the scene before the match where he insists:
(chapter 98) That sentence completely recontextualizes everything that follows afterward. Emotionally, Joo Jaekyung had already chosen the hospital over the Octagon.
(chapter 98) The cage, once his kingdom, suddenly becomes a place of forced exile. He does not want the lights, the crowd, or the spectacle. He wants to remain beside Kim Dan. He wants proximity, silence, and reassurance. But the system surrounding him — the match, the organization, the expectations, and the machinery of professional fighting itself — forces him back into the arena before Kim Dan regains consciousness.
And this is precisely why he begins resembling Kim Dan himself.
(chapter 97) Throughout the series, Kim Dan lived like a ghost. He erased himself emotionally and physically in order to survive.
(chapter 57) He exhausted his body for others, suppressed his own emotions, accepted humiliation silently
(chapter 90), and reduced himself to a functional object rather than a full human being. He moved through life almost invisibly, enduring suffering while abandoning parts of himself in the process.
In Episode 99, Joo Jaekyung briefly enters the same existential state. Hence he is not allowed to talk to the journalists before the event. Inside the Octagon, his body continues fighting, striking, calculating, and destroying with terrifying precision, but emotionally he has already left the arena behind.
(chapter 99) Hence he is determined to finish this match as quickly as possible. His heart remains in the hospital room beside the unconscious man lying in bed. In this sense, the fight becomes profoundly uncanny because Jaekyung’s body operates almost independently from his emotional presence. Years of training allow him to perform absolute violence almost automatically. Baek Junmin is therefore not facing ordinary rage or uncontrolled fury. He is facing a perfectly functioning machine whose operator is psychologically somewhere else entirely.
And yet Episode 99 also contains brief ruptures where the “ghost” inside the cage suddenly reveals the human being still trapped within it. One of the most striking moments occurs when Joo Jaekyung screams:
(chapter 99) At first glance, the panel appears to depict pure rage. His face is distorted, his eyes are wide open, and the violence reaches an almost frightening intensity. But even here, Mingwa carefully avoids portraying him as a man lost in uncontrolled fury. The strikes remain terrifyingly accurate. His body does not flail blindly. Every movement continues targeting Baek Junmin with surgical precision.
(chapter 99) This distinction matters enormously.
Joo Jaekyung is not fighting like someone consumed by chaos. He is fighting like someone whose emotional world has collapsed into a single unbearable question. Why?
The scream therefore functions on multiple levels simultaneously.
(chapter 99) On the surface, he is condemning Baek Junmin directly for his choices, for the assault, for the cruelty, and for reducing Kim Dan to collateral damage within a world governed by greed, hierarchy, and spectacle. But the question also reveals something deeper psychologically. For perhaps the first time in the series, Joo Jaekyung openly confronts the absurdity of the system surrounding him.
Why is he inside a cage fighting for a championship belt while the person he loves lies unconscious in a hospital bed? Why does this world demand violence, performance, and spectacle at the precise moment when he wants to be somewhere else entirely? Why must human intimacy constantly be sacrificed to sustain the machinery of “the Emperor”? This is why the panel feels so emotionally explosive. The “WHY?!” is not merely directed at Baek Junmin. It is directed at the entire reality trapping him inside the arena.
And this is precisely where the Emperor mask finally shatters completely.
Earlier in the series, Jaekyung’s violence usually remained emotionally controlled beneath layers of arrogance
(chapter 15), intimidation, or performative dominance. Here, however, the emotional repression ruptures openly. Yet paradoxically, the loss of the mask does not weaken his precision. Instead, his years of training allow his body to continue functioning with horrifying efficiency even while his emotional state reaches a breaking point.
The result is deeply uncanny. His body performs violence automatically, almost mechanically, while his emotions remain entirely concentrated outside the cage. Mingwa reinforces this visually by stripping away the arena itself. The backgrounds dissolve into white speed lines and empty space until only Jaekyung and his target remain visible. The audience disappears. The spectacle disappears. Even the Octagon itself begins losing visual substance.
The fight stops resembling sports entertainment and starts resembling a private war.
(chapter 99)
And this is why the public perceives him as monstrous. Joo Jaekyung no longer participates in the emotional economy of professional fighting. He is not trying to entertain the audience, preserve his image, or embody the symbolic role of “Champion.” To spectators, he appears frightening precisely because the normal rituals of the sport have collapsed entirely.
But the readers understand the deeper irony. The “ghost in the ring” is not a man incapable of feeling. It is a man whose feelings have become so painfully concentrated on one person outside the cage that everything inside the cage loses emotional reality in comparison.
And this is what makes the violence so terrifying. The body continues moving flawlessly, but the person inhabiting it has already departed emotionally. The Emperor’s shell remains inside the cage, mechanically “cleaning up” the threat standing before him, while the human being himself waits elsewhere.
This also gives new meaning to the “loverboy” insult. Baek Junmin intended the word to drag Joo Jaekyung back into the room emotionally through shame, humiliation, and guilt. He wanted to force the champion to confront emotional weakness publicly. Instead, the insult produces the exact opposite effect. By naming him a “lover,” Baek Junmin inadvertently gives Joo Jaekyung permission to stop caring about the Empire altogether.
The emotional hierarchy collapses instantly. The title stops mattering. The crowd stops mattering. The spectacle stops mattering. Only Kim Dan remains psychologically real.
This is why the fragmented speed lines and visual distortions
(chapter 99) throughout the chapter become so significant. To spectators, they symbolize the overwhelming speed and brutality of the champion. But psychologically they also resemble static, interference, and white noise. Everything surrounding the fight begins blurring together because, from Jaekyung’s perspective, the world outside Kim Dan has already lost emotional clarity.
Even his eyes disappear.
Earlier in the series, Jaekyung’s gaze defined his identity. His eyes projected intimidation, dominance, confidence, and hierarchy before he even threw a punch. In Paris, however, that gaze had already begun changing direction.
(chapter 99) Instead of seeking the crowd’s approval, he searched for Kim Dan’s reactions specifically. By Episode 99, Mingwa removes his eyes altogether because if Kim Dan is not there to watch him, then psychologically there is nothing left worth seeing inside the cage.
(chapter 99)
And this is why the public completely misreads him.
To outsiders, the eyeless champion appears dangerous, emotionally detached, and frighteningly cruel. They cannot see the unconscious body waiting in the hospital room, the assault that triggered the fight, or the emotional clarity behind the violence. The audience believes it is witnessing a champion who has lost his humanity. But the readers understand something far more tragic. The “ghost” inside the ring exists precisely because Joo Jaekyung has finally discovered something more important than the ring itself.
For perhaps the first time in the entire series, the Emperor no longer wants the arena. He no longer wants the gold, the cheers, the cameras, or the “last laugh.” The ghost in the cage is merely the shell of an Emperor who has already abdicated his throne. What remains is simply a man waiting for another person to wake up.
(chapter 99)
The Real Octagon
The true emotional climax of episode 99 does not occur inside the cage. It occurs afterward, inside the hospital room.
The contrast between these two spaces is extraordinary. The octagon is filled with noise, cameras, violence, lights
(chapter 99), money, and spectacle, yet everything inside it suddenly feels false. The championship belt becomes meaningless. The real “octagon” is the hospital room. This is where Joo Jaekyung finally stops performing.
Inside the Octagon, his body continued functioning almost automatically. Years of training allowed him to strike, calculate, and destroy with terrifying precision even while emotionally he had already left the arena behind. But the hospital room strips away that final layer of mechanical control. For the first time in the chapter, there is no audience left to confront, no opponent left to destroy, and no role left to perform. Only Kim Dan remains.
And it is precisely this silence that transforms Joo Jaekyung completely.
(chapter 99)
Throughout the series, Joo Jaekyung’s relationships were governed by an unconscious fear: the fear that attachment inevitably leads to rejection. His father did not merely punish him physically. He reacted to the child’s very presence with hostility and disgust.
(chapter 99) As a result, Jaekyung internalized a devastating emotional logic. Being emotionally needy made him feel unwanted. Closeness became dangerous. Vulnerability became synonymous with humiliation.
This is why his relationship with Kim Dan remained so distorted for so long. Joo Jaekyung constantly sought proximity, yet he hid emotional dependence behind sex, money, possessiveness, irritation, or authority. Genuine emotional need terrified him because emotional dependence implied the possibility of rejection afterward.
And this is precisely why Baek Junmin’s words before the fight were so psychologically destructive:
(chapter 99)
“You might never see him again.”
At first glance, the sentence appears to function like simple emotional manipulation designed to induce guilt. But its true impact runs much deeper. For a brief moment, Joo Jaekyung is forced back into the emotional position of the abandoned child once again: the boy not chosen, the boy left behind
(chapter 73), the boy whose existence ultimately failed to make people stay.
Except this time, something changes fundamentally. Kim Dan cannot reject him. Kim Dan lies unconscious.
(chapter 99) The feared separation is no longer tied to humiliation, disgust, disappointment, or emotional abandonment. It is tied to death itself.
(chapter 99) And this distinction completely destroys the old psychological structure governing Joo Jaekyung’s relationships.
Earlier in the story, emotional distance could still be controlled through anger, domination, emotional withdrawal, or physical possession.
(chapter 34) Pride could function as protection because rejection still belonged to the realm of human choice. But death cannot be negotiated with. Death cannot be emotionally controlled. Death strips away performance, ego, hierarchy, and pride.
This is why the hospital scene becomes emotionally revolutionary for Joo Jaekyung’s character. For perhaps the first time in his life, he experiences attachment without interpreting vulnerability as humiliation. And Mingwa visually announces this transformation even before Joo Jaekyung begins crying.
(chapter 99)
One particularly striking panel depicts him in near-complete shadow after the fight. His eyes disappear entirely, but so does his mouth. The visual effect is deeply unsettling because the image no longer resembles the “Emperor” readers have known throughout the series. Earlier in Jinx, Jaekyung’s identity was strongly tied to his gaze, his smile and speech.
(chapter 41) His eyes projected dominance, intimidation, hierarchy, and emotional control, while his words often functioned as weapons protecting him from vulnerability. But in this moment, both are symbolically erased.
The champion who once controlled others through violence, commands, mockery, and physical presence suddenly becomes silent and unreadable.
(chapter 99) This panel therefore functions almost like a metamorphosis.
Joo Jaekyung appears suspended between two emotional states: the ghost-like fighter who mechanically completed the violence inside the cage and the human being about to collapse emotionally beside Kim Dan’s hospital bed. The “Emperor” identity has not merely weakened; it is actively dissolving.
And this is precisely why the following hospital scene carries such devastating emotional weight.
Ironically, Joo Jaekyung can finally speak honestly
(chapter 99) only because Kim Dan cannot answer him. Kim Dan’s unconsciousness temporarily removes the immediate fear of judgment and rejection that had governed Jaekyung’s emotional life for years. His tears no longer emerge from wounded pride or fear of rejection. They emerge from something much more terrifying and much more human: the fear of irreversible loss.
That’s why his words gain enormous emotional weight. 
These lines matter because they are entirely stripped of control.
(chapter 99) There is no aggression hidden inside them. No transaction. No domination. No pride. The “Emperor” disappears completely in this moment.
(chapter 99) What remains is simply a man terrified of losing someone he loves forever. We could say, the tears wash away the “Emperor.”
Why does the wolf become so ruthless inside the ring? Because Baek Junmin accidentally destroys the old fear governing him. The child who feared rejection disappears the moment the possibility becomes death rather than humiliation. Suddenly, protecting Kim Dan matters more than hierarchy, pride, the audience, the title, or even Jaekyung’s own identity as champion. This is why the fight appears so frightening to outsiders. The public sees only violence because they cannot perceive the emotional truth behind it. They witness a ruthless champion abandoning his humanity. But the readers understand the exact opposite. For the first time in the entire series, Joo Jaekyung is not fighting to protect his ego, his title, or the image of the “Emperor.” He is fighting because someone precious might disappear forever.
The Alchemy of Tears
This visual erasure of his features leads to the chapter’s true catharsis.
(chapter 99) When the tears finally fall, they carry a symbolic weight that transcends simple grief. Throughout the series, Jaekyung’s body has functioned as a suit of armor—a fortress of hardness, discipline, and emotional immovability. In his world, pain was always displaced; it was never felt, only inflicted upon others through violence or control. He was the man who struck, never the man who collapsed.
But beside Kim Dan’s bed, that armor finally shatters.
(chapter 99) For the first time, his agony is not converted into aggression; it is allowed to remain as grief. These tears accomplish what the brutality of the Octagon never could: they return the “Ghost” to his own skin.
This scene represents an emotional rebirth rather than a collapse. The “Emperor”—an identity built entirely on suppression and invulnerability—cannot survive this level of sincerity.
(chapter 99) The tears act as a solvent, dissolving the emotional paralysis that has governed him since his childhood. At the same time, they also allow Joo Jaekyung to confront something he had carried unconsciously for years: the guilt, fear, and emotional burden surrounding his father’s death.
(chapter 74)
Throughout the series, Jaekyung fought as though strength itself could protect him from becoming his father.
(chapter 75) Victory became proof that he was not weak, not broken, not destined to fail the same way. But this also trapped him psychologically inside the father’s shadow. Every fight became tied to survival, worth, and the terror of becoming a “loser.”
In the hospital room, however, Kim Dan’s possible death suddenly reorganizes his entire emotional world. For the first time, Joo Jaekyung is no longer fighting to justify his own existence through violence or victory. He is simply afraid of losing someone he loves.
(chapter 99)
And paradoxically, this finally allows him to stop reliving his father’s death through himself.
(chapter 99) The tears therefore symbolize more than grief alone. They mark the moment when the son stops trying to survive through the Emperor identity and begins existing as a human being capable of mourning, loving, and fearing loss openly.
This is why the final irony of Episode 99 becomes so powerful.
The public interprets the champion’s violence as proof that he has lost his humanity. In reality, the tears reveal the exact opposite. Joo Jaekyung cries because, for the first time in his life, he allows himself to love someone more than he fears losing himself.
And that is why Episode 99 does not merely depict the breaking of the jinx.While the public looks at the carnage in the ring and sees a man who has lost his humanity, the readers see the exact opposite. The extraordinary irony of Episode 99 is that Joo Jaekyung has never been more human than in the moment he allows himself to cry. He finally accepts a reality where loving someone else is more important than the fear of losing his own ego. The “Jinx” wasn’t just a ritual; it was a barrier. By breaking it, Jaekyung doesn’t just win a fight—he finally allows the man hidden beneath the Emperor to breathe.

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(chapter 98), then awakening cannot mean simply opening one’s eyes. It requires something more difficult: the ability to perceive the web itself.
(chapter 98)
(chapter 98)
(chapter 74)
(chapter 98) It marks the moment when threads—long invisible—can no longer absorb the force placed upon them. What could once be deferred, explained, or reinterpreted now demands recognition.
(chapter 94) She operates through a series of metonymic substitutions, formulas designed to translate the chaos of precarity into the language of stability. In her system, “Doctor” is synonymous with “Safety”,
(chapter 65) and “Seoul” is equated with “Opportunity.”
(chapter 65) This is the pragmatic logic of a survivor who has learned that in a world of scarcity, respectability is the only available armor. She seeks to build a fortress for Kim Dan out of credentials and institutional legitimacy,
(chapter 47) believing that if the external conditions are sufficiently aligned, the internal suffering can be permanently contained.
(chapter 65), she extends her system of protection beyond herself. Unable to guarantee Kim Dan’s safety directly, she delegates it to another figure she perceives as stable, capable, and situated within a controlled environment. Protection, here, becomes transferable—something that can be secured through the right association.
(chapter 78)
(chapter 21), his status, and his apparent control over his environment.
(chapter 98) Having spent the night at the hospital, deprived of rest and confronted with a situation he cannot resolve, he no longer appears as an agent of control, but as someone equally constrained by circumstance.
(chapter 41) The loan—the invisible force structuring their lives—is not addressed directly; it is translated into filial piety.
(chapter 18)
(chapter 94) This silence is not only strategic; it is protective. To name the debt would be to acknowledge its persistence and the origins of Kim Dan’s stress, and therefore the possibility that it cannot be escaped.
(chapter 90) Here, the logic of debt is not interrupted; it is reframed as asymmetrical power, dependency, and coercion.
(chapter 57) acquires a different meaning in light of the events that follow. What was imagined as a movement toward safety reveals itself as a movement toward exposure.
(chapter 57) —his identity reduced to a single word: “bum.” The violence here is not physical, but symbolic. It is immediate, collective, and humiliating. Faced with this, Shin Okja intervenes, not by confronting the accusation, but by reframing it.
(chapter 57) This response establishes a decisive pattern. The external threat is not analyzed or challenged; it is neutralized through emotional substitution. The problem is not located in a social structure—poverty, stigma, exclusion—but dissolved within the private space of care. What cannot be changed is not named. Instead, it is softened.
(chapter 65) Harm is not eliminated; it is reinterpreted. The world remains hostile, but its hostility is rendered bearable through the assurance of relational security. Under this light, it becomes comprehensible why Kim Dan started having eating disorder.
(chapter 30), through representation
(chapter 65), through narratives that render events coherent and contained. Within these frames, suffering appears structured, bounded, and ultimately resolvable.
(chapter 94), the statement appears benign, even affectionate. Yet it introduces a subtle displacement. What is presented as admiration becomes a form of reliance.
(chapter 94) His performance is no longer his alone; it acquires a function beyond itself.
(chapter 98), the transfer becomes explicit. Care transforms into obligation. Affection becomes pressure. That’s why his gesture resembles to her at the hospice:
(chapter 94)
(chapter 98) Suffering becomes something structured and resolved within a frame. This mediated perception sustains her belief that reality is ultimately manageable, that danger can be contained within visible boundaries.
(chapter 99) —but the statement appears mechanical, detached from meaning. What follows marks a rupture:
(chapter 98) The violence does not introduce a new reality; it forces the recognition of a structural condition that had been deferred for years.
(chapter 91), appears as an isolated figure. In this configuration, the crime can still be contained. It risks being interpreted as the action of a single individual rather than the manifestation of a broader system.
(chapter 90) The structure remains identical; only its direction is reversed. What appears as care in one case becomes blame in the other. Both displace the origin of harm, ensuring that it is never confronted at its source.
(chapter 95) The match is discussed on television, framed by expert panels, transformed into spectacle. Within this mediated space, events are reorganized into narratives that preserve coherence. The system remains visible—but only in a form that neutralizes its contradictions.
(chapter 65) Her philosophy is therefore not only a strategy for survival, but a defense against loss. By constructing a system that promises stability, she attempts to secure his future in her absence.
(chapter 94), she is not offering a casual compliment, but reaffirming a belief that character itself can function as protection. Just as institutions are expected to secure safety externally, moral integrity is imagined to guarantee it internally.
(chapter 11) It does not interrupt the structure that produces it. What the stabbing reveals is not the absence of goodness, but its insufficiency. Moral character does not shield against a system that exceeds it.
(chapter 11) When he sees Kim Dan’s injuries, he does not accept the explanation of an accidental fall.
(chapter 11) The signs are too clear: the blood, the instability, the surrounding context. The truth is not hidden from him—it is fully accessible. And yet, this recognition produces no transformation.
(chapter 98) The match must continue. The title must be defended. The schedule must be maintained. What should function as a rupture—an event that interrupts the spectacle—is translated into a professional condition. Injury becomes endurance, trauma or pain
(chapter 52) becomes discipline
(chapter 52), and even external aggression is reintegrated as part of the fighter’s burden.
(chapter 96) Violence loses its capacity to expose the system; it becomes one of its operating principles.
(chapter 95) His insistence that the match must proceed is therefore not simply a matter of scheduling or revenue. It is a defense of the very framework through which he understands worth. If the event were to stop because of blood, then the distinction between strength and failure would collapse.
(chapter 96) Simultaneously, Dan operates under a prior logic of care inherited from Shin Okja, which characterizes love as a practice of self-effacement and the vigilant avoidance of becoming a “burden.”
(chapter 96) This selection is far from neutral; it activates a reflexive inversion in which Dan begins to view his own emotional presence as interference—an element that disrupts the conditions of performance. He ceases to position himself as a partner and instead redefines himself as an obstacle that must be removed.
(chapter 96)
(chapter 98) Dan aligns himself with the very system that isolates him. By explicitly stating that he does not want Jaekyung’s performance to be affected, he performs an act of self-erasure, translating his devotion into a demand that reinforces the system’s logic. In doing so, he does not transfer the inherited burden, but reproduces its structure: love becomes obligation, attachment becomes pressure, and care becomes indistinguishable from the demand to endure. Suffering is thus rendered manageable only by being structured into obligation—even at the moment where it should interrupt the system entirely.
(chapter 99) His compliment carries no weight.
(chapter 99), and reproduce the framework—but he can no longer guarantee its internal acceptance. Joo Jaekyung continues to act within the system, but no longer according to its logic. He becomes capable of fulfilling its demands without believing in them. The result is a hollow compliance: performance without adherence, victory without value.
(chapter 69) Where there is rupture, he restores continuity. In doing so, he prevents the emergence of the question that could destabilize the entire structure: why?
(chapter 98)
(chapter 98)
(chapter 98) Yosep’s statement intensifies this discomfort. When he tells Jaekyung that Doc Dan would want him to go to the match, he speaks with a certainty that feels almost intrusive. It is as though Kim Dan’s private words have already been absorbed into the group’s logic, detached from their intimate context and repurposed as pressure. Whether Yosep is merely guessing, repeating what he believes Kim Dan would say, or somehow knows more than he should, the effect is the same: Kim Dan’s voice is no longer used to protect his life, but to discipline Jaekyung back into the arena.
(chapter 98) Yosep does not merely reproduce Park Namwook’s logic; he embodies its long-term internalization. Having lived under the same principle—that emotion and relationships must be subordinated to performance—he has come to perceive this translation as self-evident. His statement does not register as an imposition to him, but as a natural extension of care. Yet the consequences of this logic are already visible in his own trajectory. The prioritization of endurance over relational presence has not only shaped his professional conduct, but also his personal life, culminating in the dissolution of his marriage. What appears, in the moment, as pragmatic guidance thus reveals itself as a learned incapacity to recognize when performance has displaced care.
(chapter 5) It shows that the “endurance over care” logic doesn’t just affect the fighters; it is a virus that destroys every personal relationship it touches.
(chapter 99)
(chapter 98) who suffers rather than acts
(chapter 98), the one who is endangered rather than decisive. He does not yell or attempt to run away while facing his ex-boss. Does this not reduce him to a passive figure, repeatedly placed in situations where others must intervene?
(chapter 95), and a financial machine. Its fall revealed that the ring was only the visible surface of a much darker structure.
(chapter 47), and control intersect. This is precisely why figures like Baek Junmin cannot be reduced to mere competitors. His involvement in rigged systems
(chapter 47) places him within a framework where outcomes are manipulated and where harm—even death—becomes a possible consequence rather than an exception.
and confront the system directly. However, the stabbing reorients that expectation. It places him, instead, in a position structurally analogous to that earlier fracture point
(chapter 98): not as the agent who exposes the system through action, but as the figure through whom its hidden logic becomes legible. Like the DSE case, where a single event forced observers to reconsider the boundaries between sport, money, and organized crime, Kim Dan’s injury functions as a node of convergence. It connects debts, institutional failure, and coercion into a single, visible rupture.
(chapter 95) It is broadcast worldwide, surrounded by articles, posters, speculation, and commercial pressure, though I doubt that the interview from Baek Junmin was broadcasted worldwide, as he spoke in Korean. The poster itself
(chapter 97) already exposes the bias of the system: Baek Junmin is elevated like a golden idol, while Joo Jaekyung is portrayed more as a ghost from the past. The media does not simply report the match; it prepares the audience to accept a specific narrative.
(chapter 95) The question is no longer “Who will win?” but ‘How will Joo Jaekyung’s defeat be made to appear inevitable?’”
(chapter 98)
(chapter 98) Their words reveal the logic of the organization: the attacker may be pursued, but the event must continue. The absence of MFC representatives at the hospital is therefore not incidental, but symptomatic: it visualizes the system’s refusal of implication. Violence is acknowledged—but only insofar as it does not disrupt the spectacle. In a way, everyone seems to be focused on the fight and nothing else. No one publicly asks the most dangerous question
(chapter 98): why was Kim Dan targeted on the eve of the match?
(chapter 90) In that earlier confrontation, the director reduced the physical therapist to an object of contempt
(chapter 90), employing degrading language that revealed not obsession, but dismissal.
(chapter 98) The act thus exceeds the logic of personal grievance without entirely discarding it.
(chapter 98) Meanwhile, the real cost is paid elsewhere, by bodies that are not supposed to be seen. Kim Dan’s bleeding body becomes the hidden underside of the spectacle.
(chapter 17), and protected him without receiving public recognition.
(chapter 60) The assault on Kim Dan in the “private” space of the penthouse hallway
(chapter 88) The same hidden space became a refuge not only for himself, but for Kim Dan, allowing him to protect the physical therapist’s dignity and safety away from the media’s gaze.
(chapter 37) and the switched spray
(chapter 49), which unfolded within MFC’s operational sphere. Those events were embedded in the organization’s jurisdiction and thus carried the potential to implicate it directly.
(chapter 98) It converts Jaekyung’s attachment into a site of vulnerability, forcing him into a position where his private life can be used against him.
(chapter 17); this injury imposes limitation.
(chapter 98) It may become the first visible crack in the façade. The attack is supposed to remain a private tragedy, but if its connection to the match surfaces, then MFC’s credibility collapses. The question will no longer be whether Baek Junmin can defeat Joo Jaekyung, but whether the fight itself was ever clean or it can even take place at all.
(chapter 87) and a title reclaimed, guilt alters not just performance, but identity. By transforming Kim Dan into a victim, Baek Junmin attempts to implant a belief far more enduring than physical trauma: that proximity to Joo Jaekyung is dangerous. The objective is not simply to destabilize him temporarily, but to reintroduce a form of inner collapse that had once defined the champion, shifting him from a state of self-destructive detachment back into a cycle of shame.
(chapter 98)
(chapter 74) In earlier encounters, Baek Junmin was unable to obtain the champion’s submission
(chapter 74) and even to provoke any visible fear from Joo Jaekyung.
(chapter 74) His self-destructive indifference functioned as a form of armor. A man who places no value on his own survival cannot easily be coerced through threats of violence. He could not be rattled, because there was nothing to lose. Kim Dan changes that equation entirely.
(chapter 74) What he could not escape, however, was responsibility. His past is marked by a formative rupture
(chapter 74) in which personal achievement coincided with irreversible loss, producing a lasting association between his own success and the suffering of others.
(chapter 98) The goal is to force the champion back into the familiar and agonizing position of the survivor—one who advances while others pay the price in blood. In this configuration, the match itself becomes secondary to the internal consequence: the resurgence of self-blame, the reemergence of guilt, and the deepening of self-loathing.
(chapter 91) The violence inflicted upon him is designed to echo within the champion, transforming an external assault into an internal fracture. In this sense, the attack operates less as a physical strike than as a mechanism of psychological inscription.
(chapter 73) The result was not empowerment, but internalized blame—a distortion in which ambition became inseparable from shame.
(chapter 73) He occupies the same structural position—not as a replacement, but as a continuation—forcing Joo Jaekyung to relive a pattern in which success, loss, and guilt converge.
(chapter 73) This convergence is not incidental. On the very day his public success becomes visible, his private reality collapses into a scene of absolute abjection. Achievement and catastrophe are not merely juxtaposed—they are structurally bound.
(chapter 74) As the sole representative of the athletic world, he becomes the figure through whom the scene attains institutional closure. By accepting the event as it appeared, without interrogating its conditions, he contributes—structurally rather than intentionally—to the stabilization of its official meaning. Boxing and the mob are two separate worlds. The tableau remains intact, not because it is verified, but because it is not questioned.
(chapter 74), one would expect traces of that affiliation to persist—not necessarily as mourning, but at least as presence. Yet none appear. No representatives, no residual ties, no indication that he belonged to a structure beyond the domestic sphere. This absence does not confirm a break, but it renders continuity uncertain.
(chapter 72), the later environment appears comparatively stabilized.
(chapter 73) This shift does not indicate resolution, but it does mark an interruption.
(chapter 73) The visual emphasis on syringes and narcotics does not introduce new information—it reactivates an earlier image, one already internalized during his childhood.
(chapter 47) What the narrative reveals instead is a single structure operating on two levels: a visible arena governed by rules, discipline, and public legitimacy, and an invisible layer sustained by coercion, debt, and manipulation. Joo Jaekyung’s father stands at the point where these two layers converge.
(chapter 74) —coherent, legible, and therefore unquestioned—the present moment resists such closure. The structure that once foreclosed inquiry is no longer fully operative. The “jinx” reveals itself not as fate, but as the effect of an interpretation that had never been interrogated.
(chapter 95) Why is the mechanism that produces harm repeatedly misidentified as fate, necessity, or personal failure?
(chapter 74)
(chapter 17), whose violence was never concealed behind the illusion of sport. His weapon was direct, explicit, and inseparable from his words. During that earlier encounter, he articulated a principle that now returns with unexpected clarity:
(chapter 17)
(chapter 11). This condition does not remain static; it intensifies. The violence directed at Kim Dan follows a clear trajectory—one that escalates in both form and intimacy. What begins as physical assault quickly extends into spatial violation: trespassing, intrusion into his living space, and the systematic erosion of any boundary that might protect him. From there, it evolves into abduction
(chapter 16) and coercion
(chapter 16), culminating in sexual violence.
(chapter 16)
(chapter 17) Through this echo, the boundary between past and present collapses, as does the distinction between underground coercion and institutionalized spectacle. What once appeared as separate domains—the illegal underworld and the legitimate sport—are revealed as two expressions of a single, continuous structure.
(chapter 98) It emerges from a structure already in motion—one that had previously manifested in a different form. The attempted sexual assault by the hospital director
(chapter 91) What returns in the stabbing is therefore not a new intrusion, but the intensification of an unresolved structure.
(chapter 98) —his attempt to sever himself from the act by delegating it and erasing traces—presumes that violence can be isolated and controlled. On the one hand his demand effectively reassigns the burden of protection. The former director, once shielded by institutional authority, is now positioned as the one who must protect another individual from exposure. Yet the very structure he activates exceeds his knowledge.
(chapter 93); the money laundering operation represents the material reality that must remain hidden behind the ‘fake’ spectacle of the sport.
(chapter 1) He was not merely fired after the incident; he was made professionally untouchable. By damaging his reputation and preventing him from being hired elsewhere, the hospital did not simply remove a troublesome employee—it attempted to silence the one person whose testimony could expose the system that had protected the director.
(chapter 98) It reveals that the “Official Narrative” of the director’s expulsion was a lie of containment. The institution did not heal itself; it simply exported its violence to a darker room, and in Chapter 98, that violence finally found its way back into the light of the hallway.
(chapter 94), is not a neutral description—it is a mode of interpretation. It designates his parents’ death as an event without structure, a rupture that cannot be traced back to conditions or causes. In doing so, it preserves the image of a past that appeared stable: a childhood not yet governed by coercion, obligation, or threat.
(chapter 5) —financial, social, and existential. This transition is not simply temporal, but conceptual. Where accident suggests contingency, debt imposes necessity. One denies causality; the other enforces it.
(chapter 98) cannot be reduced to a purely medical condition. It introduces a different mode of perception—one no longer governed by the interpretive framework that structures his waking life. Sleep does not simply heal; it suspends the language of accident.
(chapter 77)
(chapter 19) 

(chapter 89) December 26th
(chapter 97), readers are confronted with a question that seems simple yet resists any easy answer: what exactly has Joo Jaekyung prepared for Kim Dan’s birthday?
(chapter 97), the scene appears easy to decode. It suggests a champion finally ready to step out from behind his walls and express what words have long concealed. But are these gifts the true center of the moment, or only its most visible layer? Is Jaekyung merely celebrating a birthday, or trying to alter the future he and Kim Dan might share?
(chapter 81), hesitation, gesture, and subtle changes in the spaces characters inhabit. A gift may matter less than the moment it is offered. A movement may reveal more than a confession. Even the introduction of something new into a familiar environment can carry emotional weight beyond words.
(chapter 97) Because of this, the flowers express more than attraction alone. They also function as apology and reconciliation. Their romantic symbolism remains, but it is deepened by remorse and by the desire to restore closeness after harm.
(chapter 97), it would carry a different significance than in the past. It would no longer be defined by the old “jinx” logic of transactional or ritualized sex, but by reconciliation and mutual affection. The act would cease to be mere release and become an expression of true love.
(chapter 31), he explained that he liked flowers because of their scent.
(chapter 31) The statement seemed simple at the time, almost shyly innocent, yet it reveals something essential about his character. Kim Dan values not spectacle, status, or monetary worth, but the quiet emotional effect an object can have. He does not love flowers because they are expensive. He loves the atmosphere they create, the comfort they bring, and the mood they awaken.
(chapter 55), he wanted to keep the physical therapist’s scent there.
(chapter 31) He wanted to be considerate of Joo Jaekyung, making sure that the flowers’ fragrance would not bother his “landlord”.
(chapter 72) He was mocked as dirty, poor, and
(chapter 72) “smelly.” Odor, in his early life, was not associated with beauty or tenderness, but with shame. Smell became tied to exclusion.
(chapter 31) Red roses carry stronger meanings: passion, desire, courage, and declared love. The movement from pink to red mirrors the movement of the relationship itself—from undecisive tenderness to chosen intensity.
(chapter 97)
(chapter 97) Kim Dan also purchases the same kind of cake, but not to celebrate his own birthday. He chooses it to honor Jaekyung, expressing pride, care, and happiness for the champion’s success.
(chapter 97) Gratitude and admiration replace regret as the emotional core of the gesture. The same object therefore carries different meanings in different hands.
(chapter 97), which subtly shifts the emotional frame. Rather than reading the setting as romantic spectacle, he may register warmth, celebration, and shared belonging. True to his character, domestic happiness may speak to him more immediately than public codes of romance.
(chapter 97) He questions whether it would be strange to give such presents and admits that he no longer even knows what to do. The uncertainty suggests that he has not fully mastered the symbolic code he is using. He senses that flowers, cake, and rings matter, yet he cannot entirely explain why they feel right or whether they will make him look foolish.
(chapter 97) where others might see romance. Jaekyung reaches for gestures of affection whose wider meanings he only partially understands. Neither man consciously names the moment as a couple’s ritual, yet their actions begin to inhabit that language all the same. Personal feeling leads, while culture quietly gives it form.
(chapter 97) They seem, at last, to be the real gift. Their permanence contrasts with the fragility of roses and cream cake, and their symbolism suits an important personal occasion far more naturally.
(chapter 97) and admits that he has gone back and forth countless times about giving them.
(chapter 97) While still at the gym, before any flowers or cake appear, Jaekyung tells himself that he has to give Kim Dan something. The wording is important. He does not think about buying something, searching for something, or choosing something later. He speaks as someone who already has a gift in mind and already has it with him.
(chapter 97), he gathers the courage—and the accompanying symbols—needed to finally face Kim Dan.
(chapter 89) His choices have repeatedly been shaped, directed, or provoked by the will of others rather than emerging freely as his own.
(chapter 96), the one being driven, the one whose safety exists only when Jaekyung is physically present.
(chapter 97) The moment the flowers, cake, and rings are understood as gestures serving other emotional purposes, the possibility of another gift comes sharply into view. If those objects are not the true birthday present, then the narrative invites us to search elsewhere. One panel quietly draws attention to exactly such a possibility: for the first time, a third car appears.
(chapter 18) By Chapter 32, the parking area has changed noticeably.
(chapter 32) It is larger, more exclusive, and more carefully structured, resembling a private VIP bay rather than an ordinary shared garage. The environment itself has become more protected.
(chapter 33) A discreet sedan blends into ordinary traffic in ways a recognizable celebrity vehicle cannot. If registered under Kim Dan’s name, it would create even greater privacy and unpredictability. Protection would no longer depend only on physical strength, but on foresight and anonymity. And if this car was purchased recently, no one would know about its existence. Not even Park Namwook! If Chapter 33 presented movement as secrecy, confusion, and anxious uncertainty
—where the question was Where are they going, and why?
(chapter 33) —then Chapter 97 becomes its positive reflection.
(chapter 97)
(chapter 89) So often, Kim Dan has been pushed by crisis, debt, or necessity. Here, he would be pushed toward growth. The pressure would no longer come from fear, but from care. The physical therapist could drive his drunk lover back home.
(chapter 47) Jaekyung would not merely be giving him a car. He would be helping him become someone who can go further than before.
(chapter 42) He worked exhausting night shifts and spent money he could barely spare in order to offer something meaningful. The value of the keychain was not only monetary; it represented sacrifice, attention, and a sincere desire to make Joo Jaekyung happy.
(chapter 21), uses public transportation
(chapter 11), takes taxis
(chapter 1), or is driven by others.
(chapter 32) Even mobility itself has often depended on circumstance and on the decisions of other people.
(chapter 95) A car therefore symbolizes more than comfort: it represents agency, adulthood, and the power to move by his own will. Yet the emotional meaning goes even further. In Chapter 97, the question is no longer only where one goes, but with whom one travels. What was once denied to Kim Dan as independence now returns to him as both freedom and companionship. He is no longer merely carried by another person’s choices; he gains the ability to choose for himself while sharing the road with someone who chooses him in return.
(chapter 5) Yet when he was injured and vulnerable, that support proved conditional and incomplete.
(chapter 53)
(chapter 95) He can be guided instead of always guiding, supported instead of always performing. The positions become reversible: each can carry the other when needed.
(chapter 97) If Jaekyung now gives him a car, their gestures beautifully answer one another. Kim Dan once offered the symbolic key to his world; Jaekyung responds by offering the means to navigate a shared one.
(chapter 97) Their bond moves beyond the false alternatives of burden and savior, victim and protector, debtor and benefactor. They begin to inhabit a rarer form of intimacy: mutual sanctuary.

(chapter 96), while another movement unfolds elsewhere.
(chapter 97) The interview, the damaged poster
(chapter 96), the hallway encounter, the former director’s sudden presence — none of these incidents need to be isolated events. They can be read as layers of the same design, arranged to poison the climate around Joo Jaekyung and Kim Dan through mistrust, guilt, and confusion.
(chapter 79) Danger emerged first, and only then did someone intervene. Joo Jaekyung repeatedly occupied that role.
(chapter 17) He was the one who could step in, overpower threats, and remove Kim Dan from immediate harm. Kim Dan, by contrast, was usually placed on the other side of that equation: the one exposed, cornered, or in need of help. But rescue and protection are not the same thing.
(chapter 96). On the surface, this action resembles a form of protection: they are stopping him from committing a violent act that would derail his career, effectively “saving” him from himself
(chapter 96). Yet, this is rescue, not protection. Their intervention is purely physical, reactive, and localized. Crucially, as they physically struggle, Park Namwook and the others remain mentally and verbally passive.
(chapter 96) They do not challenge the source of the rage or offer a solution. They only seek to manage the immediate visible symptom. While the fist is stopped, the underlying “toxic climate” that allows these provocations to take root is left completely intact. This scene proves that without speech, strategy, and mutual agency, physical restraint—even when well-intentioned—is just temporary damage control. This is exactly the kind of passive, limited intervention that the new paradigm must overcome.
(chapter 72) It answers a crisis once it has already begun. Protection reaches further.
(chapter 72) It concerns safety before the blow lands, the ability to recognize manipulation
(chapter 49), to prevent harm from taking root, and to create a space where trust can survive pressure.
(chapter 97) all suggest that the old division may no longer be stable. The familiar roles of protector and protected are beginning to shift.
(chapter 1). In that moment, the world was a predatory space where every threshold was a threat.
(chapter 90) The memory is important. The director did not lure him with kindness alone. He used his position
(chapter 1), status, and Kim Dan’s financial desperation to force compliance. Kim Dan needed the job, needed the salary, needed stability.
(chapter 90) A place where Kim Dan’s options were reduced and his voice cornered. The hallway now echoes that structure. It is dark. It is private. It is detached from witnesses.
(chapter 90) It was the body remembering before language could fully explain why.
(chapter 88). In that moment, the champion wasn’t just showing dominance; he was imparting a philosophy of resistance. He taught Dan that ‘technique beats size’
(chapter 88) and that even a smaller person can take down a ‘bigger guy’
(Chapter 88).
(chapter 27) The object symbolized instability, provocation, loss and a game whose rules could suddenly change. It represented a force that unsettled even the champion. Now another object occupies his hand:
(chapter 91) the cellphone containing the article about the disgraced former director.
(chapter 18) because, for Jaekyung, the ‘system’ was never a source of safety. This mistrust is rooted in a childhood where his abuse was an open secret that remained unaddressed
(chapter 72), on paper he remained a ‘good citizen’ who never faced legal repercussions. Jaekyung learned that authorities protect the appearance of order rather than the victims of violence. This skepticism manifested again at the docks
(chapter 69), where he chose to ‘save’ Kim Dan through private force rather than wait for legal intervention. Yet those methods repeatedly failed to create real safety. Problems were hidden, postponed, or redirected, or relegated
(chapter 52) but not resolved. The cellphone introduces another path
(chapter 96) He only read the headlines. On the surface, this might appear dismissive or indifferent.
(chapter 96) Yet it can also be understood as an expression of Jeong. Kim Dan’s attention was not captured by the Joker’s performance. His concern went directly to Joo Jaekyung and how such exposure might wound him. He absorbed the central facts — poverty, orphanhood, hardship — but did not grant full authority to the humiliating spectacle built around them.
(chapter 96)That distinction matters because Baek Junmin likely assumes that public narrative equals truth. If the audience hears something loudly enough, then it becomes reality. But Kim Dan now stands in a different position. He has already met Hwang Byungchul. He has already heard another version of the champion’s past, something the Joker is not expecting. He knows about the father’s abuse, the violence of the home, and the suffering hidden behind Joo Jaekyung’s coldness.
(chapter 72) This means that if the hallway encounter is designed to reveal a “hidden truth” — like for example that Joo Jaekyung is only a thug, a violent man who attacks doctors
(chapter 1) and patients
(chapter 52) ) someone unworthy of trust— the strategy may fail at its most important point. The intended listener is no longer ignorant. Kim Dan can now protect the champion by refusing reduction. He can challenge selective storytelling. Jaekyung is frequently depicted as an avid reader
(chapter 97), a sign of a deeply disciplined and self-educated mind. This intellectual depth is his most overlooked form of protection. It means he isn’t just a ‘frightened kid’ or a ‘reactive thug’; he is someone who understands the power of information.Besides, he is a huge reader. He can insist that pain has context, that trauma cannot be erased, and that one act of rage does not explain an entire person. In earlier chapters, Joo Jaekyung protected through action (buying clothes, teaching him how to swim). Here, Kim Dan may protect through interpretation and words.
(chapter 96), and old reactions, as though Joo Jaekyung were still trapped inside the same vulnerabilities and Kim Dan still occupied the same desperate, submissive position.
(chapter 90)The former director operates similarly, but with a more intimate cruelty. He does not speak to Kim Dan as a person in front of him. He speaks about Kim Dan to Joo Jaekyung, reducing him once again to an object of transaction, greed, and sexual humiliation.
(chapter 90) Kim Dan is called money-hungry, fake, a slut, someone whose affection can be bought. Their apparent happiness is framed as performance, their bond as a financial arrangement, intimacy as deception. In one move, the former director attempts to degrade Kim Dan and poison Joo Jaekyung’s trust at the same time.
(chapter 97) Joo Jaekyung is no longer merely a reactive fighter ruled by rage. He is now capable to reflect on his own behavior.
(chapter 97) Their relationship itself has altered the conditions on which those older scripts depended.
(chapter 97) the official path of movement. But once it closes, that route disappears. What remains is the staircase: the emergency passage, yet also the more secret and ambiguous one. In Jinx, stairways
(chapter 50) seem to be linked to conspiracy, crime
(chapter 50), or offstage maneuvering
(chapter 81) As a result, the gesture remained incomplete and vulnerable to misunderstanding.
(chapter 45) The material gift was visible, but the feeling behind it stayed hidden. The book changes that structure.
(chapter 87) Oui, c’est l’amour means in French Yes, this is love. The phrase functions almost like an answer to all the confusion that came before: the uncertainty in the dining room
(chapter 93), the champion asking what he was feeling, the hesitation around whether kindness was guilt
(chapter 93), pity, or something else.
(chapter 93) The title responds clearly where the characters still struggle to do so themselves. Yes—what exists here is love. Another visible word, reste, signifies stay or remain in French. Yet because the final letter appears hidden or incomplete, the word can also be seen through English eyes as rest.
(chapter 72), a young Jaekyung stands in a snow-covered phone booth, promising: ‘One day I’ll make a lot of money… and stop him. So can you come back home?’ For the young champion, ‘Home’ was a conditional destination—a reward that could only be reclaimed once he had enough wealth to physically ‘stop’ the source of violence. He equated protection with financial power and the physical ability to gatekeep. Yet, as an adult, even with the wealth and the power to stop anyone, he remained ‘homeless’ in spirit. By offering him the book and a space to ‘stay,’ Kim Dan is updating this childhood vow. He is proving that a ‘Home’ is not something Jaekyung has to buy or defend alone through force; it is a sanctuary that is built through mutual presence and emotional safety. Kim Dan is offering a new kind of protection: the creation of a domestic sanctuary. If the ring is a place of performance and the hallway a place of entrapment, the book represents a ‘portable home.’
(chapter 93), delaying genuine encounters, and keeping everything trapped inside the schedule of the match. Everything must wait until after the fight: truth, tenderness, resolution, emotional clarity. Human feeling is subordinated to spectacle.
(chapter 97) Care continued in absence. The relationship was active even when they were apart. This places the gift in sharp contrast with the keychain episode. Back then, Kim Dan selected something through external logic. He entered the dressing room
(chapter 42), crossing into the champion’s private space
(chapter 42), and chose according to appearance and assumed usefulness. The gesture was sincere, but still uncertain. It responded to what Joo Jaekyung seemed to need.
(chapter 42) The book is different because it responds to who he is.
(chapter 96), sponsors, and the broader world watching the scandal unfold. The damaged poster seems to continue that same logic by materializing contempt in public space. The champion’s image is defaced where others can see it. Reputation is targeted through humiliation.
(chapter 96) However, there exists another possible interpretation. Readers may remember the earlier café scene, where Kim Dan met Choi Gilseok and photographs of that encounter were later sent to Joo Jaekyung.
(chapter 48) That episode already suggested the presence of an unseen observer—someone in the shadows who understood that images can wound relationships more efficiently than fists can. If those photographs were indeed part of Baek Junmin’s broader method, then the interview and the poster follow the same principle: public content designed for private damage.
(chapter 93) He knows the physical therapist is no passing employee, but someone emotionally significant. That changes everything. If Kim Dan cannot be removed physically, he may be pressured psychologically.
(chapter 96) It reframes loyalty as foolishness. It attempts to poison admiration itself.
(chapter 97) Someone who remains emotionally invested in the person rather than the image.
(chapter 52) may turn away when public opinion shifts. A sponsor may withdraw when scandal appears. A crowd may cheer one day and mock the next.
(chapter 36) But Kim Dan’s bond is no longer built on those unstable foundations. He believes in him.
(chapter 94) For Baek Junmin, lost puppy oozes resent and mockery, but for the physical therapist, the same expression evokes care and protective instincts.
(Chapter 29) He knows the wounds behind the arrogance. He knows the habits, the loneliness
(chapter 97), the insomnia, the roughness that conceals care. He has seen the human being hidden beneath the public mask.
(chapter 90) circulating online of the disturbance at the restaurant.
(chapter 90) In either case, the external image would have looked simple: Joo Jaekyung had been provoked once again. The champion still appeared volatile, reactive, and unchanged.
(chapter 90) It could seem as though the physical therapist was merely restraining, interrupting, or obstructing the champion. A hindrance rather than an ally.
(chapter 90)
(chapter 90) No outsider could know that the tension began because Kim Dan had left the room in emotional distress. No camera would capture the private wound beneath the public reaction. What looked like friction between the former director and the celebrity was in reality the consequence of care, misunderstanding, and emotional stakes invisible to spectators.
(Chapter 96), headlines
(chapter 96) Distance, interruption, and broken rhythm shaped their contact. On the physical level, they seemed out of sync.
(chapter 97) This alignment appears through a series of quiet but striking parallels.
(chapter 97) Both independently buy the same cake.
(chapter 97) The author places them in mirrored and balanced panels, separated in space yet linked in intention. They stand apart physically, but the framing suggests an inner synchrony stronger than distance. What chapter 96 presented as bodily discord, chapter 97 answers with emotional consonance.
(chapter 97) Stay together. And that conclusion may not be reached individually. They are no longer two isolated people reacting alone. They are becoming two people capable of choosing together. That’s what the couple rings symbolize here.
(Chapter 33). The presence of the actor entering the club in slippers and no jacket despite the winter cold suggests a desperate, hurried escape from a world that had become a ‘trap.’
(chapter 33) Even then, Jaekyung’s motivation was clear: he followed Kim Dan because he could not bear for him to leave. That secluded house could be the physical ‘home’ Jaekyung had built while waiting for a partner worthy of sharing it.
(chapter 88), resisted differently, and prevented from defining the future. Joo Jaekyung may protect Kim Dan not through another violent intervention, but through truth made public, lawful action, and the refusal to let harm disappear in silence contrary to the past. Kim Dan may protect Joo Jaekyung not through physical force, but through knowledge
(chapter 48), and the rejection of false narratives designed to reduce him
(chapter 93) The former director did not appear there by chance. What remains uncertain is not whether this is a scheme, but how the latter was arranged and what it is meant to achieve.
(chapter 97) They often contain clues — small visual decisions, strange timing, unusual framing, details that seem minor until later chapters reveal their weight. A final panel does not always announce the future directly, but it can offer glimpses of the forces already in motion.
(chapter 35), it was not one wrongdoing but two
(chapter 36) layered together: one visible distraction, another hidden move
(chapter 40) that only became clear afterward. In other words, the first event is rarely the whole trick. It is only the surface. If that pattern still applies now, then the interview may be only the loudest surface event,
(chapter 97) The easiest path backward has vanished. The resident is inside his own home, yet the geometry of the scene briefly turns him into the trapped figure.
(chapter 97), only after Kim Dan has already advanced and the elevator has closed. This delayed turn transforms a normal greeting into something theatrical. It resembles the timed reveal of an actor who waits for the right cue before facing the audience. Recognition itself is staged.
(chapter 96), old routines seem restored
(chapter 97) From the outside, the easiest conclusion is that the “hamster” has left. Yet that conclusion may be entirely false. He did not disappear. He only disappeared from view. And this observation leads to a deeper question. Who was the former director truly there to meet? Formally speaking, he has come to the penthouse of Joo Jaekyung, its official resident and owner. On paper, the visit concerns the champion. Yet formal appearances can be as misleading as visual ones. A registered address does not necessarily reveal the real destination of a scheme. Just as people may mistake absence for departure, they may also mistake the legal resident for the intended target. What appears to be a visit to one man may, in reality, have been arranged for another.
(chapter 97) whether he will go or remain. While Kim Dan crosses the street lost in thought, the pedestrian signal turns red
(chapter 97), visually interrupting departure itself. By contrast, Joo Jaekyung’s desire to ask him not to leave
(chapter 97) The chapter therefore stages two opposite directions at once: one character preparing to walk away, the other trying to keep him near. In that sense, the hallway confrontation strikes at the story’s central tension: stay or leave.
(chapter 1) to the penthouse and sent him the address while having sex with someone else. Kim Dan arrived under false assumptions, believing he had been called for treatment. In episode 2, not only the hallway was lit
(chapter 02), but also the door stood open, and deception functioned through entry: he was drawn into a private space without understanding what awaited him inside.
(chapter 2) The present encounter reverses that structure almost exactly. Now the door remains closed and the director is also standing at a certain distance from it.
(chapter 40) Earlier in the story, a different corridor became the place where Kim Dan’s heart first moved toward Joo Jaekyung.
(chapter 40) There, the champion stood in light, framed by cameras and public attention, dazzling through image and presence.
(chapter 40) That threshold marked attraction, recognition, and emotional movement toward him. The present hallway appears as its inversion. Darkness replaces light.
(chapter 49), Joo Jaekyung also encountered Baek Junmin in a hallway while Kim Dan watched from behind. To everyone else, the scene appeared harmless, even cordial: two fighters exchanging a handshake in public view.
(chapter 49) Yet beneath that surface, something very different was taking place. The Joker used proximity and secrecy to whisper words that dragged the champion back toward a buried past
(chapter 49) — weakness, humiliation, the memory of being a vulnerable child. The visible gesture was friendly; the hidden action was psychological assault.
(chapter 49) That earlier corridor teaches us how these spaces function in Jinx: not merely as passages, but as places where unseen truths move beneath staged appearances. If so, the present hallway may repeat the structure in altered form. Joo Jaekyung now stands nearby but outside the frame, while Kim Dan occupies the position once held by the champion. What was previously aimed at one man’s repressed wounds may now be redirected toward another’s.
(chapter 90) This new threshold may demand another kind of strength altogether.
(chapter 90) If so, the lack of light performs another function: it softens the visible signs of downfall.
(chapter 90), sweating greed, vulgar speech
(chapter 90), and a grin 
(chapter 84), where both main leads were trapped “together” and sound played a huge importance. Instead, the final scene in episode 97 withholds precisely those things. The darkness does not stage confession. It stages concealment.
(chapter 97) To outsiders, however, invisibility can quickly harden into narrative. If a person is no longer seen, people begin to explain that disappearance for themselves. And the easiest explanation is often the wrong one.
(chapter 52), and the champion interpreted that separation through what little he could observe. Later, at the hospital, he heard that Kim Dan had quit.
(chapter 53) But quitting the job did not automatically mean leaving altogether. In his mind, Kim Dan had stepped out of the professional role, not necessarily out of his personal orbit. The evidence before him therefore remained partial: distance, silence, and formal resignation, but no clear answer about the bond between them. Hence he imagined that the main lead was still living in the penthouse.
(chapter 53) Yet what he “knew” was never the full truth. It was a narrative assembled from scattered pieces while the emotional reality remained elsewhere.
(chapter 46) Secret photographs were taken of him without his knowledge. According to me, Baek Junmin was the one behind the camera. The hamster’s movements were monitored. His connection to Joo Jaekyung was observed from afar. That matters because it suggests the schemers did not suddenly become interested in him now. They had already understood that the physical therapist was not a minor side figure, but someone emotionally tied to the champion. If one wanted to wound Joo Jaekyung indirectly, Kim Dan had long been the obvious path.
(chapter 93) If Baek Junmin and Choi Gilseok are orchestrating events, they cannot appear to be doing so. A clean scheme often works best when responsibility seems to originate elsewhere. The most effective leak is not the one traced to its author, but the one attributed to an innocent intermediary.
(chapter 66), altered schedules, replaced meals, and silence. From those fragments, a conclusion becomes tempting: Kim Dan is gone. Joo Jaekyung is alone again. And finally, don’t forget how Doc Dan was introduced to the champion for the first time
(chapter 1): he had been hired by Park Namwook, for the previous physical therapist had suddenly quit.
(chapter 1) A replacement. A therapist. Someone sent because the champion supposedly lacks proper care before an important fight, and, unlike others, is not asking too much money.
(chapter 54) Observe how the manager reacted, when Joo Jaekyung selected the one with a lot of credentials. Park Namwook jolted. The language of professionalism becomes cover for personal sabotage. Entry is granted not through force, but through usefulness.
(chapter 2) Professional necessity became the doorway through which a far more intimate bond later emerged. If so, the present scheme may mirror that origin in corrupted form. What once began through work and gradually became attachment is now imitated as strategy. A “helper” is sent not to heal, but to divide.
(chapter 56) He stayed beside his grandmother. He worked despite exhaustion. He treated Joo Jaekyung despite fear and humiliation. He cooked
(chapter 22), cleaned, worried, forgave, and endured. Much of what he gave happened almost invisibly. And that is precisely why Jeong is so often underestimated. It does not announce itself dramatically. It appears in support that is constant yet barely noticed until it is missing. Kim Dan’s passivity and silence were therefore not emptiness, but one form of devotion. I admit this was not immediately obvious to me. At times, Kim Dan’s attitude even frustrated me, because I was shaped by a different cultural environment — one in which care is often expressed more directly, emotions are verbalized more openly, and disagreement is more readily shown. Imagine that he did not talk to his roommate for 8 days!
(chapter 97) In his mind, he was being considerate. He was giving him space,
(chapter 91) were the visible forms of pain that had never healed. Even his need to control others often looked less
(chapter 45) like confidence than fear translated into aggression.
(chapter 64) Silent suffering became spoken judgment. Han entered his voice.
(chapter 95) He no longer feels endlessly obliged. And when he sees the former director, his second reaction is not meekness but disgust.
(chapter 46) Now he begins to examine situations from more than one side. He can recognize not only how he was hurt
(chapter 97), but how his own actions may have wounded others as well. When he remembers packing in haste and preparing to leave, he no longer sees himself simply as justified and Joo Jaekyung as wrong. He understands that sudden departure, silence, and emotional withdrawal could wound the other person too.
(chapter 97) A command to eat more, once read as control
(chapter 79), can be understood as concern.
(chapter 97) Practical attention can reveal tenderness. What had seemed oppressive begins to show another meaning. This delayed recognition matters because Jeong is not always perceived in the moment it is given. For Joo Jaekyung, its value becomes visible through distance, uncertainty, and the fear of loss. For Kim Dan, recognition emerges differently: through gratitude, self-reflection, and the gradual realization that gestures once dismissed or misunderstood had been forms of care all along.
(chapter 96) He knew how to look after people, but not how to imagine being looked after in return. Receiving affection is often harder than offering it.
(chapter 80), and emotional responsibility.
(chapter 65) In different ways, both men are learning that relationships are not built through victory over the other, but through a new way of seeing one another.
(chapter 54) rather than Kim Dan. He distinguished the real source of harm instead of attacking the nearest vulnerable person. Since then, he has worried about Kim Dan’s meals, noticed his body, bought flowers and cake, remembered small preferences, and even more than ever wants him to stay after the match. Care has begun to replace reflexive aggression.
(chapter 37), or another act of public humiliation in which ordinary objects suddenly become dramatic instruments. Read through that lens, the cake in Kim Dan’s hands contains its own ironic potential: it could become not merely dessert, but a comic weapon of refusal, an insult that answers intrusion with ridicule. 
(chapter 96), who claimed authority through superiority, manipulation, and the posture of the one who “knows better,” but a different kind of hyung whose authority comes through tenderness, emotional understanding
(chapter 95), and the ability to create warmth. If the self-proclaimed men of power arrive with schemes
(chapter 48), as they met in front of the building where the gym Team Black is. Besides, the encounter was easily photographed and readily interpreted as betrayal.
(chapter 49), seemingly tied to revenge,
(chapter 48), but more likely prepared in advance to cause damage under pressure. In that reading, the point was never only retaliation. The point was that Kim Dan could later be made to carry the blame for everything surrounding the chaos. One event captured attention, another produced harm, and the true consequence emerged only afterward. What appeared spontaneous was structurally engineered.
(chapter 51) But the irony is that neither the champion nor his manager called the police for an investigation right away.
(chapter 96) It is the figure others still believe to be vulnerable: someone economically fragile
(chapter 48), emotionally tied to the target, marked by past shame and abandonment wounds (he is also an “orphan”), and assumed to carry burdens in silence. From the outside, Kim Dan may still appear to fit that role. The schemers likely imagine a man who is isolated, unsupported, and easy to overwhelm — someone with no real backing, no language of resistance, and no choice but to absorb whatever is placed on him.
(chapter 3) those conditions did not emerge from nowhere. They followed the abuse and professional ruin inflicted earlier. The blacklisting was and is the reason why he is not looking for a job in Seoul
(chapter 56) In that sense, an attempt to blame Kim Dan for everything risks exposing the original cause instead. The man chosen as scapegoat may now be able to point back at the hand that first pushed him toward the edge. The setting makes that possibility even sharper. The hallway is dark, where faces are obscured and appearances become uncertain. But in darkness, a voice can be heard clearly.
(chapter 54), injuries
into accusation and his own misconduct into Kim Dan’s supposed guilt.
(chapter 6) 

(chapter 96) His hesitation, his position, his choice. But this would be too limited. Because episode 96 does not present a single decision. It constructs a field of decisions.
(chapter 96) In this shift, agency is erased. The champion’s path is no longer something he forged, but something that merely happened to him. This reduction is not incidental. It allows Baek Junmin to neutralize what he cannot replicate. If success is luck, then failure requires no explanation. If choice is denied, then responsibility can be displaced.
(chapter 93) responsibility can be displaced. But the moment they act, that displacement collapses, and the weight of the compromised authority returns to the one who selected it. He speaks of “wrong choices” while trapped in a cycle of making them.
(chapter 73); not toward a gym aimed at progression, but into a space governed by risk and illegality.
(chapter 74) the figure who initiated Baek Junmin into a system of exploitation masked as guidance. On the other, Baek Junmin himself attempts to reproduce this exact position.
(chapter 5) Unlike the underground mentor, his authority is institutional and his position legitimate. For Kim Dan, this distinction is decisive.
(chapter 7) He perceives in the manager a form of empathy
(chapter 36), a concern for the athlete’s well-being—a figure capable of managing what he himself cannot. Kim Dan’s trust does not emerge in a vacuum; it is built through a series of interactions that appear, at first glance, to confirm this perception
(chapter 7). Park Namwook speaks the language of care, addresses him with familiarity, and repeatedly positions himself as someone who values both the fighter and the medical staff. If there was tension between them, he would side with him and not Joo Jaekyung.
(chapter 37) Even when he intervenes critically
(chapter 50) —questioning his decisions or demanding explanations—these moments are framed, in Kim Dan’s perception, as being in the champion’s best interest rather than as acts of control.
(chapter 27) He assumes coherence where there is only alignment of interests. What appears as consistency in Park Namwook’s behavior is therefore not examined as strategy, but accepted as sincerity.
(chapter 43), reassurances, even moments of apparent protection and respect
(chapter 1) in which responsibility dissolves into circumstance.
(chapter 31) Here, if the athlete had followed this recommendation, he would have injured himself badly. What appears as protection recreates distance; what is named as guidance results in isolation.
(chapter 59) He had indeed made a mistake here, but the director of the hospice had defended him. He was not fired after this incident. Hence I come to the following deduction: Kim Dan is about to be confronted not simply with an external threat, but with the realization of his own misrecognition.He trusted the wrong hyung, just like Joo Jaekyung did.
(chapter 95) Until now, he has no idea about the champion’s losses
(chapter 54)
(chapter 96) It requires something both have avoided until now: to meet each other’s gaze.
(chapter 1) A towering figure, a champion, a name that carries weight across arenas and screens. Someone whose image is large enough to be printed, displayed, and recognized at a glance. And yet, that same image can be torn.
(chapter 96) But something has shifted. The image no longer holds in the same way.
(chapter 47) He was introduced as the “underdog,” the one rising unexpectedly, the figure whose ascent could be celebrated. The framing was simple, effective, and, to some extent, transparent. It invited attention, but it also raised suspicion.
(chapter 47), suggesting that what appeared as spontaneous recognition might in fact be influenced, if not orchestrated. The idea that media coverage could be shaped
(chapter 47) The system was not yet fully opaque. It could still be glimpsed—but only indirectly, through inconsistencies that were sensed rather than fully articulated.
(90 days), reversible, even later framed as recovery
(chapter 57) — is now recoded as something definitive.
(chapter 69) A disqualification operates differently.
(chapter 69) The panel from chapter 47
(chapter 47), makes this structure perceptible. The presence of executive figures, the proximity between management and select fighters, and the emphasis on “star quality” reveal a structure in which recognition is not solely determined by performance.
(chapter 51), the irregularities surrounding the match, the incident with the switched spray—contains elements that could be reexamined. Joo Jaekyung’s public challenge in Paris reactivates these tensions. It signals not only resistance, but the possibility of escalation. By refusing to accept the existing narrative, he reopens questions that the system had already moved to close.
(chapter 52), notably among the members of King of MMA. This persistence is not merely rhetorical; it reflects a deeper uncertainty regarding the legitimacy of his rise. Within the fighters’ own environment, the outcome of the match is not experienced as a clear victory. Baek Junmin himself acknowledges that he was “this close to winning,”
(chapter 51) revealing that the tie has not been integrated as a legitimate conclusion. It persists instead as a wound: a result experienced not as confirmation, but as deprivation. In this sense, his current aggression does not only seek promotion; it seeks retrospective compensation.
(chapter 51) So he had not bet on the Shotgun’s victory.
(chapter 75) The latter’s rise was marked by a visible title, publicly attached to his name and career trajectory. Baek Junmin, by contrast, occupies the position of champion without passing through the same symbolic sequence of recognition. All this time, he was working in the shadow, in the illegal underground fighting. What he inherits institutionally, he does not fully possess symbolically. He may occupy the position of champion, but the conditions of his ascent prevent that position from being fully recognized as legitimate. The label that once signified ascent is never replaced by one that would confirm his dominance. At the same time, his stage name The Shotgun
(chapter 52) Victory must be seen, fixed, and circulated in order to become real. In this respect, Baek Junmin’s position reveals a fundamental volability. His so-called victory does not produce a defining image. The match that secured his title was neither clearly decisive nor widely broadcast, leaving no shared visual reference through which his dominance could be established.
(chapter 54) Instead, it continues to rely on the image of Joo Jaekyung. Even in defeat, the latter remains visually central: his body, his injuries, his presence provide the material through which the narrative is articulated.
(chapter 11) It is a shadow that cannot be struck with a stone. However, this configuration reveals a fundamental weakness: the Giant is not just made of paper; it is rotting from within. If the foundation of the MFC is nourished by money laundering
(chapter 71) The photograph of the young fighter with his coach introduces a contradiction that the interview cannot fully absorb. It does not merely suggest discipline or continuity; it attests to a process that precedes and exceeds the narrative imposed upon it. The trajectory it reveals is not incidental, nor dependent on a single relationship, but anchored in duration, training, and transmission.
(chapter 71) , the tournament, the documented progression—these elements introduce points of verification that resist the logic of selective reconstruction. The past is not entirely available for reinterpretation; parts of it remain anchored in events, relations, and figures that can contradict the imposed version. On the other hand, the Champion in Paper has only his recollection as evidence which is based on the narration of others.
(chapter 72), yes, but she had reasons. The father was violent, the household unstable, and escape could therefore be understood as a form of necessity. In this interpretation, the mother’s departure remained painful, but intelligible. What he failed to ask, however, was the decisive question: if she left to save herself, why did she leave the child behind? Why was the boy not taken with her? For him, absence did not mean abandonment. He still had a positive vision of the mother: caring and selfless.
(chapter 74) The interview brutalizes this unresolved contradiction by collapsing it into a simpler formula:
(chapter 72) In doing so, he mistook a visible moment for the whole of the problem. He overlooked the impact on the little boy’s soul. What Baek Junmin reveals—despite his malicious intentions—is that
(chapter 71), as if it were an exceptional trait now begins to look like the product of a much longer history of humiliation, abandonment, and misrecognition.
(chapter 71) Not once. Despite the years of training, despite the shared history, despite the role he himself believed to have played
(chapter 74), the champion had cut all contact without explanation. This absence had remained unresolved, almost suspended—something to be accepted, but not truly understood. Hence he became resentful.
(chapter 65) The simplified narrative offered by Baek Junmin aligns too easily with her own history of hardship. But this immediacy has a cost. By recognizing the pain, she risks accepting the distorted framework through which it is presented.
(chapter 65), even if it was never enough. Her role was defined by sacrifice, by the necessity to protect and sustain the “child” she still perceives in him—someone to be fed, guided, and contained rather than allowed to stand fully on his own.
(chapter 94) They attest to the existence of parents, of a prior life, of relationships that were not entirely erased but quietly set aside.
(chapter 7)
(chapter 57), and where being “different” invited mockery and exclusion. What Shin Okja had perceived as a problem of loneliness was also a problem of exposure and humiliation.
(chapter 94), her perception remained structured by Kim Dan. She acknowledged his place beside her grandson, but not the history that had formed him. She had never asked him any question in the end.
(chapter 96) without confronting what that presence truly meant, because he occupied a role. He was the physical therapist. His gestures, his proximity, his care—all of it could be justified, contained, and, above all, depersonalized.
The addition of the star on the therapist’s uniform is more than a “badge of office”; it is a geometric prophecy. It represents the intertwining of two disparate lives—the red triangle of Jaekyung’s force and the blue triangle of Dan’s empathy. When these two triangles overlap, they create a structure (The Star) that is far more stable than the ‘Paper Giant’ of the MFC. This star is naturally a reference to the star of David. But at the same time, I wanted to avoid any reference to religion as such. The star of David is created by 2 triangles intertwined together. And the moment you accept that each main lead represents one triangle, you realize that both can become the star of David, once they become a team and a couple.
(chapter 88) The “hamster” is not an isolated symbol. It has been shaped in relation to Joo Jaekyung—through proximity, through tension, through a form of attention that is neither hierarchical nor purely functional. If Kim Dan embodies connection, Joo Jaekyung embodies determination and direction.
(chapter 94) What emerges between them is not dependency, but a potential alignment. That’s the reason why I believe that contrary to that morning
(chapter 96), Kim Dan might decide to follow Joo Jaekyung.
(chapter 96) and as such to be loved, something his mother never did.
(chapter 88) Without it, action becomes mechanical, external, and ultimately unsustainable. What is done without pleasure cannot reach completion, because it remains detached from the subject who performs it.
(chapter 95)
(chapter 96) It is directed outward, against the main lead and others, and depends entirely on their diminishment. It cannot sustain itself. It requires a target. In contrast, Kim Dan is associated with a different form of laughter.
(chapter 27) The hamster—seemingly insignificant—represents companionship, warmth, and a form of joy that does not depend on hierarchy or recognition.
(chapter 96) It’s the consequence of pain, it belongs to the logic of rupture, of protection through distance, of a structure that resolves tension by separation. To obey would be to repeat the past—to accept absence as the only possible form of resolution. To follow the athlete, however, would be something else entirely. Not obedience to his words, but an understanding of what they conceal. Not submission, but a deliberate alignment: an act of commitment. A decision to remain—not because he is told to, but because he chooses to.
(chapter 30) Let’s not forget that the champion’s “jinx” is linked to the smell, something which Baek Junmin revealed earlier. 

(chapter 96) A hand reaches out to continue what is not yet finished. Kim Dan tries to stop the champion, to maintain the contact, to complete the treatment.
(chapter 96) The response is immediate: Joo Jaekyung pushes the hand away.
(chapter 95) Both scenes belonged to episode 95, and together they already announced a growing dissonance.
(chapter 95) The other was quieter, grounded in proximity, shared time, and a more fragile sense of presence.
(chapter 95) They did not openly clash, but they did not align either.
(chapter 95): in what is missing, in what is delayed, in what no longer coincides. A presence that is no longer acknowledged.
(chapter 95) A touch that relieves tension, but does not invite the burden to be shared.
(chapter 95) There is no entourage
(chapter 36), no managers, no advisors
(chapter 47), no representatives from the entertainment agency
(chapter 81). And yet, we know this moment matters: the match is approaching, the stakes are high, the narrative around him is already circulating. He only has 10 days left.
(chapter 95) It becomes even more obvious, if you compare the sparring between the champion and Oh Daehyun
(chapter 95) and the one in episode 1, where the other partner got injured.
(chapter 1) He rushed to the injured fighter. But in episode 95, he is invisible. No explanation, no transition. His absence is not emphasized—and yet, it echoes. Especially if we recall episode 46, where he was on the verge of being sent out
(chapter 46), tasked with gathering information, while Park Namwook positioned himself as the director of Team Black:
(chapter 46) This detail is not incidental. It establishes a division of roles that is directly connected to a larger structure: the network linking gyms and the MFC. This network is not hypothetical; it is explicitly confirmed in episode 49
(chapter 49), when Choi Gilseok asks Park Namwook why he was absent from the Seoul managers’ meeting. In other words, coordination between gyms and directors is not occasional—it is organized, expected, and institutionalized.
(chapter 95), yet we know that meetings and exchanges between directors must still be taking place, then the question becomes unavoidable: who represents Team Black within that network at that moment?
(chapter 96) Yosep is the one who calls Joo Jaekyung. He is already informed. More importantly, he is the one who presents the video—the interview in which Baek Junmin openly frames the confrontation.
(chapter 96) Instead, he becomes the relay of a narrative that is already circulating publicly. What he transmits is no longer a report meant to establish truth, but a mediated version of events—one that exposes Joo Jaekyung to an external gaze shaped by others.
(chapter 95) the author reveals a table full of notes and a pen next to his left hand, while the champion is holding a sheet of paper. This image exposes that Joo Jaekyung was actually engaged in another activity: he was writing notes for his next fight. This implies that he was not oriented toward the act of watching, but toward a process of concentration. So why would he watch a show, when he is developing his game?
(chapter 47), his gaze is sharply defined and functions as a marker of attention
(chapter 36), recognition, or confrontation. Here, that anchor disappears. The subject is present, but not visually positioned as the origin of perception.
(chapter 87)
(chapter 89)
(chapter 13); he intervenes at its margins. He does not construct the framework; he reacts within it. And in doing so, he creates situations in which his presence becomes necessary again —whether by interrupting, redirecting, or framing what is happening.
(chapter 88) and Shin Okja
(chapter 94), the champion’s schedule has already shifted: training has been interrupted, attention divided, priorities altered.
(chapter 37) —they allow it to pass through unchecked.
(chapter 96), but he can clear grasp the situation: an act of vandalism. Then he questions the identity of the perpetrator
(chapter 96), and turns suspicion toward the fighters present.
(chapter 96) The scene frames him as someone discovering the vandalism alongside the others.
(chapter 96) Yosep is already inside the gym before the others arrive. He opens the door from the inside. This detail matters.
(chapter 96) This transformation is not abstract. It is rendered directly in the body of the athlete. His breathing becomes labored, his skin flushed, his eyes reddened—as if the system itself were overheating. The excess cannot circulate; it accumulates.
(chapter 96), he does not raise his voice.
(chapter 96), maintains composure, and—most importantly—
(chapter 96) attends to the other’s response before leaving.
(chapter 96) This detail matters.
(chapter 95) At first glance, its transparency suggests continuity—the inside and the outside remain visually connected. And yet, the author frames the door in a way that emphasizes secrecy, separation rather than openness. The image functions less as a window than as a boundary.
(chapter 95)
(chapter 95)
(chapter 95), readers can detect a pattern emerging.
(chapter 95) There is no transition to negotiate, no boundary to maintain. There is only the fight. What appears, from this perspective, as distraction is therefore reinterpreted as failure. What is, in fact, a tension between two spheres is reduced to a flaw within one.
(chapter 95) This clarity signals a mode of perception that has already appeared elsewhere. When he looks at the main lead and calls him “fresh meat”
(chapter 74), the same logic is at work. The individual is not encountered as a subject, but classified as a function, reduced to a body that can be evaluated and positioned.
(chapter 95) Joo Jaekyung and Kim Dan sit side by side, aligned within the same horizontal plane. The asymmetry that structured the office—front versus opposite, speaker versus evaluated—seems to dissolve. The scene suggests proximity, even equality.
(chapter 95) The promise is unilateral. There is no reciprocal formulation, no mirrored commitment, no re-articulation of the bond from the other side. What is offered outward is not taken up and extended; it remains suspended.
(chapter 95) In Kim Dan’s gaze, Joo Jaekyung is not reflected. What appears instead is the lighthouse in the distance. At first glance, this suggests a displacement: the athlete’s presence does not fully register within his field of vision.
(chapter 69) This panel implied that Kim Dan had become his whole world. The comparison exposes that the athlete is still not in the center of his life yet. The lighthouse is not only an external point of orientation.
(chapter 91) It lingers in the background, acknowledged but never truly treated. And yet, it is not incidental. Insomnia signals the inability to withdraw, to interrupt exposure, to let the body enter a different rhythm. In this sense, it mirrors the function of the lighthouse. A lighthouse remains on—it stabilizes, but it does not allow rest.
(chapter 96), without reestablishing that line of orientation, the structure collapses. What had been silently assumed—being seen, being turned toward—is no longer confirmed.
(chapter 96) At first glance, this appears simple. But it is not neutral. It is a repetition. Kim Dan tries to reactivate a shared ritual—the one established after the night in Paris.
(chapter 87) A moment where touch, words, and intention aligned.
(chapter 87) A moment where connection was not abstract, but embodied.
(chapter 87) But in front of the entrance, something is missing.
— earlier echoed outside the narrative—suggests a moment that has not yet been reached. A point where gesture, intention, and response will finally align.
(chapter 94) When the grandmother suggests that “the three of us can go for a walk,” the gesture shifts from recognition to movement. The proposal is not incidental. It translates what has just been opened into a concrete form.
(chapter 95) Her words are not recalled, her figure is not evoked, her request is not consciously revisited. On the surface, she is absent. And yet, this absence is deceptive.
(chapter 95) —is no longer stable. It is immediately unsettled by another voice, another possibility:
(chapter 95) And what follows is not an abstract idea. It is an image. Kim Dan appears.
(chapter 95) This shift is decisive. The grandmother is not present as a figure, but as a function. She has already altered the internal configuration through which Joo Jaekyung perceives himself. Her gesture has been absorbed, displaced, and translated into a new form of questioning.
(chapter 94) It has introduced a new axis—one that opposes performance to relation, victory to something else that remains undefined, but essential. But this axis is not yet resolved. It exists as a fracture. And from this point onward, absence no longer signifies emptiness. It signifies transformation. What is no longer visible has already begun to act.

(chapter 117) I am quite certain that many were outraged and disgusted by the scholar’s smooching. First of all, why did the learned sir do it? One might say that it is related to the petition which is in Yoon Seungho’s possession.
(chapter 117) The learned sir was tasked by the mysterious noble wearing a purple hanbok to retrieve the document. I would like to call my avid readers’ attention that we never saw the man introducing himself to the former teacher. He could have definitely impersonated someone, for this trick has often been used in this story. Anyway, in exchange for this favor, Jung In-Hun got promised a high position in the government.
(chapter 115) Thus Jung In-Hun has only one option left. He needs to utilize a spy and traitor in order to get the document. Because Jung In-Hun has known the painter since his childhood, it is not surprising that he chose to approach Baek Na-Kyum. As you can imagine, episode 117 is a new version of episode 24
(chapter 24), where the angry learned sir asked the naive artist to spy on their benefactor and episode 35
(chapter 35). In the latter, the scholar gave the same task to the main lead, but his attitude was totally different. He was acting like a gentle and concerned man, hence he stroke Baek Na-Kyum’s head and cheek.
(chapter 35) He had two reasons for that. First, the painter was still recovering from his long illness. So he couldn’t act so coldy, for his selfishness and heartlessness would have become obvious. The learned sir had to justify his egoism and indifference. During his illness, he had at no moment visited him, but he had his reasons.
(chapter 35) He hoped for the painter’s understanding. All this because he needed the low-born more than ever. He had not renounced on discovering Yoon Seungho’s weakness yet. However, in season 1, he failed to achieve his goal, because after the night spent with the main lead, Baek Na-Kyum refused to divulge any information about the meeting between the host and his brother Yoon Seungwon.
(chapter 38)
(chapter 117) Hence we should consider the scholar’s kiss as the kiss of Judas. The latter, known as the Betrayal of Christ, is the act with which Judas identified Jesus to the multitude with swords and clubs who had come from the chief priests and elders of the people to arrest him. Thus I am expecting an arrest of the painter in the future. Since he is the love interest of Yoon Seungho, he has once again become the target of the next plot.
(Chapter 118) While he had faked his pity and empathy for the painter, when the latter was exposed to gangrape
(chapter 118), the ending of the episode is showing him as a monster, acting like Min and his friends.
(chapter 115) However, this is impossible. Time is the proof for the lord’s innocence. 7 days have already passed since Yoon Seungho’s violent outburst in front of the learned sir’s home. Don’t forget that it took Yoon Seungho 6 days to regain consciousness.
(chapter 116) And the manhwaphiles saw that the painter spent the night with his lover after their conversation at the pavilion.
(chapter 117) This means that Na-Kyum’s visit to the gibang could only take place after that night. That’s how I came to the conclusion that the meeting took place after 1 week (6 days+ 1 night). However, the swollen cheek will easily vanish within one week contrary to the stabbing.
(chapter 117) Therefore after the release of episode 117, I had imagined that the wound from the learned sir was faked with the rouge from the noonas. Yet in episode 118, I detected the busted lip which can not be faked. The scratch is the evidence that the wound is real. Jung In-Hun knew too well that he couldn’t frame his previous sponsor for this. Hence he avoided to reply to the painter’s interrogation.
(chapter 118) Furthermore, his cheek was perfectly fine, when he left his home.
(Chapter 117) This must have happened on his way to the gibang or in the gibang itself! So who would do this? Yoon Chang-Hyeon? The noble with the purple hanbok? I will answer to this question further below.
(chapter 57) It is less pronounced, for Jung In-hun only met this mysterious man once contrary to the main lead. Even Baek Na-Kyum noticed the transformation, hence he got scared.
(Chapter 118) He couldn’t recognize his former teacher. The learned sir had become like a violent beast. But why would he be so frantic and hopeless that he became violent in his gestures and words? It is because he had been threatened again. The wounded lip and cheek are the evidences that he has been coerced to convince the painter that the latter should return to his side.
(Chapter 118) His grabbing and yelling ooze urgency. One might think that the mysterious aristocrat with the purple hanbok is behind this, for he once voiced a menace towards the villain.
(chapter 117) However, observe that in their meeting, Jung In-Hun spoke about affection
(Chapter 118) and this doesn’t belong to this man’s world (power, lineage, yin/yang, education). And it is the same for Yoon Chang-Hyeon. The latter embodies hatred and rejection for sodomy!
(chapter 86) He was even willing to kill his own son, moreover he threatened Yoon Seungho to have the painter killed.
(chapter 116) That’s how I deduced that the person behind this intervention is actually longing and hoping for love from Yoon Seungho. Thus he requested from the learned sir to take back the painter.
(chapter 94), then the kiss
(chapter 95) The artist had kissed the main lead for two reasons. He desired to convey the sincerity of his attachment and to prove that this was real. Yoon Seungho shouldn’t imagine that this was just an illusion, as he often questioned his own senses and sanity. In the gibang, the learned sir changed the chronology: first the smooching, then the confession. Why? It is because he thought that the painter still loved him, when Baek Na-Kyum showed concern for him.
(Chapter 118) Due to his arrogance and vanity (the negative aspects of self-love), he jumped to the conclusion that nothing had changed. The painter seemed to be still naive.
(chapter 118) Hence his surrogate father smirked. The irony is that there exist different kind of love: friendship, family… At the beginning, the artist was still viewing Jung In-Hun as a friend. Thus he got worried about his wounds. Yet observe that he had no intention to bid farewell to the former teacher.
(Chapter 118) He is no longer considering him as a father figure, let alone a close one. Imagine the irony! In reality, the low-born was announcing to his former role model that he was abandoning him. Yes, it is the positive reflection of the scene in the library:
(chapter 40) Jung In-Hun’s words came back to bite him. He is the one acting like a prostitute, like a man consumed by lust!
(chapter 118) Baek Na-Kyum, as the mirror of truth, is not only confronting the scholar with his bigotry and dishonesty, but also the mastermind behind this encounter. This explicates why the learned sir spoke about love:
(chapter 118) This was the same for Yoon Seungho. The sexual abuser had only been obsessed with his own reflection and desires to the point that he never paid attention to his sex partner’s gaze… the loss of light in the gaze, the absence of tears … Besides, there was no agreement, everything was based on coercion and Kim knows that. That’s the reason why Jung In-Hun had tears in his eyes! It is because the main lead used to cry as well… asking for his pity and mercy. Since the scholar never cried before, I believe that the latter had asked to shed some tears in order to move the heart of the counterpart.
(chapter 118) Baek Na-Kyum was never his young protégé, only his student. Why? It is he never protected him, he just consoled him!
(chapter 94) However, like I had already outlined, Yoon Seungho was offered “protection” in exchange for his favors. That’s how the main lead got rewarded with the mansion and the proprieties. But now, Yoon Seungho is willing to give up on everything for Baek Na-Kyum.
(Chapter 11) Back then, the painter had the burst lip and the glowing cheek too.
(Chapter 11) He had protected Jung In-Hun, when the latter was suspected of ruining the painting. And how had Yoon Seungho acted in that scene? He had spoken like a powerful person, like a ruler!
(Chapter 11) As you all know, my theory is that behind the name “lord Song” is hiding the king. But since I made a connection between episode 11 and 118, I deduce that Jung In-Hun has been put in the same position than the painter. His karma… for feigning ignorance and letting Baek Na-Kyum take the fall. He is paying for his wrongdoings all at once (11, 29, 35, 40). And what had Yoon Seungho said to his future lover?
(Chapter 11)
(Chapter 11) Yes, so far no one has been talking or thinking about the king as someone involved in the main lead’s suffering. Yet, I would like to outline that the gibang belongs to the state and as such to the king. Only a rich and influential person could hire the kisaengs for the day
(chapter 118) Not even “lord Song” or lord Haseon from episode 107 couldn’t pull such a trick.
(Chapter 107) He had announced his visit and the kisaengs had to gather next to the gate. There, the mysterious man selected only one woman.
(Chapter 107) However, in episode 118, the kisaeng talking to Baek Na-Kyum expressed that there were different parties. Each kisaeng was participating in a different festivity (“It’s not usually this busy”). She would have mentioned it, if there was a huge party in the gibang. But there is another clue for the king’s intervention: the pipe is no longer visible in the noonas’ room
(chapter 96: it’s on the table), just like there are now two mirrors and the number of rouge has also increased.
(Chapter 118) Finally, this painting, Hokjado, is actually mocking the monarch.
(chapter 105) The tiger in the painting usually represents the ruling elite, and its ridiculous expression is a satirical commentary on their behavior. He is here portrayed as a lazy man focused on smoking and pondering.
(chapter 116) It signifies that this panel is a new version of this scene:
(chapter 103) And what is the common denominator between these two scenes? Both protagonists rejected the help from the staff, especially from butler Kim.
(chapter 102) He was already giving up on everything, even his own life, if he had not the artist by his side. Under this new light, it becomes comprehensible why killing the painter is not the first option for the pedophile.
(chapter 118) He is implying that he should take the exam and get a high position…. he should go to Hanyang. That way, he would cross the path of the ruler. Striking is that the young man employed the expression “bondage”. Is this a reference to BDSM? For me, Yoon Seungwon is helping the invisible hand which explains why he is betraying his father again.
(chapter 118) He did it in the past, and he is repeating his actions. He shows no regret or remorse for the past
(chapter 118) except his promise:
(chapter 118) In fact, he blamed his brother and his father for everything, even Yoon Seungho’s way of life. His concern and affection for Yoon Seungho are totally superficial and trivial in the end. Why didn’t he ask about his wounds? He met him the next day after he regained consciousness.
(chapter 118) It was, as if they had two different fathers. Note that despite the father’s cruel action, the young noble still calls Yoon Chang-Hyeon as “father”. To conclude, Yoon Seungwon doesn’t consider the protagonist as his brother despite his words. The younger master is the reflection of the learned sir, the one faking “love, honesty and concern” for a close one, whereas in reality these persons are more worried about their own future and comfort.
(chapter 37)
(chapter 107), whereas the main lead had decided to protect his family despite their betrayal and abandonment. Under this new light, it becomes comprehensible why Yoon Seungwon has no interest to expose the petition contrary to the past.
(chapter 118) It is because he knows the truth now. Nevertheless, he is choosing to keep his brother in the dark, for this revelation would make him appear as a liar. He definitely feels bound by secrecy.
(chapter 76)
(chapter 118) For this winning hand, Yoon Seungho had to suffer a martyrdom. Hence it becomes comprehensible why he is envisaging to renounce on everything.
(chapter 117) He was only happy by the painter’s side.
(chapter 25) On the other hand, I had made this connection, even before the release of episode 118. Why? It is because through deductions, I had already come to the conclusion that this was a stolen kiss.
(chapter 24), then he hugged him
(chapter 29). While the first embrace took place in a deserted area (close to the port), the second hug was witnessed by many people. It was in the open, moreover the so-called “hero” had jumped off the horse during the parade which could only catch the attention from the crowd.
(chapter 111) Between the two embraces, we shouldn’t overlook the caresses on the head and cheeks which I mentioned above. As you can imagine, the kiss of Jung In-Hun represents the climax of their intimacy. Striking is that the affectionate gestures always took place in public (street twice and the courtyard).
(chapter 34) His kiss is displaying his hypocrisy, which the artist could only feel. Hence he didn’t reciprocate the smooching. His lips remained immobile.
(chapter 19) Therefore I come to the conclusion that this kiss is like the embrace from episode 29: fake! It is because the learned sir needs him! This statement stands in opposition to the protagonist’s love confession.
(chapter 117) His presence and affection represent the biggest treasure for Yoon Seungho. Baek Na-Kyum is his only source of joy and happiness. However, for the learned sir, the “need” has a different foundation. He can lose everything, if the painter doesn’t choose him. And if he were successful, he would even get power! As you can sense, for the learned sir, Baek Na-Kyum is just a tool, while for the Black Knight, he is a necessity! Without him, he has no reason to continue living. Jung In-Hun is desperate to survive, while Yoon Seungho is pushed to give up on his suicidal thoughts THANKS TO His father:
(chapter 111) His gaze oozed not only arrogance, but also blindness. Imagine that he was smirking in front of the painter while looking at the wealthy aristocrat. It was, as though he thought that the artist wouldn’t notice his disdain and vanity. He imagined that the artist was still naive and ignorant like in season 1. This explains why the painter expressed his disapproval about the learned sir with a smile later:
(chapter 111)
(chapter 111), for Baek Na-Kyum is always accompanied by his soul mate (chapter 40, 45, 74-75, 91-97, 104-105) In addition, people would have recognized him due to the previous parade and noticed his interaction with the artist. Nevertheless, the villain needed privacy, as he was inciting the main lead to commit a wrongdoing: betrayal towards Yoon Seungho. So their meeting could never be mere coincidence and happen in the open. Their reunion had to be planned properly and in secrecy. Thus it signifies that it had to happen behind the dark knight’s back. I would even add that the beloved couple needed to be separated! And now, you comprehend why their meeting had to take place in the gibang! In season 3 and 4, the kisaeng house is the place where the main leads got separated from each other, though the intervention from the noonas didn’t always work like expected.
– first separation, for Yoon Seungho had to take care of the noona Heena
Here we witnessed his return. However, the kisaengs badmouthed Yoon Seungho
(chapter 93) Their attempt was to create a riff between the couple.
(chapter 94), when the painter thought that they would go to the pond.
(chapter 94) Why didn’t the artist follow his partner right away?
(chapter 96) She intervened too late, and her brother didn’t notice her presence.
(chapter 99) Yet, we never saw the face carrying the light
(chapter 97) But it can not be the officers, for they were carrying torches.
(chapter 97) Yet, the light in the previous image is nearer to the ground than to the top of the door. Besides, carrying a torch in a building made of paper and wood is quite dangerous. For me, the person approaching their suite could only lift such a candle light
(chapter 19) We have two possibilities left: the kisaeng Heena or the butler.
(chapter 98) This confrontation didn’t occur in episode 93, for the kisaeng’s back was illuminated by the candle light, whereas the room was darker in episode 93.
(chapter 93) The light was standing further away from her in this picture. Hence I deduce that the lord must have revisited the kisaeng during that night. Because she was not holding the candle light, I can only deduce that the person witnessing this second conversation was butler Kim! Besides, we have another allusion to him through the reflection of episode 19 and the first Wedding night. Then later, Heena tried to convince her brother to leave Yoon Seungho’s side
(chapter 97) by blaming him for Jung In-Hun’s murder, but her intervention failed. In reality, the separation could only take place thanks to the intervention of Yoon Seungho’s staff. In episode 97, the servants were definitely manipulating the painter with this corpse
(chapter 97), whereas in episode 98, the maids had to play their role as well: badmouthing their master
(chapter 98). He was a cruel and violent lord!
(chapter 105: Heena was strong enough to follow her brother to the door, and this quite quickly, for she witnessed their argument), the other cast doubts in Baek Na-Kyum
(chapter 109) and finally the third one lied to her donsaeng.
(chapter 105) Yoon Seungho had mentioned that he would return to the kisaeng house in order to fetch his lover.
(chapter 105) Yoon Seungho was just thinking of a momentary separation, whereas the kisaeng implied that his departure was definitive. This shows that they had hidden the main lead’s true intention from the painter. This was no coincidence in my eyes.
(chapter 118) However, I believe that Jung In-Hun was lying, for his visit could be leaked to the owner of the mansion. He has no idea that no one is siding with the main lead. But by saying this, he was covering up for the gibang, and as such Heena. She was definitely her source of information.
(chapter 68) Why? It is because she has always loved the learned sir and projected her own thoughts and emotions onto the artist. In my eyes, this encounter is to prove the kisaeng wrong, to confront her with reality and her prejudices. What caught my attention is that each time, the painter couldn’t meet Heena, her absence was justified that she was serving a nobleman outside.
(chapter 93)
(chapter 118) Notice that the painter is already thinking that she was not expecting him. Yet, it is clear that he would come to the kisaeng house, for Yoon Seungho had been invited by his brother. The invitation had already been proceeded the day before:
(chapter 117) So if something were to happen, Heena could feign ignorance and as such innocence. After their last argument, the noble has learnt that he shouldn’t keep his distance from the artist and he should confide to him, hence he talked about elopment at the pavilion.
(chapter 25)
(chapter 77) in a previous analysis. However, I will only focus on the comparison between episode 19 and 118, for both represent a first kiss!
(chapter 118) And remember that in episode 19, the painter had caught the main lead by surprise, when he entered the room.
(chapter 25) Thus I am deducing that this scene
(chapter 96), this means that he has finally accepted his homosexuality. Consequently, the sexual abuser could have the impression that he just needs to remove the painter from the main lead’s side and that’s it. He can replace the artist… impersonation once again!
(chapter 96) These notions are all reflected in the confrontation between Baek Na-Kyum and Jung In-Hun:
(chapter 105) Hence I came to the conclusion that the stolen kiss from Jung In-Hun represents a farewell, though the learned sir has no idea of this signification. Thus I thought of Judas’ kiss. The learned sir failed to achieve his goal exactly like in season 1. Even back then, he was distressed and under pressure, for he had recognized that he needed to pass the civil service examination first.
(chapter 115) In my opinion, he will be framed for the incident in the shaman’s house.
(chapter 115) Hence I have the impression that this stolen kiss will have huge repercussions not only for the learned sir, but also for Heena.
(chapter 118) Observe that the painter wanted to ignore the words from the fake teacher. So he could have a change of heart and report the incident to the authorities. He doesn’t know that his lover killed Black Heart and his friends. The learned sir was admitting that his nightmare had truly happened.
(chapter 83)
(chapter 88) From my point of view, the schemers are projecting their own thoughts and emotions on Yoon Seungho. Moreover I am quite certain that they have already calculated the possibility of a rejection. The painter’s so-called wrongdoings from season 1 (chapter 11: the ruined painting, chapter 29: desertion) and season 2 (chapter 61: the desertion) were all perceived as rejections. If he is caught with Jung In-Hun alone, they anticipate that Yoon Seungho will react like his father. He won’t be able to discern the truth. Baek Na-Kyum is not faithful and is now tainted. Or even worse… Yoon Seungho might commit a crime. This thought seems to contradict my previous statement: Jung In-Hun is acting on the pedophile’s order. Nonetheless, my theory is that there exist two conspiracies:
(chapter 107)
(chapter 115)
(chapter 115: flower pattern and no sleeve, the beard covers the jaw )
(chapter 117: no pattern, the lips are covered by the moustasch, straight)
(chapter 117) There are simply too many divergences to say that it is a mistake from the author. This would actually mean that she is quite sloppy. Furthermore, I decided to rely on my eyes and not a belief: there is only one lord Song. Thus you comprehend why I never called the man talking to Jung In-Hun lord Song. So if my theory is true, this would signify that these men represent the previous gang “dogs of Joseon”, the older version of this:
(chapter 101) And No-Name was treated exactly like Lee Jihwa, but he got framed and sentenced. Finally, I would like to point out that there were 3 black men involved in the first fake sexual education:
(chapter 86) A coincidence? I don’t believe this. Besides, I discovered a relevant detail about petition and government.
(chapter 107) Far away from the protagonist, he had to rely on his helping hands and his advisors. He trusted their words. Finally, we have the vision from Lee Jihwa:
(chapter 101) That’s the moment when the truth will come to light. Someone will get angry, because he got confronted with the painful reality: he was a man consumed by lust, he was selfish, cruel, abusive, ignorant, coward, and even naive. He was never destined to be the protagonist’s life companion.
(chapter 116) He was in truth Yoon Seungho‘s bird of misfortune. He is responsible for his misery. Before, I had assumed that right from the start, the pedophile could have been eyeing the pure teenager, but it is also possible that everything happened due to back luck. Each person made a mistake, out of fear they lied to cover up for their wrongdoing and chose Yoon Seungho as scapegoat. Father Lee tried to hide his son’s sodomy out of shame. If so, the king became responsible, for he never investigate the matter properly. It was his role as ruler to give justice and he failed terribly. In fact, he benefitted from this. Hence it is normal that he is now judged as the main culprit for Yoon Seungho‘s misery. Contrary to Baek NA-Kyum, the main lead can not act, as if nothing had happened.
, I detected a strong connection between chapter 10 and 117. The common denominator was the pavilion. The learned sir brought the artist under the pretense for a walk in order to seek seclusion and privacy. While he faked his worries
(chapter 10), he wanted the painter to stop working for Yoon Seungho. He desired him to leave the propriety, for he saw Baek Na-Kyum as a rival. Unlike the painter, the scholar had not been invited to join the party the night before. Hence he had to portray Yoon Seungho in such a bad light!
(chapter 10) Back then, the vain and stupid man thought that the main lead had truly liked his poem. Thus he imagined that he could get the attention from the protagonist, once he got rid of his competitor.
(chapter 10) This is not surprising that the author employed a panel from that chapter.
(chapter 118) Back then, the artist had not detected the manipulation. Hence he had protected his former teacher, when the latter got accused of ruining the painting. This confession from the scholar
(chapter 10) stands in opposition to Yoon Seungho’s. The latter has no expectation from the artist.
(chapter 117) The latter is the one deciding about the lord’s fate. But why did he go to the pavilion with the painter? For privacy and intimacy! They needed to discuss the matter about the brother and the petition, a dangerous matter.
(chapter 117) Here, the painter was acting as the main lead’s right-hand and advisor. He is taking over the butler’s function. He was full of concern for his loved one asking him to postpone the reunion (chapter 117) And the moment the artist voiced his fears
(chapter 117), the noble suggested to leave everything behind.
(chapter 117) And what would people see from far away? 2 people showing closeness and attachment, they wouldn’t expect a desertion, an abandonment!! And now you comprehend why Yoon Chang-Hyeon was sitting in the pavilion in town
(chapter 116) It was, as if he was trying to get an alibi for his crime: he had planned to have his son killed, but it didn’t happen as expected. Thus he was forced to join his son.
(chapter 116) This means that he was exposing his crime to people in town. Furthermore, he even confessed his hatred for his own son. He yelled this:
(chapter 116) Yet, by stating this, he was admitting that he was violating social norms (Confucianism). That’s how I realized that the pavilion is not only the place where Yoon Seungho’s emancipation takes place, it is also the symbol for betrayal and abandonment.
(chapter 101) Finally, a long time ago, I had developed the theory that the pavilion was the place where Yoon Seungho got abused.
It is the same pavilion than Yoon Chang-Hyeon’s. This means that the couple will purify this place. At some point, the lord and his knight will come to admire the pond with the lotus flowers:
(chapter 117) Byeonduck let us see a glimpse of their future.

(chapter 109) He discovers that Baek Na-Kyum has already prepared himself, as he is longing for him.
(chapter 109) He never expected such a reaction. The reason why the evolution of Painter Of The Night is flowing at a snail’s pace is that season 4 is now focusing more on the past. First, Byeonduck needs to divulge the lord’s suffering and its causes. And this can only happen, if memories are brought up. Hence in episode 109, the painter’s memories stood in the center. Why? It is because he is trying to understand why his loved one is now avoiding him. Thus he is remembering what happened just before. The readers are actually put in the same situation than the artist. On the one hand, the focus on recollection is a method to unveil how the young master was turned into a “sodomite and pariah”, for the painter is going through the same experience than his partner. In episode 109, he is isolated from his “lover” and as such from his family, for he has now maids by his side. The latter are supposed to be his new “family”. On the other hand it helps the manhwaphiles to anticipate the future main events,. as the progression is in slow motion. This means, the Webtoonist left all the elements in the previous seasons in order to decode the past, the present and the future. That way, the manhwalovers are capable to unveil the mystery. Besides, the author has to answer all the questions the beholders had while reading the previous seasons, like this one:
(chapter 27) What book was the scholar looking for? Up to now, we have no clue, though I had developed the following theory: Jung In-Hun was a Christian and had a bible.
(chapter 109) How did this happen? One might reply that the book fell from the shelf, when the painter kissed his lover.
(chapter 109) This interpretation can be easily refuted, for the noble stood next to the shelf and not in front of it. Besides, the counter stands on the noble’s left, while the ledger was on his right. However, one detail caught my notice, the beholder can not see Yoon Seungho’s hands!! That’s how I realized that the book came from the protagonist! He had carried it hidden in his right sleeve. This explicates why the book stands on the right side.
(chapter 109) Besides, contrary to the previous panel, now the lord’s hand is visible! This is no coincidence. But if he was hiding the copy from Baek Na-Kyum, I deduce that it is related to the painter. But there is another person associated to manuscripts in this story, Jung In-Hun!! But what have the low-born and the scholar in common then? The erotic publications!
(chapter 94) However, Yoon Seungho is suspecting that the learned sir was behind the trick in the shaman’s house due to the glasses Min had in his hand before dying.
(chapter 102) Hence he doesn’t want to break the main lead’s heart and mind. In other words, the main lead is determined to hide the past from Baek Na-Kyum so that the latter’s memory and agony won’t be triggered. The book could definitely remind the low-born of all the events which led to the massacre in the shaman’s shrine. Besides, I feel that the noble must feel guilty as well. If only he hadn’t admired the erotic publications which led to Baek Na-Kyum’s stay in his mansion. Consequently, I think that the noble is also in agony because of the work.
However, there exist two reasons why I came to this deduction. I detected similarities with the first encounter between Yoon Seungho and his nemesis in the scholar’s home and the painter’s kisses.
(chapter 6) Both were standing in front of the cupboard, while the learned sir suddenly took away the copy and closed it to put it back on the cupboard. This made the protagonist smirk. Due to the characters’ reaction,
(chapter 6), I had assumed that the protagonist was making fun of Jung In-Hun. He had played a prank on the host, especially after asking about his occupation. I have always wondered about the content of the volume. Therefore I had developed the idea that this could be the bible. However, it was clear that the book was not for children which is visible due to the writing.
(chapter 6) In fact, the learned sir should have the manual Thousand Character Classic (Chinese: 千字文; pinyin: Qiānzì Wén), also known as the Thousand Character Text.
(chapter 6) In reality, he wasn’t teaching them reading and writing at all. But Yoon Seungho had feigned ignorance with this discovery. With his indifference and praises, the false teacher had the impression that he was supporting his attitude. This scene is relevant, because the learned sir had lied to the protagonist about the painter’s education.
(chapter 6) This means that the book represents the evidence of learned sir’s betrayal and abandonment. He is responsible for his illiteracy. To conclude, this scene contains the following elements: a prank, a lie, a confession which was triggered by a book that Yoon Seungho had picked up by chance. But wait… it could be the book from the scholar’s home!
(chapter 06) But this image can be used to refute this theory. How so? It is because this book has a title, hence there is a white rectangle!! However, take a closer look at the copy on the floor.
(chapter 50) Finally, I would like the readers to keep in mind that they could only see the content of the books
(chapter 1), but they never got the chance to see the cover.
(chapter 6) He proposed him to sit and have a cup of tea to divert his attention from the books on the cupboard. Besides, I would like to outline the huge contrast between these two scenes. The scholar needed the assistance of the prestigious family Yoon, while the protagonist replied this to his loved one:
(chapter 109) Needed versus not necessary!
(chapter 6) He was here very vague (“bizarre and vulgar”), he spoke of a scolding, but never of rejection and abandonment!! This is important, because Yoon Seungho also experienced something similar in the shed:
(chapter 77) Back then, the butler’s words must have wounded him terribly, he must have felt dirty either. Under this new perspective, it becomes comprehensible why I came to this conclusion that the book is related to the learned sir and to the erotic publication. But this doesn’t end here. In my eyes, episode 109 clearly outlined the importance of the library in the protagonists’ life. This is the place where both main leads got betrayed and abandoned.
(chapter 40) When the scholar wounded the artist with his words, he implied that the artist was responsible for his lack of education. With the idiom “I thought, you could be educated”, he gave the impression that he had put some effort, but due to the artist’s disposition, he had failed. We had another scene where the learned sir was blaming Baek Na-Kyum.
(chapter 70) He would fall asleep instead of studying. And who knows about the learned sir’s hypocrisy? Yoon Seungho!! That’s the reason why the goddess Byeonduck let them meet in the library. It is to heal their wounds. In this room, Yoon Seungho’s suffering started and later, the painter got betrayed by his former teacher, someone whom he viewed as his “family and mentor”.
When Yoon Seungho got kissed by the painter
(chapter 109), he got surprised, and he had the same gaze and facial expression than the one during the First wedding night
(chapter 42), though here the artist kissed his companion twice!
(chapter 49) And what had these scenes in common? Paintings and the artist’s confession. And now, you comprehend how I made the connection between the book and painting.
(chapter 19) This scene could only break the artist’s heart, because he was reminded of the learned sir’s reaction: his rejection. The latter got angry and jealous that the low-born would be treated as someone special. Furthermore, Jung In-Hun had only got the noble’s sponsorship thanks to Baek Na-Kyum and not thanks to his own talent! In verity, the learned sir had been the tool to submit Baek Na-Kyum. Shortly after the exposition, the protagonist went to the study. There he got confused for Jung In-Hun, hence he received a wonderful confession
(chapter 19) before getting kissed and embraced!
(chapter 42) Yet, the artist was unable to explain the situation, for he had internalized Jung In-Hun’s criticism.
(chapter 42) So we could say that the yangban tried to get a confession from the painter, but he failed. Hence they had just sex. The artist’s heartbreak was the reason why he never got to confess the truth! And what had happened in the study after the painter kissed the main lead? The lord saw the inauguration illustration and got jealous of Jung In-Hun
(chapter 48), and the painting had exposed the main lead’s uneasiness and pain. The drawing was not refined, barely finished.
(chapter 47) The behavior from the painter and the new painting had not only wounded the main lead, but also pushed the lord to discover why the artist was behaving this way. After the rough sex session, the artist had made a confession: he was dropping the rules he had been raised.
(chapter 49) He was admitting his sexual orientation and his own pleasure, but he still kept his distance from Yoon Seungho. Why? It is because he was reminded of the learned sir’s fake embrace and betrayal.
(chapter 49)
(chapter 94) which incited the artist to recall his childhood. That’s how he came to unveil his past and confess his love to the noble!
(chapter 19), the parties after the separation
(chapter 51), his visit in the gibang and his tricks
(chapter 96). In episode 109, the painter confused Yoon Seungho’s shadow with Black Heart’s. In his nightmare, he was brought back to the shaman’s house and the lord’s smile was similar to Min’s.
(chapter 109)
(chapter 99) Besides, let’s not forget that during that terrible night, Black Heart never touched the artist himself, as if he didn’t want to touch a trinket sullied by another man”. On Twitter, the author revealed that Min would help Yoon Seungho. Through this comparison, the beholder can confirm this. Thanks to Black Heart, the couple got closer in the end.
(chapter 19), the spying on the painter – though here it appears like a good thing –
(chapter 41), the stones in the rice
(chapter 47) and the words from the maid who repeated the noona’s principle
(chapter 109). She was acting, as if Baek Na-Kyum was not present, but in reality she knew that he could listen to her. How do I know this? The evidence are the sweets on the windowsill.
(chapter 109) They never encouraged the tormented boy to eat the sweets!! Besides, this episode confirmed my interpretation about the complicity of the maids. As their role is to comfort Baek Na-Kyum, the readers should question themselves about their absence.
(chapter 108) Why is the room dark? Where are the maids during that night, as they are supposed to sleep next to the painter?
(chapter 109) The absence of the light is truly noticeable, an indicator that they are not in the bedchamber. Moreover, I had detected that the brown bed cover symbolizes the meddling of Kim. [For more read the essay
(chapter 87) Sincerity versus fake concern; own choice versus manipulation, happiness versus sadness. Under this perspective, you comprehend why I view the maids as traitors. But since season 1, the women were never punished. Hence they felt free to badmouth Yoon Seungho or Baek Na-Kyum. So while he was preparing himself, where were the ladies-in-waiting? I doubt, the painter would give them orders. The painter was left alone on purpose. Finally, the manhwalovers should question why there is a bottle of oil in the bedchamber. So far, Yoon Seungho utilized it once
(chapter 20) and it was during the first Wedding Night. And oil comes from the kitchen, the lord had fetched it from that room!! Naturally, there is an exception, and it is the kiss in the gibang. Yet, here the kisaengs had just replaced the maids. In other words, they had played a role in the confession. And this explains why the noona’s words are superposed with the maids.
(chapter 109) That’s the reason why I am convinced that the book is strongly connected to the learned sir. In my eyes, it can only be the erotic publication of sodomy!! Why? It is because it represents the painter’s biggest wound. It explains his low self-esteem. Consequently, I am expecting the appearance of this panel:
(tweet) The teacher told him “It’s dirty”, and wounded him the most with his gaze full of hatred, the symbol of rejection! Note that in episode 109, the painter always focused on the mouth and not the gaze,
(chapter 109)
(chapter 109)
(chapter 25) Moreover, during that night, we have the same elements: a painting, a confession, sex, a book that the scholar was looking for. From my point of view, in chapter 34, Baek Na-Kyum only recalled the beating from Jung In-Hun.
(chapter 34) But like I wrote above, this place is also where Yoon Seungho got betrayed and in my opinion, the schemers are planning to use this place to ruin the protagonist!!
(chapter 106)
(chapter 106) And if Yoon Seungho gets caught having sex with the painter and he has an erotic publication of sodomy, he can be framed for the murder of lord Shin and the other nobles. He will be guilty by association. Thus I deduce that the schemers needed the father to report him to the authorities.
(chapter 107) That way, he can prove that his son is a depraved lunatic and regain the control of the mansion.
(chapter 86) And if they are not caught having sex, the schemers are hoping for an argument between the two main leads because of the separation. This was planned to incite Baek Na-Kyum to resent his lover, to accuse him of „abandonment and betrayal“, a new version of this scene.
(Chapter 105) As you can see, the staff had encouraged the lord to keep his distance from his companion on purpose, to create a misunderstanding… they used the painter’s anxieties. Why? That way, the artist would be more inclined to betray his lover, if the latter was in difficulty. He could put the blame on him. In my opinion, the book was planted there on purpose. Remember how the artist denied that he was the author of the erotic publications.
(Chapter 1) Besides, there is no doubt that the father refuses to take any responsibility in his son’s suffering. And now, you comprehend why this copy was put on the lord’s desk. He was supposed to be the owner of the erotic book and even the author! I am suspecting that he was accused of the „same crime“ in the past. Then this observation raises the following question. Which erotic publication is it? The original
(chapter 1) or the copy
(chapter 1) This would stand in opposition to the scholar’s rejection (dirty), as the artist was just the helping hand. Besides, there is no ambiguity that Yoon Seungho blames himself due to the erotic book. If he had not brought the painter to his mansion, none of this would have happened. But the painter’s confession would make him realize that his misery started long before he met Yoon Seungho. And how did the puppetmaster come up with such an idea? From my point of view, this plan was inspired by the learned sir.
(chapter 27) Notice that he has a drop of sweat on his face, a sign that the book is really important and could be even dangerous. He was diminishing the value. In the past, I had already pointed out that the learned sir had planned to backstab the main lead and denunciate him to the authorities (my first theory was the bible or the the absence of jesa in the mansion). But the erotic publications of sodomy would fit the profile.
(chapter 37) Back then, he imagined that the man hidden under the green hanbok was the learned sir, but he was mistaken. Both father and son believes to have seen the relative’s sodomy. Besides, the brother mentioned letters and these usually are written on a desk and as such in the library. Yes, this night should trigger the lord’s memory… his brother’s betrayal and abandonment.
I am still waiting for this picture. Yoon Seungwon had definitely tattled on his brother out of jealousy in the past. Don’t forget this flashbulb.
(chapter 55) Finally, Heena could serve as a witness, for she did hear their conversation in the annex and saw their intercourse:
(chapter 84) Finally, the childhood paintings could be used as an evidence. But what about the book in the library? Both could decide to burn it…
the burned letter
the shrine
(chapter 109) Note that there is no rejection from the lord, just surprise and shock. Besides, in the kisaeng house, the artist’s confession had led the main lead to confess as well.
(tweet), the latter can only come to the conclusion that the scholar would have no problem to hurt Baek Na-Kyum and even get revenge on the artist, for he received the favors from the protagonist. Yoon Seungho would no longer feel obliged to respect Heena’s wish, for her words wouldn’t reflect reality.
(chapter 105) And it was Yoon Seungho’s luck, when the book fell from his sleeve!
(chapter 27) The goddess Byeonduck is on their side. But the problem is that the readers have the impression that both are followed by misfortune due to their misery. The reality is that they are both victims of manipulations and tricks. That’s their tragedy. But by repeating that the two figures are “birds of misfortune”, the accomplices are trying to deny their own involvement and as such responsibility. The maids are the perfect example. They blame Baek Na-Kyum for his own illness. He eats like a bird and he would hide his illness.
(chapter 108) To sum up, he was responsible for his own suffering, for he was in denial and the maids could do nothing to help. But the lord can see the truth, when he touches his lover’s butt.
(chapter 109) He lost weight in such a short time. And their presence by Baek Na-Kyum’s side was supposed to help him. They were responsible for his well-being, but the women never realized it.
(chapter 105) He desired to spare his heart. To conclude, “that awful matter” is referring to the whole prank and its consequences.
(Chapter 97) At the same time, the idiom includes the staff‘s tricks as well: the corpse in front of the gate and the maids‘ badmouthing
(Chapter 104) However, he had been silenced by his lover, when the latter suggested to him to view everything as a nightmare. The lord made the mistake not to listen to the victim and witness.
(chapter 105) With such a contrast, the manhwalovers can detect the link between ignorance and absence of memories. To conclude, in both versions, the main lead is “lying” out of ignorance. This is the positive version of “ignorance is a blessing”. Hence the noona thinks herself safe.
(Chapter 99) It was clear that her brother would meet the noble, as their meeting didn’t surprise her. She was more upset that Baek Na-Kyum was unconscious.
(chapter 99) However, her question „What’s wrong with Na-Kyum?“ divulges her hypocrisy and acting. How could she not realize that her sibling had been beaten?
(Chapter 99) His head was bleeding, and the black guards were carrying sticks. It was clear that his state was not caused by an illness. To conclude, the calling “lord Jihwa” is the proof of her complicity, though in front of Yoon Seungho it serves as an excuse to portray herself as a victim.
(chapter 105) Thus I deduce that Heena thinks, the painter could not witness her acting in front of the scholar’s house, for his head was turned around and he was not moving. She feels secure concerning that night, while I am expecting the opposite. Nonetheless, her past behavior in the kisaeng house represents a source of danger for her. That’s the reason why she has to hide the “attempted murder” from her brother. The moment Heena mentions that she has been hurt, the painter won’t believe her. Why? It is because in the kisaeng house, he has not forgotten her words:
(chapter 97) Even if she was “fooled”, the artist can only reproach her stupidity. Remember her harsh words, she had called him stupid:
(chapter 97) She had helped Min, and she can not claim ignorance. As you can see, Yoon Seungho was encouraged to hide the “attempted murder” from Baek Na-Kyum for selfish reasons. Therefore it is no coincidence that when the lord visited Heena, he made sure that his lover wouldn‘t see Heena in bed.
(chapter 105) She has now the perfect excuse to avoid nobles. She has been hurt, hence she can not work. The lord never questioned her attitude, for he wished himself that the painter would take a rest and remain in bed.
(Chapter 104) This explicates why later the lord was hugging his lover under the cover.
(Chapter 104) Hence I conclude that Heena must have thought the same way about Yoon Seungho. „Thank god, he didn’t see or hear a thing about that awful matter“. He has no idea about her altercations with her brother in the kisaeng house. It is important, because our beloved seme has the impression that the noona has her brother’s best interests at heart, but actually he is wrong. In my opinion, the relationship between Heena and his lover serves as a mirror to his relationship with Yoon Seungwon. So far, the young noble doesn’t suspect his brother to have betrayed him. Note that he blames his father more than his younger sibling.
(chapter 105) Yet, this incident was presented as Yoon Seungho’s memory. This panel could be used as an evidence that my theory, Heena was present next to the shaman’s shrine during the bloodbath, was wrong. Nonetheless, this image didn’t make me change my mind. Why? I paid attention to details and judged this rescue as “fake” again. The servants had a drop of sweat on their face, the symbol for deception. Secondly, the kisaeng was wet, while the staff’s clothes weren’t damp. How did they save her then? Besides, where are the foot prints? Moreover, where was the head cover?
(chapter 99) Finally, her hands and feet were not tied. So where did the items go? Since we saw her “execution”, we are the witnesses, and as such we know the truth about that “awful matter”, but it is not the case for the lord. This image contains so many errors, hence it can not reflect reality.
(chapter 103) Hence he could have never been outside the mansion. That’s how I realized that the author was presenting us a false memory. This means that the manhwalovers are facing an implanted memory. But how could this happen? First, false memory is quite normal and is often of no consequence. But a false memory relayed during criminal testimony might lead to the conviction of an innocent person. As the manhwalovers can detect, it represents a serious problem.
(chapter 58), it makes him particularly vulnerable to false memories.
(chapter 104), the lord and even the readers imagined to see medicine in the white bowl!
(chapter 105) Besides, the author had always connected the drug with the tray.
(chapter 23) As you can see, the readers interpreted this scene due to associations. Nonetheless, like mentioned in the previous analysis, the different color and the traces on the edge were the evidences that it was ink.
(chapter 36) Besides, Heena was in bed indicating that she was still weak. The circumstances led people to have a different perception of “verity”!! Only through the mind’s eye, the manhwalovers can detect that this scene was staged.
(chapter 103) The protagonist projected his own thoughts and emotions onto one servant: shock!
(chapter 61) This was interference by excellence. Besides, emotions can affect your memories. Since the lord was so under shock after witnessing the painter’s unconsciousness, it is not surprising that he imagined to have witnessed this scene. At the same time, when he left the shrine in trance, he could have overlooked the presence of a third person… similar to Lee Jihwa next to the shed. That’s how he doesn’t recall anything from that night except his crime. He didn’t see and hear the person by his side. Where is the sword? Where did he get the hanbok from?
(chapter 102) Therefore it is not astonishing that he imagined a similar scenery.
(chapter 1) Baek Na-Kyum thought to have seen “Yoon Seungho” as huge sodomite, yet he only connected the name to the face after meeting the lord for the first time.
(chapter 1) This shows that the artist had only heard his name without seeing his face before. This explicates why the main lead’s gaze and facial expressions were similar
(chapter 1)
(chapter 1)
(chapter 103)
(chapter 104) My avid readers can certainly recall the rule I had detected: each chapter will be reflected in the next!
(chapter 105) How is it possible? Especially, when the painter said this:
(chapter 94) Furthermore, the painter is associating the learned sir to the moon and as such the night.
(chapter 94) Thus I am now suspecting that this image
is a false memory. But I have another reason to think that the painter’s idolization was more the result of “brainwashing” and as such “false memories”.
(chapter 105) How can she date this incident so precisely? The moment I read her testimony, I discovered that in episode 94 the author had never shown us the painter crying!
(chapter 94)
(chapter 94)
(chapter 94) It was, as if the noonas had never been informed about the painter’s suffering and tears. This shows that Heena has been hiding many things from her colleagues. But there is more to it! The manhwaphiles saw the artist’s tears in his childhood.
(chapter 68) But here he was much older!! Under this new perspective, I realized that the following image could have been a false memory:
(chapter 68) Heena was misremembering that night, and she was misattributing the painter’s tears. In other words, she was confusing two incidents.
(chapter 105) It is the same facial expression, though the redness around the eyes is more pronounced. This observation confirms that the noona’s memories in the kisaeng
(chapter 105) He had run after his lover in socks. While in “Baek Na-Kyum’s foot”, I thought that this memory was true, I come now to a different signification. It was a false memory in order to hide a crime related to Heena. I would like to outline that in the kisaeng’s comment, we have the notion of “shame” and as such “guilt”. First, I thought of rape, but then it could be much simpler. The painter could have witnessed his noona having sex with the learned sir. But because he was too young, he misjudged the situation… as a virgin, she had to bleed. Because he saw blood, he imagined that the learned sir had hurt Heena. This would explain why the artist was afterwards anxious around the teacher. One might think that this is not terrible. But let’s not forget that as a kisaeng, she can not have sex like that.
(chapter 105)
(chapter 46) A change of heart versus “eternity”. This shows that the painter’s decision to go to the learned sir’s house was never his choice. He had simply followed Heena’s suggestion. She was definitely distorting his past. Furthermore I detected a strong connection between love and memory.
(chapter 94) If it is a loved one, then it can only be a good memory. Therefore it is not surprising that by saying constantly saying that the painter likes the scholar, he is repressing the bad memories with the scholar (the beating in episode 34, the betrayal in chapter 29, his words in the library and his reproach about his job). So far, he only mentioned one negative incident.
(chapter 76) So while the painter was following his lover, the latter turned around and hugged him. Afterwards, he asked him to go to his noonas, for he needed to talk to Heena. Moreover, contrary to Yoon Seungho, Baek Na-Kyum paid attention to time. He was not lost in thoughts or had lost the sense of time
(chapter 105) But the latter acted, as if his hand was not wounded.
(chapter 105) He ignored his physical pain and heartache.
(chapter 105) This is important, because the stumbling symbolizes the intervention of the gods… We have the perfect example at the end of season 3. The lord fell on his knees in front of the scholar’s house, hence there is a hand print on the snow.
(chapter 100) That’s how he refused to view Lee Jihwa as the murderer of his lover, Baek Na-Kyum”. YES, the falling is the real manifestation of CHANCE! How so? I would like the manhwaphiles to keep in mind that chance is the antonym of trick and scheme! The latter are connected to plan and organization. Thus I come to the conclusion that the noble will decide to go to the doctor’s office in order to treat his lover’s hand.
(chapter 57) he was feverish so that he couldn’t pay attention to the physician. Besides, the man never remained by his side. Finally, in episode 74, the man never left the office!!
(chapter 74) I conclude that Yoon Seungho never saw the physician for commoners! Besides, I doubt that he remembers him from his childhood. But this is not the same, when Baek Na-Kyum was ill. He met the other doctor twice.
(chapter 33)
(chapter 103) On the other hand, the artist assumes that the man in the office is Yoon Seungho’s doctor!! He heard his confession:
(chapter 57) There exist two physicians in the city at least. That’s how a part of the truth will come to the surface! And who had fetched the doctor?
(chapter 103) The staff… I would like to outline that in this panel, Kim was no longer seen next to the couple.
(chapter 105) So where did he vanish? Probably to the mansion, for he had to warn the domestics that the artist would be returning! But if he left the couple behind, this means that he can’t witness what Yoon Seungho and Baek Na-Kyum will do next. And if they don’t go to the doctor, there is no ambiguity that the main lead will send for the doctor again. But according to me, the man disappeared.
(chapter 103) To conclude, I am expecting that Yoon Seungho will make a huge discovery in the next episode… just like the painter did in the gibang. 

of season 4 for this essay, though my focus is the past, and more precisely Yoon Seungho’s suffering. It is because the darkness surrounding the protagonist not only refers to his tragic youth, but also it reflects the situation of the manhwalovers. The latter are still in the dark concerning his torment. His terrible secrets have not been totally unveiled. So far, the author allowed the readers to see glimpses of his past, like f. ex. the gangrape or the suicide of his mother. But these were just small pieces of the puzzle, thus it is still impossible to have a complete picture of his martyrdom. There are many reasons for this. The main victim never testified about his suffering, he refused to open up to Baek Na-Kyum.
(chapter 84) Then many witnesses vanished
(chapter 86) or the ones alive preferred telling lies in order to hide their own wrongdoings or are simply in denial about their own culpability. Finally, the victim, the perpetrators and accomplices had no idea about the whole truth. They only know or knew certain facts, because many of them were deceived as well. What exactly happened to Yoon Seungho? How could this take place, though he belonged to one of the most powerful noble families? Now, you are probably expecting that I will give you answers to all these questions, and recreate the past. But I have to admit that it is not possible, for I don’t know the whole chronology. Consequently, I added “shadowy” in the title. To conclude, my real intention is more to offer new pieces from the riddle than create a whole new “story”. The main source for this new insight is the painter’s fate which is a reflection from the noble’s past and torment. This means that Byeonduck left traces in season 1, 2 and 3! That’s how I discovered that he had been abandoned and betrayed by everyone, kidnapped, treated as a male kisaeng, robbed, abused, raped and even gangraped at least twice, tortured and finally drugged! But like mentioned above, it is difficult to give the proper order and the persons truly involved in the crimes. On the other hand, what I can guarantee is that Yoon Seungho’s nightmare is linked to conspiracies. I came to this conclusion, because if you compare all the seasons, you will detect the presence of plots. There exists at least 3 main plots in each season, though there definitely exist more. The conspiracies are all connected to incidents.
(chapter 9), so that the latter visited Lee Jihwa to arouse his jealousy. It was to push him to commit a crime so that Baek Na-Kyum would be removed from the main lead’s side. As you can see, there were 3 people involved, though the readers only saw the result.
(chapter 12) They had the impression that the red-haired master had acted on his own. However, he had been manipulated, incited to commit a crime. But my point is not to diminish his wrongdoing, rather to expose the involvement of the schemers. Hence at the end of season 1, the author unveiled their true role and as such their identities.
(chapter 43) However, observe that when Lee Jihwa went to the pavilion, the noble with the mole had other guests. 2 nobles left the place, as they refused to participate in a murder.
(chapter 43) Funny is that they are now witnesses of Min’s crime. This can have repercussions in season 4. Black Heart had been the one who had suggested the assassination to Lee Jihwa. And the aristocrats were still there, when he had made this proposition.
(chapter 91) and the servants
(chapter 8) Thus in season 2, he came to this resolution:
(chapter 56) He had planned to rape him before having him eliminated. This shows his inner conflict. From my point of view, the painter’s death is connected to the incident in the gibang.
(chapter 16) This doesn’t look like a crime. However, it is one! It was done on purpose, to separate the couple. Someone had intervened in order to interrupt this session, and as such someone had been spying on them. Deok-Jae only revealed his spying activity from chapter 16 in season 2:
(chapter 53) Yet, the one opening the door had been Kim. This gesture can be considered as trespassing and invasion of privacy, the new version of this scene.
(chapter 17) that Yoon Seungho would come to perceive the painter as a man consumed by lust. He imagined that he would caught them fooling around. As you can see, this ruckus was also a plot, though it doesn’t look like one. Why would the maids gossip in the courtyard?
(chapter 18) From my point of view, the valet expected that the lord would fear people’s gaze and a scandal. Thus he would send away the painter to protect his “reputation”, but the opposite happened. Under this perspective, the manhwalovers can grasp why it is difficult to calculate accurately the number of plots and accomplices. Besides, some were naïve pawns, others not. And since I examined the first season more closely, it is necessary to analyze the vanishing of Jung In-Hun. His disappearance is strongly intertwined with Yoon Seungho’s secret. How so? The learned sir was determined to find the lord’s vulnerability and as such secret.
(chapter 88) Thus many readers jumped to the conclusion that the learned sir had already switched sides and was plotting against the main lead. They had his following words in their mind:
(chapter 29) Thus many concluded that he had participated in the prank, faking his death. On the other hand, the manhwalovers believed to have seen Heena’s death! 
(chapter 86) However, in reality, he was relying on the king’s help and intervention. And this confession to the “fake shaman” represents the learned sir’s karma. He had asked the painter to act like a spy
on his face and interrogated Jung In-Hun.
(chapter 29) The girl was there to create a certain closeness. He was acting like Kim, asking why! But the stupid and arrogant learned sir thought that because the man was a commoner, he was ignorant and could be manipulated like the painter!
(chapter 29) He thought that the low-born would buy his lie here… but in my eyes, it was the opposite. He had already perceived the learned sir’s true nature. But he acted, as if he was agreeing. In other words, the scholar fell into his own trap. He envisioned that the man was “powerless”, but he overlooked his connections. The manhwalovers can see the contradiction, for he had approached the man due to his connections! .As you can see, I am more than ever convinced that the scholar has long been murdered. He was betrayed, exactly like he had planned to abandon Yoon Seungho! The pedophile must have heard from the servant about Jung’s plan, as he had confided it to the worker!!
(chapter 37) But this doesn’t end here.
(chapter 37) Yoon Chang-Hyeon was portrayed as a traitor! The “fake servant” implied with his statement that there was a conspiracy, and the patriarch was involved. But in exchange to save his own skin, he had tattled on the others! He was trying to insinuate that if Jung In-Hun interacted more with the Yoons, his reputation could get tainted. He could get suspected of “treason” too, or he could get betrayed too. While the man met the learned sir during the day, the brother went to the villa in a hurry during the night.
(chapter 36) Hence he chose a different approach: filial duty. And the brother’s observation could only corroborate the pedophile’s perception. The scholar was Yoon Seungho’s lover, but he was also a backstabber. But let’s return our attention to the “mysterious lord Song”‘s statement: Yoon Chang-Hyeon is a denunciator, not a man of honor.
(Chapter 67) Lee Jihwa had not only been denunciated, but he had been confronted by his friend! And the traitor was right by his side. As you can see, chapter 67 was a reflection from episode 37!! These two episodes have another common denominator: the betrayer had made the following suggestion.
(chapter 67) In exchange for his “survival”, he should help Black Heart and allow him to act on his behalf. This was the new plan. That’s how he started impersonating Lee Jihwa. That’s the reason why I come to the conclusion that in the past, the impersonation must have happened, but it took place in the beginning. Secondly, I am assuming that a traitor must have suggested to Yoon Chang-Hyeon to leave the mansion and abandon his son behind!
(chapter 27) And who is it? For me, it is Kim acting on the pedophile’s behalf. Striking is that in episode 27, the learned sir escaped death thanks to the intervention of the old bearded domestic and Baek Na-Kyum. Thus it came to my mind that the pedophile could even claim that he had eliminated the learned sir, because Yoon Seungho had attempted himself to kill him in the past. He had acted on his behalf. And what do have all these chapters have in common? SPYING and tattling! In episode 27, the servant unveiled a part of the past,
(chapter 27) Someone had tattled on the Yoons in the past, but the patriarch was turned into the traitor himself which the young main lead came to believe. Thus Yoon Seungho could say this to his father:
(chapter 86) However, I am suspecting that this is not true, someone else tattled on the powerful family and made a false accusation! As you can imagine, I am inclined to think that father Lee must have been behind this! Why? It is because he can no longer do it! Thus in season 3, he approached the patriarch Yoon.
(chapter 82) If the lord Seungho had truly committed a crime, he should have reported it to the authorities. The stupid Yoon Chang-Hyeon never wondered why the elder Lee visited him during the night and asked for his assistance. Furthermore, the elder Lee had been allowed to enter the bedchamber and see the huge drawing which could have been perceived as a sign of treason. He was eyeing at the throne.
(chapter 82) Note that the aristocrat mentioned “punishment” in this context. So maybe, he denunciated the patriarch so that the whole family would get punished. Father Lee was definitely played in this scene, hence I believe that someone had already anticipated his reactions. He would seek revenge. But this doesn’t end here. I had connected “rash departure” to “treason and spying”. And now, observe what Yoon Seungho said to his butler
(chapter 50) He had sent Jung In-Hun away in order to get rid of him! However, because of the expression “I thought”, I am quite certain that this idea had been suggested to him by the valet! I would like to underline that in this episode, the valet was acting as a tattler!
(chapter 50) But in order to hide his own crime, he portrayed it as a rumor (It may not be accurate”). This truly underlines the butler’s MO. He used information and turned it as gossips to hide his spying activities. The shadow… Simultaneously, he turned gossips into a verity!! This is no coincidence that in season 3, the same method was employed. Yoon Seungho was supposed to have murdered the scholar and Deok-Jae! My avid readers can sense the leitmotiv in all these episodes. RUMORS are turned into a reality, and as such a CRIME! Even here…
(chapter 37)
(chapter 86) But since our beloved man started living in the bedchamber, this became a reality. That’s the other reason why Yoon Seungho was encouraged to live in debauchery and not to take the civil service examination. But this only occurred, the moment the lord returned living in the mansion and not before!! Secondly, I realized that this statement about Yoon Chang-Hyeon will become a reality for the “fake servant” himself.
(chapter 94) This means that he acted as a traitor, tattling on his own relative. Finally, observe that once confronted with brutal reality, the father did run away.
(chapter 87) The white bearded man’s words became a reality. However, since the fake servant, the mysterious lord Song, judges the elder master Yoon as a troublemaker and hypocrite, there is no ambiguity that the elder master Yoon will get into trouble. Since he did it in the past, he can only get suspected in the present.
(chapter 44) He had given the ruined painting to his father, putting the blame on his brother, well aware that the latter would get angry. He was observing his father’s reaction.
(chapter 44) Yet, there is a difference to the past. Here, he had been fooled! He truly believed that this was his brother’s doing, whereas in truth the butler had been the one who had fooled him.
(chapter 38) And this is important, because when the letter was given to the brother, Jung In-Hun witnessed the wrongdoing from the butler!!
(chapter 38) And now, you know why the learned sir had to die!! He had caught the valet in the act. He had betrayed Yoon Seungho, though he didn’t realize it. The learned sir tried to discover the content of the letter, and as such was prying on his sponsor’s weakness.
(chapter 38) Hence I come to the conclusion that KIM played a huge role in the learned sir’s death as well. I would even say that he was the one who pushed the others to have the scholar and the painter killed. Both knew about the butler’s tricks without realizing his significance.
(chapter 37) Hence I deduce that as the story progressed, the role of the butler started changing. Now, I see him as a the main plotter, while all the others are now his pawns. We could say that the valet has gradually followed the pedophile’s path. However, there is no ambiguity that it was not the same in the past!
(chapter 83) How can he be the same than the one from episode 37? The change of his hair color could be explained by a huge shock. But this is rather thin as a justification. Besides, now I am more inclined to think that these are two different persons, and that the main culprit is the one from episode 37. Why? It is because he smoked and utilized the same expression: “strange”.
(chapter 37) An idiom that Yoon Seungho constantly utilized: chapter 16, chapter 21
, chapter 50, chapter 71
(chapter 71). This means that he couldn’t understand, for he has a different way of thinking. This outlines his narrow-mindedness and his tendency to plan everything. He doesn’t like surprises.
(chapter 69) Hence I started wondering if the mysterious man with the beard was not impersonating someone, for example “lord Song” and in reality he was just a merchant. Why merchant? It is related to the shungas and the hanboks. The king can not be involved in trading directly. However, this is what Yoon Seungho told to the learned sir:
(chapter 22) Nevertheless, the main lead could have never been involved in commerce, for he lived as a prisoner for many years. And this is what was said about the ruler:
(chapter 76) He is not so wealthy. How come? Yoon Seungho’s fortune must have a different origin.
(chapter 102) Min had never predicted that the young master would run to his friend and denunciate him to Yoon Seungho. However, since Black Heart had employed the assistance of servants
(chapter 95)
(chapter 98), No-Name, the doctor with the drugs and butler Kim, this signifies that behind the name Lee Jihwa stand many people! As you can see, the name “lord Song” doesn’t refer to one person, but many… My theory is that No-Name is the true owner of the title, but that’s how he ended up losing his home and his name! That’s the reason why I believe that in this image
(chapter 71)
chapter 87) and
episode 92. The schemers in the past had definitely played with illusions and tricks. Thus I am expecting that it is now the pedophile’s turn to get fooled.
(chapter 82)
(chapter 54) and 3.
(chapter 100) The nobles made him smoke opium or drink the aphrodisiac. The purpose of such drugs is to obtain the painter’s submission and control his mind and reactions. Striking is that each time, the perpetrators were “punished”. Kim was insulted and his plan didn’t work out.
(chapter 37) As for the young lords, they were evicted like commoners and later the others were even killed. As you can see, each time the poison was employed, there was a retaliation.
(chapter 47)
(chapter 47) If the painter had not eaten with the lord, the latter would have never noticed the incident. However, he believed the maids’ words.
(chapter 47) Hence he never investigated the matter. But this prank represented a serious issue. This could have been judged as an attempt against the owner of the mansion.
(chapter 47) And now look at this panel:
(chapter 83) Yoon Seungho had refused to take the drug! The bowl reminded me of the one from chapter 47! Finally, the butler had tried to give his master the drug in season 3
(chapter 77), but the latter had again rejected it and this twice.
(chapter 77) Kim calls the drug “medicinal tea”, truly an euphemism. It is also possible that the real target of the poisoning was Yoon Seungho, but since he was protected by the gods, someone ended up taking the “drug”. Because he was wearing a purple hanbok, the investigator mistook his identity, a royal member. Hence the Yoons were suspected of treason. Don’t forget that during this party, there was a kisaeng by their side.
(chapter 56), he came to adopt this title in order to hide his identity and actions. Byeonduck explained in her notes that Baek Na-Kyum had no idea about Min’s name. And this is the same for Yoon Seungho. The pedophile could continue hiding behind “lord Song”, as the latter was blamed for everything. The pedophile could divert attention from his own tricks. That’s the reason why he would never write any letter to Yoon Seungho under this name. This means that at the end, the main culprit, the king, will be perceived as the main responsible for Yoon Seungho’s torment, similar to Min’s situation, just before got killed. Though many other people were involved, Yoon Seungho was able to judge the joker’s actions correctly, he was the main mastermind behind the plots. This explicates why the gods made Yoon Seungho forget the old bearded men’s face.
(chapter 44) This was a blessing in disguise. The moment the main lead faces the king, Yoon Seungho will be able perceive the truth. The king was behind his torment, and the butler had been his helping hand all along, the professional spy planted in his family. However, I don’t think that the monarch will admit his crimes and apologize for his wrongdoings. He will need a scapegoat, and this can only be the butler, the only one who knows the truth! 
Yes, when people read juicy deeds, they were already imagining that I would describe a love session like this one
(chapter 96), because of the expression „to do the deed“:
(chapter 87) However, the deed is not just related to intercourse, like the manhwaphiles could discover it in chapter 51.
With „deed“, Deok-Jae was referring to murder and assassination. As you can see, deed has other meanings than sex. Thus it has for synonyms action, accomplishment and reality!! So when I selected this name for the essay, I was thinking of the relationship between action and word. And this connection came to my mind, when Byeonduck released the last picture, because the painter’s action symbolizes a conversation and as such words.
(Chapter 88) By reaching his hand, the painter was letting him know that he was no longer alone in this world. He was not only joining his side, but he was willing to try to understand the main lead.
(Chapter 88) This gesture stands in opposition to the situation with Yoon Chang-Hyeon.
(Chapter 86) During that fateful night, the father neither talked to his son nor looked at him. He even turned his back to him, when the young master attempted to grab his father‘s hanbok. Both scenes from chapter 88 and 86 have two common denominators: an action accompanied with silence!! Yet, what distinguishes them from each other is the nature of the deed, the action. Alliance and empathy versus abandonment and estrangement! This is no coincidence that after reaching his hand, Baek Na-Kyum started confessing his thoughts and emotions to his lover:
(Chapter 88) As you can sense, the hand gesture delivered a message, but the painter still felt the need to clarify the meaning of his hand. He was willing to remain by his side, but he was still afraid of him. He didn’t want to create a misunderstanding, like for example that he wouldn’t argue with him or that his loyalty was now unconditional or total. That way, Yoon Seungho wouldn’t come to view him as a hypocrite or as dishonest, if an argument would appear. Thus he needed words to explain his position. He would remain by his side and attempt to sympathize with him, but he still felt insecure and had doubts. In other words, his action (his hand gesture) was not truly reflecting his mind and heart.
(Chapter 88) Later he even asked his lover not to leave his side no matter what.
(Chapter 88) To conclude, the hand gesture in episode 88 was connected to insecurities and as such fear, yet the painter had shown no hesitation to take his hand. The anxiety was not visible.
(Chapter 30) His fingers barely grabbed his hand, so when he made the following vow, he was not entirely sincere or better said, truly determined to keep his promise.
(Chapter 30) The words were not truly in unison with the gesture either. Therefore he once tried to leave the mansion in season 2. When he pledged loyalty, his intention was to protect his teacher. To conclude, fear has always been present, when the painter took Yoon Seungho’s hand. Even in chapter 88, but contrary to the scene in the courtyard, his hand was not shaking.
(Chapter 82) This explicates why the artist chose to remain by his side, though the lord had broken his promise.
(Chapter 82) On the other hand, in this scene
(chapter 82), the lord was grabbing his lover’s hand out of fear. He was recognizing his mistake and was trying to beg for his forgiveness, though he couldn’t express it directly. Striking is that during the lord’s flashback, his hand was trembling as well, grabbing onto his partner’s body.
(Chapter 81) It was, as if Baek Na-Kyum was his rescue buoy, helping him not to be swallowed by the darkness. Thus I came to the conclusion that the protagonists’ hand gestures are all connected to anxiety and pain. 😲 Hence I am deducing that in this scene, Baek Na-Kyum is holding his lover’s hand,
(Chapter 102). This would have definitely scared Baek Na-Kyum, especially Yoon Seungho’s haunted gaze. On the other hand, since the painter had been himself the victim of physical and sexual abuse, the artist can only grasp why the noble reacted that way: fear, anger, despair and heartache. The artist had also been desperate, in pain and scared in the shrine, though this time, he had not screamed for his help. Since the lord had not returned to the mansion, how could he expect him to come to his rescue?
(Chapter 98) Back then, he had been waiting for his lover‘s return and explanations. He wanted to hear him and get his reassurance and comfort. .
(Chapter 98) The latter couldn’t reassure the painter with his hand contrary to the previous night.
(chapter 97) Exactly like mentioned above, the painter’s hand gesture is connected to fear and conversation.
(chapter 97) Striking is that in the gibang, the lord confessed his biggest fear to his future “spouse”. He feared to lose him, though one of his biggest desires had been finally fulfilled. This means that Yoon Seungho felt even more insecure and frightened than before after receiving the artist’s love confession. That’s the reason why I believe that the new picture is standing in opposition to the scene in the gibang. The lord will feel relief after his admission. As a conclusion, the image is announcing
(Chapter 89) While the painter was sitting on his partner’s lap
(chapter 89), he was massaging the wounded fingers. It was, as if he was treating his companion’s wound. Note that after his terrible flashback, the painter had avoided to grab his hand out of fear that he might hurt Yoon Seungho even more.
(Chapter 84) Therefore I conclude that the new panel is an allusion to treatment. While in episode 89, the painter was acting as a doctor, in the new image, the young man is working more like a counselor or psychologist. The aristocrat’s hand might not be wounded in that scene, but this is not the case for his heart and mind. So for me, this scene is connected to mental treatment.
(Chapter 84) However, the lord had refused to open up. This is no coincidence that the author had not created such a picture during that chapter. As the manhwalovers can detect, I believe that in that scene,
(chapter 75) And because I detected a discrepancy between words and gestures, I recognized the presence of another trick from Byeonduck.✨
(chapter 91), the latter denied this with the following statement.
(chapter 91) But when did the painter admit that he liked embracing him? In this panel!
(chapter 88) That’s the reason why the lord got surprised and moved. As you can see, the author never revealed this whispering to the manhwalovers! The latter had the impression that the lord’s reaction was related to the loving embrace, but it was only partially correct.
(chapter 62), when the lord had confessed to adore him.
(chapter 62) This explicates why Yoon Seungho was so pained in season 2. He got embraced, but there were no words. Consequently, when the painter vanished during that night, the lord could only perceive the embrace as hypocrisy and fakeness. That’s how I realized that the story is developed on the contradiction between words and actions. But not only that, there exists a strong link between silence and passivity. Thus after the abduction in season 2, Baek Na-Kyum remained more or less silent
(chapter 62), and as such he was totally passive. He never stood up and begged the lord for his leniency. He stayed there on the bed giving the impression that he was indifferent. That’s the reason why Yoon Seungho got more enraged, for he felt fooled. This means that the absence of words represent inaction… This explains why Yoon Seungho had to corner the main lead in chapter 48
(chapter 48) to say something, as he had sensed his passivity behind his „submissive attitude“. This is no coincidence that during this night, the painter felt extreme pleasure to the point that he peed. Therefore he could voice his wish to Yoon Seungho during the love session from season 2.
(chapter 73) That’s how the lord concluded that the painter liked riding him, while in reality such a climax had appeared for the first time, when both were facing each other!
(chapter 49)
(chapter 4) than season 2. He was encouraged by his future partner to speak up, yet the moment he got heartbroken, he was left speechless. And note that when the lord played his prank in the bedchamber, he never said anything to his father.
(chapter 83) He didn’t move as well. Why? It is because he knew that talking to his father was pointless. However, Yoon Seungho had hoped that with his prank his father would finally see the truth. He had been fooled by Lee Jihwa and father Lee!! But the stupid father never realized it. As you can see, the lord had in that scene long given up to use words, he hoped that his father would see the truth with the prank. Don’t forget that deed stands for truth and reality. He thought that “actions would speak louder than words”, but he was proven wrong. This signifies that in this scene,
(chapter 86) Yoon Seungho had acted the opposite, he had tried to speak up, but he had been muted. I am also thinking that the young master must have attempted to converse to his father
(chapter 77) here as well, but the lord had not listened to him. Why? It is because Kim had said nothing!!
(chapter 77) Silence was considered as an admission. This is no hazard that the butler didn’t take care of his young master. This scene symbolizes the quote “Actions speak louder than words”
(chapter 77) The butler had betrayed the young master’s trust, for he had not intervened. He should have defended Yoon Seungho, but no in fact he had sided with the elder master Yoon once again. Not only he had not reminded Yoon Chang-Hyeon of his promise, but also he had assisted the ruthless father by giving himself the straw mat beating!
(chapter 98) Here, he examined the robe and questioned the officer. The problem is that he was still relying on his staff and as such Kim. Therefore it is not surprising that he could still be manipulated by the schemers. Hence I am anticipating a total change in season 4. By conversing with the painter, the lord can only become more proactive to the point that he will be able to ruin the next schemes. I am even expecting a prank from the protagonists in season 4!! But this doesn’t end here. I am deducing that in the past, Yoon Seungho suffered because one tormentor would do things and say nothing, while the other would talk a lot, but act the opposite!! For me, these descriptions fit to Kim and the pedophile. I have the impression as well, that both characters came to switch their behavior. In one circle, Kim did many things, but remained mute, but later he did the exact opposite. I would like to point out that in season 3, he acted this way. He would promise loyalty to the lord,
(chapter 77), but backstabbed him in the shadow. Besides, we shouldn’t forget that a narcissist’s words don’t match their action, because they are pathological liars. And so far, I had portrayed father Yoon (overt), Kim (covert) and even Jung In-Hun (overt) as people suffering from NPD. And I am assuming that the mysterious lord Song is not different from them, though I am suspecting that he must be a covert type.
(chapter 77) Besides, it also snowed, when the painter got abducted twice, a sign that actually a promise had been broken.
(chapter 76)
(chapter 53)
(chapter 87), while the same extremity symbolizes the opposite with the villains and antagonists: violence, silence, submission
(chapter 83), hatred and resent
(chapter 97) Here, Heena was hurting her brother, because she wanted him to face “reality”. What caught my attention is that we never saw the father’s hand in chapter 86!
(chapter 86) Why? It is because it reveals his powerlessness. And this leads me to the following conclusion: the deed stands for reality and honesty, while the words symbolize emptiness, illusion and deception. And now, you comprehend why this work is composed by the dichotomies: dream, words and mouth versus reality., action and the hand. This means that in season 4, the manhwaphiles should try to analyze the thoughts and emotions of the characters behind the hand gestures. At the same time, they can also verify if my interpretation is correct. Is the zoom of the protagonists’ hand connected to fear, confession, empathy and assistance? 
, as Baek Na-Kyum was still viewed as a boy. Moreover, according to social norms, it was impossible, for his lover is a man. Then in front of Yoon Chang-Hyeon, he made fun of his father. 
, episode 19
, chapter 33
and episode 43
, but also in episode 76
, in chapter 96
, in episode 100
and finally in chapter 102
or 43, or 52
, he used his right hand! Thus one might argue that Min was simply ambidextrous. However, I can prove 100% that Black Heart is left-handed!😮 The evidence is the usage of the bow.
(chapter 22) This is how a right-handed man shoots an arrow. On the other hand, we never saw Min using the bow. The bird was already wounded by the arrows, when the scene of the second hunt took place.
(chapter 41) However, the manhwaphiles can discover the verity thanks to one detail: the bag of arrows.
(chapter 22) As you can see, the bag is carried on the right side, but the arrows are almost touching the left shoulder. They need to be on the other side, since the scholar needs his right hand to grab the item. And now compare the position of Min’s bag. It is inclined in the opposite direction, hence the arrows are visible on his right side!
(chapter 41) Thus the noble is carrying the bag
(chapter 41) differently from the painter too.
(chapter 22) Under this new light, it becomes comprehensible why Byeonduck never showed the Joker’s hunting skills. People would have noticed that he is left-handed immediately. She made sure to hide this important fact, thus within the same chapter Min was often portraying as using both hands. In episode 43, he employed his left hand to pour the alcohol in the glass
(chapter 43), when he gave the drink to Lee Jihwa.
(chapter 9) Here, he was still present, but even before the end of the sex session, he had already vanished.
(chapter 9) Finally, when the noble with the mole visited Lee Jihwa, the latter claimed that he had spent a long time at Yoon Seungho’s.
(chapter 9), and his friend never denied it. As you can see, the characters made sure to confuse the readers with the change of the chronology. As you can see, it took me a long time before noticing the bruised face (only during season 3), then to bring up the conclusive evidence that Min was the culprit of the slap. Then in the shaman’s house, he took the dildo with his left hand, because he was angry and frustrated.
(chapter 100) too. This shows that he could barely control himself here. And once he faced the main lead’s sword, he got so scared that he showed Jung In-Hun’s glasses with his left hand again.
(chapter 92) The irony is that in this scene, the main lead employed his left hand too, the positive reflection from the night in the pavilion (chapter 43). While here it was to bring him back to reality, in the pavilion, the Joker had the opposite intention: to lure Lee Jihwa to believe in illusions.
(chapter 74) They announce the future events, though the information is not given properly. On the other hand, since they are memories either, this signifies that they contain insight about the lord’s tragedy. Thus I noticed that the anonymous perpetrator used his left hand to grab his hanbok!! I deduced that the perpetrator in the past is also left-handed!! Secondly, since this vision can also be seen as the announcement of the painter’s second kidnapping, this is no coincidence that Byeonduck created such panels during the painter’s last torment.
(chapter 99) However, in the shaman’s temple, Black Heart grabbed Baek Na-Kyum with his right hand. He was trying to manipulate the artist, he was acting. He was not showing his true self. Yet, the vision was revealing the truth: the future mastermind of the last scheme was in reality left-handed!! It didn’t matter, because at the end, the main lead was able to discern the truth. He sentenced Black Heart, for he believed that he had killed his loved one! That’s how I realized why the author would focus so much on the hands and on the distinction between unconscious and conscious! The hand in Painter Of The Night represents the crucial clue to identify the culprits!!
In season 1, we had the hands in the illustration. The hands were revealing the crime committed against the main lead. The latter was totally passive in this picture. The hands are touching and unclothing the immobile man. It also shows that Yoon Seungho was at the center of the conspiracy, in the past and in the present! The painting in the background indicates the presence of a hidden painter. Thus Baek Na-Kyum was not drawn in the cover. The painter of the night was in truth someone else, the painter from the past! Nevertheless, the main lead was looking at the readers, indirectly at Baek Na-Kyum, the young painter of the night. This describes the arrival of Baek Na-Kyum in his life. Striking is that the painting in the background was destroyed… indicating that the portrayed relationship was no longer existent. This represents another clue that the lord’s suffering is linked to a previous relationship. Then in season 2,
the author revealed Baek Na-Kyum as the painter, who had now become the target of the plot. Yet behind him we see Yoon Seungho’s foot. The latter symbolizes the main lead feared to get close to him, but he wouldn’t leave his side. Moreover, this corresponds to the lord’s impulsive decisions, he let his foot guide him. Thus during the first night of the failed gangrape, he walked towards the study and stopped unconsciously, when he was next to the room.
(chapter 53) Due to his strong denial, he was strolling not realizing that his feet were under the influence of his subconscious. And it was the same, when he opened the door with his foot at the Lees’
(chapter 67) Nonetheless, I believe that the author had another reason to draw the foot in the cover. The foot prints are the evidence of the crime, and as such the deceptions and the culprits.
(chapter 59)
(chapter 60)
(chapter 61) The shoes were the clues how to recognize the perpetrators and accomplices. That’s why I compared these feet
(chapter 59) with those
. (chapter 66) My avid readers are already aware of my theory. For me, we have two kidnappers, and one tried to kill the artist! To conclude, Byeonduck left the clues how to unveil the mystery from the past and the present in the illustrations of each season. The paper in the second cover
(chapter 56), but also to the theft of the painting
(chapter 56) and the painter’s break! At the end of season 2, he was no longer painting and in the beginning, he had also stopped due to his heartbreak. Simultaneously, we have the presence of water which serves as a connection to season 1 with the ruined painting and to season 3 with the well and drowning. The dark shades were an allusion to the lord’s darkness and suffering. The latter would come to the surface. However, since the cover only showed the lord’s foot, it exposes that the lord would not divulge his traumatic past.
(chapter 78) In season 3, this time the main leads were facing each other, they were recognizing each other: their true self! But this stands in opposition to the deceased people without identity!
(chapter 94) We never saw the face of the corpses, as they were either covered
, the back
(chapter 97) or the clothes and shoes
Here, we have 3 men, and don’t forget the left hand from before.
(chapter 99) That’s the reason why I am anticipating a cover with the gibang. It would be the perfect place to find closure for the couple. It is a place where both suffered. Moreover, I think, belongings should serve as an evidence for the identification of the schemers and accomplices. Remember that we had the glasses as the evidence of a murder in season 3, yet I am sensing that the possession should serve to identify the perpetrators from the past and the present. Since the clothes were used to confuse people in season 3, I am assuming that in season 4, they should help to recognize people, but at the same time, it is totally possible that our main leads decide to employ the same method to fool the schemers and accomplices. And now, we have the cover for season 4. Both protagonists are not only facing each other, but also touching each other. They are no longer hiding their emotions and thoughts.
This image represents the opposite to the other seasons. At the same time, the author is again referring to the bedchamber indicating that this place is strongly connected to the protagonists’ suffering. On the other side, since the painter is wearing a silk white shirt, it implies that he is not a commoner. This panel indicates that the main lead was able to the true owner of the study and even bed. However, due to the tears, the beholder can sense that this season will be painful as well. Striking is that in the cover, they were either alone, or they were just looking at each other, hence they didn’t pay attention to their surroundings. Consequently, they couldn’t sense the presence of a plot and the schemers. This indicates that the couple is still not prepared to face new schemes. To sum up, the author selected such covers because she had planned to leave clues there about the mystery! But wait… I had outlined that the person who grabbed the young master Seungho was left-handed, and he played a huge role in the main lead’s downfall and suffering! But who is left-handed in this story?
(chapter 12)
(chapter 56). But then I noticed that he carried his master on the left side.
(chapter 66) and since it is for me the butler, he was not the person from the nightmare. That’s the reason why I am excluding him from the suspect list. For me, if he was involved in the past, it is because he lit the candles
(chapter 74). Furthermore, don’t forget that in his nightmare, the author exposed the presence of plates with 3 candles
(chapter 74) which were also used in the shaman’s house. Finally, in this picture, we have a right-handed person.
(chapter 74) So Kim could have been the one silencing him with his hand.
(chapter 86) On the other hand, at the doctor’s office, he employed his right-hand to keep his son by his side.
(chapter 57). Why is there this change? The turning point was the prank in the bedchamber.
(chapter 83), then with the left! Striking is that the author never showed, when the patriarch employed his left hand. The readers could only hear the sound, and see the result of the beating. Both cheeks were wounded. From my point of view, he was conditioned exactly like Min! He was not allowed to use his left hand, but the angrier he got, the less he could hide his true self: he was left-handed and he was a stupid and brutal father!!
(Chapter 74) I don’t believe in hazard. Besides, the lord had his nightmare during the same chapter. This means that he could have leaked this information about Yoon Seungho to an outsider, like he did with the painter. As the manhwalovers can grasp, the physician is more suspicious than before.
(chapter 92) Besides, observe that the angry man put the brush on the left side.
(chapter 92) The man is left-handed! And what did Yoon Seungho do?
(chapter 92) He grabbed him by the collar! Exactly like in the dream!!
(chapter 44) or patio of his mansion, similar to Heena’s. And since the young main lead suffered so much, it is normal that he doesn’t have such believes. IT is also possible that the young master Seungho played a prank which made the man angry and humiliated. As you can see, I come to the conclusion that jealousy and resent were the reasons why he got involved in the first place. Moreover, we shouldn’t forget that the calligrapher is linked to the kisaengs! He even recognized Baek Na-Kyum, as he called him a peasant.
(chapter 92) Yet, he was either perceived as servant, a noblewoman or as a sir so far! He was never recognized as a peasant. Since he could identify the artist, it is also possible that he was also able to identify Yoon Seungho. But he thought that he was not well educated after living as a male kisaeng for so long. From my point of view, the man could have decided to get revenge on Yoon Seungho and participated in his abduction and gangrape!! Thus his karma was to lose his home!
(chapter 91) The fact that Yoon Seungho grabbed him the same way than in the nightmare is not random. It was, as if he was getting justice. Honestly, I am more and more suspecting that in the past, Yoon Seungho got raped by commoners! Naturally, I have not changed my mind that the king was behind this plot: to get revenge on the Yoons! Who benefitted the most from the crime? Definitely the king, as he was able to ruin their influence.
(chapter 39), the other only recognizes him as master Yoon.
(chapter 64) This means that the latter knows about the existence of elder master Yoon. Like mentioned above, the calligrapher, the physician, the tailor, the fake servant and the “shaman” from chapter 29 have all one thing in common: the beard!!
(chapter 86) Let’s not forget that in season 3, clothes were used to deceive Yoon Seungho, and the authorities played along. Besides, as the painter had become the love interest of Yoon Seungho and Black Heart, it is very likely that in the past, the victim was exposed to two different abusers, but they all hid behind the name: lord Song. Note that during this feast, one man had a moustache beard which is in Painter Of The Night the sign that he is no yanbang, not even chungin, the upper-middle class. He could be a rich merchant. Just because they are all wearing hanboks
(chapter 87), this doesn’t mean that these men belong to the aristocracy. Furthermore, Kim never said “nobles”, he just said “visitors”!! Finally, I would like to point out that since Yoon Seungho lived secluded for 10 years, I doubt that he had the means and the knowledge to be involved in the trade:
(chapter 39) Thus I am deducing that the barn in season 2
(chapter 51) could have belonged to the tailor or the owner of this shop. And note the couple was in the same position than with the kisaeng with No-Name in episode 51!
(chapter 51) This was the negative reflection from episode 39: no penetration versus penetration, no interruption versus interruption, no rumor versus rumor etc. And this contrast clearly displays that the tailor shop is involved in Yoon Seungho’s suffering. And the best evidence for this is the nightmare. The main lead’s clothes had a design. 

(chapter1) Or was she simply the noona?
(chapter 70) At some point, I came to realize that Heena had acted as the surrogate mother, but she had never clearly stated that she was the painter’s mother. In other words, his adoption was never official, which explicates why the main lead only considered her as his older sister. This is important, because her ambiguous status can not only generate problems, but also expose her betrayal towards Baek Na-Kyum. Note that in chapter 97, the noona treated Baek Na-Kyum as her “child” who wouldn’t listen to her
(Chapter 97), while later she implied that they were both equal, for she employed the personal pronoun “us”.
(Chapter 93) That’s the reason why the seat of the host was empty and why Yoon Seungho didn’t go there. He would have violated social norms, if he had taken her seat.. Moreover, by doing so, he would have revealed that he knew where the woman was. This could have raised questions.
(Chapter 68) was in truth a huge window. How do I know this? First, in this scene, the scholar was hiding a huge white vase with red flowers. Hence I deduced that Jung In-Hun couldn’t have walked through that “gate”, it was just a window. Therefore I assumed that he had to walk past the flowers, either turn to the right or the left. Secondly, observe that next to the lantern on the left, there is a small white panel. This means that the view from chapter 93 was more or less taken from the right corner. Moreover, in the next chapter, Heena is not facing this “window”, when she is in the same building.
(Chapter 69) This time, the white vase with the flowers is standing in front of a wall. That’s how I deduced that Heena had to turn to the left in order to go to the hallway.
(chapter 69) On the other hand, another element caught my notice. In this picture,
(chapter 93) which is not present in episode 69.
(chapter 93) Since I came to the conclusion that Heena’s private room was on the right side after the corner, I deduce that the kisaeng was not on her way to her room. Moreover, since the kisaeng was walking in the same direction than the scholar, I can only conclude that Heena was actually approaching the entrance of the building. I believe that she had turned around, but the author didn’t reveal this. One might argue that it is possible that in chapter 68, the learned sir could have gone with the painter to Heena’s bedroom. However, back then the latter was not the head-kisaeng. We know this due to the presence of a kisaeng standing right behind Yoon Chang-Hyeon during the sexual lesson.
(chapter 70) That’s how I realized that Byeonduck had deceived the readers once again. She was playing with reflections. That’s the reason why I deduced that Heena was not talking loudly by accident in front of Black Heart.
(chapter 69) It was done on purpose!! She wished that Min would take care of her brother. Under this new light, it becomes comprehensible why the noona has a drop of sweat on her cheek. She is faking ignorance, she is acting, as if she was very protective of her brother. She uses illusion to manipulate people. In reality, she was acting here. One might argue that I am overthinking again. This is not possible, for Heena didn’t know Min at all. Hence she couldn’t manipulate him. The latter had heard of her for the first time in Yoon Seungho’s mansion.
(chapter 66) But let me ask you this. How could Heena have never met Min, when she was the head-kisaeng? Secondly, just because the servant had never heard of the noona, this doesn’t mean that it was the case for Black Heart. The domestic assumed Black Heart’s ignorance, just like the readers. Moreover, recently I had detected that Heena had been standing in front of a mansion belonging to a noble.
(chapter 46) This was not Yoon Seungho and Lee Jihwa’s mansion, for the gate and walls
, (chapter 19)
(chapter 59). Here, I would like to point out that in episode 59, Lee Jihwa had visited the kisaeng house on different occasions, for his hair was slowly growing. 
(chapter 59) Moreover, note that his visits took place during the day and not during the night. Why? It was for privacy and so far, during the day, the manhwaphiles never saw any kisaeng in the gibang.
(chapter 1)
(chapter 19) This image was showing us that Yoon Seungho was visiting the gibang. However, pay attention to the pattern of the doors in the last picture and the next:
(chapter 19) The motive diverges, it looks like the one from the hallway with the purple veils. This means that the party was not taking place in the room shown in the former picture. What caught my notice is the presence of the white vase with the red flowers in front of the building. It was present in each scene taking place in the gibang.
(chapter 93) For me, the red flowers symbolize Heena noona. This explicates why during the painter’s dream, the flowers were not present.
(chapter 87), as Heena was not included in his vision. And this image
(chapter 19) Striking is that the kisaeng had a similar hair dress than Heena, This is no coincidence. She was acting as the head-kisaeng. The manhwalovers will certainly remember that only two kisaengs had no braided bun or braids: this one
(chapter 93)
(chapter 93)
(chapter 95) The extravagant hair dress was exposing the kisaeng’s status. And now, you comprehend why the other noona explained the disappearance of Heena during that night.
(chapter 19) But how could she sense that the noble was in a good mood? The latter was silent and not even smiling.
(chapter 19) How could she claim this? In reality she was actually spying on him. Heena had no idea why the lord would come to the gibang, especially after suffering there so much. The kisaeng’s task was to dig up information. This visitation must have bothered the head-kisaeng.
(chapter 99) He was wearing a veiled hat, yet in chapter 69, this was not the case.
(chapter 88)
(chapter 99) He was implying that they knew each other for a long time! The irony is that the manhwaphiles had the impression that their relationship was recent, and his cynical tone contributed to it. Secondly, he called her Heena, a sign that they were close to each other. Note that Lee Jihwa never mentioned her name.
(chapter 99) His words even insinuate that Black Heart had just given the following order. The red-haired master should just fetch a kisaeng and in my opinion, Heena was waiting for Lee Jihwa’s arrival to leave the gibang. According to his words, he had no idea about the kisaeng’s identity. But is it true? I have my doubts now, and this for two reasons. Why would he ask about her identity, when he already knows that she is a kisaeng? The drop of sweat on his face is an indication that he is lying. But the problem is to determine if the deception is only referring to “I heard not a word” and to all the questions. Let’s not forget that he knew about Min’s initial intention. The moment Lee Jihwa arrived in the gibang, she just followed him. That way, they would avoid to attract attention, and with her new hair dress
(chapter 86) The latter had been eyeing the throne in the family mansion, but he failed to take over the mansion. This was the negative reflection of Heena. Whereas the kisaeng had a powerful position in the gibang, it was the opposite for the patriarch. He was no longer recognized as the head of the Yoons. Yet, both have something in common. Both lost their position for good, for Heena and Yoon Chang-Hyeon couldn’t take or keep the seat. We could say that both got defeated by Yoon Seungho. In chapter 93, the main lead acted as a respectful and calm master, whereas in the bedchamber he showed no respect to his own father. He talked back and even made fun of him.
(chapter 93) To conclude, the surrogate mother and the patriarch made a similar experience in season 3. Both got deceived by manipulations and in both cases, letters played a huge role.
(chapter 102) That’s why I come to the deduction that her murder will be questioned. Why? There is no blood contrary to the bloodbath in the shaman’s house and there is no corpse!! Since Black Heart used different corpses in order to deceive Heena and the couple, there is no ambiguity that the head-kisaeng’s curtains will be doubted. Striking is that Heena staged her death out of cowardice and selfishness, while Yoon Seungho made the opposite decision. He was resolute to commit suicide in order to follow his lover in his death. During that night, Heena and Yoon Seungho lost their “home”, but at the end, he found his true home: the painters embrace.
(chapter 52) It is because Black Heart knew Heena! I even believe that he had already met the scholar. Note that the man with the black hanbok was repeating the rumors about the learned sir. And the other questioned the main lead’s action exposing that he had never heard about this grapevine before. Hence I am deducing that the one spreading this rumor could only be MIN!! That’s the reason why he just said this
(chapter 52) That means that the noble knew the teacher in the end. Therefore it is no coincidence that Min was aware where the learned sir lived!!
(chapter 83) And now, if you connect the two scenes
(chapter 52). Why? It is because there was an incident in the gibang!!
(chapter 97)
(chapter 97) her brother is detecting her deception.