Protected: Painter Of The Night: Beautiful Catastrophe
Tag: Father Yoon
Painter Of The Night: Love and Sex 👨❤️👨 (second version)
This is where you can read the manhwa. https://www.lezhinus.com/en/comic/painter But be aware that this manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes. If you want to read more essays, here is the link to the table of contents: https://bebebisous33analyses.wordpress.com/2020/07/04/table-of-contents-painter-of-the-night/
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When I examined the sex scenes from the first season (see the analysis “Sex or Love?), I realized that each character had different expectations from the sexual encounters. They were either looking for sex or for love, but each time they were not able to express their desire and even to recognize the distinction. Why couldn’t they sense the difference? It is related to the way the characters were raised.
1. Sex and philosophy
On the one hand, Baek Na-Kyum was taught by the learned sir and Heena noona that sex and as such homosexuality was dirty
(chapter 34), only spiritual love was allowed 
(chapter 19)
(chapter 68). This signified that in his education, not only sex was prohibited, but also sexual desires were denied. Although love was expressed through hugs 
(chapter 66)
(chapter 68) and caresses 
(chapter 10) 
(chapter 68), they were devoid of sexuality. The painter experienced love, but was not allowed to experience sexuality. He was only authorized to paint it for the scholar’s sake. On the other side, Yoon Seungho was raised the opposite: love was not allowed, as it was a sign of submission and weakness. Sex was permitted, because it was considered as a fight in order to defeat his opponent. These were the butler’s doctrines. That way, he could still have a connection to the main lead. If he came to love someone (the pedophile), the lord could definitely abandon the valet and reveal his betrayals. In other words, he used pity as a way to tame the lord. At the same time, sex also served to gain some benefit, as it was an exchange of favors (giving versus receiving), 
(Chapter 71). I connect this philosophy to the king and indirectly to the butler. With sex, the nobles could exchange some favors. These huge divergences in the mindset explicate why there were so many misunderstandings between Yoon Seungho and Baek Na-Kyum, as their education diverged so much.
2. Sex and prostitution
Yet, despite the contrast, both educations had something in common: prostitution. Heena noona hates sex, because it is related to her work. The scholar rejects it, for it is beneath him. He expects the low-borns (Baek Na-Kyum and Heena noona) to become his prostitutes, if it’s necessary, while he can maintain his image of a proper scholar. Father Yoon used his son as a prostitute, and the main lead realized it after his father’s betrayal and abandonment. This explicates why “prostitution” stands in the center of the second season. For Baek Na-Kyum was brought to the mansion against his will, but he received certain privileges, his status was never clearly defined. Although Yoon Seungho thought, he had won the battle
(chapt45), as the painter had accepted him as his sexual partner, he had to realize slowly that he was wrong. He imagined that since the artist had remained by his side and was accepting to have sex with him, he had achieved what he wanted: in his unconscious it was to be loved. Yet, it was just an illusion. The painter saw himself as a whore and the master as a man consumed by lust. As you can see, the noble was forced to judge the nature of the sexual encounters differently. He had associated sex to love due to their Wedding night, therefore he imagined that the moment the painter was accepting him, the problem was solved. He would be able to relive this wonderful moment, but however nothing like that happened. He felt never satisfied, as there were no feelings at all. Hence he even had sex during the day
, believing that the artist’s lack of experience was the problem. 
(Chapter 45) While the lord became Baek Na-Kyum’s sexual emancipator, the painter became the lord’s teacher for love. This explicates why the low-born forced the lord to question his own identity and feelings.
But let’s return our focus on the common denominator: prostitution. As long as the painter chose to stay, because he had a roof over his head and could eat properly, we could definitely say that till 49 his stay at the mansion was indeed closer to prostitution 
than a master- servant relationship, because the commoner was never treated like a domestic. He only had sex with the lord and had some privileges. 
(chapter 46) He was never asked to do other work, although the artist tried to change his situation. Since he was behaving like a whore, he felt that he had no right to express any thought and emotion. He couldn’t show any pleasure. That’s why there were no feelings in their sex encounters, and the lord could sense the difference. Consequently, when the lord realized that he was still perceived as a man consumed by sex
(chapter 48), he changed his behavior. He acted like a real client at the brothel
(chapter 48), but at the same time he cornered the painter to have multiple climaxes in order to let him experience that he liked having sex with him.
(chapter 49) As you can observe, the lord linked sensuality to love. If he could provoke ejaculations, then it meant that the artist was definitely feeling something for him. However, the moment the lord liberated the painter from his pejorative perception about himself (he is a prostitute), the painter reacted the exact opposite. Now, he was the one using Yoon Seungho, the latter was his plaything. 
(Chapter 49), his prostitute, for he was the one procuring pleasure to Yoon Seungho. As you can see, the roles had been switched. This means that now the painter had the upper-hand in their relationship. We could even say that the noble was willing to accept his fate. 
(Chapter 49) Yet there was a difference from the past. Yoon Seungho would feel pleasure as well. This is not surprising that Kim chose to intervene and separate the couple right after. Without sex, the painter had no power over the master. That’s the reason why the butler revealed his knowledge the morning after. The protagonist had to hear from his butler the real cause for Baek Na-Kyum’s passivity and torpor: 
(chapter 50). Through this revelation, the lord was indirectly confronted by his own reflection: he was indeed asking from Baek Na-Kyum sexual favors in exchange for his stay at the mansion. That’s the reason why the lord had a “relapse“ and kept his distance from the painter.
3. Abstinence and love
However, because Yoon Seungho was now associating sexual pleasure with the painter, the noble was no longer able to have sex at all. Don’t forget that Baek Na-Kyum symbolizes love. Seungho-Ya 😉 couldn’t even get an erection with a fellatio given by someone else. 
(chapter 52). This was important, because for the noble, it meant that he could no longer have sex with other partners. Without sex, the lord was forced to question himself and ponder on the true nature of his relationship with Baek Na-Kyum. He felt jealousy during that night, he was very protective as well. 
(Chapter 52) His sexuality had already become an expression of his love, although the main lead was still unaware of his own feelings. That’s why I come to the conclusion, chapter 52 was actually revealing Yoon Seungho’s monogamy, although it looked the opposite. And this becomes truly visible, when the gangrape was about to occur. He felt no urge, when he was with the guests, yet the moment he brought the artist to the bedchamber, he couldn’t stop himself from kissing his loved one. 
(chapter 54) He was definitely longing for his warmth. This explicates why the noble got so infuriated, when he was confronted with the consequence of his bad decision: 
(chapter 54) the artist was on the verge to be no longer monogamous, as he would be tasted by other aristocrats. In this scene, the lord would have indeed become a client and pimp, if he hadn’t chased away his guests. Although the painter was indeed upset afterwards about this incident
(chapter 55), deep down he sensed that his master had protected him. This night was important for the main lead: he was forced to admit his own feelings for the painter. Therefore, we could say that the issue with the prostitution was solved after chapter 54. Yoon Seungho thought that the moment he confessed, the painter would get scared and run away, but it didn’t happen. Why? Love among men and especially between a brutal noble and a commoner, was a taboo, like Min had underlined. Secondly, if the lord had indeed feelings for him, he had behaved like a beast during that night. He had mistreated Baek Na-Kyum. In his mind, the artist would never accept him.Besides, the painter had clearly denied the affection from the main lead. In his eyes, the painter’s words were indicating a rejection. 
(chapter 54) Thus I conclude that Yoon Seungho and Baek Na-Kyum had come to an implicit agreement: they had a master-servant relationship
(chapter 56), although Baek Na-Kyum started perceiving himself as a domestic from chapter 51 on again. He kept following the head-maid 
and Kim 
(chapter 51) in order to help them. Therefore the readers could witness the return of the white headband in chapter 52: his task was to paint for his master.
(Chapter 52)
However, this new situation didn’t last long due to the artist’s abduction. The lord thought that since he had properly confessed to his servant
(chapter 62) here, he whispered to Baek Na-Kyum that he adored him), he would bind the artist to himself.
4. The real relapse: sex, the symbol of submission
Nevertheless the commoner disappeared making Yoon Seungho think that the moment he revealed his vulnerability, he got betrayed and abandoned. This explicates why the noble punished the artist, when he was found. Since they had a master-servant relationship and the artist had run away, this meant that Baek Na-Kyum was rejecting the lord’s love. Hence he could only treat him like his sex toy
(chapter 63), exactly like he had wished in chapter 49. The only difference is that this time, the painter was here for the lord’s pleasure. The roles had been switched again. As the manhwaphiles can perceive, the noble and painter had a similar reaction: they both tried to deny the existence of love in their relationship. That’s the reason why the noble stopped the artist from confessing: 
(chapter 63) They just had a sexual relationship which could provoke pleasure, but that was it. But in order to ensure that the artist wouldn’t run away again, he used sex to “tame“ Baek Na-Kyum. If the main lead could procure multiple climaxes to the artist, then the latter was forced to admit that only Yoon Seungho could be his “partner“. This explicates why the noble kept pointing out how the artist would react to his lover’s body. 
(Chapter 63) 
(chapter 64) He was moaning and would ejaculate constantly thanks to the main lead. Yet, during this second marathon, the noble was actually deceiving himself. 
(Chapter 62)
5. Love and servitude
Although he treated the painter like a servant, as the latter was asked to paint, Yoon Seungho couldn’t help himself cleaning Baek Na-Kyum and bringing him to his bedchamber. 
(Chapter 65) This shows that the painter had gained a new position: he was indeed a favored servant. He was allowed to spend the night in his lover’s bed and he could see the lord getting dressed. 
(Chapter 65) The slight change was that now the main lead was aware of this. This truly exposes the lord’s affection for the artist. He might have treated him like a plaything in the shed, in reality he had attempted to show “his skills“ as a lover. He had licked him, bit him and the painter had felt pleasure, though he kept saying no! This is not surprising that Yoon Seungho had denied the kiss in the study. 
(Chapter 64) Because that’s how he had been deceived that night in the study. 
(Chapter 49) Baek Na-Kyum had silenced him with the kiss, as the main lead was about to protest. (Chapter 49) When he mentioned the kiss, the symbol for love, in his confession, it was connected to sensuality and not affection. Hence he didn‘t kiss him at the end of the second marathon. As a conclusion, by bringing the artist to his bedchamber, the lord never realized that his action was betraying his words from the night before. They were definitely more than 2 naked bodies. The lord trusted the painter so that he could lie down next to him in the bed. (Chapter 65) Striking is that Heena noona’s intervention destroyed their terrible but short-lived master-servant relationship, because the noble was faced with the truth: he had brought back the artist to the mansion against his will. 
(chapter 65) What caught my attention is that the painter’s disappearance mirrored the lord’s wrongdoing. Lee Jihwa and the main lead had both kidnapped the artist. That’s why I believe that when he heard Heena’s words in the study
(chapter 68), the noble could only come to the following conclusion: he could only let the painter choose his destiny. But the moment the artist decided to remain by his side, he needed to change Baek Na-Kyum’s position in the mansion. He was no longer a servant, but a noble guest. Hence the lord tied the scarf like aristocrats did. 
(chapter 69) Consequently, we could say that the painter had a similar status than Jung In-Hun. Yet, there was a huge difference: the owner of the mansion was now acting like the painter’s servant. Hence Deok-Jae’s words came true: 
(chapter 46).
6. Nobility and love
From chapter 69 on, there were two masters in the mansion: 
(chapter 71). Why? It is because the lord made the decision that the painter chose him, then this means that he became his wife, though at the end of season 2, he was not thinking about marriage yet. He was not aware of this perception. By becoming his official partner, the spouse obtains the status of his husband: nobility. This explicates why the lord ate with his lover 
(chapter 74) and allowed him to smoke. Then in season 3, he gave him ladies-in-waiting in order to give him some company. 
(Chapter 78) He even gave him the music box, which was mistaken as a dowry. However, the problem is that the painter was still fighting his own feelings for the protagonist due to Heena noona’s words and past experience with the scholar. He feared that this new situation was too beautiful to be true, hence he thought that the lord’s feelings would fade away. But there was another reason for doubting the lord’s affection: there was no sex. 
(chapter 74) The painter had come to associate sex with love too. Yet, the moment he relived his trauma, he only found comfort and safety in the lord’s embrace. 
(Chapter 76) The main lead didn’t reject the painter’s urge for a hug in front of commoners. At no moment, Yoon Seungho felt embarrassment. He treated him like a special treasure. That’s how the painter came to realize that Yoon Seungho‘s love for him was true and genuine. Consequently, he decided to rely on him and to trust him. That’s why in this panel, the painter closed his eyes: 
(chapter 76) We could say that he was reminded of his own past. When he was a child, he sensed love through hugs and caresses. Since the painter could feel the lord’s genuine affection and warmth, he recognized that even when there was no sex, love was present. All his senses made him perceive the lord’s love: 
(chapter 76) His words showed his care and concern, then he bought him an expensive music box. 
(Chapter 76)
7. The symbols for the couple‘s love
But by accepting the noble’s affection, the painter was also incited to question his affection for Yoon Seungho. On the other hand till chapter 94, he hadn’t voiced it yet. As you can see, the abstinence at the end of season 2 and the beginning of season 3 had a important function. It helped the painter to admit the existence of love and more precisely the lord’s affection for him, a reflection of the lord’s situation in season 2 (50-54). Simultaneously, it meant that the painter could no longer deny his attachment to Yoon Seungho too. Therefore it is not surprising that in the bedchamber, when the artist tried to initiate a kiss, it could be perceived as the start of a love confession. 
(Chapter 80) And now, you comprehend why the painter didn‘t confess during that night. He got interrupted. The kiss was the symbol for their love. Thus it is no coincidence that just after his confession,. 
(Chapter 94) the painter initiated a long and sensual kiss with his “husband“. 
(Chapter 95) Since the painter had received caresses and embraces in his childhood, he came to view the kiss as the symbol for true love. And note that the kisses exchanged in the gibang were full of passion and love. This was the perfect combination of love and sex. 
(Chapter 95)
On the other hand, the lord had developed a different preference: the locked gaze, the warm embrace and the joined hands. Thus when he confessed his affection for the painter in the kisaeng house, observe what he did: 
(Chapter 96) This shows that Yoon Seungho has always longed for a pure and spiritual love in the first place. His sexual preferences were already palpable in the last love session (season 2): 
(chapter 72) We could say that he discovered all his sexual preferences thanks to the painter.
Thus my prediction in the first version that the painter would express his love through sex later came true. He tried to initiate it with a kiss. He was moved by the lord’s loving gaze and smile. 
(Chapter 80) But he failed due to the intervention of the butler and other schemers. Besides, the whispering of „Kyumah“ could only make his heart race. Let’s not forget that his painting in the sand 
(chapter 1) externalized his own philosophy: love and sex can’t be separated. Note that the couple is is hugging and kissing at the same time! 😍 This picture will represent the peak of their love! Striking is that when the couple confirmed their mutual affection, they did in the kisaeng house, the symbol for prostitution. This truly exposed that Yoon Seungho had been treated like a male night servant in the past. .
As you can imagine, I am expecting a new version of this love session. 
(chapter 72) in the next season, for the painter is still calling his lover “lord Seungho“ 
(chapter 99) 
(chapter 102) This means that he is still viewing himself as a low-born. But note that contrary to the past, Baek Na-Kum is now wearing a hanbok and he has no other clothes. Thus I am deducing that the painter’s next lesson is to drop his notion that he is a commoner. He will be taught to view himself as an equal to Yoon Seungho. Only when he has internalized that there is no gap between him and his lover, then he will be able to address him as “Seungho-YA!“ At the same time, both protagonists will come to realize that they can express their love differently. Poetry, painting and more importantly through their desire to protect their loved one. The lord will start protecting Baek Na-Kyum more actively, just like the painter will decide to show more interests in his lover’s skills and past life. Baek Na-Kyum will feel responsible for the bloodshed in the shaman’s house. In my opinion, the lord will confide to him what happened to Min and the other nobles. I am assuming this, for the lord remained silent, when the messenger of his father came to the mansion. He didn’t want to scare his lover because of his brutal outburst. 
(chapter 84)
8. Sex, passion and confession
What caught my attention is that unlike in the first season, where characters came to find love and had sex or the reverse, the second season presented each sexual encounter as a sex session, but at some point love came to the surface.
- chapter 45:
The trigger for the change is the noble’s words. The latter keeps talking to the painter asking for an reply. Hence in my eyes, there are glimpses of love the moment Baek Na-Kyum said this: 
It sounded like a confession, hence the seme became more passionate: 
- chapter 48/49:
Here the lord acted like a client. Yet, notice that the lord is speaking again forcing to express himself. And the moment the painter cried and started voicing his own opinion, the sexual encounter was affected. (Chapter 49) The lord comforted the artist and hugged him: 
(chapter 49) An expression of love and affection, but the painter rejected it, as he mistrusted his own judgement. He couldn’t help thinking of the learned sir’s fake embrace. Striking is that despite the rejection, the painter kissed and hugged back his lover
(chapter 49), which made the lord believe that he could only get embraced by the painter, if they had sex. - This explicates why in chapter 63, the lord forced the painter to hug him:
. Although the second sex marathon starts like a pure sex session, the moment the painter calls Yoon Seungho differently
, the lord’s attitude changes. The painter is turned around and faces his lover
, a sign that they are getting closer. Striking is that again through their conversation, the painter is pressured to think about his own emotions. 
However, due to his own insecurities and fear, the noble still can’t trust the artist’s words, therefore there’s no confession. As you can see, love was not absent
, it is just that both main leads were in denial.
Naturally, the night in chapter 58 and 70, 71, 72 and 73, are different. Although in chapter 58, the noble confessed and made love to the painter, he was also cornering his lover. The latter was not really able to move. He was trapped under his body, the lord was blaming him for turning him into a wreck. 
(Chapter 58) Thus he should become responsible for him. Yoon Seungho was unconsciously trying to push the painter to reciprocate his feelings, an imitation of Lee Jihwa‘s confession. Nevertheless, the painter remained silent, therefore it meant that his love was still denied. That’s why it stands more under the sign of dream and illusion. Consequently, the night in chapter 70, 71, 72 and 73 contrasts so much to the one from chapter 58. This time, it symbolizes the lord’s pure love. As such, the sex is already a real expression of love. That’s why the lord asked to be called intimately: Seungho-Ya 
(chapter 72) On the other hand, this love session was strongly intertwined with the notion of forgiveness and punishment as well. This is important, it reveals that Yoon Seungho had internalized that sex was the expression to redeem himself. He had been tasked in the past that if he desired to obtain “forgiveness“, then he should have sex. And by comparing all these sexual encounters, I came to the following conclusion: the lord’s words definitely contributed to change the nature of the sex session, just like the hug.
And observe that the lord started hugging the painter more often outside sex, but the painter could never sense his affection. In chapter 49, he judged the warmth as fake. 
In chapter 66, he had a flashback, hence he couldn’t witness his lord’s attention and care.
But the lord discovered this kind of embrace, when he helped the painter in chapter 53: 
That’s how the noble experienced the embrace as a source of comfort and affection. Therefore you can comprehend, why I wrote above that the painter was teaching the lord how to love properly, but also why the embrace became the symbol for love in the lord‘s eyes. He had never been embraced before by a man. And Lee Jihwa had recognized the true signification of this gesture, when he spied on the couple (chapter 43). That‘s how he knew the friend‘s biggest desire: and was deeply hurt after this discovery 
(Chapter 57) However, this shows that Yoon Seungho is a quick learner, because he knew what to do, when the painter was in pain and destress. At the same time, it explains why he could fake the embrace in chapter 62: 
This hug stands in opposition to the one at the end of season 3: 
(chapter 102) The artist was forgiving his lover! Love represents selflessness, tolerance, forgiveness, warmth, affection and assistance which is transmitted by the embrace. Now, you understand why Yoon Seungho was still not satisfied after the sex session in the study, he was longing for the hug. 
(Chapter 84) In his unconscious, he knew that if the artist hugged him, he would have forgiven him. But he had no idea about it, thus he couldn’t suggest this. So far, he had experienced the embrace from the artist while having sex. Deep down, he had already internalized the embrace to forgiveness. So we could say that the absence of the embrace in this scene was the lord‘s punishment for the fake hug in the shed. And the painter let him discover the true nature of a warm embrace: 
(chapter 88) This is not surprising that this hug was not connected to sex at all. Yet it moved the lord so deeply. As the manhwalovers could sense it, season 3 was focused on love and sensuality. During that season, the couple was able to voice about their sexual desires and their preferences. 
(chapter 91)
As for the lord’s addiction to grab the artist’s hand, we have to envision that it is related to the lord‘s huge trauma. 
(Chapter 86) No one close to him had grabbed his hand in order to show their support. This gesture in the picture embodies abandonment. On the other hand, the painter had been the first one to take his hand and to swear “loyalty“. 
(Chapter 30) The joined hands were repeated in season 3 , the only difference is that this time, Baek Na-Kyum was doing it willingly. 
(Chapter 88) The symbol for support, company and responsibility.
As a conclusion, the dichotomy between love and sex in the relationship between the protagonists is no longer existing at the end of the third season. Both have come accept their love for each other. But it already started vanishing at the end of season 2. Although the painter had not confessed properly yet, the return of the embrace
and his request for help are strong indications that Baek Na-Kyum was now accepting his affection. He was now trusting the noble, hence he revealed an important clue about the abduction.
Consequently, I am predicting that in season 4, we will see a new erotic painting of the couple, the symbol of their affection which will stand in opposition to the ones from season 1. It won’t be about conquests and as a tool to procure an erection for the nightly activities. That’s the reason why I am now expecting only one erotic picture: the document of their official union. (chapter 1) versus chapter 41 
(chapter 41) Under this perspective, it becomes understandable why the couple neglected these pictures. They were all devoid of affection, it was more about prostitution and battle! And here is now the question? Where are these drawings?
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Protected: Painter Of The Night: Lord Song
Protected: Painter Of The Night/Doctor Frost: The birth of the zombie 🧛🏻♂️
Protected: Painter Of The Night: Karma (third version) 💩🕉
Protected: Painter Of The Night: Inspirations
Painter Of The Night: The Ghost and the embrace 💞
This is where you can read the manhwa. https://www.lezhinus.com/en/comic/painter But be aware that this manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes. If you want to read more essays, here is the link to the table of contents: https://bebebisous33analyses.wordpress.com/2020/07/04/table-of-contents-painter-of-the-night/
As you can imagine, the embrace between the two protagonists stands in the center of this analysis, because we had so many pictures with a hug, like these two:
(chapter 76)
Yet, the peak was reached with the following picture, for Baek Na-Kyum and Yoon Seungho seemed to have merged as one: 
The readers can barely detect the painter’s presence: only his head and hand are visible indicating the depth of their intimacy and closeness. However, the title is mentioning the presence of a ghost. The latter can not be Yoon Seungho, because the panel above announces his official wedding with the commoner due to the presence of the red and blue lanterns called Cheongsachorong. These are used for wedding ceremony in Joseon. Therefore who is the ghost? And why do I perceive the existence of a spirit in this chapter? But before revealing the identity of the ghost, I would like to expose the reason behind such a title. While focusing on the embrace, I came to the following observation.
Each time Baek Na-Kyum and Yoon Seungho embraced each other, I detected the presence of a ghost. During the second season, we had 6 real hugs:
- chapter 49,
- chapter 53
, - chapter 62 ,
- chapter 66
, - chapter 71
, - chapter 76.
While comparing all the hugs, I will determine the ghost’s identity each time. In chapter 49 the painter was reminded of Jung In-Hun due to the warmth exuding from the main lead. The painter couldn’t restrain himself from thinking about that fake embrace
(chapter 29), therefore he chose to push away the wealthy aristocrat out of fear that he might get hurt and betrayed again. The commoner judged the embrace and warmth as a deception. This means that the low noble as a “spirit” was the reason why both protagonists couldn’t get closer. The low-born was only acknowledging Yoon Seungho as his sex partner and nothing more. Striking is that in episode 76, we have a reference to the hug from chapter 49, as the position of the painter’s head in this image
resembles a lot to this one: (chapter 49). Yet the outcome is different, as the manhwaphiles can witness how the painter moves his head closer to Yoon Seungho’s. 
Moreover, the artist’s gaze is truly looking at his lover. We even have the impression that the artist is smelling the lord’s scent in order to reassure himself. Although the manhwaphiles couldn’t enter Baek Na-Kyum’s thoughts this time, they could perceive the change of his attitude. The embrace is no longer judged as fake. This signifies that the ghost Jung In-Hun has vanished for good, which is even reflected in a different panel: (chapter 76) The lord allowed the low-born to embrace him in front of people, whereas the scholar had to ask the commoner to follow him in a deserted alley. 
(chapter 29) The low noble feared people’s gaze, his attitude truly showed that he didn’t want to be connected to Baek Na-Kyum. His action was definitely a sign of hypocrisy and cowardice. That’s why in chapter 76, the painter could only come to the conclusion that the lord’s embrace was genuine and the lord’s feelings were not trivial. Moreover, the main character never pushed his lover away
(chapter 76), he even lowered himself and sat down on the ground for a while, so that Baek Na-Kyum could calm down. Imagine, when the powerful lord arrived to the place where the main character had a panic attack, everyone was bowing in front of the noble. 
They didn’t even dare to face him, yet when he saw his lover trembling, the master lowered himself and attempted to help his partner. However, his gestures led to be misinterpreted in the beginning, hence a shop owner started interfering. 
However, he was stopped with a frightful gaze: 
Besides, when the noble kept calling the protagonist in an informal way (Na-Kyum-Ah), people could realize his real intention. He meant no harm. In fact, he was treating the low-born like a precious treasure, who needed help.
By calling his name Na-Kyum-Ah, the main lead tried to reassure his lover. Hearing his name made the low-born realize that he wasn’t attacked by the jester. This explains why the artist immediately embraced his companion. (chapter 76) Thus we could say that “Na-Kyum” had finally become a magical word like Seungho-Ya. Another contrast to the scene in episode 29 is that the way the low noble called Na-Kyum. 
(chapter 29) The former teacher was just caught by surprise, hence “Na-Kyum” was said more or less randomly. On the other hand, Yoon Seungho used this name as a sign of intimacy. He desired to give comfort and warmth to his lover. And now, you understand why Baek Na-Kyum hugged his lover by instinct. With his embrace, the protagonist would feel safe, which contrasts so much to the one in chapter 29. Back then, after the hug the learned sir brought the artist back to the mansion, although the low-born had run away out of fright. He mostly feared for the scholar’s life 
(chapter 29) thus he tried to find him. And now the mansion has become the painter’s home, just like the lord’s embrace. It is a synonym for comfort, warmth and safety. Another huge contrast is that for the first time, the painter asked for Yoon Seungho’s help directly. (chapter 76) Imagine that so far, he has never relied on others. Even as a low-born, he was willing to save others (Jung In-Hun or Deok-Jae or Heena 
(chapter 65). Surprising is that when he was bullied by Deok-Jae, he never complained and asked for the head-maid’s assistance or his lover’s. His attitude to never rely on others was even more perceptible in his escape in chapter 46. The cause for this behavior is linked to his abandonment issues. Due to his past, he was forced to only rely on himself. Nonetheless, in chapter 76 he changes his attitude. This shows that he is now opening up. That’s why his head rests on the lord’s shoulder completely. (chapter 76) This is a sign of trust, Baek Na-Kyum is willing to trust his lover. By comparing these 2 hugs, I come to the conclusion that Jung In-Hun has been totally removed from the painter’s mind as well. This embrace and marriage represent the scholar’s defeat. From now on, he won’t be able to use the painter as his pawn, because the latter is no longer attached to him. The lord’s love for Baek Na-Kyum can not be used as a weakness, since the low-born is reciprocating the affection. That’s why I would say that this panel (chapter 76) embodies the learned sir’s loss. There’s no one separating them, not even Heena noona who was the last person defending the scholar and as such representing his interest. So was Jung In-Hun the ghost I was referring to? Yes and no… because there’s more to it. That’s why it is important to examine the other embraces.
In chapter 53, the ghost was Yoon Seungho himself, since he was considering himself as a spirit. (chapter 53) However, the painter’s hug made him realize that he was a human after all, and that his fists and punches could definitely hurt his precious painter. Unlike in chapter 76, the painter’s voice couldn’t calm down the vengeful spirit
(chapter 53), hence the gentle boy needed to intervene directly. The lord was definitely deaf to the artist’s words. Striking is that here again, we had the presence of danger, the painter feared for Deok-Jae’s life. Moreover, despite his fear and shaking hands, (chapter 53)the commoner chose to protect the vicious servant, but Yoon Seungho too. He desired him not to let his emotions blind his behavior. The gentle and selfless man didn’t even ask for help, he stopped the noble with his body twice: first his face, then he hugged him. Striking is that in chapter 62 and 66, we had a similar situation. One of the protagonists was behaving like a ghost. In chapter 62, Yoon Seungho, who was reliving his traumatic past, almost became a demon
(chapter 62), whereas in chapter 66 the artist had a flashback, hence he wasn’t himself. 
(chapter 66) This meant that in both episodes, neither the aristocrat nor the commoner could sense the lover’s comfort and warmth. 
(chapter 66) Both of them didn’t feel safe and displayed extreme fear due to betrayal and abandonment.
But let’s return to the embrace in chapter 53, because this incident has another common denominator with the embrace from episode 66 and 76, the presence of a certain witness: Black Heart. 
There’s no doubt that the vicious noble felt extremely jealous in both episodes (53-66). The manhwaphiles should envision that despite his rage and his terrible behavior, the artist was willing to embrace such a man, which could only make Min envious. Moreover, the low-born showed courage and even strength. He didn’t reproach anything to his sexual partner. He just attempted to calm him down. Then even after seeing how poorly the main lead had treated the artist, the latter chose not to leave Yoon Seungho’s side. Min was definitely certain that after waking up, Baek Na-Kyum would follow his sister and come back to the kisaeng house. 
(chapter 69) That’s why he was waiting there. He imagined that the boy would be delivered to him on a silver plate, yet nothing like he had expected happened. In chapter 76, we have a new version of chapter 53. However, when Black Heart witnesses the painter’s second embrace, he can detect the huge difference. (chapter 76) This time, the artist is seeking his lover’s warmth and love. There’s no fear related to the “monster”. While in the past (53-54) The Joker mocked Yoon Seungho for his affection, here he can’t do it at all. The noble is not denying anything. In fact, he accepted the low-born’s embrace without feeling shame or embarrassment. He didn’t pay attention to the town folks, he just followed his heart. While in chapter 54, Min was able to separate the protagonists with his mockery and words
(chapter 54), in episode 76 Black Heart is truly defeated. And by contrasting these two scenes, it becomes obvious why Yoon Seungho assaulted his guest back then. The noble was in fact punishing The Joker for insulting his lover, as the latter was just reduced to his status: a low-born. He had no name and as such no identity. The powerful aristocrat didn’t do it in order to protect his honor, but the artist’s. At no time, the main lead was afraid of losing his reputation, he is well aware of his bad notoriety. Thus this shows that in chapter 54, the one who feared more social norms was indeed Baek Na-Kyum, which was still visible in chapter 75. That’s why the commoner denied the lord’s affection. (chapter 54)The expression “it can’t be” was referring to permission and social rules. No wonder why the noble felt so hurt in the end and retaliated. He misunderstood the artist’s rejection.
What caught my attention in chapter 76 are Black Heart’s behavior and words. First, he notices that he is too late. (chapter 76) He imagined that time would work for him, as in his mind, no one would ever stay by Yoon Seungho’s side. That’s why he didn’t hurry the second abduction. The latter had such a terrible reputation (mood swings, his huge rage, his violence), yet nothing could pressure the artist to leave the mansion. Even his noona was not able to convince him to follow her and to return to the kisaeng house. However, when he saw the couple in front of the tailor’s shop, his jealousy and greed reached a new peak. That’s why that night he had planned to visit Nameless. He wanted him to abduct the artist a second time. The expression “time is running out” outlines The Joker’s urgency. He couldn’t wait any longer, as he could witness how close they had become within 2 weeks. And if you look at the panel above, you’ll detect the presence of a shadow, in other words, a ghost. However, this is the jester Nameless looking at the couple. When the painter faced the joker
(chapter 76), the ghost from his nightmare
(chapter 61), the painter got so panicked that he got paralyzed. Only the lord’s embrace could calm him. As you can see, the commoner denominator between 53 and 76 is that the presence of a terrible ghost. The latter pushed the artist to embrace his lover. This time, he needed himself protection. However, Nameless was not the only ghost witnessing the protagonists’ embrace. Lord Min has already become a ghost himself in my opinion. First, he is wearing a black hanbok which I am associating to death. Moreover, because he threatens the criminal to kill him
(chapter 76), I view The Joker as a grim reaper. What caught my attention is his reaction, when he saw the heartfelt hug. He had to vomit and this is no coincidence. 
(chapter 76) Observe that the color green is connected to two reactions: “to be green with envy” and “to be green” (sickly). Besides, we have in French “être vert” as a synonym for fuming, furious and disgusted. Hence it’s not surprising that it exist these emojis: 🤮🤢. Both contain green. That’s why I believe that when Min saw the embrace between the protagonists, he got so upset and disgusted that he felt the urge to vomit. It was definitely a mixture of envy and rage. However, he had to lie to the others in order to hide his “weakness”. 
(chapter 76) For me, there’s no ambiguity that The Joker was not honest here. First, he has no dark circle and red eyes like Jihwa who definitely drank again.
(chapter 76) Besides, has Black Heart ever apologized to others? No. He didn’t even care, when he smoked opium in front of commoners. When he was asked to stop it, 
(chapter 52), he never expressed a real apology, he rather criticized the other for ruining the good mood and his fun. Besides, he looks down on low-borns and even Jihwa…
(chapter 76) so why would he apologize? It is, because he is slowly recognizing that his urges for Baek Na-Kyum are not linked to sex!! When he saw the hug, he could recognize the affection between the two lovers, and he felt powerless. Moreover, he envied Yoon Seungho even more than before. Let’s not forget that Min fears social norms despite his nihilistic tendencies. In this scene, the main lead showed courage and genuine affection, something that The Joker can’t do. Till chapter 76, he thought that he had been bewitched and he only felt the urge to have sex with Baek Na-Kyum. In other words, he wasn’t honest to himself and to the others. Until now, he had always imagined that once he had tasted the artist, his thirst would be satisfied. But the warm and tender embrace made him realize that he was wrong. Consequently, when he saw the hug, his envy and jealousy reached a new peak. He had to vomit. This signifies that the resent from chapter 53 became much stronger and obvious to the point that others could detect it now. Hence he has to lie. But in my opinion, he had another reason for vomiting. From my point of view, while the main lead spent his time drinking and reading, Min was busy smoking opium. Let’s not forget that Byeonduck portrayed Min with such a hanbok 
(chapter 56) and the pattern reminds the readers of opium smoke. Contrary to Yoon Seungho who only smoked it once during that terrible party, Min chose to keep smoking opium. First, the manhwaphiles could detect that he enjoyed the kick in chapter 52. 
(chapter 52) Secondly, the hanbok was another indication. Finally, I perceive the lord’s nausea in chapter 76 as another evidence for Black Heart’s opium addiction. Vomiting/nausea are listed as side effects of opium. From my point of view, when he saw the happy couple in the street
(chapter 74), he chose to smoke one pipe in order to relieve his frustration before visiting Jihwa and urging him to contact Nameless. This was a new version of chapter 56. That’s why they came both to meet the criminal. 
(chapter 76) Hence I come to the conclusion that Min is slowly turning into a ghost himself, losing his mind due to his addiction to opium and at the same time due to his greed and obsession for Baek Na-Kyum. The embrace in chapter 53 led to the kiss and indirectly it was the trigger for Min to change his original plan. 
(chapter 56) Therefore I deduce that this second embrace is forcing him to change his plan again. From my point of view, he is no longer interested in tasting the painter once and have him killed afterwards. Black Heart is now determined to take away Baek Na-Kyum from Yoon Seungho. He is definitely longing for the artist’s love. He has every reason to be so jealous. The painter showed such a loyalty and courage. He is no longer fearing people’s gaze unlike in the past. Then, he even forgave his lover for his violence and mistreatment. Slowly, Min is showing his vulnerability in front of Jihwa and as such losing his power over him. He is definitely less laughing. As a conclusion, in chapter 76, the ghost Jung In-Hun vanished for good, while a new one appeared: Black Heart, who is now dressed like a grim reaper. However, there’s a huge difference, because Min has never entered Baek Na-Kyum’s mind and heart. He has no chance at all.
But wait… you might now wonder why I have not mentioned the hug from chapter 71 yet. Where was the ghost? Note that in this panel, the artist is portrayed without eyes. This insinuates that the artist is somehow blind. Secondly, we have this picture where the manhwalovers could see the lord’s footprints. 
(chapter 71) My explanation is the following: Baek Na-Kyum wasn’t sure how to judge the lord’s behavior. Imagine that in the morning, his lover had tied him up, while in the evening he was so gentle and calm. That’s why I believe that in this hug, the artist wasn’t certain how he should perceive the lord’s embrace. He knew that it was no longer fake, but like he explained it much later… how long would Yoon Seungho have feelings for him? Therefore I believe that in this scene, Baek Na-Kyum viewed him as an illusion, a spirit who could give him warmth and comfort. 
(chapter 71) Note the difference with the following picture: (chapter 76) First, the painter’s gaze is much softer and less questioning. In addition, the position of his head is different which exposed that they are much closer now. Besides, let’s not forget that the embrace took place before the long love session. The artist’s reaction was totally normal.
As a conclusion, the last picture from chapter 76 displays two major developments. (chapter 76) The protagonists are no longer separated by their fears and issues. The ghosts in their mind and heart have finally disappeared. That’s why they are portrayed like one here. However, there are now other shadows and ghosts surrounding them, the ones who would do anything to destroy their relationship, like Min, Jung In-Hun and father Yoon.
Feel free to comment. If you have any suggestion for topics or manhwas, feel free to ask. If you enjoyed reading it, retweet it or push the button like. My instagram-tumblr-twitter account is: @bebebisous33. Thanks for reading and for the support, particularly, I would like to thank all the new followers and people recommending my blog.
Painter Of The Night: “Secrecy and perpetrator” (third version)
This is where you can read the manhwa. https://www.lezhin.com/en/comic/painter But be aware that this manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes. If you want to read more essays, here is the link to the table of contents: https://bebebisous33analyses.wordpress.com/2020/07/04/table-of-contents-painter-of-the-night/
“In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure no one listens.” ― Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
After reading this quote, it becomes understandable why Yoon Seungho not only repressed his first rape, but also was encouraged to forget it and to live with memory loss. The manhwaphiles could witness how Judith Lewis Herman’s quote was applied right after the sexual assault, when the butler made sure to attack Yoon Seungho’s credibility. 
He tried to silence the main lead with guilt and fear. Note how the poor boy has to beg for the servant’s mercy, which reminds us of the physician’s reaction in the same chapter: 
Both characters are grabbing the valet’s clothes. This exposes that both were put in the same situation: their innocence and ignorance were used against them, making them speechless. However, Kim was not the rapist himself, he was just the helping hand of the perpetrator. [Imagine how my first essay about Kim “The helping hand” fits his personality so perfectly, although I had portrayed him in a good light]. I have to admit that after writing the analysis “Interpretation of a nightmare”, I kept thinking about the identity of the culprit.
One might say that the culprit’s identity is now clear. It’s lord Song, especially if the manhwaworms take the following panels into consideration: 
. However, this is not correct, because Yoon Seungho is suffering from memory loss, hence he can not be connecting lord Song to his first sexual assault rather to the second rape and betrayal. Therefore I come to the conclusion that the main lead and his friend have been misled that only lord Song is responsible for the protagonist’s suffering. That’s why the main lead associates his suffering to lord Song. Yet, he has repressed the first sexual assault in the domestic quarters. 
(chapter 74) On the other hand, the manhwaphiles should remember how scared Kim was
, when he heard about a meeting between lord Song and Yoon Seungho. He definitely didn’t want them to meet 
for the simple reason that if the main character had encountered his so-called enemy, lord Song could have been able to defend himself and claim that he was not responsible. Since according to my theory, lord Song is the king and has been hiding his identity, it is possible that the real meeting would have revealed the lies told by Kim. But there’s another reason why I am suspecting two perpetrators responsible for Yoon Seungho’s suffering. The manhwaphiles shouldn’t forget that Baek Na-Kyum has attracted the attention of two nobles: the main lead and Black Heart. The former did rape the painter 
(chapter 25) and the second aristocrat planned to assault the artist sexually too. (chapter 56). So we have two perpetrators in my opinion. There’s no doubt that the main culprit is the king, nevertheless I believe that the first culprit is as guilty as the monarch, for after that incident, father Yoon chose to train his son as prostitute. The manhwaphiles will certainly recall that after the artist’s rape, the scholar brought back the low-born with the intention of treating him as a spying prostitute. 
(chapter 29) That’s why I came to realize that we should look for two old bearded men.
Besides, since I had elaborated that the man was able to trespass the propriety without getting noticed, it meant that he was acquainted with the mansion and the family. That’s why it can not be be lord Song, because Jihwa only knows his name. In other words, the perpetrator must have been close to father Yoon. Then we have another clue about the rapist’s identity:
He was rather old and had a beard. Because Yoon Seungho was just a teenager, old should be relativized. It just meant that the man was already married and had his own family. Thereby none of the single aristocrats around Yoon Seungho and Min have a beard. 
They are not married, so they are still considered as young. To sum up, the man with a beard was acquainted with father Yoon, hence he had the opportunity to meet the young prodigy and started lusting after him. 
And then I had suddenly this revelation. We already met an old bearded man: 
(chapter 67) Yes, father Lee! 😱 First, Lee Jihwa was a childhood friend from the main lead, which means that father Lee and father Yoon were close. Moreover, the man must have brought his son to the mansion and used this as an excuse to watch the young man from afar. Besides, the second lead is someone who used to sneak in the main lead’s propriety.
Let’s not forget that the story keeps repeating itself, hence this means technically that the father could have done the same. He chose to trespass the propriety in order to taste the young man. Like father, like son. With such a description, it signifies that father Leee was exactly like Min, who felt that he had been bewitched by Yoon Seungho 
(chapter 43) and could no longer resist this temptation. (chapter 56) Hence he asked for Kim’s help. We know for sure that the valet will never defend anyone, only his own interest, because he would like to lead a peaceful life. The problem is that Jihwa was himself attracted to the main lead, and when Jihwa and Yoon Seungho were caught due to an erotic painting [for further details: https://bebebisous33analyses.com/2021/01/25/painter-of-the-night-painting-and-desires-part-2/] , Father Yoon decided to separate the children. 
(chapter 57) Thus father Lee could no longer use Jihwa as a justification for his visitations. Moreover, it looks like the young boy was imprisoned in the servants’ quarter. Therefore, father Lee had no longer the opportunity to see Yoon Seungho, which is quite similar to Min’s method. The latter used the painting as a reason for his second visit
and later tried to engage a discussion with the main lead and the painter because of a painting
. Strictly speaking, father Lee utilized his son to approach the protagonist. From my point of view, the culprit is definitely similar to Black Heart, because the latter has the impression that he has been bewitched, that he just needs to taste him and after that, his thirst will be satisfied.
And now with this new theory, we would have explanations to the reasons why father Lee neglected his son. The latter was just using Jihwa to approach the main lead, and after tasting the young man, he had definitely no reason to repeat this, because the young boy didn’t react, like he had envisioned it. The manhwaphiles should recall that The Joker has been eyeing the painter because of his facial expressions and gaze oozing purity and attraction.
(chapter 33) So it is definitely possible that father Lee was attracted to Yoon Seungho’s face
. But the rape triggered the opposite reaction in Yoon Seungho. Hence the culprit’s lust vanished. And this would represent the only divergence with Min, for the latter was not bothered by Baek Na-Kyum’s shocked expression with the kiss.
Moreover, the enemies and betrayers are often the one closest to the main characters, see for example the scholar who backstabbed and abandoned Baek Na-Kyum on many occasions. Kim did the same to his master Yoon Seungho. He even created false memories. Moreover, we have Heena who hurt her brother through her words and actions, just like Jihwa did to his childhood friend. The two characters wounded the protagonists out of love. So why not father Lee betraying his acquaintance, the eldest master Yoon?
Moreover, if you pay attention to father Lee’s reactions in chapter 67, you’ll notice three important aspects. First, he is shaking out fear. This can’t be explained with the presence of the sword, for the main lead had already stated that he wouldn’t cause too much trouble
and the head of the family was not the target. Yoon Seungho was even quite respectful towards father Lee. One might say that he was shaking out of anger due to the uproar. However, the father even yelled before. Moreover, his discomfort kept increasing despite the calm words from the main lead. First, a drop of a sweat appeared on his face
, then his face was getting redder and redder. At the end, he was even trembling. Both are a sign of fear and embarrassment. Why? My theory that he is the rapist could give the explanation for such a reaction.
On the other hand, one could argue that Yoon Seungho mentioned the presence of old bearded men, indicating that father Lee couldn’t have been alone. Yet, the readers shouldn’t forget that in the rape in the shed we had another person involved: Kim. And the man is also an old bearded man! 
Imagine that after so many years, the main lead faces his rapist and it is definitely possible that he could remember the incident. When father Lee heard about the main lead’s barging, he just rushed to his son’s side without thinking, yet once meeting each other, he is reminded of his own crime. We shouldn’t forget that Kim had also repressed the rape, but he was reminded, when he saw Baek Na-Kyum and Yoon Seungho having sex in the shed. 
The father could have a similar reaction. He had totally forgotten the incident, until he saw his face again. What caught my attention is the following panel:
How could the protagonist sully the Lee family name any further? This means that there could be more than the ruckus he created. And since the aristocrat spoke before about a business he had to deal with Jihwa, father Lee could have interpreted it differently. It could definitely be related to father Lee’s wrongdoing. Yoon Seungho could reveal the father’s crime. Besides, since the eldest master was well aware of this son’s relationship with the main lead, hence it can not be truly linked to sodomy as such. As for the appearances, everyone in town knew the special relationship between Jihwa and the main lead, therefore it was no real secret. And the manhwaphiles should keep in mind this quote:
“If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure no one listens.”
Note how the father is trying to destroy Yoon Seungho’s reputation. First, he points out his debauchery, then he describes him as a scoundrel and beast. If he is the perpetrator, then he is definitely silencing the victim by attacking his reputation so that the moment the protagonist remembers, no one will ever believe him. From my point of view, father Lee never met again the protagonist after the rape, as the latter was sent to the palace. The manhwaphiles have to keep in mind that Jung In-Hun witnessed the rape, but he never intervened, as it didn’t serve his interest. Therefore there’s a high chance that father Yoon saw in the sexual assault a new possibility for Yoon Seungho. We should remember that the protagonist was sent to the servants’ quarter, this signified that the eldest master no longer saw any use in the eldest son. He was exactly like a commoner, he had no value. Concerning father Lee, the experience didn’t meet his expectation, hence he left the boy behind and chose to forget his wrongdoing: Out of sight, out of mind. And this explicates why the man could more or less forget his crime. He was one of those, whose feelings would fade away so quickly: Furthermore, by putting the whole blame on Yoon Seungho for his son’s sodomy, it could be his way to avoid any responsibility. He is just trying to wash off his hand, the protagonist was a seductive sodomite right from the start and he is the reason why his son was bewitched later. He is the cause for his “rape” and his son also fell under his spell. The only difference is that Jihwa couldn’t escape from the “witch’s power”, therefore he became a filthy sodomizer.
One might argue that when he saw father Lee, Yoon Seungho didn’t seem flustered or shaken. He was rather calm and had the strength to reply to the lord’s accusation. Thus he didn’t react, like he portrayed himself in chapter 44. However, we shouldn’t underestimate the lord’s fury in that scene. Yoon Seungho was so mad at his former childhood friend due to the abduction, hence his body didn’t react to the presence of an old bearded man. His mind and heart were focused on his childhood friend. Moreover, his statement outlines that he reacts, when he is facing more than one old bearded man. But so far, he only met them separately.
Furthermore, Yoon Seungho’s nightmare only appeared right after meeting father Lee, as the events in chapter 67 and 74 took place during the same day and night. Hence this can not be a coincidence. Facing the perpetrator triggered his memory, thus every incident related to his long suffering resurfaced. However, he still can’t remember the face. He only recalls the hand grabbing him.
Nonetheless, his unconscious is telling him that he should remember the culprit’s face. Note that he is here only looking at one person. Besides, since Kim had a brief recollection of the rape just before father Lee’s appearance, it could be perceived as a clue that the culprit had a similar experience. And both tried to repress it. So imagine this: Father Lee used the main lead’s terrible reputation to keep his distance from him, asking from his son to never meet the protagonist in order to maintain their respectability. Consequently, Lee Jihwa had to hide his relationship from his father, but the father didn’t care. He had the perfect excuse to avoid the main lead. However, the real reason for this escapism was the following. He still feared that the young boy could remember, and now Yoon Seungho has definitely power due to his wealth and connections to officials. In addition, the main lead is no longer under the control of father Yoon.
And if this theory is correct, then it means that the moment Yoon Seungho remembers the first rape, he will recall father Lee’s face. Therefore I doubt that the protagonist will remain passive, he will definitely go after the Lee family. Let’s not forget that Yoon Seungho declared to father Lee that he was now responsible for his son, and he could no longer feign ignorance. 
(chapter 67) In other words, once there’s no secrecy any longer, the lord could retaliate again father Lee and use Jihwa’s misdeeds to punish the father for his crime. And since the father is a coward, he will act like father Yoon, who abandoned his son. Father Lee will turn his back on his own son. The manhwaphiles shouldn’t forget the principle: Jihwa is going to suffer, exactly like the painter and as such Yoon Seungho. Both were betrayed and abandoned by their fathers. In other words, the second lead would pay for the father’s sin, it would be his karma. At the same time he will experience what Yoon Seungho went through, and no longer claim that he truly knows. Envision this: the second lead would be punished for his father’s crime, however Yoon Seungho would use the painter’s kidnapping and Deok-Jae’s death as an excuse for the authorities’ intervention. He might have had a bad reputation, yet Yoon Seungho is a noble and he has definitely some connections to the authorities. Finally, even the noble with the mole pointed out that the artist’s death could have serious consequences. 
So does this theory plausible or not? One thing is sure: the fathers are portrayed in a terrible light: coward, selfish, hypocrite and stupid… and father Lee is no exception. Hence he could have definitely committed a crime, but as a noble he got away, because for the eldest master Yoon, the protagonist was like a commoner, he had no worth at all. That’s why he lived in the servants’ quarter and received a straw mat beating. 
Feel free to comment. If you have any suggestion for topics or manhwas, feel free to ask. If you enjoyed reading it, retweet it or push the button like. My instagram-tumblr-twitter account is: @bebebisous33. Thanks for reading and for the support, particularly, I would like to thank all the new followers and people recommending my blog.
Protected: Painter Of The Night: Interpretation of a nightmare (second version)
Painter Of The Night: Truth and memories (second version) 🧠
This is where you can read the manhwa. https://www.lezhinus.com/en/comic/painter But be aware that this manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes. If you want to read more essays, here is the link to the table of contents: https://bebebisous33analyses.wordpress.com/2020/07/04/table-of-contents-painter-of-the-night/
Many readers are able to recognize the similarities between chapter 40 and 75, because both episodes contain the following elements:
- The prank:
(chapter 40) 
(chapter 75: repetition from chapter 74) - The presence of the bulletin board
(chapter 40) versus 
(chapter 75) - The honest conversation between the protagonists, where Yoon Seungho is encouraging his lover to introspect himself
(chapter 40) versus 
(chapter 75) - The color of the sky
(chapter 40) versus 
(chapter 75) - The presence of memories:
(chapter 40) versus 
(chapter 75)
Yet despite all the parallels, if I had to give a title to chapter 75, I would select “Memories” and not “Responsibility”, although the latter is still present in episode 75. Why? It is, because the painter talks about his past and youth and as such, he is forced to bring up memories. 
(Chapter 75) And this made me realize two things: Baek Na-Kyum embodies memories, hence we got many flashbacks from the painter (chapter 2, 11, 23, 34, 38, 40, 41, 46, 56, 57, 60, 66, 74, 75), whereas Yoon Seungho embodies truth. Note that unlike the artist, Byeonduck showed us only a few memories from the aristocrat (chapter 19, 25, 48, 55, 74 with the nightmare). Moreover, the latter is always confronting the painter with his questions and observations. The noble wants him to be true to himself and question his own motivation. (Chapter 75) And this observation made realize another aspect about Yoon Seungho, because unlike chapter 40, the aristocrat stands in the center of episode 75: the significance of memories in the lord’s life.
1. Memories and identity
In order to understand why I came to this conclusion, it is relevant to examine the memories in chapter 40 due to the parallelism. There, the painter recalled the questions and comments from Yoon Seungho, which incited the commoner to ask his teacher about his future. Once the scholar had succeeded, would he become responsible for the painter, like he had implied? And observe that during the confrontation, the artist used a statement from the past: 
(chapter 29) Thanks to the memories, the low-born had gathered courage and faced his teacher. However, this discussion led to a tragedy. Baek Na-Kyum got hurt, because his learned sir chose to destroy him in the worst possible way. With his words, he showed his true thoughts 
(chapter 40) and in order to reinforce his statement, he made sure that Baek Na-Kyum would perceive his real gaze: cold and ruthless. 
(chapter 41) But more striking is that the scholar used memories (the kisaeng house) to define the painter’s identity: he was born to be a prostitute despite his “lessons”. He puts the whole responsibility and blame on the commoner. As a conclusion, the memories served in the conflict to identify Baek Na-Kyum. Who was he really to the scholar? Was he his helping hand, like the low-born claimed, or was he just a “prostitute” according to the scholar?
2. Memory loss and identity
This connection between memory and identity in the manhwa is not random, because according to John Locke’s “memory theory”, a person’s identity only reaches as far as their memory extends into the past. In other words, memory is a necessary condition of personal identity. Thus, as a person’s memory begins to disappear, so does his identity. Therefore, we could say that without memory, there’s no identity. On the other hand, in my previous analysis, I had demonstrated that the lord’s unconscious was trying to force his conscious to remember his past, because he had repressed his traumatic past. This meant that he was suffering from memory loss. Hence we could say, that he lost his own identity. This is not surprising that childhood trauma and memory loss go hand-in-hand. Blocking out memories can be a way of coping with the trauma. It goes even so far that an adult survivor of childhood trauma can even believe that he was never a victim of childhood trauma. Consequently, in case of a permanent memory loss, it signifies that the victim even loses his own identity. Since my theory has been confirmed that the lord was a painter in his youth, chapter 75 actually exposed the memory loss in two different ways:
- First, the lord couldn’t even remember painting an orchid
(Chapter 75), an indication that his short-term memory was defective due to his lack of sleep. - However, the master’s hand could still paint a orchid without paying too much attention to his hand. It exposes that it was actually an automatic gesture, revealing that he had internalized such a gesture in the long-term memory. And note that when he did this, he mentioned his youth
(chapter 36) Therefore I come to the conclusion that Yoon Seungho’s short-term memory is not working properly. Imagine, he could remember one incident from his childhood, but he couldn’t remember painting the orchid. Hence I believe that the lord can’t even reminisce the drawings in chapter 8 
and 23 
. Only thanks to Baek Na-Kyum’s mention, he was able to recall the drawing. Thus the manhwalovers can comprehend why I consider the artist as a synonym for memories.
3. Trauma and memories
But in the manhwa, there’s more than just memory loss due to a coping mechanism. Traumatic events such as sexual assaults, are encoded differently than more routine due to extreme fear. The victim won’t be able to remember everything, just details, the chronology will be mixed up due to existential fear, that’s why if you recall the following panel, you’ll truly grasp the real atrocity of Yoon Seungho’s suffering. (Chapter 65) While he can’t remember what truly happened due to his poor emotional and physical state, Kim somehow blames him. The young master is so confused that he has to defend himself. This means that after the first rape, the domestic didn’t even comfort the protagonist, but he used the victim’s vulnerable state of mind (who was confused due to this terrific incident) to manipulate the noble’s memory.
That’s why when police investigate a sexual abuse and interview a victim, the latter will always be interrogated twice. The first interview focuses more on the sensory and emotional memories, while during the second, the officers will try to reconstruct the chronology. This explicates why they always wait for quite some time for the second statement. It is necessary, as the memories are now stored and they can be retrieved, although due to fear and stress, the incident can never be properly reconstructed. As you can imagine, Yoon Seungho was not in the capacity to testify about the sexual assault. This terrible event affected his memory so much that he was not given the opportunity to denunciate the crime. He was made speechless in the end due to the insinuation and as such manipulation. I bet, he couldn’t even describe what had truly happened to him. That’s why he repressed the first rape.
4. Amnesia and manipulation
But now imagine this. You are exposed to physical and sexual abuse for more than a decade, this means that your memory will be definitely affected. You are living constantly in fear and stress, two important factors, which can trigger memory loss. [read more here: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-causes-memory-loss-4123636] Like I explained briefly above, terrific events are never encoded normally. This signifies in our case that the lord’s faculties to memorize were definitely affected due to the constant exposure, which can make him more vulnerable to false memories. Studies show that individuals with PTSD, a history of trauma, or depression are at risk for producing false memories, when they are exposed to information that is related to their knowledge base. This also signifies that they are more receptive for manipulations. Therefore I come to the next deduction that in chapter 68, Kim was definitely attempting to distort the past and create false memories. 
(Chapter 68) He mixed facts with lies in order to confuse his master’s judgement and memory. That’s the reason why it is important now to recall my initial statement: without any memory, there’s no identity. This signifies that in chapter 68, when Kim tried to give him memories, he desired to give him a certain identity: he was similar to his father. The latter would punish or imprison the boy and not release him. Giving a false reflection and identity is something Kim had never done before in front of his master, as he knew that his master feared his own image. However, he never imagined that Yoon Seungho would react differently. Instead of pushing away the painter, he let the artist choose his fate.
5. Making memories and forgiveness
However, in order to comprehend the topic memory, it is relevant to know how memory functions. The latter is divided in 3 parts: encoding, storage and retrieval. And in order to encode information, you have to utilize your senses. There are 3 types of encoding: semantic (words), visual and acoustic (sound). The manwhaphiles should recall that according to my interpretation, Yoon Seungho had been deprived of all his senses, therefore he lived like a ghost. And this signifies that he couldn’t make any memory at all. And with no memory, you have no identity and as such no life. That’s why when he cut ties with Jihwa the first time, he never mentioned the word “memories”, but time spent together: 
(Chapter 18) In my opinion, this shows that Yoon Seungho had no true memory in reality. He knew that they had sex together, but that was it. It was more like “the night is long and I need to kill time so that dawn can come faster.” Note that he never mentions their childhood together. With this interpretation, it becomes comprehensible that the main lead could act, as if nothing had happened between Jihwa and himself after the topknot incident. 
From my point of view, he had literally forgotten the incident, yet for Jihwa, it meant that he had been forgiven. 
(Chapter 59) And this explicates why Yoon Seungho barges in the mansion in chapter 67: he makes it clear that he won’t forget what happened. 
(Chapter 67) The real forgiveness occurred in chapter 59: Despite the caused pain, Yoon Seungho was willing to overlook the terrible action (chapter 59), but he made it clear that he would never reciprocate the feelings. This was real forgiveness from my perspective, whereas in the past, Yoon Seungho couldn’t remember anything. Jihwa had the terrible habit to use the past in order to torment his childhood friend, which always triggered buried emotions connected to memories, which the noble couldn’t control. From my point of view, the lord only had flashbulb memories which the readers could discover in chapter 55: (chapter 55)
“A flashbulb memory is an accurate and exceptionally vivid long-lasting memory for the circumstances surrounding learning about a dramatic event. Flashbulb Memories are memories that are affected by our emotional state.” quoted from https://www.simplypsychology.org/flashbulb-memory.html
These memories connected to emotions were the remains of his deeply repressed memories. The lord could only remember the feelings he had felt during his traumatic past. To sum up, the lord had no real recollection of his past, and the few things he knew were manipulations and lies explained by his butler. Therefore you can comprehend why Kim got scared (chapter 56), when he heard that lord Song asked for a meeting. The latter could definitely reveal new information and let the protagonist realize that he was truly suffering from memory loss.
6. Recovery from amnesia: memories
However, due to the exposure to arts, his eyes got healed, hence he could sense positive emotions and as such create good memories (visual encoding). From my point of view, when Baek Na-Kyum entered his life, the noble had started developing good memories, because so far, all he had were traumatic memories. However, Yoon Seungho’s capacities to memorize were under-developed due to the lack of practice. This explicates why he shows no interest to discover why the commoner stopped painting. This was not meaningful to him, and the readers should know that people will only memorize significant information. The emergence of his memory is visible in chapter 1. We see him speaking about his nightly activities so positively, but observe that he is only talking about recent and meaningful memories. 
(Chapter 1) Striking is that when Baek Na-Kyum confronts him with his poor image (“man consumed by lust”)
(chapter 4), the lord is bothered. He is forced to ponder why he is described like that, hence he has to recall events from the past. At the same time, when the lord read the poem, he was encouraged to recall the original sijo. This shows that at some point, Yoon Seungho rediscovered literature. Words and paintings helped to create memories. Thus if you pay attention, you’ll notice that the more time passes on, the more memories the lord has. They are strongly intertwined with the paintings. The latter helped him to reminisce the sex sessions and his past. He can’t forget how the painter masturbated behind the door. He is even getting more and more good memories. 
(chapter 18) Then in chapter 19, he reminisces the painter’s facial expressions which puts him in a good mood. 
(Chapter 19) This explicates why Yoon Seungho was so moved by the painter’s confession during their Wedding night. For the first time, he experienced warmth and love, he even heard a love confession. This could only be stored as a wonderful memory. At the same time, he hoped, the artist would create a picture of this night in order to ensure that this memory was real. Moreover, note that in chapter 58, 
he externalized how much this night meant to him. 
(Chapter 58)
Yet, the manhwaphiles can detect that in his confession, the memory is not entirely described as positive: “haunt”. This explicates why I consider the Wedding night as a turning point in Yoon Seungho’s life. This memory is a combination of positive and negative elements. The lord wished to relive this, but he was not satisfied, because he knew that he had impersonated the scholar. Moreover, the manhwaphiles should reminisce that after this night, the lord will do terrible things to the artist and as such, he gets now terrible memories. That’s the reason why in my opinion, Byeonduck chose to expose the rape as a flashback from the master’s perspective. Because of his bad actions, Yoon Seungho feels huge pangs of conscience and can’t act like nothing happened. He is now forced to remember. However, in my eyes it is different from the past. Before, he was just a ghost, hence he was incapable to get memories, with Baek Na-Kyum’s help, he can get memories which will help him to face his own traumatic past.
7. Memories and learning
There’s one aspect, strongly connected to memory, which I didn’t mention so far: learning.
” Learning and memory operate together in order increase our ability for navigating the environment and survival. Learning refers to a change in behavior that results from acquiring knowledge about the world and memory is the process by which that knowledge is encoded, stored, and later retrieved.” quoted from https://opentext.wsu.edu/psych105/chapter/8-2-how-memory-functions/
As you can see, in order to change, the lord needs memories. Through positive and negative experiences, the noble can gain knowledge leading to a change of attitude which the readers could observe. Gradually, the noble learnt from his mistakes and good memories. Therefore, this is no coincidence that when in chapter 75, Baek Na-Kyum talks about his past and memories, he criticizes his master: (Chapter 75) He gives him the impression that he will never change, the lord wouldn’t even remember him after his death. Now, you grasp why he reproaches Yoon Seungho his fickle nature, he is indirectly referring to the lord’s memories. 
(Chapter 75) His feelings will fade away just like memories. He will forget him. What the painter doesn’t realize is the following: this date is actually an important moment in Yoon Seungho’s life. For the first time, he gets to discover the painter’s memories and past, which now the noble can store as his own. He will never forget this day, especially when he heard that the painter would cry because of him 
(a new version of chapter 21: 
(chapter 21) , but here out of concern. In other words, Baek Na-Kyum would like to be remembered. Hence he complains that the lord didn’t call for him. And this can only make the lord happy, because he can detect through the painter’s words that the latter is longing for his presence and care. From my perspective, Yoon Seungho has finally grasped why the artist is not truly honest with him. Therefore he can only tease his lover pushing him to make the first step. Let’s not forget that right now, the master is now treating his lover as his new lord. So the latter has to call for him. 
(Chapter 75) Here, the protagonist clearly displays that he has never forgotten his companion. Their date is so important for two reasons. It allows the noble to gather more information about the commoner, and get a really good memory before the next tragedy.
From my point of view, it will help him to face his own traumatic past. Let’s not forget that a rape is planned, so if the noble was to discover this, he would be definitely reminded of his own past. And this truly happened in season 3. Simultaneously he would be able to help his lover to recover from the traumatic incident. We shouldn’t forget that during the kidnapping, the lord’s smile was the reason why Baek Na-Kyum didn’t lose his sanity 
(Chapter 60) and could cope with the kidnapping much better. Note that he has no nightmare afterwards. And this detail is important, because we have to envision that while Yoon Seungho was exposed to physical and sexual abuse for a decade, he had no good memory at all in order to remain sane. Moreover, he never felt loved. Consequently, he couldn’t even think of anyone in a positive way. That’s why he was so damaged in the end. (Chapter 57)
The presence of a loved one is necessary in order to cope with traumatic childhood abuse.
8. The impact of Yoon Seungho’s traumas on his mind and attitude
And this leads me to the next observation: Due to his childhood trauma, the lord’s memory was affected and didn’t work properly, as for a long time, his memory was not encouraged to encode events. On the other hand, because of Baek Na-Kyum, Yoon Seungho was forced more and more to face his traumatic past, therefore his fears and abandonment issues came to the surface. This explicates why he couldn’t pay attention to details and never questioned the circumstances of the first abduction. Note that during the night at the physician’s, he still doesn’t trust his own senses. 
(Chapter 58) This signifies that he is unsure if what he is experiencing is real or not. From my point of view, the memory loss and his life as ghost affected his brain and the way to encode and store information. Hence he has no real recollection of the incident with Deok-Jae (chapter 30 and 53). That’s why he is not asking for his whereabouts. However, I believe to see a turning point in chapter 75. By giving the lord the opportunity to have a real date, where he could hear and see that Baek Na-Kyum was definitely affected by him, the noble will react differently compared to the first abduction and after the painter’s first flashback. He will not lose his mind blinded by his emotions and insecurities, he knows that the artist chose him. And he won’t blame himself like for the first flashback. Remember that in chapter 66, he never called the physician. Why? Because someone told him that the painter needed the presence of a loved one to recover. Kim made sure that Yoon Seungho would feel guilty. Deep down, Yoon Seungho knew that he was responsible for the panic attack.
(Chapter 66) But the real cause for all this was the butler’s silence and complicity. That’s why he remained by his side, until the artist had recovered. Thus I had predicted that after meeting Nameless, Baek-Na-Kyum would get a panic attack.
(Chapter 75)
This is what I wrote in the first version:
“However, this time, the noble will wonder how this could happen. They had a nice conversation, where they exchanged thoughts. He is not responsible and it can’t be the alcohol. Moreover, he will recall his lover’s words: He won’t focus on his own emotions, but will try to calm down the artist and investigate why the painter reacted like that.” It is definitely possible that he brings back the painter to the mansion and decides to visit the physician in order to ask for an advice. From my point of view, thanks to the new memories, the noble is learning more about his surroundings and gaining more experience.”
However, the reality was that Yoon Seungho thought that the painter’s panic attack had just been triggered by the entertainers. (Chapter 76) He didn’t take his words seriously, for he believed that he had discovered the truth. Therefore the lord never investigated the circumstances of the kidnapping. Since he thought, he knew the truth, he had no reason to question this. Why did the Joker scare the painter so much? Thus the lord didn’t take the memories from the painter seriously. How could he, since he had been already informed? However, the revelation from Min had diverted Yoon Seungho’s attention from the real problem: the involvement of the helping hands (Kim, Deok-Jae, No-Name) and of the mastermind behind this.
9. Baek Na-Kyum’s memories and truth
What caught my attention is that Baek Na-Kyum is also hurt, though he has memories from his past. What he confessed to his lover represented a bad memory, and this made him feel guilty. Striking is that he believes, he knows the truth, as he can reminisce his past. Yet, he is making a huge mistake: memories are by no means facts, they are biased and even tainted. The artist took the scholar’s words as face-value. He never questioned his words, therefore he blamed himself for Jung In-Hun’s failure. Here, I would like the manhwaphiles to notice the parallels between Jihwa and the artist: both feel responsible for a tragedy, while in reality it was not the case. Both were victims of manipulations and lies.
My theory is that the learned sir imagined that he had finally the possibility to get a high position. Yet the incident in the gibang put an end to it, and this is definitely related to the erotic pictures. However, there is no ambiguity that Jung In-Hun was actually receiving his karma. Remember that in the Alternative Universe, the protagonist used Jung Na-Min as his artist name. In other words, the name of the artist must have had an effect on his career. Besides, let’s not forget that the teacher is preaching immobility, for people’s fate is always determined. 
(Chapter 6) They can not escape their conditions. Thus the gods chose to punish him the following way: he could never escape his own situation. He would remain a man with no wealth and connection. Thus no matter what he did, it ended with a failure. Therefore it is not surprising that he came to resent the painter, for he caught the attention of a powerful noble and this at least twice. The scholar was offered a position, but due to the incident in the gibang, the sponsor changed his mind. Hence he blamed Baek Na-Kyum for not securing a post. It was, as if he had stolen it from him. I think, Jung In-Hun published poetry, but couldn’t get recognition. Therefore he used the incident (discovery of the erotic pictures) in order to punish him and force him to give up on painting. He couldn’t allow that a commoner was more successful than him. At the same time, it was the reason why there was a ruckus in the gibang too. But now, we have to wonder why Baek Na-Kyum talked about his past. From my point of view, an important detail played a huge role at the inn: 
(Chapter 74) Observe that the woman has a similar hair dress than his noona. That’s why I believe that when he saw her, he must have been reminded of her. Note that when he speaks about the leftovers, he describes leaving food as a sin, but strangely, in chapter 40/41, he had the opposite attitude.
(Chapter 41) He didn’t eat all the sweets or even skipped meals. 
(Chapter 41) In other words, he didn’t eat everything and committed a sin. This indicates a certain hypocrisy, simultaneously Baek Na-Kyum’s lack of critical thinking, when it comes to his noona. Moreover, he says the opposite of what he thinks. In chapter 74, he claims that the lord has changed
(chapter 74), in episode 75, he claims that he has not improved his behavior. The painter’s memories clearly reveal Heena’s strong influence, which explains why he doesn’t make the first step in the end. He would like the lord to become responsible for him. But Yoon Seungho would like the opposite, because that way, the low-born can never claim that he was forced or pressured by him. In my eyes, Baek Na-Kyum still fears to be perceived as a man consumed by lust, if he makes the first move.
That’s why I believe that Yoon Seungho embodies the truth, while Baek Na-Kyum represents the past and memories. The commoner’s past will become the trigger for Yoon Seungho to decide to discover the truth about his own past and as such regain his own identity: he was a talented painter with a promising future. Since the low-born’s past with the kisaeng and the scholar are more recent, it is much easier for Yoon Seungho to unveil the lies concerning Baek Na-Kyum’s past in the kisaeng house. At the same time, thanks to the physician, Baek Na-Kyum is gathering information about his lover’s past (chapter 57), which will assist him to regain his lost memories.
Feel free to comment. If you have any suggestion for topics or manhwas, feel free to ask. If you enjoyed reading it, retweet it or push the button like. My instagram-tumblr-twitter account is: @bebebisous33. Thanks for reading and for the support, particularly, I would like to thank all the new followers and people recommending my blog.
Protected: Painter Of The Night: Nightmares and their message (second version)
Protected: Painter Of The Night: Yoon Seungho’s suffering path (fourth version)
Protected: Painter Of The Night: “The topknot incident” (fifth version)
Painter Of The Night: Cowardice versus courage: innate or learnable?
Announcement: I updated the essay “Past, present and future – part 3”
This is where you can read the manhwa. https://www.lezhin.com/en/comic/painter But be aware that this manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes. If you want to read more essays, here is the link to the table of contents: https://bebebisous33analyses.wordpress.com/2020/07/04/table-of-contents-painter-of-the-night/
For this topic, I used the following websites:
- (French) https://nospensees.fr/lart-detre-lache/
- (English) https://exploringyourmind.com/the-art-of-beign-a-coward/
- (French) http://fr.housepsych.com/malodushie_default.htm
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihstWeKgp8Q
- https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html#gsc.tab=0
It took me a long time before I came to the conclusion that Kim was a villain, because he was betraying the protagonists. Striking is that I am receiving comments from readers saying that they have a different opinion. For them, he is no villain. Interesting is that they justify his actions and lies, because he fears for his life due Yoon Seungho’s mood swings. And this leads to the following observation. These readers are not denying Kim’s fear and as such cowardice. Why? It is because in chapter 64 and 65, his gutlessness is especially visible. 
(episode 64) When the butler sees the painter being treated like a sex toy, the valet doesn’t interfere at all. The manhwaphiles can even observe how Kim is so paralyzed before speaking.
Then he acts, as if nothing was happening in front of him. He bows in front of his lord, not out of respect but out of fear.
Then he gives an excuse for his interruption before taking to his heels, leaving the artist behind to his misery. Striking is that this attitude didn’t occur just once, but twice… as it is revealed in the next episode that Kim witnessed a similar scene. He heard how Yoon Seungho got assaulted, but he did nothing. He literally abandoned him too. And he knows what he did was wrong, since he shows signs of culpability. He is repressing his guilty conscience. He had even forgotten it, until he was confronted with a similar situation. However, his reaction was the same. This indicates that cowardice has become a major part of Kim’s personality. No, there’s no mistake. Fear is a synonym for cowardice, for it means that a person has not been able to overcome his fear. But what is a coward actually? How does someone become one? This pushed me to make some research.
When I watched the documentary “dans la tête d’un lâche” (in the head of a coward), I recognized the parallels between Kim’s behavior and the testimony of a person who refused to help a girl from getting raped. Her words were: “This is normal”, “nothing is happening”, “I fear for my life”. These kind of thoughts represent the psychological mechanism called “cognitive dissonance”. It’s a coping mechanism that helps people to feel less guilty. Put in a terrible situation and confronted with a dilemma, people try to explain why they behave like that. Since they are acting against their principles and beliefs, they feel uncomfortable and in order to reduce their embarrassment and discomfort, they adapt their values to their behavior. Hence if someone witnesses a person in danger, the witness tends to minimize the danger in order to justify this disregard for not providing assistance to a person in danger, like for example “sex won’t kill the painter” or “the artist is not calling for my help” or “I am just interrupting a rough sex session” or “Yoon Seungho could definitely kill me”. However, concerning the last point, if you pay attention, you’ll remember that the noble clearly said, he had no intention of interrupting his sex session
and he didn’t mind the valet watching them. In other words, Yoon Seungho was not threatening Kim’s life. Now, someone might argue that these points above were just developed by me and we never saw any “cognitive dissonance” from the butler, which I can immediately refute. Byeonduck made the readers see what “cognitive dissonance” is:
: Why should I feel guilty, if it doesn’t concern me? It is not my problem, why should I have helped the painter?
: Why should I feel guilty, because the sex session proved clearly that the lord wouldn’t hurt the painter? If I had intervened, this could have had terrible consequences.
This means that the head is rationalizing a terrible behavior which stands in opposition to the witness’ initial values and beliefs. Therefore in order to become brave, a person needs to feel a lot of empathy. Only with a big heart, the initial fear can be overcome. This explicates why faintheartedness is a synonym for cowardice. The longer a person struggles in front of a dilemma, the higher the chances are that a person won’t help, as the latter will start convincing himself that his help is not needed.
To sum up, in chapter 64, Kim acted, as if the sexual encounter was normal and nothing was happening. This is the typical behavior of a coward, a person who refuses to help someone, because he feels frightened, exposing that the valet’s empathy is not truly developed. In my eyes, this indicates that his care and concern are more a show and an act than reality. He is indeed fainthearted. That’s why I consider him as a villain. He is a hypocrite like all the other villains: Min, the scholar Jung In-Hun and father Yoon. A person with a big heart would definitely help, exactly like Baek Na-Kyum proved it. 
And imagine, the painter protected a criminal, as Deok-Jae had assaulted him before, whereas Baek Na-Kyum was always respectful towards Kim. He always calls him “sir”, and even takes his words to heart. 
But there’s more to it. A psychologist described the different reactions that are going through a person’s mind observing a crime: surprise, confusion and different kind of fears (embarrassment, shame, pure fear and incapacity to help). You might be surprised that shame appears in such a situation. Yet, a witness of a wrongdoing is often questioning his own senses. Is what I hear or see really a misdeed or it is just a small quarrel between lovers (in our case, a rough sex session)? Do I misinterpret the situation? What if I intervene and I was wrong… I’ll embarrass myself and even cause some trouble for nothing. And this explicates why Kim fears so much scandal and ruckus . As you can observe, cowardice is indeed connected social norms and embarrassment. Moreover, remember what I wrote about the trigger for cowardice. A person is put in front of dilemma: there are two values contradicting each other, and the person has to overcome this contradiction, like for example
- A person in need should be always assisted
- You have to make sure not to put your life in danger, hence you have to avoid dangerous situations.
In order to comprehend the notion cowardice, scientists developed different tests and one of them was to ask children. These would listen to a story and they had to make a big decision afterwards. In this story, a man loves his wife very much, but the only medicine that can save his spouse is so expensive that he can’t buy it. He has two choices: either he steals the drug and saves his wife or he lets his wife die but remains honorable. The children below 7 years old will always reply that the poor man has to let his spouse die, because if he steals the medicine, he ends up in jail. Why? It is because these children under 7 years have already internalized that stealing is bad, and you’ll get a jail sentence. However, the older children will make the opposite decision, as they are already aware that life is more important than jail. They are not afraid of getting imprisoned, they are willing to become responsible for their crime. As you can see, courage and cowardice are strongly intertwined with social norms and peoples’ values and opinions. Hence this means that in order to develop courage, a person needs to have developed his own taste, opinion and values. Therefore a brave person has not only a strong heart, but also a strong will and desires, which Baek Na-Kyum truly embodies.
But for that to happen, a child needs to get through an important phase: he needs to learn to control himself and as such his desires. That’s why I couldn’t help myself laughing, when I read the chapters 71 and 72: 
As you can observe, the child Yoon Seungho is learning to control his urges. Secondly, a child has to learn to make an effort and be patient. 
This might sound anodyne, but the psychiatrist truly outlined the importance of this development stage. This explicates why Yoon Seungho would behave like a spoiled child in chapter 30: 
and observe how it is strongly connected to his fear and abandonment issues. However, the moment he made a real decision and showed strong will by allowing the painter to choose his own fate, he becomes brave. It means that he is overcoming his huge fear. His strong will and big heart are the reasons why Yoon Seungho could transform into a phoenix.
And remember what I wrote about Kim in the essay “Past, present and future – part 3”. He was like a father or mother figure who would refuse to let his child grow up. He desired his master to remain in an infantile stage. And this is not surprising that Yoon Seungho was so selfish and even coward 
(chapter 33) in the past. He ran away, too afraid of facing the consequences of his misdeed or of getting too much into trouble with his peers. His role model was himself like that. As you can see, the rebirth of the phoenix means that Yoon Seungho is now learning to become brave and he will become a real and strong fighter, like it was perceptible during the first season. His conversation with the scholar in chapter 6 gave us a glimpse of the lord’s real values. 
Here, he was mocking the teacher. The former doesn’t care for social norms and treats commoners as humans in truth. He doesn’t think that peasants should remain peasants and peoples’ fate is already determined.
But let’s return our attention to the emotions a witness feels, once put in a uncomfortable situation. What caught my attention is that the specialist exposed that fear was associated to 3 reactions:
- desertion, running away
- attack, assault: let’s not forget that a cornered animal will bite and attack, if it feels threatened
- freezing which means that the body is immobile, yet the heart is beating very fast and the blood is circulating more quickly.
And now, if you observe the butler’s reactions in chapter 64-65, you’ll note that we have all these three reactions:
: here he is threatening the doctor, if he speaks, then he will pay with his life. - (chapter 64)
Because people associate cowardice to desertion or freezing, they always overlook one aspect: fear, a synonym for cowardice, is not excluding attack. This explicates why Ernesto Mallo wrote this:
“It becomes clear that there are only two kinds of cowards: those who flee backwards and those who flee forward.”
And this truly shows that if a coward feels threatened, he can definitely retaliate, but naturally he will never attack a person directly. He has to use another strategy due to his fear. He will use others in order to protect his own interests. And Kim is definitely using others in order to get rid of the painter. In chapter 67, he clearly implied that Heena noona should take away her brother, while the master was away.
He knew from her behavior, she wouldn’t leave Baek Na-Kyum in that mansion due to the way she attempted to reach the lord’s bedchamber.
And now it is time to focus on the part why Kim became such a coward in the end. From my point of view, Kim’s attitude didn’t start with the first incident in the shed, when the lord was a teenager. It started much earlier, when the valet was himself a child. Why? It is related to education and the environment a child grew up. Let’s not forget that Kim only became Yoon Seungho’s butler, when the latter was a teenager
, meaning that he wasn’t a part of the Yoon household right from the start. He was raised elsewhere. The author from the following website (fr.housepsych.com) pointed out that three important factors explain why a servant like Kim could become a coward:
- An authoritarian upbringing
- The child’s will is broken. And in our manhwa, this can only be reinforced, if the boy is a commoner, as he is considered as nobody. He has no right.
- “Faintheartedness” develops where impunity and powerlessness, violence and crime prevails. Therefore the child internalizes that he is weak in front of the outside world.
And now, you understand why I underlined out how important education and upraising were so relevant. After experiencing impotence, the child learns that he just needs to adjust himself in order to survive. This means that he obeys and follows his parents’ or master’s order very well, yet this is just a subterfuge. The weaker one quickly understands that an open conflict is dangerous and starts to act in a hidden and average way, while showing humility on the outside. And this description fits our butler perfectly. Since he is a commoner and as such weak, he became caring and humble on the outside, while in reality he is just defending his own interests, as his survival instinct has become a normality. And now, if I include Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, you’ll realize that Kim is not motivated by love or esteem or self-actualization.
Safety and physiological needs are what matter to him. That’s why he desires to lead a peaceful life far away from trouble and ruckus. At the same time, this explains why Yoon Seungho never felt loved by his butler, as the latter was not focused on giving and receiving love. 
The irony is that the moment the domestic finally accepts the painter as his master’s lover (“let’s keep it this way”) implying that he will stop with his tricks, Heena noona barges in the mansion and creates a scandal, which he can only considers as a threat. Therefore the valet changes his mind. But more importantly, this scene is important for another reason. 
Kim is in the backyard working and this shows his true mindset. For me, he likes being alone, and it looks like he is hiding from others. It was, as if he feared the outside world, reminding us of the following remark: “he is weak in front of the outside world.” Moreover, the manhwalovers should recall my initial analysis about the valet. I compared him to a dog watching over the house. This interpretation fits totally. The courtyard is his world and he feels safe there. Therefore Byeonduck showed us many panels with Kim in the courtyard. 
(chapter 33) This explicates in my opinion, why Yoon Seungho is not willing to go to the capital. He doesn’t just fear old white-bearded men, his lack of motivation is strongly connected with Kim’s needs. The latter fears trouble, which stands in opposition to politics. If his master were to become an official, he would have to deal with other nobles and enter in conflict, which stands in opposition to Kim’s philosophy. That’s why the butler had an interest that his master remains as a man consumed by lust. He wouldn’t develop any desire and ambition. As you can see through the Maslow’s motivational hierarchy needs, fear and cowardice are somehow innate due to the survival instinct, yet by living in society, peoples’ life change, as through love and status, people feel the need to growth.
Now, I would like you to read this following quote, because it actually describes Kim’s personality so well:
“A fainthearted person lives hard, being in tension and leading a separate fictional life, he still does not get the events necessary for his personality. Those who often have to come into contact with such people are also very worried, because if you are in a dominant position, such a person will bend with fear (he will support you and love you surprisingly in the same combinations as you), but there is always a threat: you will be betrayed. It is impossible to know what such a person really wants, because he lives with an eye on those around him, but such attention does not reflect any desire to improve him. No, such a person will betray you and deny you, tell secrets or pretend that he or she is not familiar with you, as soon as the situation changes. Friendship and trust are out of the question, because these concepts require loyalty to the chosen person, nobility to him, immutability of their principles and courage.” quoted from http://fr.housepsych.com/malodushie_default.htm
What caught my attention first is the constant fear a coward is feeling. It is deeply rooted in him, and this explains why the valet would say this to the painter . The latter justifies his fear with the noble, while now I believe that it is more related to his state of mind. Since he has been living for so long in fear, he associates it to Yoon Seungho. That’s the reason why the valet always looks so frightened and tired. He is always in tension. Hence he always has dark circles. Another important detail in this quote is the importance of the coward’s attitude. He observes his surrounding to get knowledge. He feels the need to perceive their true personality and desires, and will mirror their reaction. This is particularly perceptible, when the butler calls Baek Na-Kyum as “no-good painter” 
and the head-maid describes him as a charlatan. 
This projection is implied with the following quote: ” he will support you and love you surprisingly in the same combinations as you “. However, this will never reflect his true emotions and thoughts, as a coward’s attitude is to avoid emotions. “Not feeling means not suffering”. That’s why Kim gives his master the following advice: Don’t take it to heart. 
Under this new approach, you understand why Yoon Seungho had a relapse. He was encouraged not to feel anything and as such not to face his fear… He never confronted the painter.
Moreover, by paying attention to people’s attitude, he can manipulate people in order to achieve his goal. He will never act in the open, but in the shadow, for he needs to keep his image of an obedient and loyal servant, while in reality he is only loyal to himself. By monitoring his surroundings, he is able to discover secrets (like f. example the future abduction or the ruining of a painting) and will use this for his own benefit. He will even deny a person: Note that here, Yoon Seungho has to defend himself and his honor, although the butler is well aware of the truth: his master was a victim.
Strangely is that the author from that website recommends to a person suffering from cowardice to start with voicing his own desires. Why? Such a person has already internalized that his dreams and ideas could never become true. In reality, the coward has no longer any wish. His mindset is only focused on self-preservation. Since they are asked to express their own wishes, they are forced to change their mindset. And this is not surprising that before the lord’s final transformation, Yoon Seungho started externalizing his own hopes:
- chapter 58:
- chapter 63: These were glimpses of a growing courage. He developed a dream and became motivated to obtain it. The manhwaphiles can recognize that thanks to his love for Baek Na-Kyum, Yoon Seungho was slowly moving up in the Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. The latter is already announcing the lord’s raising. There’s no doubt that he will reach the highest level: Self-actualization needs – realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences. A desire “to become everything one is capable of becoming”(Maslow, 1987, p. 64). quoted from https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html#gsc.tab=0 The self-actualization corresponds to the moment when the Phoenix will truly shine.
Now, I would like to return to the testimony of the woman who witnessed a rape and did nothing. She was plagued with a guilty conscience, which led her to reflect on her own behavior. Therefore she forced herself to face reality and assume her responsibility for her own wrongdoings. She decided to make a short movie in order to encourage people to intervene. And this leads me to the following observation. The butler is a coward for another reason. He has never reflected on his own behavior. That’s why he says this: Repressing and forgetting is an important factor why Kim never reflected about his own behavior. His fear was too deeply internalized, at the same time he was always focused on the others, making sure to perceive people’s personality correctly. That way, he would be able to manage to survive. For him, manipulation has become an important of his survival instincts. This explicates why the servants listen to him, he always knows what he needs to say in order to convince them. 
(chapter 69) There’s no doubt that Yoon Seungho never gave such an order. He was already too happy that the painter had chosen to stay by his side. Besides, note what the domestic says: “He will have you killed”. In other words, he will give the order to eliminate the kisaeng. Yet we know for sure that Yoon Seungho killed the servant with his own hand. Therefore it displays that Kim was the one speaking behind this. This exposes that the butler considers the mansion as his propriety. Hence I come to the conclusion that Kim didn’t choose to follow his master out of loyalty for him, but because he had become comfortable in that mansion. But he had definitely other reasons, like for example following the eldest master’s order (on the surface).
Furthermore, he lets others commit the wrongdoings so that he can not really become accountable for this. This is perceptible in chapter 17, when he asks the maids not to approach the study, he knew that Jihwa was there. 
Let’s not forget that he lets Deok-Jae take the fall for the painter’s escape
when he was clearly the one who talked to Jung In-Hun 
. By using the personal pronoun “we”, the jealous servant wanted the butler to become responsible as well, but Kim remained silent and even kept his distance from Yoon Seungho. That’s why I come to the deduction that Kim was really content with his life, until the painter showed up. First, he was the real master of the courtyard, but he never had to take any responsibility, as Yoon Seungho as a master would take the whole blame: he was a sodomite, a violent and bad master etc… On the other hand, Kim could dress outside as a noble
, as he represented the lord. But if there was any trouble, then his master was the one responsible officially. Besides, if Yoon Seungho was changing, the butler would make sure that Jihwa would control his master. As you can see, he never had to assume any responsibility. And this leads me to the following observation, the lord started becoming brave thanks to his affection for the painter much earlier. He truly desired to become responsible for him. The manhwalovers shouldn’t forget that in that scene, Kim was not present. If he had seen this gesture, he would have realized the danger. That’s why he imagined that the moment Jung In-Hun had abandoned the artist, the latter would run away, as he had no reason to stay at the mansion in his mind. That’s why the door was left opened. 
He had no idea that “responsibility” was the trigger for Baek Na-Kyum to stay there. This word implied that the low-born was not perceived as a burden. In other words, cowardice is strongly related to responsibility. That’s the reason why the valet needs scapegoats (the amateur spy, Jihwa, Deok-Jae…) and lets others take the blame. He sees responsibility as a burden. Moreover, there is another reason why cowardice is linked to accountability. Scientists discovered bystander effect (in French it is called as “effet spectateur”). What is it exactly? One might think that the more people are witnessing a person in danger, the more highly the victim will be saved on time. But no… the truth is the more people are present, the less they will intervene. This is related to diffusion of liability. All the witnesses think that someone else will come and intervene. Therefore they all remain passive. This explicates why a woman could be raped in front of many people. No one felt responsible, as they waited for the intervention from the other beholders. And now, you might wonder why I am bringing this up. It is to show that courage won’t appear, if you are surrounded by people. Real courage occurs, when you have the impression that you are on your own. Let’s not forget that Kim has the support from his staff. He is even able to motivate and manipulate people with his words, hence he has definitely the power to use the staff in order to protect himself. And he actually did it. Deok-Jae was the one who suffered the most, while the butler had a bruised eye. That’s why I can’t accept Kim’s fear for his life as a justification for his cowardice. Besides, chapter 56 clearly reveals the butler’s role: 
he is an advisor, hence his words will be taken seriously.
As a conclusion, it shows that cowardice is not truly innate. Moreover, courage is learnable, yet it can only be nurtured in a good environment. That’s why it is important to protect children very early on, as safety helps them to develop other needs. Hence, the earlier they are exposed to danger, the higher the risk is that they become cowards and hypocrites. But more importantly, it truly shows Yoon Seungho’s strength and greatness. Although he was abused physically and sexually, exposed to the worst situations, he was not able to forget the importance of love. 
His desire to feel loved was the reason why he could overcome his traumas. He never gave up on love, which explicates why Yoon Seungho will be able to shine as a phoenix later. On the other hand, the valet only saw love as superfluous, as it could cause trouble. Note that the butler prefers being alone which coincides with his mentality. Only his life matters and no one else.
Feel free to comment. If you have any suggestion for topics or manhwas, feel free to ask. If you enjoyed reading it, retweet it or push the button like. My instagram-tumblr-twitter account is: @bebebisous33. Thanks for reading and for the support, particularly, I would like to thank all the new followers and people recommending my blog.
Painter Of The Night: Words
This is where you can read the manhwa. https://www.lezhinus.com/en/comic/painter But be aware that this manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes. If you want to read more essays, here is the link to the table of contents: https://bebebisous33analyses.wordpress.com/2020/07/04/table-of-contents-painter-of-the-night/
On the surface, it looks like in chapter 73 nothing important happened, because the two protagonists have just sex. However, this is just deceiving, for the significance lies in the details, and more precisely in the words. First, what caught my attention are the expressions used by Yoon Seungho. These reveal a lot about his actual state of mind. Pay attention to the following images, and try to find out the common lexical field: 
(chapter 73) Here, the relevant word is “enter”, an equivalent for invade.
(chapter 73) Mess is a synonym for chaos and wreck. 
(chapter 73) In the third panel, Yoon Seungho is implying that the painter just has to call him Seungho-Ya, and he will stop immediately. Strictly speaking, he is referring to the saying: your wish is my command. 
(chapter 73) Strangely, the word “bow” has two significations: a ribbon or a weapon. 
(chapter 73) In the fifth image, Yoon Seungho actually means seduction, yet he utilized the idiom “provocation”. Finally, we have Yoon Seungho’s favorite expression “fret”. During this night, he keeps mentioning it in connection to the painter: (chapter 72) 
(chapter 73) I have to confess that in this situation, I can’t help myself associating this idiom to an anxious animal trying to escape. Now, I would like to sum up all the expressions the main lead employed: enter, mess, word as a synonym for command, bow, provoke and fret. As you can observe, they are all connected to war and conquest. However, since the lord dropped his armor for good, I believe that the aristocrat is thinking about something else: hunting, which coincides with his second hobby. 
(chapter 41) Baek Na-Kyum is his prey, and the lord is trying to catch his heart through sex. However, Yoon Seungho’s attitude is not consciously done, he is not aware that he is speaking like a hunter. More astonishing is that the painter’s vocabulary mirrors his lover’s: 
(chapter 73) The word spot is a synonym for target and prey. (chapter 73) The prey has to move on at his own pace in order to escape from the hunter. Nevertheless, 
(chapter 73) the target is wounded (“it hurts”) and tied up. Even Yoon Seungho’s words are referring to a wound, as if the animal was bleeding to death 
(chapter 73) , as it keeps leaking (chapter 73) As you can observe, Yoon Seungho is so pleased by the painter’s reactions. Imagine, with a few licks and one thrust his lover had two climaxes. He has the impression that he is getting closer to his goal, winning Baek Na-Kyum’s heart. Therefore he becomes more passionate and impatient. He can’t wait to claim the artist as his “wife”, that’s the reason why he can’t take a break. Hence his lover has to refrain him, asking him for a moment of respite. 
(chapter 73) But the lord is known as an impatient man, which seems to be confirmed here. However, in reality it took him many months to be gazed and even accepted. Now that Yoon Seungho is seeing how affected the artist is with his words, caresses and kisses, he is so happy that he calls his lover 
(chapter 73) revealing that they have no longer a lord-servant relationship. This exposes how much the main lead wishes to be intimate with the artist. Therefore, he can’t simply wait contradicting himself. 
(chapter 73) His actions prove that he is definitely in a hurry.
This association to the hunt exposes two important aspects: the noble has not entirely changed… these idioms are the remains from his previous doctrines, but they are much softer. The lord is now attempting to woo the artist, so that the painter can finally admit that he loves being with him and that only Yoon Seungho is able to make him happy, even if it is through pleasure. This chapter is an allusion to chapter 45, where I had already pointed out that the noble was deluding himself by calling the artist an easy conquest. Back then, this comment made me so laugh, because chapter 42 clearly outlined that it wasn’t even easy due to the lord’s grimace during the intercourse. 
(chapter 42) And observe that this chapter confirms my interpretation. First, the noble has a similar facial expression 
exposing that he has to work hard in order to please his lover. He is still clinching his jaw, however the manhwaphiles can detect two huge differences: the mouth is more open and he is now blushing. This shows how much this hunt is touching his heart. And the comparison makes me realize that Yoon Seungho’s final sexual emancipation could be symbolized, when he moans his lover’s name while having an orgasm. That’s why we have the lord calling the painter so affectionately (Na-Kyum-Ah) before the second round. (chapter 73)
Since this love sessions reminds us of a hunt, it is not surprising that winning the painter’s heart is not easy, because he might scare the target. First, when the lord continued thrusting, his lover begged him to stop. The former had to yell and use his hand to stop him. (chapter 73) In order to reassure his partner, he kissed his hand 
(chapter 73) showing that he was serious with his saying: Your wish is my command. In addition, he wanted to demonstrate that he hadn’t forgotten his promise: not to scare him.
At the same time, Baek Na-Kyum likes rough sex as well, hence he has to beg his partner for his help. He is not satisfied with his own actions. This explicates why there is this alternation between speed accompanied with roughness
and a breather. 
(chapter 73) The noble and Baek Na-Kyum’s desires stand in opposition to the artist’s weakened physical condition. The latter can’t physically keep up, hence he faints at the end.
(chapter 73) The prey has definitely been wounded by this special hunt. However, Yoon Seungho did achieve something really important. The blushing painter cried out of excitement during his final climax. 
(chapter 73) Yet, I doubt that this will be noticed by the aristocrat. He is definitely too shocked by the incident. His lover fainted. In my eyes, there is no ambiguity that Yoon Seungho will panic again. He has three reasons for that:
- He never forgot the consequences of the first sex marathon.
(chapter 32) He felt so remorseful and was so worried that he ran away, too scared to face the painter and assume his responsibilities. However, he made sure that a physician was fetched. This terrible experience explicates why the lord panicked in chapter 50. He envisioned for one moment that he had overdone it again. 
- Secondly, he witnessed within one day how the painter fainted twice. The latter had a flashback so that he became unconscious. The lord thought that he could die.
The noble had such huge pangs of conscience that he couldn’t forget the painter’s poor condition. Hence he desired to verify if he had recovered in the bathroom. - Finally, during this night, he noticed how the painter breathed heavily.
(chapter 72) He was worried, but the painter reassured him. In truth, the heavy breathing was caused by a climax, which the artist tried to hide from his lover. Therefore, there’s no doubt that after this chapter, the noble will question his behavior again. As a hunter, he overestimated the strength of his “prey”. Moreover he will realize that Baek Na-Kyum’s words contributed to this incident. Let’s not forget that Yoon Seungho was following the artist’s request. 
(chapter 73) This time, the painter’s exhaustion occurred due to both protagonists. That’s why Yoon Seungho will realize that he has to become more responsible and can’t just give the whole responsibility to Baek Na-Kyum. He should have paid more attention to the artist’s health and physical condition. And Kim took advantage of the situation. Thus from that night on, the lord kept his distance from his lover. From my point of view, the valet used these expressions against the main lead. He had been targeting the artist, turning him into a prey, hence the painter could not refused. Kim’s MO has always been to mix cause and consequences. Besides, since he heard such words, he could only have a negative impression. The manhwaphiles shouldn’t forget that the valet is a pessimistic person due to “fortunetelling”. [For more read the essay “Fortunetelling”] As you can see, due to this incident the main lead learned another important lesson: consent. Therefore the lord said this later (chapter 75) 
(chapter 79) In the second case, he made sure that both were on the same page. He had felt coerced. Through this fainting, the main lead became more careful and responsible for both of them. The problem is that he was still influenced by his past experience: sex is like a battle… which was now transformed into a hunt.
This parallel between this love session and the hunt gives us an explication why the author chose to include gestures and words from the sex session with Jihwa (chapter 14-15). First, the positions are similar, which my follower @I_Love_Seungho truly observed. 
. (chapter 15) Secondly, Yoon Seungho repeats similar expressions: (chapter 73) 
(chapter 14) And this is how I made the connection with this love session, as I was paying attention to the words.
Let’s start with the last two pictures. Note that in episode 14, the seme didn’t smear the sperm on his own body, but he put it into his childhood friend’s mouth. This gesture gave us the feeling that the sperm was something dirty. Notice that the lord’s words sound like a reproach towards his friend. The personal pronoun “You” stands in the first position, while in chapter 73 it looks more like a compliment (What a mess you’ve made), as “what a mess” is associated to an exclamation. In other words, in chapter 14 the second lead is blamed for the chaos and dirt he created, while Baek Na-Kyum gets praised..
Besides, the manhwaphiles should recall that initially the noble just gave pleasure to his sex partner without getting anything in return. 
(chapter 14) It didn’t happen, because he was selfless… no, this was the consequence of Jihwa’s attitude who did nothing to “seduce” his friend. He refused to kiss him
(chapter 14), but like he explained, his visit was because he was giving in to Yoon Seungho’s ways. But we have to question ourselves: who wanted whom here? The second lead did visit his friend, as he was seeking his company for sex. He could have refused, as his friend never forced him, but he did not. Moreover, the lord made it clear that Jihwa was just coming for sex and nothing more, yet the childhood friend never denied it.
In addition, he punished his partner by not kissing him. Hence his behavior implied that Yoon Seungho had to pleasure him. As you can truly observe, Jihwa never made the effort to conquer his friend, he projected his own thoughts into his sex partner in reality. This sex session reflects the epitome of war… who will admit his defeat first? That’s why there’s no love and warmth. Besides, both protagonists were quite passive in this sex session. Jihwa only changed his attitude, when he sensed the presence of an enemy in the room: the painter. The friend never asked for his host’s help either. This explicates why the lord could only look at the painter’s facial expressions during the sex session. The latter was the only one who seems to be affected by his gestures and gaze. Jiwa hid how he was affected
, he never allowed him to see his weak side. In addition, Jihwa’s words were full of criticisms.
This is not surprising that Yoon Seungho was behaving in a similar way. He was reflecting the second lead’s behavior. In my eyes, Jihwa treated his friend like a real sex toy who was there to pleasure him, hence the fellatio is done to prepare the penetration. That’s why there’s no real exchange, the lord is very passive as well during the blowjob. He feels nothing at all 
. When the sex session started, he seemed to be in a hurry too, similar to chapter 73, but for a different reason. He desired his job to be over. Therefore I come to the conclusion that Jihwa was having sex on his own. Note that once the penetration happened, the second lead had the impression, he had won the battle and war. 
(chapter 15) However, Jihwa never truly invested his energy and effort to woo his childhood friend’s heart. This is no longer surprising why the second lead felt so lonely, even during their intimate time. Yet the irony was that the head-kisaeng was treated like a tool for Jihwa’s pleasure, and the latter never realized that.
On the other hand, Baek Na-Kyum keeps complimenting his partner 
, he even recognizes that praising him too much could encourage Yoon Seungho to become more passionate, hence he diminishes his praise afterwards. 
(chapter 72) Baek Na-Kyum’s words and reactions are the reason why the lord is so affected. But unlike in chapter 14, the painter asks for his lover’s help showing that making love implies the involvement of two persons and not just one. Like I had written in a previous analysis, the lord is discovering that giving pleasure to his lover is also receiving. Hence he blushes and becomes more passionate. (chapter 73) His blood is boiling not due to anger, but due to his intense feelings. Both lovers are proactive here (chapter 73) which contrasts so much to the sex session in chapter 14. (chapter 15) That’s why words are really important, they reflect people’s mentality. The lord went after his lover’s heart, therefore he “worked” hard to please his partner discovering that he felt so much pleasure as well. However, now he needs to become more patient and responsible by resisting to temptation: (chapter 73) But more importantly, he has to learn to woo the artist differently, not only through sex… Winning the lover’s heart and hand is called courting, and not hunting. On the other hand, for Kim, the conversation let appear Yoon Seungho as a rather “brutal” man imposing his will onto the artist. He was cornering his prey… while the artist could only look like a man consumed by lust for he would accept this “pressure” and “mistreatment” (tie up, bow).
Feel free to comment. If you have any suggestion for topics or manhwas, feel free to ask. If you enjoyed reading it, retweet it or push the button like. My instagram-tumblr-twitter account is: @bebebisous33. Thanks for reading and for the support, particularly, I would like to thank all the new followers and people recommending my blog.
Painter Of The Night: The rebirth of the Phoenix
This is where you can read the manhwa. https://www.lezhin.com/en/comic/painter But be aware that this manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes. If you want to read more essays, here is the link to the table of contents: https://bebebisous33analyses.wordpress.com/2020/07/04/table-of-contents-painter-of-the-night/
When the lord was dressed with a hanbok with a pattern showing phoenixes
, I realized that we would witness the lord’s spiritual death followed by his rebirth. However, I have to confess that I had no idea when it would occur. The only clue I had was that it was related to the low-born’s abduction and planned assassination. Striking is that Jihwa’s nightmare was actually announcing the lord’s spiritual death: 
(chapter 50). But if you pay attention, you’ll observe that in this terrible vision, there were two dead people: the painter and master Yoon. That’s why both characters had empty gaze. 
This means that in truth the manhwalovers would assist to two “spiritual deaths”, Baek Na-Kyum and Yoon Seungho’s. But wait… Only the aristocrat was wearing a hanbok with phoenixes, not the painter. But I am certain that the painterofthenight lovers will recall the robe the lord covered the commoner with in chapter 45: Baek Na-Kyum was linked to cranes. Therefore, this signified that the painter’s death would be different. Note that the artist’s head is bleeding just like his body indicating that there’ll be a real transformation. My explanation is that he is supposed to come back to life as a crane. This beautiful bird means good fortune, happiness and longevity. I am quite sure that my readers remember the analysis about the animals embodying the two protagonists. Back then, I had explained that the lamb represented Baek Na-Kyum perfectly: innocence and purity, but this animal is also associated to sacrifice and selflessness, because in Christianity, the lamb represents Christ as both suffering and triumphant. And now, you understand why Byeonduck made the painter suffer so much. Moreover, the artist is also associated to the butterfly 
and the latter is also a symbol for rebirth. My interpretation is that Baek Na-Kyum will transform into a crane, hence there’s blood on his head and body. He will get a new identity. Furthermore, I had elaborated that all nobles were represented by birds: Jihwa imagined himself as crane, while in reality he was a pheasant(chapter 41), Jung In-Hun was a peacock, Min a crow and finally Yoon Seungho a Phoenix (although in that essay I had imagined, Yoon Seungho was an eagle). And this final transformation occurs, when the lord calls him: The moment he is perceived as a noble, he becomes a crane.
With this new interpretation, I recognize that the main leads made a similar experience. I have already developed the theory that both protagonists mirror each other, hence they are so fascinated by each other and help each other. Therefore, if the lord is supposed to die spiritually, the artist has to go through a similar process. And it is time to ask ourselves, when their spiritual death happened? In my eyes, this was symbolized by the painter’s vision: 
(chapter 66) This was the new version of Jihwa’s nightmare. It looks like the lord is mourning the deceased. The black hanbok with a white collar resembles a lot to the clothes Koreans are wearing at a funeral: black with white stripes. Besides, if I add this panel, the readers will now understand why the noble felt this way. He was sitting next to the painter’s body fearing for his death, hence he was touching his hand
. He waited, until he saw the artist opening his eyes for a brief instant.
In that moment, the aristocrat recognized that the artist was coming back to life. That’s why he called his name. As you can see, the lord only left his side after making sure that his life was no longer in danger. That’s why the lord has no eye in this scene. That’s the moment the aristocrat dies spiritually. This is not surprising that this dream is framed with black. Moreover, it was, as if there was a black veil covering this vision. However, the protagonists’ death started much earlier, to be more precise, in Yoon Seungho’s bedchamber. Baek Na-Kyum had a flashback and was terrified, hence his gaze was so lost, which damaged so much his lover that the latter had a similar reaction. In my eyes, their empty gazes correspond to these empty eyes from Jihwa’s nightmare: (chapter 50). This explicates why the lord visited the culprit right after the artist’s “death”. At the same time, the lord’s presence was the trigger for Baek Na-Kyum to come back to life.
He felt his presence, hence he was confused if what he saw in his vision was a dream or reality. In my eyes, this “dream” is important, as for the first time, his dream is less linked to desires and the future. It is strongly intertwined with the present. On the other hand, these terrible experiences made both main leads realize the importance of their lover in their life. While fearing for his death, 
Baek Na-Kyum remembered Yoon Seungho’s smile which made him scream for his help. The same occurred to the powerful noble, when he imagined that the painter would die. He thought, he would never be able to see the painter’s smile. There’s no doubt that first the aristocrat blamed himself, until Min revealed Jihwa’s crime. However, for Yoon Seungho, it was enough. Not only he hadn’t believed in his lover’s words, but also he had mistreated him. That’s why in the artist’s study, the lord died spiritually. Due to the gestures, the manhwaworms can feel the lord’s regret and heartache. 
Consequently the protagonist is holding the artist’s hand. He is admitting his failure as a lord, too blinded by his own emotions, the artist kept his word as requested, even if he was tormented. He showed courage and strength, but also loyalty and humbleness. Let’s not forget that the commoner had asked for forgiveness
, although he had done nothing wrong at all. His apology was sincere, and the main character had misjudged it. There’s no ambiguity that while sitting next to Baek Na-Kyum, the noble realized the painter’s true personality. Hence this is not surprising that Yoon Seungho shows such a respect towards Baek Na-Kyum later. In my opinion, when the master arrived in his mansion, he wanted to send away the kisaeng for two reasons. He had seen how weak the painter was and feared that the kisaeng would drag her brother away. We shouldn’t forget how the kisaeng managed her way to reach Yoon Seungho’s bedroom, therefore in his mind, she would act the same way. Moreover, if the painter were to disappear, the noble would never be able to redeem himself. In my eyes, he wanted to make it up to him. However, once he stood in front of the study, he recognized that he couldn’t do like nothing had happened. 
He heard the artist’s confession which was linked to fear and a certain reluctance to face the lord and his own feelings. Moreover, he realized that he had to respect the painter’s wish, he let Baek Na-Kyum take his destiny in hand. In other words, the dream of the painter presented the lord’s future action and decision. This was his leap of faith, and as such it announced the Phoenix’ rebirth. The moment the master decided to give the commoner the freedom to choose his fate, the artist’s hand would follow his worshipper.
This explicates why Yoon Seungho is so intimidated by Heena, when the latter approaches him. 
His words might sound confident, yet if the beholders examine more closely these, they will note the presence of a question, exposing the aristocrat’s certain hesitation. The noble is definitely lacking self-confidence due to his recent “death”. But I have to admit that for me, the real rebirth happens in the bathroom. Why?
First, I can’t help myself connecting the bath to Christianity. The baptism is done with holy water. It is supposed to announce a new life as a Christian. Water symbolizes that all your sins are washed away. Your soul becomes pure again. And note that in the tub, the lord is acting very differently from the past. He doesn’t speak well, hence he makes some mistakes
, exposing a certain shyness. Moreover, his gestures are so gentle and precise
, because his armor melted away. Since water is associated to purification, it means that the bath represents the lord’s rebirth as a phoenix. But because the bird comes back from its own ashes, the animal returns in the form of a baby. That’s why the lord is so innocent and pure from chapter 70 on. First, he plays a prank in the tub.
Then in the bedchamber, he decides to switch roles…
(role play). Now Baek Na-Kyum is the powerful lord, while he is just his subordinate. Finally, when he sticks out his tongue
, he looks and acts definitely like a playful child. This explicates why words can move him so deeply. 
At the same time, as a new born, this is not surprising that Yoon Seungho lacks maturity. Hence the painter has become the ultimate authority. 
Let’s not forget that Baek Na-Kyum transformed into a crane, which I associate to tranquility and wisdom. Just like his lover, he transformed into a crane in the tub. Water cleaned his heart and mind for good. This is not surprising that the artist is more mature than his lover. He had a different rebirth, as he reflected on his emotions and thoughts before the baptism. Thanks to Yoon Seungho’s teaching about critical thinking, the artist was able to free his heart and mind from the learned sir, and the baptism marked the final step.
But let’s return our attention to the phoenix. By submitting himself to “lord Na-Kyum”, the lord is implying that the commoner is now responsible for him. This is a new version of chapter 40: , nonetheless there are two huge differences. This time the lord has taken over the scholar’s position. The painter will be responsible for him, and the former will hope to be loved by the noble. This signifies that the phoenix will be able to shine thanks to Baek Na-Kyum. The latter will be Yoon Seungho’s good fortune, just like the lord has become the painter’s good fortune. A phoenix is a mystical and powerful bird, this explicates why the commoner could turn into a lord and as such into a crane.
Some readers wondered why the noble wouldn’t pay attention to the circumstances of the first abduction, and why he wouldn’t anticipate the enemies’ schemes. This is related to the aristocrat’s innocence. Right now, he is like a child, hence he is not focused on the future. As a child, Yoon Seungho is now living for the moment which I can totally understand. Until now, he had been living trapped in the past. With his rebirth, he was able to move on. Yet, he will realize that he needs to anticipate more and make concrete plans for the future, if he wants to protect his lover. However, I would like to point out that he has already prepared the ground. First, he created such a ruckus at the Lees that now, father Lee can no longer feign ignorance. If Jihwa commits another misdeed, then Yoon Seungho made it clear that father Lee will be held responsible for his son’s crime. The phoenix made it clear that out of respect for father Lee, he wouldn’t do more than create a scandal
, yet this signifies that if there’s another incident, he won’t be respectful again. In my opinion, it already announces the purge.
As you can see, I perceive that Byeonduck used a lot of references to religion. We have the presence of water and the white bougies embodying knowledge and clarity of the mind. Finally we have an altar: 
The lord is kneeling in front of his deity, the crane, making amends due to his “sins”. That’s why I am more than ever convinced that Yoon Seungho will create either a painting or a poem for his “god” at some point exposing his love and admiration. He is already treasuring the artist’s tongue and hand, therefore I am expecting him to recognize the artist’s true intelligence. Remember that in the past, he used to call him a fool, from my point of view, he will realize his mistake. Baek Na-Kyum only received a single lesson about critical thinking and he applied it right away. Secondly, he never forgot his “lesson”, as he started reflecting about himself from chapter 46 on 
(“why”) and he never stopped it. This was particularly perceptible in chapter 70, when the artist remembered his past and realized that he had overcome his trauma caused by Jung In-Hun. Now, he is even applying this lesson concerning others 
He wants to know his lover’s motivation. Therefore, I come to the deduction that Baek Na-Kyum has matured so much that he will now be able to question the scholar’s words and actions. He won’t be able to be manipulated like in the past.
One of my readers proposed as a theory that the lord would get poisoned and the painter would decide to assume his responsibility as lord Na-Kyum, which would create a conflict between Kim and the artist. Now after examining the rebirth of the phoenix and the crane, I have to admit that her theory sounds more and more possible. Furthermore, this would announce that the painter would be able to defeat Kim and Min’s plan. Let’s not forget that in reality, Min is the painter’s enemy, although the former has developed an obsession for him. Besides, the manhwalovers should recall how Black Heart used the painter to hurt Yoon Seungho, therefore I am expecting that the new version of chapter 53/54 will show us the Joker’s defeat thanks to Baek Na-Kyum.
Under this new approach, the manhwaphiles can comprehend why the noble is listening to lord Na-Kyum’s requests. 
The crane proved him how brave, mature, strong and loyal he is…. while he was so blinded by his own fears and self-hatred. In his eyes, he is truly superior to him. Simultaneously, it is also understandable why the phoenix has problems to control himself in front of his god. The latter is not a blind and deaf idol who wants to be admired and worshipped constantly without giving anything in return. His god listens to his requests and wishes. 
The crane is the real god, while Jung In-Hun is a fake one. 
After examining the rebirth of the phoenix and the crane, my interpretation that Jung In-Hun will become the painter’s rival seems to become more and more certain. However, thanks to the phoenix’s support, lord Na-Kyum will be able to defeat his “learned sir”. Concerning Yoon Seungho, the latter will also have to fight against his own father, and he will definitely defeat and surpass him, since he is a phoenix. This is not surprising that the protagonists fell in love with each other, as their souls are very similar: both are associated to good fortune, which could only make the fathers jealous.
Feel free to comment. If you have any suggestion for topics or manhwas, feel free to ask. If you enjoyed reading it, retweet it or push the button like. My instagram-tumblr-twitter account is: @bebebisous33. Thanks for reading and for the support, particularly, I would like to thank all the new followers and people recommending my blog.
Protected: Painter Of The Night: Yoon Seungho’s erections (second version)
Painter Of The Night: Farewell
This is where you can read the manhwa. https://www.lezhin.com/en/comic/painter But be aware that this manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes.
Striking is that when I started writing this morning, I had no idea that my topic would fit with chapter 70. What caught my attention in chapter 69 was the way Yoon Seungho and Baek Na-Kyum bid farewell to Heena noona, his sister, which contrasts so much to the scholar’s goodbye. Therefore I decided to compare them, and then I realized that there existed other farewells. In the manhwa, we have seven different sendoffs:
- The first goodbye occurs in chapter 35, when the learned sir is decided to visit the former servant from the Yoons household. While the painter follows his teacher, he doesn’t realize that Jung In-Hun is leaving the mansion, until the low noble caresses his cheek and reminds him of his duty.
Then he closes the main gate in front of Baek Na-Kyum who is deeply disappointed and hurt.
- Yoon Seungwon is sent off by the butler, when the former leaves his brother’s mansion.
(chapter 37) - The younger master Yoon is leaving his father’s home in order to go to Hanyang (chapter 44)
- Jung In-Hun is departing from his sponsor’s propriety for the capital (chapter 44) after taking the first round of the civil service examination
- The painter is leaving the kisaeng house on Heena noona’s order.
(chapter 46) - Heena noona with her brother and his lord
(chapter 69) - In chapter 70, Baek Na-Kyum recalls an important goodbye from his youth. Back then, the young boy was sad and upset after departing from Heena noona. He had been entrusted to the scholar Jung In-Hun.
What do these adieux have in common?
| Chapter | People involved in the farewell |
| 35 | Baek Na-Kyum, Jung In-Hun, Yoon Seungho, Kim |
| 37 | Yoon Seungwon, Yoon Seungho, Kim and Baek Na-Kyum |
| 44 | Yoon Seungwon, father Yoon, Yoon Seungho and Baek Na-Kyum through the painting |
| 44 | Jung In-Hun, Yoon Seungho, Baek Na-Kyum and valet Kim |
| 46 | Heena noona, Baek Na-Kyum, noonas and Jung In-Hun |
| 69 | Heena noona, Yoon Seungho, valet Kim and Baek Na-Kyum |
| 70 | Heena noona, Jung In-Hun, Baek Na-Kyum and the moon |
Observe that all seven goodbyes are revolving around four people, although the adieu was just between two persons. Moreover, the main leads, Yoon Seungho and Baek Na-Kyum, are always involved. You might argue that in the seventh case, it is not possible. But I would like to remind my readers that I have already associated the main lead Yoon Seungho to the moon. Furthermore, the teacher’s words about the moon (“fond of you”) 
are mirrored in the lord’s confession from chapter 56. 
Therefore, we could say that he was present in the farewell as well, because the scholar kept referring the moon to the innocent boy. Since I have already pointed that in each departing two people got involved, this means that their relationship is strongly intertwined with other bonds. Relatives or acquaintances affect the farewell.
Striking is that the way they part from each other exposes the true nature of their relationship. In the first case, the scholar just faked his concern for the artist’s health, whereas he desired to use the commoner as spy.
That’s why he gave him an order “you ought to head back in” and the painter couldn’t argue. Moreover, the learned sir asked him to keep his promise, he needed him to work for him.
What caught my attention is the silence from the painter. At no moment, he can speak and bid farewell, and this is understandable due to the noble’s remarks. Although the commoner wasn’t the one leaving, he had the impression that he was abandoned. This explicates why the artist was wounded by this departure. 
Striking is that this scene was observed by the main lead and his butler. While the noble felt himself betrayed and abandoned, he was indeed relieved in the end that Baek Na-Kyum had remained by his side. Consequently, the first departure was marked by disappointment and heartache from the protagonists. Both felt helpless, as they had no saying in this. Since the closed gate resembled more to a jail gate than a real home, I come to the conclusion that both main characters were trapped in reality. This explains why the lord feared the painter’s departure. He had the impression that if the latter set a foot outside, the noble would end up alone again. Another aspect is that this farewell forced the aristocrat to leave his room and window, he had to run to the gate… a desperate measure to stop this moment.
Now it is time to examine the next goodbye. The brother was officially on the verge of departing from his brother, but the host was not present. Hence there’s no real goodbye. Since the main lead didn’t show him any respect by following him to the gate, the younger master was just followed by the butler. Moreover, the latter gave him in his master’s name a letter, like the younger master had requested it in the morning. From my point of view, the brother’s smile 
is an indication that he believed that his personal visitation had been successful. By pressuring his brother, he had finally been able to get the reply he desired. But the reality must have hit him hard later, because in the end, he just got a ruined painting of sodomy. And this explicates why the father ended up receiving the paper from his younger son. 
In other words, Seungwon decided to get revenge on the humiliation. Besides, I also think that he hoped that with such a gesture, father Yoon would make the decision to pay his rebellious son a visit and have him punished for his lack of respect. But what Yoon Seungwon seemed to overlook is that when he barged into his brother’s mansion, he showed no real respect either. 
Imagine, he even desired to open the door of Yoon Seungho’s bedchamber. Hence, it is not surprising that the eldest brother didn’t follow his brother to the main gate. He didn’t feel obliged to pay his respect to Yoon Seungwon. To sum up, in this farewell, both characters were quite rude to each other, and Yoon Seungho showed no leniency towards the younger master, as the latter had violated the social norms first. This animosity was even encouraged by the valet’s intervention. And let’s not forget that in that scene, Yoon Seungho chose the painter over his brother. He asked him to remain by his side, because he was too upset and wounded by Yoon Seungwon’s sudden appearance and selfish request.
In the third case, Yoon Seungwon was waiting for his father, but since the door remained closed, he decided to depart from home.
There’s no doubt that this must have indeed disappointed Yoon Seungwon. His father still chose to focus his attention to Yoon Seungho instead of him, hence he kept looking at the closed door. Yet before leaving he blamed his oldest brother for his father’s lack of concern and respect. Striking is that the main lead was not present, yet through his mention, the brother gave the impression that Yoon Seungho was still part of the family despite the incident with the topknot and the long separation. Yet, Yoon Seungwon felt bothered that his own father didn’t even pay attention to customs. He didn’t send off like a respectful and dutiful father either. From my perspective, it looks like the younger master was trying to cover up the lack of father Yoon’s manners by making the main lead responsible for this. We shouldn’t forget that the main character was considered as the black sheep of the Yoons. At the same time, the younger brother was attempting to make himself look good, because unlike the head of family, the former paid his respect to his father before. With a single panel, we can conclude that Yoon Seungwon is acting, as if he was a honorable and dutiful son, contrary to his older brother, who upset father Yoon so much that the latter forgot his duties. The irony is that while the younger master talks about his brother, the latter has no opportunity to contradict this, as he is not present. On the other hand, the brother’s words are somehow true, because the father is indeed infuriated due to the ruined painting. On the other hand, the younger master played a role in this as well, because he was the one wo delivered the painting. Moreover, like I have already underlined, I am no longer thinking that Yoon Seungho entrusted it deliberately to his brother as an affront for the simple reason that Yoon Seungho still fears his father. Let’s not forget Yoon Seungho’s words addressed to his brother.
Here, he reminded him that he was living according to their father’s principles, showing that despite the abandonment and betrayal, he never dared to drop his father’s doctrines. From my point of view, the ruined painting was given by Kim on purpose, to incite the father to intervene. Besides, we shouldn’t forget that the “letter” was delivered after the brother had parted from Yoon Seungho. Hence the main lead never got to see what the butler did behind his back. Another evidence for this misdeed is the absence of the valet’s eyes. Since Kim had told his master that he needed to deliver an answer personally, the butler used this request to his advantage. And Yoon Seungwon is too naive to realize that he has been misled, that’s why he is also represented without eyes. The manhwaphiles should recall that in this scene, the younger master was humiliated, as his elder brother didn’t send him off properly. Why should he give a letter under such circumstances? And if we compare the three goodbyes, we will detect the recurrence of discourtesy and the missed opportunity of saying goodbye properly.
In the fourth case, we also have the absence of a third person: the painter. Yoon Seungho invited the teacher to bid farewell to his former student through his rhetorical question, 
but Jung In-Hun didn’t care. In his eyes, he was just a low-born, and the former didn’t need him at all. 
Striking is that the low noble paid his respect to his sponsor out of obligation and nothing more. As long as Yoon Seungho was useful, then the learned sir would have to be polite and respectful. That’s why he bowed in front of the wealthy aristocrat. In other words, the scholar’s bow is fake which stands in opposition to the artist’s bow in chapter 69. 
More importantly is that in this fourth farewell, the artist didn’t get the opportunity to bid farewell properly to his former teacher too. Neither Jung In-Hun nor Kim had informed him about the time of his departure.
Striking is that in that chapter, the rich main lead was the only one who desired to make the painter happy, hence he suggested the low noble to depart properly from the low-born. What caught my attention is the opened door in front of the painter. Why was the door left open like that? The manhwaphiles should remember that in that scene, Kim was already aware of the discussion between Jung In-Hun and Baek Na-Kyum at the library. And with this new approach, it becomes clear, Kim was hoping that the artist would leave the place, since he had been insulted and abandoned by his teacher. He had no reason to remain by Yoon Seungho’s side. Besides, we shouldn’t forget the noble’s words addressed to the learned sir: 
In other words, Kim was just waiting for the low-born’s departure, and in order to push the painter to leave the mansion, he made sure that he wouldn’t see Jung In-Hun leaving. This would reinforce the betrayal and abandonment issues the painter had felt due to the scholar’s attitude and words before. Moreover, we shouldn’t forget the parting between Jung In-Hun and his former pupil in chapter 35. Note that in both farewells, the young man had no saying. In the first incident, he got caught by surprise and in the second goodbye, the learned sir was already gone. Since this closed door contrasts so much to the open gate in episode 44, and in both chapters Kim was present, I come to the deduction that the butler was observing the low-born in the shadow. In his mind, if the door was left open, the artist would leave without saying goodbye to anyone. Striking is that despite the previous desertion and wound, Baek Na-Kyum was still showing respect towards his learned sir, indicating that despite his heartache, he was willing to overlook everything. There’s no doubt that the missed goodbye did increase the artist’s abandonment issues. And here again, I detect the lack of respect towards the main leads. The scholar might have bowed in front of Yoon Seungho, yet he rejected the noble’s suggestion and even started plotting behind his back, how he would use the painter for his own benefit. 
And it is time to focus on the parting between Heena noona, the artist and the noble. Striking is that for the first time, the lord left his room and walked towards the painter and his guest.
In other words, he was showing her a huge respect and as such biding her farewell. He even acted as a real host, because he offered to send her off with a servant from his mansion in order to guarantee her safety. And if you keep in mind that he did nothing for his own brother, and the latter is a noble, while Heena noona is just a kisaeng, you’ll detect how much the lord has already changed. He is definitely determined to keep the artist by his side, hence he is aware that he needs to show him a different side from him. He definitely heard the painter’s confession, because in chapter 70 Yoon Seungho asked the low-born directly if he was afraid of him. 
And with this new approach, the main lead did succeed. Baek Na-Kyum was able to recognize the lord’s leniency and honorable attitude. And contrary to the scholar’s bow in chapter 44, the artist is sincerely showing his respect towards his master. On the other hand, the disrespect is still present here. The one showing a rude attitude is the guest, the kisaeng. 
She keeps questioning the lord’s authority and personality. However at no moment, the aristocrat doesn’t lose his temper. In fact, he even retreats, until the kisaeng’s brother intervenes to stop her. Another huge difference contrasting to the departure of chapter 35 and 44 is the change of attitude of both protagonists. While with the scholar, Baek Na-Kyum could say nothing and had to resign to his fate, in chapter 69 he is the one speaking. Unlike in the past, he is the one sending off the loved one. But there’s more to it. Not only he can decide about his noona’s departure, but also he can choose the way he bids her farewell. He can hug her, he takes his time 
and smiles. 
For the first time, he feels that he is not left behind, but he can determine his fate. Imagine in the past, he used to be sent away by his noona and he couldn’t protest.
but the worst is that he even had to leave the kisaeng house and walked through the countryside. Try to put yourself in his place: Each time, he could never say goodbye and had to leave the place. He got carried away, when he was young and later, he was simply ordered to leave the kisaeng house without biding farewell properly. 
In this adieu, the kisaeng’s words and the panel indicated that he was ordered to leave the kisaeng house without his noonas’ knowledge. With her rhetorical question, she forced the painter to resign to his fate. Besides, the readers can one more time notice that in this scene, the artist remained silent as well. As a conclusion, the painter’s abandonment issues are related to the fact that he was forced to leave and he couldn’t take his time to bid farewell properly. He was either caught by surprise (35, 44, 46) or simply too powerless (68,70). In other words, neither Heena noona nor Jung In-Hun respected the painter’s wishes. Sure, the head-kisaeng sent him away in order to protect him. Yet like I underlined it before, she was definitely too overwhelmed with her situation. With these observations, I deduce that the moment the lord chose to respect the painter’s will
despite his own insecurities, the painter could only select him. For the first time, a person was willing to listen to the low-born’s voice. And the moment Yoon Seungho treated Heena noona with respect and even allowed the painter to bid farewell properly, his behavior could only reinforce the painter’s choice. In other words, he gave the power to the painter to determine his fate and as such reinforced his certainty. For the first time, Baek Na-Kyum was able to send someone away and not the other way around. He could also choose his fate. Simultaneously, the painter helped the powerful aristocrat to witness with his own eyes that he was not left behind and was selected. Both helped each other to overcome their abandonment issues. And this explains why after the departure, Baek Na-Kyum remembers the past. Back then, he was hurt because he had been dragged again from his noona. The scholar tried to console him by saying that the moon was always by his side, 
but this couldn’t truly comfort the artist. And because in chapter 69, the painter experienced for the first time a real good farewell, he could only recall this incident. But unlike in the past, the moon appears differently. 
In my opinion, this scene is important, as it symbolizes that Baek Na-Kyum is finally able to perceive the lord. And for the first time, he looks at the satellite with a certain fascination. He stands still and doesn’t sense the coldness. For me, this panel announces that the painter has finally perceived the lord’s presence. I would even say that the picture implies that Baek Na-Kyum is slowly accepting the existence of Yoon Seungho in his life. Unlike in the past 
, he is not sad and not thinking too deeply as well. 
The lord is indeed replacing the scholar, the painter doesn’t need his comfort any longer. Why? Because unlike in the past, the powerful noble allowed him to part from his sister properly, which the teacher never did. Remember what I had denunciated in a former analysis: the scholar hid behind the boy in order to avoid any responsibility for the brutal incidents at the kisaeng house. In other words, the teacher is responsible for the low-born’s abandonment issues. What Jung In-Hun never imagined is that he was right about the moon. Yoon Seungho, represented by the moon, has fallen in love with him. However, if you recall that the adieux between Yoon Seungwon, father Yoon and the main lead, you will notice that the aristocrat has not overcome his abandonment issues yet. How could he, since the father left him behind after humiliating him like that (incident with the topknot)? He never had the opportunity to bid farewell to his family properly, since the latter treated him with disrespect. And this explicates why Yoon Seungho asks the painter not to push him away at the end. 
The missed goodbyes were the reasons why both main characters were deeply hurt in the past, both victims of circumstances due to the actions of selfish and ruthless people.
Feel free to comment. If you have any suggestion for topics or manhwas, feel free to ask. If you enjoyed reading it, retweet it or push the button like. My instagram-tumblr-twitter account is: @bebebisous33. Thanks for reading and for the support, particularly, I would like to thank all the new followers and people recommending my blog.
Protected: Painter Of The Night: Stockholm Syndrome (second version)
Painter Of The Night: Baek Na-Kyum’s past
This is where you can read the manhwa. https://www.lezhin.com/en/comic/painter But be aware that this manhwa is a mature Yaoi, which means, it is about homosexuality with explicit scenes.
In the essay entitled “Persuasion and Pride and prejudice in the manhwa” [https://bebebisous33analyses.wordpress.com/2020/06/18/painter-of-the-night-persuasion-and-pride-and-prejudice-in-the-manhwa/], I demonstrated that Baek Na-Kyum had been suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Moreover, I also elaborated that the low-born had been exposed to coercive persuasion. Nevertheless, since we had the appearance of the adoptive mother, Heena noona, I got new insight about the painter’s youth.
Byeonduck gave us more clues about the painter’s past. First, I realized the importance of the place he was raised. Since he was surrounded by loving noonas, he grew up in a loving environment. Nonetheless, because the kisaengs belong to the lowest social rank, they don’t have a good reputation, which is visible in the way Yoon Seungho called Heena noona: “harlot”
or “wench”
. So right from the start, Baek Na-Kyum grew up in a rather secluded place, it was not the place for children. Therefore, he never had the chance to make friends so that he couldn’t exchange his thoughts with his peers. That’s why he is seen painting on his own in the first chapter. Since he couldn’t play with other children, he overcame his loneliness with painting. And remember that social isolation plays a huge role in coercive persuasion.
Secondly, each time he witnessed violence perpetrated on his adoptive mother
, he could only cry before being sent away with the scholar Jung In-Hun. He could never voice his anger and intervene. He hadn’t the strength and the time to stop the abuse. The only thing he was able to do was to cry as a sign of protest, and later find solace in the scholar’s arms. The manhwaphiles can detect his anger, powerlessness and pain in this panel. 
Hence while the low-born grew up, he was not only deeply influenced by this negative image of rich nobles, but also not allowed to voice his resent. From my perspective, the artist must have felt no liking to interact with other people. On the one hand, he was happy among his noonas, on the other hand the strangers visiting the brothel were all perceived by him in a negative light. That’s why I come to the conclusion that Baek Na-Kyum’s isolation was even reinforced by these incidents, creating the perfect situation for the coercive persuasion.
Moreover, the story told from Heena noona’s perspective clearly outlines that this kind of incident was recurrent. And the author posted another picture on social media reinforcing this impression. 
Striking is that the painter’s facial expressions are showing sadness and pain, whereas the scholar is actually smiling. This is palpable due to his gaze and the angle of his mouth. And this panel truly displays the teacher’s hypocrisy and superficiality. How can he smile and ooze a certain happiness, when the boy is definitely feeling depressed? More importantly is that the young boy is on the teacher’s back, which explains why he could never perceive the fakeness of the warmth. Sure, one might argue that the teacher was happy, because he was hugging the artist. Yet, in a real embrace full of affection, people are facing each other, like in this panel: Yet observe how the scholar is hiding his face from the innocent boy. The artist could never witness the teacher’s facial expressions and gaze. And if we combine these two observations, we recognize why the artist questioned the genuineness of the main lead’s hug in chapter 49. Note that he didn’t see the lord’s gaze in that moment. He was actually hiding his face from the protagonist. Moreover, he didn’t pay attention to the lord’s words 
, too overwhelmed with the last sex session. If he had truly listened to his words, he would have sensed the noble’s unhappiness and regrets. He was definitely expressing some self-reproaches here. The problem was that in chapter 29, Baek Na-Kyum realized the scholar’s betrayal after a warm embrace due to his words, explaining why he was rather critical to this warm embrace. Yet here the artist made a mistake. He judged the gesture without paying attention to the lord’s remark. And this shows to me that Jung In-Hun took advantage of the artist’s affection to fake care and love. Yet, while he was faking warmth and love, he never said anything, since either the faces are covered or the mouths are closed . That’s why Baek Na-Kyum made this mistake in chapter 49. His skills to listen were poorly developed, because in his past he barely talked in the end. I would even add that he had been trained not to voice his thoughts and emotions in reality. Why do I come to this conclusion? It’s because he speaks either like his surrogate father or like his adoptive mother 
(chapter 65)
(chapter 2) I am quite certain that he adopted her perception of the world due to his negative experiences. Besides, I believe too that Heena noona was already influenced by the scholar. She already mistook for a hero and misjudged his personality. Therefore I come to the conclusion that the painter’s skills to lead a conversation weren’t developed at all. The scholar had no interest to teach him, because this would have led to critical thinking. Furthermore, he is just a low-born. Finally, he had no reason to talk, because this would mean that he had to explain the situation. Why did the rich noble become violent? So he was doing the exact same thing than the butler: he was swaying the violence under the rug by letting take the wealthy and violent aristocrat the blame. Since no one discussed these incidents, the painter could never voice his anger and developed his conversation skills. That’s why it tool a long time for Baek Na-Kyum to finally listen to the main lead properly. He experienced a similar situation than Yoon Seungho in truth. Yet there was a huge difference between them. Yoon Seungho could read books, hence his thinking could improve, whereas it was not the case for the artist. He had to find another way to voice his emotions. Therefore he came to paint in my opinion. This was the only place where he could express his emotions properly, yet his pictures were only reflecting warmth and love, but nothing about his negative emotions: rage in face of injustice and violence.
From my point of view, these incidents reinforced the bound between the low noble and the low-born. Moreover, the noble could only smile, as he had the opportunity to enter the kisaeng house without paying anything. He could keep trying to get close to the powerful and rich aristocrats frequenting the kisaeng house, and the boy was the key to enter this place. Finally, since the scholar is also a reflection of Kim, and the latter always uses others to achieve his goal, while he lets others take the blame, we have now a confirmation that the scholar was definitely responsible for these incidents. The kisaeng is seen hurt by the rich noble, we can definitely imagine that the scholar was the cause for these incidents.
In the head-kisaeng’s eyes, it was the right thing to send away her son in tears and rage, because that way she was protecting him. He wouldn’t catch the brutal nobles’ attention. At the same time he would find comfort in a caring person: the scholar Jung In-Hun. But this method could only last, when the boy was young, because he older he got, the higher the risk was that Baek Na-Kyum would unleash his rage onto the violent nobles. That’s why the mother decided to trust the painter to the teacher. Simultaneously, this observation made me realize this: Yoon Seungho’s words expressed the same emotions the low-born sensed, when he saw the main lead’s face. He was also sent back to these violent incidents. And now, you understand why the painter didn’t feel repulsed by the rather brutal confession. When Baek Na-Kyum met the protagonist, he could only reject him because of his past experiences. He saw in him the typical violent noble. However, surprising is that Yoon Seungho allowed him to express himself. That’s why Baek Na-Kyum lied, even yelled at him or criticized him by calling him a man consumed by lust. This explicates too why the painter was only honest during a confrontation in the end. While in his past, he could never voice his thoughts and emotions, he could with Yoon Seungho, as the latter never sent him away or shut his mouth with a warm embrace. Remember how the noble asked him to explain the situation about the ruined painting. He gave him the opportunity to speak, and kept asking for an explanation. He did the same thing in the barn as well. And now, you understand why the painter could only fall in love with the main lead, unlike in the past, he could freely express himself. Therefore I consider the chapter 68 as an evidence that Baek Na-Kyum isn’t suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. His love confession reflects his inner conflict. He loves him, yet there’s a certain reluctance. Moreover, he is arguing with Heena noona in chapter 68 showing that he is thinking on his own. Thanks to his “teacher”, he doesn’t just follow his mother’s wish blindly. Note the contrast between these two panels:
(chapter 46)
(chapter 68) What caught my attention is the caress on both cheeks in the farewell. The gesture oozes tenderness and love, yet at the same time her hands are restraining the painter’s mouth. With her hands, she hinders the artist to argue with her and reject her decision. That’s why he accepts his fate, although he is terribly wounded by this experience. This explicates why she repeats the same gesture in chapter 68, yet she can’t stop him from speaking this time. The painter still disagrees with her. However, observe that the kisaeng is determined to act like in the past. Someone takes the boy away from a place, and the loving person will cover him with affection so that there will be no protest and objection. However, this is no longer possible. The abandonment affected their relationship, there’s a visible distance between them. The painter doesn’t even stand up for her. And now, if the manhwaphiles examine their conversation, they will recognize that the kisaeng has been cornered by her adoptive son. Even the caress on both cheeks didn’t have the same effect than in the past. That’s why she becomes more and more firm, I would even say authoritative. 
When she claimed that she had seen everything, Baek Na-Kyum told her what others saw (the lord’s affection) and that the latter had already confessed. For me, since each character has flaws, some more and others less, Heena noona is not different. She doesn’t realize that love is not enough to raise a child. The true goal of education is to let the children become independent. And this can only happen, when they are encouraged to voice their emotions, exchange their thoughts with others and question things. Overprotection can lead to misery in the end. Sure, her temper and personality served as a good role model: she is affectionate, definitely brave and willing to sacrifice herself for her son. But since she judged people based on appearances, she didn’t realize the teacher’s hypocrisy and sent her son to misery.
Finally, I would like to elaborate why the head-kisaeng expected from Jung In-Hun that he would take care of the painter, when she asked:
Since in the past, the teacher had given her impression that he was caring and selfless, then she imagined that he would continue doing the same, if she made the request. However, the problem was that the moment she trusted the artist to the scholar, the latter had lost the key to enter the kisaeng house. It was, as if the key of the door had been removed, since Heena noona requested from Baek Na-Kyum to never come back. But this meant that the painter had become a burden for Jung In-Hun. Furthermore, this new panel showed us a teacher without glasses, which confirms my theory that the painter was the one who bought the glasses for Jung In-Hun. That’s why Heena noona could expect something from the scholar. She had allowed him to enter the place without paying, he had been receiving help from the painter as well. However, since the teacher had lost a possibility to find connections through the kisaeng house, he could only resent the painter. Besides, he loathes low-borns. As you can see, he had many reasons for abusing the protagonist:
- He was definitely jealous of the painter’s success.
- He couldn’t enter the kisaeng house any longer
- He had to take care of a low-born, while in his eyes, they are just destined to keep their social status
- He didn’t feel the need to hide his resent, but he used the erotic pictures to unleash his negative emotions and put the blame on the protagonists.
And since the painter had never the opportunity to talk a lot in his past, he couldn’t oppose much resistance. He was already isolated and their closeness created the perfect situation for the painter to develop a Stockholm Syndrome. He had no one to turn to, and since the painter had been trained to rely emotionally on Jung In-Hun, the physical abuse could only trigger this coping mechanism.
As a conclusion, Yoon Seungho’s desire to communicate coincides with the painter’s too. Nonetheless, the latter hadn’t found the appropriate partner yet. First, he had never learned how to make new acquaintances, and his second abandonment had traumatized him much more. Consequently, he became a drunk. Finally, he couldn’t judge the main lead properly due to his past and his prejudices. However, like my follower @Dunya696 truly noted, Yoon Seungho helped the artist to cope with his traumatic past by humiliating nobles. At no moment, Baek Na-Kyum intervened (chapter 8; chapter 18, chapter 53, chapter 54). Imagine, he risked his face for the vicious servant Deok-Jae who had hurt him before, while he remained totally passive, when the main lead punched Min. 
So the lord became the hand of justice for the painter, and Baek Na-Kyum didn’t mind in the end.
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Bebebisous33s' analyses in K-Dramaland and Manhwas 