I wished I could have loved this story more. The first thing that drew my attention to this work was because of its heavy involvement regarding music. I could understand how Hyerin felt and the way she was raised by her parents (prioritising playing the piano) since I too had been taking piano lessons for 10yrs - especially during the nail polish scene. Somehow, I got disconnected from the story along the way. I don’t appreciate the sudden jumps in time throughout the chapters; as an example, I was convinced that past chap17 the upcoming chapters were all events that had already happened. Maybe it’s because I’m used to panels being black and white from reading manga, hence when the background is black it’s more distinctive/indicative that these moments are flashbacks. Since in manhwas and webtoons there are coloured panels, ig it didn’t really stand out to me as I continued scrolling past.
Another factor to consider might be because I wasn’t reading this with the provided music intended to accompany readers’ reading experience. As of writing this, it is 2022 and there is no Daum site anymore since it has shifted to become Kakao WEBTOON. Trying to read on this site would mean reading the comic in the original Hangul despite having the music. Call me lazy, but I’d much prefer to be on PC instead if I’d need to set-up several tabs to enjoy the music while reading (this was the case when I was reading ‘About Death - Sini; Hyeono’)
Besides that, perhaps this would have moved me a bit more had I read it in its original language; Korean. As a K-pop fan, I’ve slowly learned to realise that the Korean language (and Japanese too tbh) is much more complex than meets the eye. I’ve always admired the wordplay that artists were able to conjure with these languages in their lyrics because it shows depth in the message/story they’re trying to convey. Many times have I wondered, “Eh, these lyrics are kinda trash and have no meaning. What even is the message of this song?” only to be followed by the thought that maybe, I only feel this way because there is some subtle wordplay at work that can’t be fully translated or conveyed in the English language (or other languages). ~I understand this may not always be the case, but these days it’s a thought that I’ve become more aware of :’D~
A final reflection I wanted to share is maybe, I’ve never experienced something as impactful similar to this story. To be very honest, I feel as if I only partially understood this story. These characters continue to discover more of themselves and change. They also learn that maybe, it’s not so bad to want to live if it meant doing it together with someone who cares; even if it’s just one person who loves and believes in you. I personally have never met that someone whom I thought would wholeheartedly believe in me and support me no matter what the circumstances ~hah, a subtle way of saying I’ve never dated either lol~ and because of that, maybe as of right now I’m also incapable of perceiving such a feeling. Hence, the message of this story kinda fell flat for me. However, I hope that this story was a moving piece that resonated to some people regardless.
