#'lumen can you not make everything about Suwon?' No. Next question.

[soo-won]

Hi Lumen, I love your AnY posts so much! I hope I can hear your opinions about the relationship between Hak and Kye-sook. I think it is not simply an enemy...

Thank you so much for the question OMG! And I'm glad you like my posts too :')

Keishuk and Hak's dynamic is something I LOVE to get lost in thoughts about because everytime they interact you can feel the electricity in the air, you know? There is something extremely engaging about them imo. And outside of the fact I crack ship them because I think their interactions are very hot, I have a lot to say about them!

The thing about them is they're the same pole of a magnet. Like it's because they're actually extremely similar that they have this constant animosity towards each other. There is real hatred on Hak's end, understandably, and Keishuk clearly looked at Hak with contempt until recently. But there is this thing about them where they also understand each other in a way? Because they went throught the same thing. The Lord they pledged loyalty to was murdered by the opposite faction and they started to live following their child, the only thing Il and Yuhon left behind, dedicating their whole life to protect them and what they fight for, and dreaming of getting back what was stolen from them. They're both haunted by their powerlessness and the fear to fail to protect what matters to them and especially Yona and Suwon. And it's these shared feelings, directed in opposite directions that makes their relationship what it is. I think they both ended up being aware of these similarities in the other even if not consciously. Also they both easily get extremely anxious and tend to act emotionaly because of it (and that's what differentiates them the most from Yona and Suwon, too.)

Thinking about them together requires to think about Keishuk on his own, because it's only after understanding that Keishuk is driven by the constant need of to have things go according to his plans, because as a disabled man this is his only way of fighting and protecting, that I think you can start seeing the connections with Hak. Keishuk was shaped by the feeling he needs to be useful, that can also be seen in Hak especially early on in the manga.

And that's where it's also fun to imagine what represented Hak to Keishuk before the coup. A pawn with so much potential that is unusable because of his attachment to Il. A man with the strength Keishuk doesn't have, a strength he lacked when Yuhon was being murdered before his eyes, and that Hak uses to serve his murderer. To be honest I don't think Keishuk cared that much about Hak and it seems he barely knew about him before the coup, but I like to imagine he saw him as a waste. However, Suwon had given up the hope of ever having Hak on his side, but Keishuk never forgot, and Keishuk is not burdened by any complex feelings towards Hak like Suwon or Judo are, so the idea of someday managing to control and use him for Suwon's and by extension Kouka's sake is something he maybe always kept in the back of his mind ( we still don't know what was Coup Crew's plan irt Yona and Hak if they hadnt caught Suwon red-handed after all).

Throughout the series, Hak comes to want to protect Kouka and fight for his country of his own volition, whether Yona asks him to or not. Which makes him share something more with Keishuk. Hak, in his willingness to become a pawn to protect Kouka, becomes in Keishuk's eyes a proxy in a way, even though Hak fights for his own reasons. Keishuk can't fight on a battlefield anymore, but Hak, who shares a common goal and a similar way of seeing himself as disposable, becomes a weapon. Hak becomes the sword or the shield Keishuk can wield to protect Suwon.

And it makes their relationship very ironic. They are opposed and enemies by the fact they serve two person that are supposed to be at odds with each other, but when these two persons enter an alliance and walk in the same direction, then it makes Keishuk and Hak simply share the same feelings and protect what the other cares for. Aka Keishuk becoming "protective" of Yona and the dragons (even if it's not out of sympathy) and Hak protecting Suwon.

In no way does it mean they become friends or that they do this for each other, though. Hak and Keishuk are in a constant battle of compromise and Hak is very much aware that Keishuk won't hesitate to take from him and use him and his friends if he sees it fit. And Keishuk is aware that he has to tread carefully if he wants to use them longer. But I find all this super interesting! They're fated enemies in a way, so to see them kinda forced to work together despite all the spite they have for each other is fun.

Lastly, something that I'm obsessed with when it comes to Keishuk and Hak is how they're connected by their respective relationship with Suwon. I already wrote a long post about Keishuk and Yona as foils in relation to Suwon, but I think the same can be said of Keishuk and Hak, even if obviously the way they do so differ.

Keishuk's presence in this scene is anime exclusive, so everyone is free to consider it canon or not. Personally I'm in love with it and I think it adds a lot of depth to Keishuk and his feelings towards Hak and Suwon so it's canon to me lmao. This scene shows a Keishuk that feels pride in knowing the "real Suwon" that Hak is ignorant about, and he taunts him about it. Like "Look, /I/ am his right-hand man, and he didn't chose you. /I/ know his suffering and you don't know anything."

And the thing is...yeah. Keishuk is not wrong here, and it brings into light an aspect of Suwon and Hak's relationship that is often only implied, aka the fact Suwon didn't trust and rely on Hak, when Hak /wanted/ to be the person Suwon would depend on. But the Suwon Keishuk knows is not "the real Suwon" either. The truth is both Keishuk and Hak know a part of Suwon that the other don't, and I find this deeply fascinating.

This is reenforced by the fact that Hak didn't even know of Keishuk's existence just like how he was ignorant of the dark parts of Suwon's life, or how Keishuk and Hak were physically assigned to two distinct symbolic places (Yonhi's mansion and Hiryuu Castle). They were totally separated, literally and in Suwon's heart.

Hak knows nothing of the Suwon at Yonhi's mansion that planned the coup for 10 years alongside Keishuk and many others. He knew nothing of Suwon's resentments, of the truth behind his grand and distant goal or the way he is resolved to discard anything to achieve his goals, even what Hak cares for. Keishuk was and is still undeniably Suwon's closest ally (despite the distance between them but Suwon and Keishuk deserve their own post lmao), and despite their differences they share the same goal and ideologies like they do with no one else. They share the same pain of losing Yuhon and the anger and feeling of injustice that came with it, and the same afront of Il's rule. But likewise, Keishuk doesn't know the depth of the bond Suwon shared with Hak, and the truth in the time they spent together. Keishuk only pragmatically saw Hak as someone that will try to kill Suwon someday, as he understands very well where he comes from, underestimating(among other things) the importance Suwon and Hak hold for each other and the depth of their trust.

That's where the Sen Province arc is interesting as well. This arc is notable for many things, but one of them is the complete absence of Suwon and the fact the troops are basically led by both Keishuk and Hak. I just said that Keishuk and Hak were completely separated by what they know of Suwon, yet what this arc highlights is that they both know him extremely well. In the end, they grew up and studied with the same Suwon, and this common knowledge of him connects them. Like to remember something as a specific counter-strategy Suwon likes is proof of the amount of time they both spent separately with Suwon and their fondness for him. It's because this moment makes Keishuk acknowledge that Hak does know Suwon well that he starts being interested in using him furthermore.

All that being said, I also just really love whenever they taunt each other. I think it's delicious like, look at that. There is just something whenever they share a page and I'm obsessed with it. Suwon and Yona kinda stay polite with each other (more or less) but Keishuk and Hak don't give a shit like that and it's refreshing. Despite everything I've said above, the part that makes them not stand each other's ass and rile each other is an essential of their dynamic and I eat it up. There is almost a sort of competitiveness? and it's very fun. I never want them to like each other it's so much better this way.

Alas now Keishuk has to be polite with Hak for political schemes reasons and I'm sad because I miss those times very much </3.

TDLR : They're not friends they're not enemies but a secret third thing.

(Bonus: fun hakyona / keiwon parallel and i ship neither but it's endearing)