#I LOVE YOU JUMIN.

[shouyuus]

18+, pitfighter!vi brainrot, bc its girl-dinner time tw: sorta smut, sorta obsessive!vi, codependent relationship, not quite yandere but the vibes r kinda there, but still fluffy bc im me duh

pitfighter!vi who fucks you like she's trying to leave a part of herself inside you, who holds you so hard that the next morning, you wake up to the blue-tinted ghosts of her fingers along your hips and thighs, the dull blossoming bruises littering your neck and shoulders, rings in the shape of her teeth like strange, demented flowers (or perhaps like footprints) the way they trail along your skin, inked there for all to see.

pitfighter!vi who fights like she's trying to break everyone else in the same way she wishes she were broken herself, all fevered, focused rage, and none of the restraint. no patience, only the blunted sting of a punch well-aimed, an elbow to the ribs, a knee to the groin, spit trailing out the edge of her mouth, a grin crooked and bloody hinged between her lips bc she knows when she looks up and scans the crowd, she'll inevitably find you there, watching her with your wide, alluring eyes.

pitfighter!vi who thinks she knows the depths and widths of hunger, has seen and felt it all, growing up in the lanes, and there are so many different kinds, aren't there? the kind that aches dull and deep in the stomach, the kind that claws and roars open in her chest, the kind that tingles like spider-poison all along the length of her spine. still, she's never quite felt a hunger like this -- the kind that threatens to consume her from the inside out the first time she sees you, and at first, it might've been a wholly vindictive thing -- perhaps its because there'd been something in the shadow of your smile that reminds her of -- well, it doesn't matter.

but the first time she kisses you (in the crush of bodies on a crowded dance floor, the music too loud, the bottom of her boots tacky with spilled drinks and blood and whatever else), you'd run your thumb along the line of her jaw so gently, traced the lines of her face with a touch so soft it ran a fissure through her car-alarm heart, and when she'd pulled away, you'd smiled as if she'd given you something other than just the jagged, broken bits of herself.

later, you'd told her that you still appreciated it then. bc it looked like that was all she could afford to give; and she gave it to you anyway.

pitfighter!vi who does not think she will ever get enough of you, and still, the more she gets, the more you give, the deeper the hunger grows. it yawns open inside her, huge and dark and cavernous, carving into her the more that it's fed, and by the gods do you feed it -- the way your head tilts back to allow her access to the smooth expanses of your throat, the darling, moon-lit landscape of your bare chest and shoulders, the way you're so pliant beneath her, your trust pouring from you like drink. and she drinks. and drinks. and drinks.

drinks till she's head-dizzy and heart-full. drinks till her vision blurs but for the sight of you, the shape of you so familiar to her waking moments it does not shock her in the least the first time she wakes up in the morning to the after-images of you in her dreams.

pitfighter!vi who, for the first time in her life thought she had lost all direction, but now -- she feels like at least there's still someone worth protecting, worth fighting for. and she knows, she knows it's not entirely healthy, how much and how hard she falls for you, knows that perhaps it is not the best thing for a woman like her to make someone like you the still-point of her turning universe, you, who manages to shine despite the grime that collects in the city around you. you, who is softness made into an act of defiance, who, one night, curled against her side, told her that there's a certain vindication to smiling in the face of a world who would love nothing more than to rip the joy, bleeding and raw from your throat.

"it's not always easy... actually," you laugh, the sound sweet as spring water as it trickles over her skin, "it's really fucking hard but... why not do it anyway?"

"what, be happy?" her own voice is low and cracked from the fight earlier that night. but you'd kissed a line down her throat and told her that you loved it when she moaned.

"yeah. if the whole world wants us sad and angry... what bigger fuck you is there than to be... happy?"

pitfighter!vi who lets you draw the dark lines down her cheeks, but they're neater than she'd done them herself, who kisses your fingertips when they're stained with the black of her hair-dye, who laughs fully for the first time in... she doesn't even remember how long, when you lean forward and trace a tiny mustache with the leftover ink on your fingers right over her mouth. who sinks into the sound of your laughter like a warm bath, letting it soak into her sore muscles, unspool the tension coiled in her shoulders, the rictus threatening to settle in the set of her knuckles.

she lets you sooth over the harms and hurts that had followed behind her, nipping at her heels like disobedient dogs her whole life, lets you kiss her brows and pull her behind you as you point at the new graffiti art that wasn't there the week before.

pitfighter!vi who has always had a fierce love for zaun because it's her home, but has never stopped to consider just how beautiful of a place it is until she meets you -- and it is beautiful, an angry, pulsing, rebellious beauty, raw and dripping with shimmer-soaked ichor. a beauty carved of disparate limbs and desperate parts, one that is hard-earned and well-fought, the same beauty found in the darkest hours of night, right before the morning dawns, the same beauty she finds reflected back at her when she sees her blurred reflection in a pool of spilt blood on the fighting pit's arena floor.

zaun hums to the tune of debauchery, and for the first time, she's with someone who allows her to be greedy, allows her the breadth and width of wanting so freely. and she thinks it might be spiraling into a full-blown obsession, the way she can't go three seconds without thinking about you, wondering where you are, what you're doing, what you're up to. and you always tell her, tell her about the flowers you saw growing from a crack in the sidewalk, the shaft of sunlight hitting a shard of broken glass in just the right way, how sometimes if you close your eyes and listen, the ticking and clicking noises that run like a baseline thrum through the entire city almost sounds like birdsong.

pitfighter!vi who can't say she's ever fallen properly in love (she thinks that perhaps, once, she got real close), but wonders if this is what it feels like, to feel the void of your physical absence like the itch of a phantom limb, so she does everything she can to keep you close, glares at people if their eyes linger too long on you as the pair of you walk down the street, doubles down on her training regime so that she can fend of anyone who even breathes wrong in your direction.

who can't help pouting every time you pull away to do anything -- to grab another bag of snacks, to ask the bartender for another drink, to listen to something loris is saying -- she has to tamp down the urge to pull you back, to meld you to her side and never let go.

pitfighter!vi who starts to get more strategic with her fights, who saves up money now bc she wants to take you out to dinner, or just buy you nice things once in a while. who spends way too many hexes and cogs on a bouquet of fresh flowers, ones that aren't tainted or bred with the faint, sickly shine of shimmer, and she thinks its all worth it to watch the smile break across your face like dawn over a brand new day -- brilliant, blinding.

she blinks, watching with a fond smile as you fuss over the flowers in your tiny apartment, the space small but cozy, everything neat and in its place. you put the flowers into a tall, slightly chipped glass mug and set them by the window, admiring them from this angle, then that.

"y'like them, angel?"

you nod, grinning as you throw your arms around her, "i love them, vi! i love them so much!"

"good. i'm glad you like 'em. just..." her voice trails off; you cock your head.

"just, what?"

she shrugs, "ah -- just, i always thought it was sad getting flowers cause... they'll wilt someday, right?"

but when she looks back at you, still caught up in her arms, you're still smiling. and there's a fox-fire glint in your eyes that makes something in her stomach twist hot.

"well, there's one kind of flower that won't wilt that i wouldn't mind having here all the time..."

vi blinks, a dry heat creeping up the back of her throat, her heart a wild, fluttering thing caught beneath her cage of ribs.

"yeah?" her voice is hoarse as she swallows around the hope pooling on her tongue like blood. "and what kinda flower is that?"

you lean in, your breath a whisper along her parted lips.

"violets."

pitfighter!vi who moves in three days later, with nothing but some old clothes and her punching bag, which you'd already made room for (somehow) hung up from one of the high rafters in the kitchen, next to the tiny dining table tucked into the corner. who spends the next three days fucking you on every available surface (and some unavailable ones, like against the fridge for instance), telling you that it's only right to christen things now that you're officially living together.

who doesn't bother to wonder if things are moving too fast, and dives in head first because that's the only ways she's ever known to how to do things. who thinks, blithely to herself one night, the warm shape of you curled next to her, sleeping so soundly it almost breaks her heart, that you're probably the first good thing she's ever gotten stuck on -- and she's gotten stuck on a lot of things (fighting, boxing, the guilt, the shame, the anger, the world-ending sorrow of losing it all). its one of the things vander had always warned her about.

"you get into things too hard, kiddo -- gotta learn to pace yourself."

but she doesn't care, because hard's what she was raised on, and it's how she plans on loving you, god, if it's the last thing she does, right or wrong, so be it.

pitfighter!vi who still has her bad nights, still drinks a bit too much sometimes, but at least you're always there to keep her from going too far. and you're the only one who can pull her back, the only one she'll listen to when you tug the drink away from her hands and slide it down the bar towards loris, who'll eye it for a second before downing it and settling up the tab, nodding towards you even as you sling an arm around vi's middle to lead her out of the bar.

who still wakes up screaming some nights, her eyes wide and unseeing, scrabbling at you, tugging you into her if only to bury her face in your shoulder, her whole body wracked with dry-heaving sobs.

"my sister used to think there were monsters under the bed, and make me check down there every night before going to bed," she murmurs, her face inches from yours, her words soft and ever so slightly slurred.

you brush your fingers against her cheek, a comforting, repetative motion -- back and forth, back and forth, till her lashes flutter shut.

"guess she was right... but the monsters never wanna stay under the bed, do they? it's like they always... wanna come out and play..."

you let out a breathy laugh, "or maybe," you offer, your voice low and soothing, "they're just as scared as you are. and they're just looking for someone to scare their own monsters away."

pitfighter!vi who is still not good at slow, but sometimes, when she kisses you, she wishes that had the power to hit pause on time, just so she could stretch out the moment and kiss you forever. she thinks that she'll never be good at patience, but sometimes, when you tell her just gimme a sec! when she's waiting for you to get ready before going out to dinner at jericho's or just for a round of drinks at the bar round the corner, her leaning against the doorway watching as you put the finishing touches of your makeup on yourself in the kitchen mirror -- she thinks she'd give you every last second of the rest of her life if you ever asked her to.

pitfighter!vi who, recently, has really, really started hoping that someday soon, you'll actually ask her to.

taglist: @traiitorjoe @rizzscary @wetcat020 @alex-thegiraffeboyy @nanasemo @saturnhas82moons @unear7hly @drsnowrose @grantaires-waistcoat @isab3lita @ally-all-around @starrysetup22 @lipsent - join the taglist

[pandoa]

"miss attorney" and "miss bodyguard"

"serious, overworked ceo" and "serious, overworked surgeon"

i rest my case.

[mitskiluvr]

replaying mystic messenger is so crazy because why am i gentle parenting these grown men and teaching them how to handle their feelings

[brighteststar707]

Parallels

You carry parts of past lives with you. You can't help it, you're made up of all the people you've loved before.

A reset theory idea I revived from a years-old draft about picking up traits from people you spend a lot of time around (as I'm quite prone to doing🤭).

There has always been this strange familiarity to you. Even back in the early days, it always felt like you were someone Saeyoung had known for years.

He likes to tease you about being easy to read, but it's more than that. The things he recognises in you are things he has grown to love so much in his closest friends.

He loves to tell silly jokes just to hear you laugh. When he promised you a life that would be happy and without worry, he meant it. Your laugh is infectious, addicting even. A laugh from you is an affirmation to someone as insecure as him.

It took him a while to catch on to the way your giggles resemble Yoosung's sometimes. It's not every time, but more than enough times to be a noticeable quirk of yours. The slight hiss of air escaping through your teeth, the precursor to a proper, real laugh.

That was the first parallel he drew. But it was not the last.

He thought he was imagining things at first, making connections where there weren't any to be made. But then you teasingly called him honey for the first time, truly affectionate and sugary-sweet and it was impossible to not think about how he had seen Zen do the same thing before to make fans of his blush. Of course, this trick worked just as well on him when you did it. When you were in these moods, you were magnetic, more so than even Zen could be.

There is something about how, during discussions, you pause to gather your thoughts right before you're about to conclude a point. You have told him you do it to try and collect your thoughts into a coherent sentence so you don't jumble everything up. He thinks it's smart (and cute). It's something he is trying to implement in his life now.

He also knows it's something Jumin practices and advises others to do too. On occasion, during RFA gatherings, Saeyoung watches you and Jumin have a conversation and fall into similar patterns of speech. It's mesmerising, like watching two mirror images.

It is only after a few years, after getting closer to Jaehee at all that realises there are similarities between the two of you too.

He sees a small echo of her in the way that you tackle challenges, not just the resilience he has always known you're capable of but the way you can dissect a problem down to its core and handle it piece by piece. In the tone and cadence you use when instructing others, kind but deliberate, with no room for doubt.

But she's also in your excitement, in the way your voice builds up and rises in pitch when you're talking about something you love. If it wasn't something he recognised from your first weeks together, he'd attribute it to your many musical movie nights.

It wouldn't be fair to say that these traits are identical to theirs. They're things that are so inherent to you, he couldn't imagine you without your funny hiss-laugh or the cadence of your voice when you're measuring out your words. He finds comfort all the same in the little overlap between you and his friends. It may puzzle him sometimes, but he wouldn't change it for the world.

The cherry on the cake was one day when you were chatting and you scrunched your nose before telling a joke, in the same way he knows he does sometimes. His heart swelled three sizes that day and he wouldn't stop teasing you about it.

[jeckolenthusiast]

[xelasrecords]

Jumin and V's friendship in Yoosung's route HURTS with how much understanding and trust Jumin has for V while denying the gruesome possibilities, always defending him from other members' suspicions. And where is that mint hair fella throughout this? GONE. NEVER THERE TO EASE JUMIN'S WORRIES.

[juminies]

hi, any thoughts on jumin and rika and how he saw her? i love your jumin takes so i'm very interested in hearing your opinion on this

Hi! This is one of those things I've been meaning to talk about forever but never really had the motivation to get around to writing about, so you've opened a door for me to finally attempt to get my thoughts down. Sorry if it's a little muddled or convoluted :')

Disclaimer I will be ignoring the existence of the ssum because even though I know there has been Jumin and Rika related shenanigans over there they are not part of mystic messenger canon to me whatsoever 💜

I have always felt as though when it comes to Jumin and Rika’s relationship in particular a lot of people look at them far too simply without considering, in particular, Jumin’s view on love and human connection in its entirety—the fact that prior to his route he has not witnessed healthy love up close his entire life (including the "love" between V and Rika, even if they seemed good together on the surface). He is, as such, very hesitant to get close to it, and doesn't think about it as a realistic scenario for himself despite his admitted loneliness.

Jumin is very averse to making new connections in general; he struggles socially, is used to being viewed as something people can use for their own benefit rather than his own person, and V is the only real friend he has ever made of his own volition. Consequently his adoration and loyalty for Jihyun were bound to extend to anyone he loved too, and it just so happened that the person V loved was Rika, who confronted Jumin in a way that even his lifelong best friend didn't. There was a level of emotional vulnerability with Rika that V—like Jumin—was uncomfortable expressing, and so she brought out a different (new) side of Jumin. It wasn’t entirely one-sided either, as Rika also confided in Jumin in a way that she admitted she couldn't even to Jihyun at least once. Jumin and V have seemingly always had a tendency to undershare and Rika, as the person closest to them, definitely knew that. So she and Jumin developed this weird little friendship where they were both closer to V than they were to each other, but neither of them could quite confide in him the way they could to one another. She was also one of very few people (especially pre-RFA) who never saw him as just his talent, his position, his wealth. He liked that she saw the ugly parts of him too. She made him feel comfortable and free. He could just be Jumin, not C&R's Jumin Han, you know?

But it’s important to remember when thinking about them that Rika was very likely the first time anyone had ever talked like this with Jumin, and really tried to get him to dig deeper into his own emotions in a way that wasn’t belittling. Jumin represses and has always repressed. He had always tucked feelings he found inconvenient away ASAP, hidden even from himself. But Rika saw him as a person, and intentionally or not she tapped into the parts of Jumin that he tried to hide away and gave him an outlet nobody else had ever really allowed him. It became something that he associated with her and her alone.

I wanted to avoid just throwing big VN chunks in here but this one in particular is so important to deducing their relationship, so I am just going to put the standout parts here ->

Now the thing with Rika is that, the way I see it, it can be difficult to determine what is genuine with her and what isn’t. She didn't have anything to gain from specifically Jumin the way others did, but Rika has this fundamental need for people to see her as good and honest, and she needs to be admired even when she doesn't truly believe she deserves it (or otherwise when she doesn’t truly deserve it). The situation with Saeran aside I don't think that she takes to explicitly or purposefully lying much, but outside of her relationship with Jihyun(?) she is a people pleaser to the highest degree because she seeks constant reassurance that she is not completely evil.

This exchange, for example, has always felt incredibly off to me

because there is something in it that subtly pushes Jumin into a corner in what can be easily interpreted as attempt to seek validation. It happens in a serious conversation immediately after Rika asks if he trusts her and he tells her "of course I do." It feels almost like she's testing him; trying to see how far his loyalty to both herself and V stretches. There's a very real possibility that she knew how highly he held her and attempted to use it to reassure herself. To quietly push him to make her feel desirable—lovable—perhaps? This probably isn't the only time similar occurrences popped up. I don’t think she intended to cheat, and she would have known that Jumin would never betray Jihyun like that anyway, but I do know that she felt unfulfilled with V and it’s not a stretch to say she would seek similar reassurance elsewhere. A little bit like she does with MC in V route, really.

Then there's the projection onto Elizabeth, which is in my opinion a coping mechanism not for Rika's absence specifically but rather for Jumin's general loneliness. This, obviously, was not romantic (the fact I have to clarify this is absurd but I have seen some... interesting takes over the years), but Jumin admits himself that he viewed Elizabeth like a confidant. Him turning to Elizabeth was him knowing that he could not continually go to Rika when he needed emotional support because she quite clearly expressed she wanted him to find it elsewhere, however it makes sense that he struggled to disassociate Elizabeth from Rika when Rika was the only person he felt could see him for what he really is. He was not presented with any other legitimate option. I do feel it’s quite interesting when trying to comprehend how much Rika really cared for him that she seemingly didn’t know the extent of Jumin’s emotional reliance on her.

When all is said and done though, I think that claiming Jumin was in love with Rika is both untrue and far too simple. To be honest I genuinely don't even believe Jumin himself knows how he truly felt about Rika, really. He's the king of burying his emotions and he is loyal beyond belief, so I do think that if there had been romantic feelings for her mixed up in him somewhere (which there very probably were, though a bit warped due to his aforementioned lack of perspective on healthy love) he wouldn't have let himself unpack them enough to realise that's what they were. What he did definitely do, though, was put her on a pedestal as the only woman he felt like he could legitimately trust with anything. At the point where they were the closest every woman before her had either abused him or had an ulterior motive, but Rika was unique. She wasn’t trying to get close to him for sex or connections or monetary gain. She brought out a curiosity in him that nothing and nobody else but V had been able to before. Jumin had so little real, genuine, heartfelt human connection. Of course he was going to get attached to her, but I don't think that he’s lying when he says he didn't even think about it because she was his best friend’s girlfriend. Around the time that he opens up about Rika I cannot see him intentionally lying to MC whatsoever. She was his friend. He trusted her. I actually think the way he feels about Jihyun is incredibly similar to how he felt about Rika.

As a final note, Jumin knowing the truth about V's eyes, along with the assertion that MC is "warm and soft... unlike Rika" are very intriguing. They're the main two things that suggest to me that while he admired her on the surface he quite clearly had some much deeper, more complex feelings about Rika (particularly closer to her "death"), but still chose to put his faith in Jihyun’s judgement rather than doubting Rika while she was around. I think it's very possible that after witnessing the selfless kind of care that MC provides he started to really pick up and reassess the colder side of Rika's behaviour, so to speak. Not even strictly things that happened in bad faith (she did genuinely hold RFA members highly after all), but she has a very twisted view of what is good for both herself and others, and it’s one that Jumin does not mesh with.

[keii]

loser college (skipping) student, Yoosung, still manages to get a gf without trying

[yoosung-ah]

1. nothing could be more suspicious than that hair of yours. I swear this woman's hair gets bigger every time I see her. is that all real, or extensions? if it's real, then drop that haircare routine sis

2. if you choose the first one, Rika accuses you of being a pervert. she's not entirely wrong, but also, why did Cheritz even give us that option to begin with? this is not how I wanted to see him on his knees. bad vibes

3. top 10 saddest screenshots ever taken. literally just put me out of my misery

4. to draw this interaction this way was such a choice. I love how it looks both homoerotic and like a weeb's rendition of a biblical painting using their favourite characters from different franchises

5. first, I'm a fan of how this looks like the cover of one of those cheesy romance novels that grandmas read, and second, literally impossible. cruel of him and the writers to even suggest such a thing. I'm too selfish and don't have the coping skills or neurological genetics to do what you're asking of me

6. the absolute purity that radiates from this is unmatched. I almost don't want to be with him because he's too good for anyone. also babe did you break into V's studio to take this photo with the professional backdrop and everything? because I support that kind of behaviour

7. let's all together beat him up, then. if, like discussed in your AE, "there's no right or wrong," then violence should be acceptable. him and his security guard can't take us all on, and aren't you all about self-sacrifice? and protecting the twins? where's that attitude now?? you're already going to jail anyway. surely you have some repressed anger that you can make use of. Rika and I have enough crazy between us to equate to 3 men in battle too, like let's go

8. same energy as "now I feel weird" or "my head hurts" from days 8 and 9... sir, is this your tsundere way of saying you have feelings for me? I'm flattered, but as you can see, I already have a bf

9. we get called a goddess by both Chois. Cheritz saw the feedback from AS and Yoosung's route and made good use of it

10. "but not me" same. let me know if you need my help in any way. like how V "helped" Rika after her "skirmish" with your mom

... this feels oddly meta. as if Cheritz was like "we know you sickos have fantasized about ending up with both of them, so here you go" and you get to be with just Saeran in the alternative end. here it feels like Saeran's your husband, but Saeyoung's your boyfriend. like why they both holding bouquets, with us in the middle? I thought Saeyoung was looking at his brother's happiness, but he's actually looking at us

in addition to Chairman Han, I am petitioning Cheritz to also give us a Driver Kim and Prime Minister route. the former has a heart of gold but his voice and cadence makes me think he may have k!lled someone in the past, and I know that the latter has, but red flags never stopped us before

[trickostars]

gay friend groups sure are crazy

[merakiui]

mera (ಥ﹏ಥ) i was not expecting your last ask to be so soft. Im not sure if this fluff is allowed on this sinful blog (/j) but its really nice to imagine jade and floyd being true to mate eels and saving themselves for 'the one' and then just.....loving and breeding the hell out of her, showing her the true meaning soulmates and proving just how wrong she was about her past lovers

Truthfully, I wasn’t expecting it to be so soft either... ^^;;; but sometimes fluff and mer dynamics just need to be written to soothe the soul hehe!!

I love the idea of Jade and Floyd who sleep around a lot or hop from various flings or friends with benefits, only to quit all of that the minute they find ��the one” and dedicate their time to trying to court you. And if you started as fwb and one night they realize there’s more emotion in the sex than usual… orz something about the twins realizing that their feelings for you run deeper than simple physical attraction and that you aren’t a fleeting fling like they once thought!!! Aaaaa it’s so good!!!

You are not getting rid of them once they’re in love with you! It’s two eels for the price of one, so have a lot of fun and treat them well! They will definitely treat you nicely in return hehe. After all, they were raised well. They’ll treat you to fine dining, expensive luxuries, and protect you from people who get in the way (i.e. someone stared at you for a little too long and now they’re losing teeth), and somewhere in between all of that you’re getting fucked so good nearly every day. :) aaaa and they just love you so much, so they’re always telling you because it’s true. They adore you! They’re so affectionate and so in love and so romantic and so fine AND I NEED THEM UUWUWUWUAAAA!!!!!! OTL

[gureshinlover]

I know Jumin's very capitalist mindset can be annoying but Zen crosses the line while dissing Jumin sometimes 😭

[spiderqueenpc]

say what u will about Mystic Messenger but Zen is on that hater grindset like no one else. king shit.

[cephydeluxe]

goddammit it's hunny bunny's(jumin han, ceo heir to c&r, and a 28 year old adult man) birthday and I have NOTHIN fuck

[unluckysatellite]

i just wanna say thank you for your mysme guides!!! i kno this is a long shot to ask but are you going to make a guide for ray's ae or for jumin's dlc?? 👉👈

You’re welcome but

No. No I will not.

I could have sworn that I said this before but I will not be making any more guides to mysme — Sujin Ri will have to break into my home and point a gun in my face before I will ever play those garbage beyond garbage pieces of canon rape.

And so, I will be updating my guides to include a note to stop asking me about that particular dlc.

[xelasrecords]

V and Jumin's Emotionally Distant Friendship

At first I wanted to laugh at Jumin roasting his friend for being pretty outside but empty inside but then what V said got me thinking

2 important statements here: 1) V believes that a friendship is a mirror that reflects oneself and 2) Jumin sees V as an empty statue, beautiful but hollow inside, something that people could only fleetingly appreciate before moving on to a more interesting thing because it has no depth. V agrees with Jumin, and even if we don't know whether Jumin believes in V's mirror analogy, it is true for them.

V and Jumin are lonely because the ones they love and claim to love them back never bother to know them deeply. They have the same insecurity, but their coping mechanism is different. V uses Rika to define himself as the man who could love grandly and withstand any trials and tribulations in the name of love. Jumin closes himself from everyone and projects his unhealthy definition of love onto his cat, building up the fantasy that it could understand him like a human would.

But once the illusion is shattered—that neither of them could give a perfect love because perfection doesn't exist—they break inside. V spirals into existential crisis while Jumin refuses to take back his cat that ran away from him. They share a common belief that their love has to be perfect. They have to be the best or they would be a failure. This is what Jumin says after he finally agreed to take back Elizabeth the 3rd due to V's persuasion:

But because V and Jumin are living in their own fantasies, how could they be there for each other? How could they look into each other's emptiness and recognise how lonely the other really is, and offer emotional support when they've never learned how to do so?

The emotional closeness doesn't exist in their friendship because they can't cross the bridge. They have a shared history and deep trust, but when there's a pressing matter in the present, they don't quite know how to strengthen each other, and what is a best friend if you can't be there for them when they need it the most?

Below is one of the examples where V thinks Jumin only ever keeps one thing from him when Jumin's biggest secret is actually his feelings for Rika that he had to hide to honour his best friend's relationship:

It's sad for everyone involved. V is blissfully ignorant and thankful that Jumin still trusts him despite his self-isolating secrets, while Jumin can't even show that he's also just as lonely. They can't lean on each other when they need to.

Sure, Jumin could get the best doctors for V due to his connections and V could persuade Jumin keep Elizabeth the 3rd because he knows him best. They were helpful on a surface level but the emotional job falls solely on the MC, which could be romantic if you look at it in a "wow there's only one person who could change them" way, but isn't it heartbreaking to have a friend so close to you yet feel so far away? Romantic love is important, but platonic friendship is just as meaningful. The trust and deep understanding of each other's nature are already there, so what they need to do is simply nurture their friendship and go to therapy.

On a more positive note, Jumin and V see their counterpart as the better person. V may believe that a friendship cannot change him since it's only a mirror, but if he sees Jumin as inherently better, doesn't that reflect his opinion on himself? They believe in themselves and feel their decisions validated because they trust each other. Jumin only decides to keep Elizabeth the 3rd because he values V's opinion highly, which in turn makes him better in accepting himself. V is always thankful for Jumin's unwavering trust, which pushes him to be a better person because he wants to be more like him.

Their selflessness is also a mirror. Who else but V and Jumin who would drop everything for the safety of the RFA? V would literally give up his life and Jumin would give up his C&R position and take the fall for the RFA.

I hope after their respective good endings, they'll learn to be vulnerable and open up. Their friendship will be more fulfilling and their trust will be strengthened because of it.