#Shinae has only seen the TIP of the iceberg and we know it's only going to get so much worse so ;AA;

[trashlie]

I just reread ILY to catch up after not reading in two years and I cannot believe the post 200 chapters are even better than when ILY was in its heyday popularity-wise. I’m desperately trying to get all my friends to catch up again so I have someone to talk to about it, I read all the Reddit posts, and I’ve seen so many of your responses and it just tickles my brain in a certain way. I can’t believe it’s been 6 years and we are FINALLY getting some canon confirmation of romantic feeling between Shine Ae and Nol. I don’t know what to do with myself! I guess this has been a rambly ask, but, in your head, how do you imagine they end up at the point where there timeskip begins?

Oh man, I know that feeling of just trying soooo hard to get your friends to catch up lmao. Everyone has to get to it when they are in the right mood but when you are living with constant ILY Brainrot, it just feels like any time you have to wait is TOO LONG lmao (which is why I wind up howling on the reddit and over here lmao). So I TOTALLY get it! lmao sometimes you just have to find everything you can to read and consume it all and pretend it is enough (but it's NEVER enough). But also aahhhh thank you!!!! It makes me feel really happy that I stand out to people and that the things I never shut up about reach people who are receptive to it, hehehe!

But man YEAH!!!!! The story has definitely been nudging us about their feelings - what was 151 if not a very not platonic break up that really made it feel SO REAL. I keep thinking about this, how I can't remember when I started shipping it or when it went from casual to Oh I CARE but 151 was absolutely the episode that made me go "Holy shit are we GOING THERE?" and my god we were GOING there I cannot believe it! And there's so many simultaneous plot lines running right now and I want to eat them all up at once but we can only get so much per episode and AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Don't worry, I really love rambly messages lol but to try to answer your question, mMMMMMmmmmMMMMMMMmmm

I HONESTLY DON'T KNOW lol

At the time of 151 I thought there was a VERY REAL possibility that the core trio were all going to go their separate ways and that the catalyst for the timeskip story picking back up would be that they were all coming back into each others' lives, but SO MUCH has happened since then that has changed my feelings. Isn't it funny how, right, the post 200 episodes have been SO INCREDIBLE SO good, giving us SO MUCH good content and it has completely changed the state of the story from that time! Frankly, I thought if Nol and Shinae were ever going to realize feelings, it wasn't going to happen until after the timeskip so frankly? I have been completely blindsided lmao

My main thought lately is that there must be some kind of resolve, right? Because if we were going to go my previously thought route, that they will all go their separate ways and then come back into each other's lives and that would have been a trigger for Nol and Shinae to realize their feelings, we wouldn't have had all of this - Nol ultimately unable to stay away taking that step taking a chance with Shinae, the entirety of what has transpired in that hospital room, the way he doesn't shy away from or deny that there was something romantic going on (he could have SO EASILY said Dieter got the wrong impression if he wanted to deny the feelings right?), this revelation of how important they are to each other, Shinae's continued fight for him. So I think we WILL get some kind of closure here regarding that. We are RIGHT on the cusp of Shinae coming face to face with her feelings, I think. Nol is already there and it feels like Shinae is dancing around it.

Will she run away from her feelings? Will she get freaked out and suddenly shy, unsure how to face him? Would she be more forthright, determined as ever wanting to talk to him, to voice this, to feel out where they belong in each others' lives? I think whether or not she gets freaked out by her feelings, that it has to go that way - talking about it, admission. Clearly a relationship is not.... you know. The most possible right now lol. Dieter is hurt, Nol still has a girlfriend, AND he's off to jail, but I don't think admitting feelings means they have to jump into anything or even apply labels. I still think it's very likely Nol will leave the country for university, because frankly, I think he NEEDS to get away, but we still stand to see how that's going to play out following the first time skip.

But I think we will, at the very least, see them acknowledge their feelings, acknowledge where they stand in each others' lives. I firmly feel like if Nol didn't want to, if he was willing to walk away, he would have done so, and he would have downplayed why Dieter is so hurt. It would be so easy for him to keep playing his cupid friend role, to tell her that Dieter seems to have misinterpreted their dance, poor buddy, don't worry, I'll talk to him. But instead, he acknowledged what exists between them. And I think once Shinae understands her feelings, she will use them to fight even harder for him, to further insist why they can't throw any of this away, that they're too important to each other to give it up.

In which case, I like to hope that maybe this would be a big, first step for them towards any kind of future. Even if Nol is leaving, that doesn't mean that things stagnate. As one of those people who brings Nol comfort, who always sees him, I think Shinae would be the complete opposite of what he's had with Alyssa thus far - someone who actually reaches out, who checks in, who makes time, who keeps up with him. Idk! I'm still very.... you know, feeling things out because quimchee is SO good at blindsiding me, but right now I guess I hope that we will at the very least have Shinae and Nol acknowledge their feelings but more importantly understand the place they have in each others' lives, that way when we have our big time skip, it won't be like they're stranger reuniting with each other, there won't be this big scar between them from unresolved hurt.

More than anything I want to see Nol and Shinae operating as a team by the time we reach the start of our time skip. I want to see them as two equals who are united together against their shared enemy, who have each others' backs. I don't want to keep seeing Nol push people away because he thinks it will protect him, I want him to WORK WITH her and know that they are safer and stronger TOGETHER than isolated and manipulated the way they have been. That's what is so important about acknowledging their feelings - whether or not they start a relationship, it's more important that they (and by that I mean NOL lmao) acknowledge that they stand more risk if they aren't united. There's nothing he can do to change Yui's interest in Shinae, it's too late. So I want to see them have that conversation, the one Shinae started - that she deserves to get a say, that he can't just decide how their relationship goes because he's trying to protect her, that it has nothing to do with HIM and everything to do with HER. I want to see them acknowledge how much they mean to each other and how much they need each other, because neither of them REALLY knows how terrible Yui is.

So!

Do I think they'll get there? I'm not 100% sure BUT it's what I'm hoping we'll see and where we'll see them standing as that time skip begins! One thing I REALLY hope is that Nol WILL read the letters in the Bible, get a glimpse at what Rand and Nessa's relationship was like, remind him that Shinae doesn't deserve that, that he deserves better, too. I need him to see that pushing her away lets Yui win, leaves him stranded and isolated. Choose to let himself be loved for once, pls ;~;