#YeoWoon is adorable!

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

Fondness 17

[ellsieee]

I cannot get over how adorable Yeowoon is with his mad crush on Myungha.

Yeowoon is so nervous and tentative at first to ask Myungha on a date.

He is so pleased Myungha says yes. His giddy satisfied smile is so cute.

Living for that little wave and the way he looks down with that shy smile had me squealing.

Our boy probably couldn't even sleep the night before the date and it took all his self control to wait until 4 am to text Myungha. He is such a gentleman, picking up his date. 🤭

Being a gentleman again by paying for his date (even if it is just bus fare). 😆 Can he be any more adorable?

[dropthedemiurge]

Chun Sangwon: Frustrated bisexual + second lead syndrome

+ bonus (good main character posing like a bad guy is just trying to figure out how to make everyone happy)

[heretherebedork]

Death by adorable. Just look at this. How dare they be this cute. Absolutely how dare. Illegal. Unallowed. Banned for cuteness. Banned for adorable. Banned for being this sweet. Banned I say.

Especially with the world starting to glitch the more in love he is... ooof, rough, being in a video game is dangerous.

[fandomfairyuniverse]

Oh Myungha 1000% fell in love all over again when yeowoon arrived for their date that boy is GONE

[sollucets]

sorry im still lflsposting but again im just thinking about how backwards these two smile sets are from each other. mirrors and reflections and echoes forever !!! bc like i said myungha smiles a Lot -- hes kind of got like a perma halfway smile on his face most conversations and he also does it to defuse questioning about his wellbeing, so its his charm + masking, baybee. but when he becomes more open & vulnerable he actually seems to smile less (like, yeowoon saying he's running for myungha flusters him and makes him all shy, and kyunghoon saying he wants to drink with myungha later on makes him like halfsmile then sort of contemplate it, etc). and yeowoon is just the opposite of course, with his smiles all big n bright once he drops his wall. its very fun i love it

[jemmo]

Making sense of love for love's sake: the game

Despite all the things i absolutely adore about how the plot unravels and expands in love by love's sake, upon first watch, there's some things i couldn't piece together, which @lurkingshan echoes in their post:

'The way the author was messing with Myungha and forcing cruel choices on him really does not track with a desire to help him find happiness.'

And to preface, this is not something i fully get yet either. I think i'll need a good month and a sizeable reading list of relevant resources to understand just what/who this author/sunbae is and what his role is and how he is associated with myungha. But as always with the best shows for meta (aka bad buddy), as a plot unfolds, you can always find a better understanding by looking backwards and re-contextualising what you've already seen. so i watched ep 1, specifically the scene between myungha and his sunbae at the bar. And i will talk about how everything said in this scene has a whole new meaning now we know the full story, but for now i wanna focus on that question that they keep coming back to; "Then... will you change it for him?".

When you watch the show for the first time, your brain follows the simplest, most obvious version of the story you're being told, one where myungha has been pulled into the world of his sunbae's novel that's being turned into a game and given the opportunity to fix the thing he didn't like about it; making yeowoon happy, and thus you just think the rules of the game are imposed by the author, and so when these cruel choices first come up, you see them as the difficult roadblocks that are nevertheless necessary to any kind of game, forcing the player to make an impossible choice so that the game can continue in a certain direction and its only after that you learn whether it was the right choice or not, or there is no right choice, it simply changes the game you are playing.

And when its revealed what this game actually is, at first i tried to interpret these cruel choices, namely the choice between yeonwoon and myungha's grandma, and at best i could come up with the concept of this being a choice between staying stuck to the past aka choosing his grandma, even though he knows that choice doesn't mean she's safe bc he knows the future where he loses here, its an inevitability, but thats the small happiness he knew before it was taken away and thus that happiness is known and safe, theres no risk, versus choosing to pursue a new happiness, a love of yeowoon and thus himself, which he doesn't know, he hasn't experienced yet, and could be risky. Its a happiness that isn't guaranteed like his grandma, but its a happiness that looks to the future and has hope in it that he can find a new happiness to pursue despite what has happened in his past.

And that fits nice, okayish. But then i watched ep 1 and heard that question "Then... will you change it for him?" And watching through the rest of the eps, we come back to this scene at the bar and each time we get a new run up to the author asking this question, either new dialogue is added or we hear a different piece of the conversation entirely. It starts at the beginning of ep 1 as:

"Because Cha Yeowoon is the only one who's miserable." "It can't be helped that some people's lives are like that" "The fact that some people are destined to live that kind of life is what's vile."

Then a bit later in ep 1 we go back and its expanded.

"It can't be helped that some people's lives are like that" "The fact that some people are destined to live that kind of life is what's vile." "Why? Do you think you'd write it differently?" "Yes, definately. Someone like Cha Yeowoon, or someone like me with an awful life, can also be happy."

And then all the way on in ep 6, we get this new dialogue.

"I don't like talking about destiny." "Why?" "Because it means everything is predestined." "Then do you not believe in fate?" "Fate and destiny are the same. My grandma likes to say that. She said life is like a written book, and how you'll live and die are written in it. (...)I don't like things like this. Even if fate is already destined, I think it can still be changed. Otherwise, there's no point in trying." "Really? Then Myungha..."

And while we don't hear the author ask the same question, I feel like him getting cut off like that insinuates that the conversation leads to that same ending point. All that is to say, every time we hear this question being asked, its like we learn more and more about what this whole thing is, what the game is, what myungha is saying he will do by agreeing to do what the author asks. And every time, we see myungha being more defiant against the idea of yeowoon being resigned to his miserable ending. He starts off thinking that kind of life is destined, and while it's miserable, its not something he can fight. Then he says he'd want to write the story differently, bc yeowoon, or even him, could be happy. He challenges the idea that yeowoon, and thus himself, is fated to be miserable, and opens up the possibility for happiness for them both, but doesn't yet have the means or resolve to do it, its like he knows its possible on a fundamental level, but doesn't see it as something he can actually achieve. But then we circle back to the idea of destiny and books, both of which came up in the previous quote, and seems incredibly pertinent seen as this whole thing is about a novel this author has written. Myungha talks about how he hates the idea that life is a book where everything written is predestined to happen, from the moment you live to the moment you die. He says "Even if fate is already destined, I think it can still be changed. Otherwise, there's no point in trying." That vile way of life he described before that he said was destined, he is now saying it can be changed, and that possibility is now something he's holding onto, its what he sees hope in so that he can keep trying, bc now he finally is trying, he has the resolve, he's trying to realise this thing, this impossibility of rewriting the life he thought was destined through the way he loves yeowoon.

And coming back to those cruel choices, given this fresh context, it made me think. bc this isn't actually a game that myungha has been put into where the rules are dictated by an author completely separate from him. He said himself, he'd rewrite it, he'd change things for yeowoon. And when you start to think of it less as him fighting against a rigid, removed system and more like him being a character in a story he is trying to rewrite himself, that has both the author and his own limitations, or just his own if you're in the school of thought that the author is some figment or part of myungha himself or his conciousness, then you can start to see where these cruel choices might come from. They could be myungha, the author making edits to this new story, imposing his own doubts and limitations on himself. When he says he has to pick between Yeowoon and his grandma, what if that's the new author myungha seeing this story unfold and thinking no this isn't right, he can't have it all, i'm not deserving of this much happiness.

And what makes me like this idea even more is that when we get that second choice between ending after 14 days or getting 100 days back at the cost of resetting Yeowoon's affection to 0, that whole conversation happens in what I think the bar actually is which is this frozen moment in time where myungha is in the water with this extension of a voice in his head that is talking through these things. That conversation in itself needs its own post, but when you look at it both as a decision to break up or not or a decision to hold onto life or not, you can see how the author is just this soundboard relaying the decisions myungha is going through in his head. The author's voice is his own, weighing up his decisions. And if he is the author here, it only reinforces that the person making the rules of this game is him. You can even extend it further to the idea of the debuffs, where he puts in place this thing that makes it so he causes harm to yeowoon when he's around, and its only by garnering affection that he can prevent it. He gives himself a reason from the get go to stay away from yeowoon and reason it as him doing it for yeowoon's safety, when in fact the only way to make yeowoon safe is to increase his affection, which he can only do by being near him. Its a system that at first gives myungha a reason to stay away aka not like himself, but ultimately says the only way you're going to make yeowoon like you, or the only way you can like yourself, is if you accept risk. And that in itself screams to me of a myungha writing in these game systems that are trying to encourage his own-self love while falling at the hurdle of his own lack of self-worth.

The idea is still messy in my head even for me, but i just really like the idea that myungha could be trying to fix this thing both as a character and game master, and that both these versions of him have these flaws that manifest in their different ways to cause the events we see. It kinda is the definition of being your own worst enemy, the idea that in order to work towards loving yourself, the biggest obstacle you have to encounter is yourself, bc we are the ones holding ourselves back, making all these rules that make it harder to like ourselves and pursue our own happiness. The voices in our head telling us that we aren't good enough and aren't deserving are our own, and while the things that happen to us can inform what they say, we're the one's reinforcing those words. And what this show teaches us is that, if we're the one holding that pen all along, we can choose to change what those words are. If we make the rules, you don't have to create a game with concrete ultimatums, you can create a game where rules don't control you. Instead, you make the decisions, and you can make the ones that make you happy.

[lurkingshan]

Love for Love's Sake Episode 5 & 6

Holy shit, y'all. This drama continues to blow my mind and be so smart about its world building and narrative structure. With each episode drop the show has been very smartly toggling back and forth between relationship development within the game and lore drops about what is happening outside the game, and these two episodes are no exception.

So we begin this week with relationship development, which was so fucking sweet. I love how honest Cha Yeowoon is about how he feels and what he wants. This boy has no ability to hide himself whatsoever, he wears his heart on his sleeve and his vulnerability on his face for anyone to see, and he's had a hard life with a lot of pain (who wants to join my murder squad to take out his dad?). It's no wonder he has kept his distance from people until he found someone he believed he could trust with it.

I love, too, that Tae Myungha's hangups have nothing to do with queerness--we probably won't ever know his dating history in the real world, but I think it's safe to say Yeowoon is not the first boy he has been in a relationship with. Instead, as suspected, his hesitation is all rooted in the fact that he's an adult in a game world he can't control, and he has no idea whether he can stay with Yeowoon. He is trying to be responsible, but the pull of those puppy eyes and pouty lips is simply too strong to resist (you're so valid for that, Myungha). I love that part of the game is also forcing Myungha to reckon with his own hurts, with his grandma and now his estranged mother challenging him to face his own trauma.

Which is why seeing these two bruised boys fall in love is oh so sweet. I love that even amongst the impending doom of the game malfunctions, we got to see them strengthen their bond, confirm how they feel, and grow comfortable with physical affection (though I would have liked to see more of that kissing lesson, show!). The kisses (complete with my beloved Gay Feelings sparkle effect), the hand holding, the flirting and public displays, it was all adorable.

And we needed that to hang onto when the game started experiencing server errors and Myungha became unmoored and unable to navigate the game universe effectively. It seems that his "friend" who trapped him in the game is indeed the one sending the anonymous mentions, and he's now messing with the game to change the conditions after Myungha has successfully altered Yeowoon's life. I like that this was rooted in another reveal about them discussing fate--Myungha is determined in his belief that our choices matter and we can always change our destiny, and it's clear his "friend" resents that stance and wants to show him he doesn't have control after all. And he is really not playing fair! Forcing Myungha to choose between his grandmother and Yeowoon is straight up cruel (our murder squad will also be taking this man out, we will be busy, besties).

Poor Myungha. I am so excited, so scared to see the big conclusion tomorrow, I trust that Myungha will find a way out of this situation. All I know is they need to find a way for our boys to get their happy ending or murder squad will be making another stop.

[nozunhinged]

how yeowoon turned into the most adorable lovesick puppy the second his crush took over means everything to me it ripped my heart to SHREDS

(also the quality of this show wooaaaah I forgot how important beautiful sound, colour moods and transitions are <3333)

[dragonsareawesome123]

For the fandom ask! The beloved Love for Love's sake? 👀?

Favorite Male Character

* Gonna cheat here and say both Myungha and Yeowoon. I mean, their characters parallel each other so I think it makes sense to put them both here.

Favorite Female Character

* Shia. She’s very fun and very sweet!

Least Favorite Character

* Myungha’s mom and Yeowoon’s dad. I really don’t get how some parents can be this horrible to their kids.

Favorite Ship

* Myungha/Yeowoon. They’re so sweet and adorable and are truly the actual definition of soulmates. I mean, their ship name Woonmyung literally translates to ‘Fate Destiny’ in English.

Favorite Friendship

* The friendship between the main four characters. I think all of the dynamics between them are very sweet and interesting.

Favorite Quote

* Myungha saying ‘I want to live’ in ep 8. Honestly unforgivable of Gagaoolala for translating that as ‘I want to stay.’ A W for IQIYI here for properly translating that line.

Worst Character Death (if any)

* Worst as in worst written? Or worst as in the death that broke my heart the most? Because I think the character deaths in this show are really well written but they did make me cry a lot. Like both of Myungha’s deaths are so well built up and well written esp with how the events leading up to them parallel with each other (the parallels in this show truly make me go insane in general).

This made me so happy you have no idea Moment

* Every single scene of Yeowoon being an absolute puppy. His smile is sooo radiant and adorable.

Saddest Moment

* Is saying the entirety of ep 7 acceptable? Also Myungha’s backstory in ep 8. Absolutely heartbreaking and devastating. I cried so much watching the last couple of eps of this show.

Favorite Location

* The beach that Myungha and Yeowoon reunited at in the last ep. The beach being where Myungha lost all hope and ended his life in his past life and is now the place where he can start over and live a happier life will always make me sob so hard.

Give me a fandom and I'll tell you

[bengiyo]

Love For Love's Sake Ep 4 Stray Thoughts

Last time, Myungha started working for Kyunghoon's sister, Si-a, who is a fan of Cha Yeowoon. Myungha tried to bond with Yeowoon by buying him new shoes, but this backfired completely. Yeowoon seems to want to like Myungha, but got jealous when he thought he was hanging out romantically/sexually with a girl. Yeowoon was about to fight Sangwon last episode, but Myungha pulled Sangwon away, probably because of a debuff from the game. We left at Myungha cheering Yeowoon to run at the competition.

Yep, there's the debuff.

Whoa, why the hell did he just fall down the damn stairs like that?

Episode 4: Development

Oh good. Sangwon has realized his mom didn't give Yeowoon those shoes.

It's really video games now, baby! I'm getting emotional about an approval meter going up and sparkles appearing under shoes!!!

Oh wow, Yeowoon looks awake for the first time really. He's actually really adorable when he's excited about something.

Oh lord what has moving to positive approval unlocked in this game?

Interesting. It seems Myungha is missing a significant amount of his memories.

Oh lord it's this dumbass blond kid again. This is not how I wanted the first kiss of the show to go!

Welcome back, wound tending. I like the golden coloring of this scene

Myungha, you are confusing the hell out of this boy.

Whoa, do I love Sangwon now???

Yeowoon of course has dark thoughts when he runs. He's so smitten with Myungha and I feel like Myungha doesn't see it.

Oh lord is this Myungha's first time experiencing gay thoughts??

I feel like this is the first time I've seen Myungha not wearing a black shirt.

Oh, he's definitely not talking about the sea.

Well well well, Myungha earned a huge approval swing with Yeowoon, and Sangwon earned one with me. I'm now a fan of this weird gay rich boy. Very quickly becoming obsessed with this show.

[ellsieee]

SO SO SO CUTE!!!

HE IS THE CUTEST BABYGIRL, PUPPY, LITTLE BEAN, TO EVER LIVE.

[dropthedemiurge]

I am finally slowly getting back to writing fics! Reading TSC was surely a good motivation boost for a story that I'm working on x)

Anyway, my Love for Love's Sake boys are back and Sangwon's POV is so fun to write once I pushed through the writer's block.

Hehe. This boy can and will make a throuple out of those two boyfriends, even if he has to insert himself against all best wishes xD

[heretherebedork]

Top ten couples from 2024 so far? >=] (you called me nice so have a cruel ask mwahahahahaha)

I bring this upon myself with my LOVE.

But oooof, what an ASK.

UM.

These will not be in a super specific order, honestly, I'm just looking at MDL and trying to decide.

TanFang: My precious and perfect boys. Absolutely perfect. They have to lead this list.

2. JJMethas: The beloveds! They were amazing and their story managed to actually be a story and have character growth and I loved them so much.

3. Qian x Yuan: Precious. Precious. Absolutely one of the best shows, and pairings, of the year.

4. Myungha X Yeowoon: Because it was truly and absolutely beautiful, again, and they were amazing.

5. King x Ino: They were just so great and what an amazing and uplifting and joyous show with such love at the heart of it.

6. GodDiew: Look, the greenest green flag of all time found a tiny turtle loving introvert to buy plushies for and take on adorable dates and who I am to argue? Just let the show not ruin them, please!

7. Taichi x Kohei: I adore them, I adore their manga, I just love the story and I'm SO happy to have this new and more modern version.

8. MingJoe: They were just the right kind of toxic and character growth and forgiveness that just worked. The show knew what it was doing... with them.

9. JinWoo x KiSub: I feel like I forget this show and then get a tiny reminder and fall in love again with these damaged disasters.

10. YoIng: Okay, they could still go horribly off the rails but I love their damaged and desperate friendship and the way they're both hurt and pulling away but drawn together and I just want a little catharsis.

Bonus 11: SamYoh because I want them on this list specifically for the lapsit.

[themundanedumpling]

not me pausing the drama several times BECAUSE I CANNOT GET OVER HOW ADORABLE CHA YEOWOON IS

[tm-trx]

currents.04[2024]

selections from my week in media [21-27 january 2024]

[dropping]

Last Twilight - I watched the first episode when it aired last year and decided to wait to binge the whole thing. It ended this week and from what I've read so far, it's most likely not going to be worth the time I could devote to something else on my list.

[listening]

"Good Girls" / Elle King

"Love Wins All" / IU

"Lovers or Enemies" / CIX

"Wife" / G-IDLE

[loving]

Yeowoon's little pout about killed me dead. I'd love to know if that was an actor choice or the director's. - Love For Love's Sake, ep 4

[reading]

Glitterland by Alexis Hall - m/m contemporary romance - Excellent book but heavy themes.

Turn Left by kianspo - MDZS canon divergence AU - Lan Wangji grows up away from the Lan sect

[watching]

For Him - Domestic bliss for Nail and Him now that everything is out in the open and Nail is secure in Him's feelings. They were so sweet with Honey. And we finally got some Dream/Chaochum scenes! I wish they were the second pairing instead of the detestable Chao. I've rarely been so annoyed by a character that I mute their scenes but here we are. Phai, great sex isn't worth the annoyance. Move on and find a new FWB.

Love For Love's Sake - I'm so glad I started this one. It's a darling little show, beautifully shot. Episodes 1 and 2 set up the game mechanics and introduced a well-rounded cast of interesting characters that I immediately fell in love with. Episodes 3 and 4 gave us the most adorable baby flirt in Yeowoon. The actor is so good: his face changes entirely when he's looking at Myungha now that he's caught feelings.

Pit Babe - Last week was all about the tears, this week was an assortment of character stuff. Alan and Jeff got together finally (the magnetic charm bracelets!) and Pete's storyline has been developed a lot further than I expected when he first appeared, but it's very good. I hope this show results in fic of both pairings because Pete's interactions with both Way and Kenta are just that good. There is so much story in both relationships to explore.

The Sign - Phaya and Tharn, being soft boyfriends in bed for 10 straight minutes is an excellent way to start off an episode.

The Story of Park's Marriage Contract {finished: 5 stars} - The h/c was strong with this one. Loved it. The love story was great and I appreciated that they spent time on the final resolution, instead of making her return a quick fix. It was sad, but it was done well I think. I loved all the characters so much and will be adding it to the list of shows I'd like to rewatch.

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