#but if they had kissed for real in orv i would have been upset bc no. go work through your 3.5billion years of trauma

[mae-i-scribble]

orv epilogue spoilers below

I'm having thoughts about the 0th round and the inclusion of Lee Seolhwa and Yoo Joonghyuk's marriage. I've encountered a decent amount of people dissatisfied with it- some for how it feels too little too late for Lee Seolhwa as a character, which is completely fair. She's one of those unfortunate characters introduced as having a major role and then subsequently sidelined in the madness, save for a few little moments. Her being married to YJH definitely can come off as an afterthought, and I really do wish we had seen more of her, bc what we see of her and of them is lovely. There's also a common thing I see in fanworks featuring her where she's either turned into someone toxic, they were always just friends, or she's in a wlw relationship- out of these only the first one is enough to make me actually dislike the writing choices, but there is a pattern of people gently ignoring their relationship in fanworks in favor of shipping YJH with someone else (hsy and kdj mostly). Which is understandable in au's in particular bc I get it, most people like having their ships only navigate around each other- though I still think that them as exes who remained close friends is the peak dynamic.

However, speaking of ships, I think her marriage to YJH is actually so so important for joongdok canonically- and loved what they were doing the first time I read it. Just because Yjh and Kdj's dynamic is not canonically tied up as a romance does not make it any less meaningful or impactful- and in my opinion does the exact opposite. Because what 0th round is doing is showing that yjh and kdj's relationship is one not constrained to mere romance. What they mean to each other, the importance they each have to the other's life, its something so much more grand than that. Having that deep interpersonal connection play out around YJH's marriage is bolded proof of that. And I love it- I love relationships that arent confined by "normal" standards of love and happiness. While I don't blame anyone for coming away with a romantic interpretation of yjh and kdjs interactions (those lines do be kinda spicy) honestly i think 0th round says more about how yjh and kdj's sense of self is so intertwined with the other that they cannot exist without it. (kdj literally saying 'i am yjh' as a coping mechanism, using yjh's story to survive. yjh's existence as a character and how he seeks to find out who he is beyond that, and how no matter where he goes on that journey, kdj is influencing him and guiding him).