#nah somebody-909 has done that best i think

[trashlie]

!!! i hadn’t thought of it that way! that mls usually have those “masculine” characteristics while the second male leads are just “friends” because they’re more gentle etc. that’s very interesting!! i never actually saw nolan as the second male lead but it did feel like the people around him and shinae constantly manipulated things around them to separate them, or the circumstances often made them keep distance, but just them specifically and forcing him to stay passive(? i never saw kousuke as the love interest but i’ve heard that many assumed it was like that, i was surprised that i had ignored how he was supposed to be imitating those tropes!! i was too focused on yeonggi to notice ☠️ but now i see why people would be drawn towards kousuke ahahaha

Omg if you ever look at webtoon comments (don't it's a nightmare lmao) it's incredible how many people are convinced from the get go that Kousuke is a love interest despite no indication of it. In fact, that was the thing I discovered re: Nol when reading without a romantic lens, too; he doesn't seem to reveal as a romantic option for a long time, either, and the things that reveal him as one are mostly circumstantial and rooted in the presentation of his feelings and gleaned from his actions. We're all literally just out here hoping that we're actually on to something lmao. But also I don't see Kousuke as a love interest, not because I don't ship it, but because textually it doesn't seem supported. I know this can be because Shinae is still under age, so any romantic moments are not going to happen right now, but consider that technically Nol and Shinae haven't really had "romantic" moments, either. Again, it's circumstantial, it's clues given to us between the lines.

Anyway what I'm getting at re: Kousuke is I feel like we've been given a lot of instances that show compared to Nol that Kousuke doesn't really understand Shinae. Yes, things can change in the timeskip, but can they change that much? The motif of Kousuke never quite understanding Shinae (even when she makes it obvious!) has been reiterated as recently as episodes 141 through 143 when he tries to talk her into remaining his assistant. I know people have argued that Shinae would be a fool to walk away from a position like hers, but here's the thing: she is a minor who was tricked into a position well above her skill level, who has to work around her abusers who she made it apparent cause her discomfort, she feels out of her league, and she was forced to take etiquette classes just to fit in. No mater how good the pay, if your job makes you feel stifled or if you feel miserable, find something better. In fact, in this episode Kousuke feels more like he's being her parent, telling her to stick with something, acting like he knows what's best for her when: he didn't even know what clothes are best for her; he didn't think her capable of customer service; he didn't even talk to her about how she was lacking and immediately put her in etiquette classes.

Honestly, that aspect alone is what makes me feel like we aren't supposed to view him as a romantic interest. That, coupled with the realization that much of Kou's interest in Shinae seems to stem from repressed remorse towards Nol about how he treated him (if he treats Shinae better will it make his guilt go away? Will it make him feel bigger? On the contrary, we see that Shinae questioning Kou's lifestyle only brings the Nol comparisons out more). That's what's so interesting to me: that as more and more the incompatibility is revealed, the more we start to realize that he was never presented as a romantic interest, it was just assumed he was. And idk I love that but I guess if I shipped those two maybe I would hate it? lol I just like how the storytelling carefully reveals things that were there all along but we were perceiving wrongly.

Also re: the "masculine" traits of first and second leads. Think about the reasons Nol has been casted by some into the friend role and what it says about his traits vs Kousuke's. This isn't a dig at people who favor men with a lot of masculine traits, but rather a thing I found interesting and explained why I was drawn to characters other readers would cast as friends. Obviously, there's some clever subversion of even this with Nol and Kousuke - Nol's anger is not a gentle thing in the least, Kousuke enjoys very refined hobbies. But at any rate, it always felt to me that characters who tend to be emotionally in tune with an MC esp compared to a first lead who is cold, closed off, and repeated hurts the MC always felt like it was regarded as somehow "not manly enough" even though.... isn't that what we want from romance? People who are emotionally in tune with us? But this is why I started to avoid love triangles lmao I hated the idea that the kind of guys I favored were somehow "inferior" lmaoooo

Also lol thinking about the subversion of the typical second lead, often they hesitate of their own accord - they're not ready to say anything, they're passive people, etc. Nol's "passivity" is straight up due to extenuating factors: Kousuke has made him stay away with Shinae, his own belief that he's not really good enough for her/a danger to her, his best friend likes her already, she made it clear at one point they are just friends, he has a girlfriend. The passive second lead is played nearly straight, just.... not of his own volition exactly lol