luneify

An easy 10/10. Loved it from start to finish, cried near the end, etc. What a fucking masterpiece, thank u sm S. Korea 🙏🏻

Accidentally came across this MDL page and by god am I glad I discovered this series. Binged all 4 episodes. I absolute adore not just Cha Yeowoon but Tae Myungha as well.

Hah, at least your take is a lot more interesting and nuanced than most in this discussion thread.
Even if I obviously don't feel the same as you. Because while I tend to like morally grey/actually evil/"evil" characters, I don't usually want them to die. I'm still glad you shared your insight, your comment was a good read and I wholly understand where you're coming from.

I'm pretty uncertain about Non. Generally I'm not a fan of his type of character either, but I do also pity him. I mainly find him just... quite boring to follow in the series. I have a hard time caring about his future at the moment, whether he actually dies or not.

Tee being aware of it doesn't change a thing. Non chose to do it because he had his reasons, just like Tee did to Non.
A victim victimizing others is extremely typical. I'm surprised and disturbed that that means for you that he's unsympathetic—though it's clear example of the Perfect Victim vs an imperfect one, so I shouldn't be that surprised. This is literally the point of my whole post but you both clearly missed it.

Non was manipulating them *nicer*? Are you kidding? Did you even reread before you commented? What the hell kind of justification is that?

I guess you're a fan of an eye for an eye. I'm personally not, but you clearly feel that involving people in money laundering is a suitable retribution for high school bullying.

I do think we have seen Tee suffer, albeit a lot more subtler and based on body language and attitude. But we're not gonna agree on that one. Or anything, since you're in denial about how much of an asshole Non was being. As if it wasn't a deliberate choice he himself made when involving the rest of them.

1. Agree to disagree, then.

2. I wasn't comparing myself to Tee or how he treats Non, I was saying that being an ass as a teen is unsurprising and common. We were all assholes.

3. So... crying and being miserable and an attempt at killing oneself mean you're the victim? They're not the only tells, far from it. They can be, and they are, for Non.
If you genuinely believe that you're extremely narrow-minded.
Non clearly has at least one mental illness and is likely a lot more emotionally unstable than Tee.

Did Non bully anyone? No. Is bullying someone an irredeemable crime? No. Did Non manipulate his "friends"/bullies into being used for money laundering? Yes.

1. He does not "clearly" hate Non, he's pretty indifferent towards him. The only ones actively disliking Non are Top and Por.

2. If being an ass to others as a teen is a crime worth death while suffering, I guess I deserve to die a thousand times over then.

3. Regardless, it's INSANE to wish for something like that towards a character that's a victim of the exact same issues. Both Tee and Non are being failed by the adults around them. If you can only sympathize with one while not the other, you're part of the Perfect Victim problem.

The point I was trying to make partially is though that Tee doesn't just care about himself, but OK.
I don't know about you, but I'd rather save the life of my parent than care about some stranger's wellbeing. And if that makes me a bad person, then fine.
But that's why I can empathize with Tee.

Trying to argue why Tee (or Por, or Top, etc) deserves to die when he's a teen going thru an extremely tough time will never not be disturbing to me.

If you guys have ever heard of "The Perfect Victim", then Non would come to mind, wouldn't he?
I know that I'm extremely in the minority when I once again confess my favourite character is Tee, and like, I'm not here to try and change anyone's mind. I really wanna make that clear, I'm not here to fight anyone, you're free to disagree with me.
I'm writing all this because it's obvious Non is a victim, but Tee is so hated.

I think this series, especially after EP 6, has been a great study of how single-minded many people are when they think about what a victim should look like. We have Non, and we have Tee, and I'd argue both are victims in nearly the exact same way.

Tee needs money for his father. He's been recruited to work for his uncle in a pyramid scheme. If he doesn't do as told, he'll be cut loose and his father will suffer for it. VS Non, who also needs money.
Being tricked into being the one who broke the camera by Tee doesn't make Tee any less of a victim than Non.

We aren't so dumb as to not understand that doing bad things is bad. Tricking someone? Bad. Introducing someone into money laundering? Bad. Duh. Obviously.
But acknowledging other victims look very different from the obvious one doesn't take away from Non. Non IS a victim. And so is Tee. The uncle is the actual villain here and yet nobody is mentioning him.

Tee's wearing his school uniform most of the time when in the gambling place, facing his uncle, and even when he is accompanied by those thugs to beat up Non. Doesn't that make you realise that Tee is also just a teen? A teen trying his best under impossible circumstances?
He doesn't, and shouldn't, belong in that world.

Following that, the way he spoke to Non after cornering him with the thugs was abnormal for the situation. He didn't yell. He just told Non what his uncle wanted him to say.
It's clear Tee doesn't enjoy fucking with Non. He takes no pleasure in interacting with him nor does he sadistically enjoy putting Non through it. I don't understand how one can blame Tee for doing what he does.

Also, yes. I did feel very bad for Non, it was hard to watch this episode. But that doesn't take away how I feel just as bad for Tee and sympathize with him as well. It's really not that hard to see it both ways. They're both victims. Non's victimhood is just a little more obvious than Tee's.

Are we not going to acknowledge Non just effectively did to his bully-friends (including Jin) the same as what Tee did to him? Mkay.

Yeah I've seen those dumbass tweets. I hate when those who worked on production of series try to be all mysterious by hinting stuff. It just gives me anxiety.

But I think it's far too early to definitively deem a character as good as dead or not. I believe there's more to Jin than we've seen so far. It's all gonna be about the last 3/2 episodes, that's when I think we'll find out who dies or not, after all the flashback stuff has been shown.

Yess literally me exactly as well. I can get extremely obsessive too. I don't even know why I'm so involved and obsessed with this show. Maybe because it fits niches I'm into that I rarely see combined in series nowadays.

I'm also super invested in finding out who survives till the end. I'm certainly going to cry if my favorite character ends up dying haha, which is a likely possibility given that it's Tee.

I'm glad to have a group chat with some people who are like me as well, otherwise I'd probably explode from all the thoughts over DFF I have.

Exactly, and I bet a lot of them are the types to complain about wanting more diverse BL series and then don't realise we've finally gotten main leads that are so different from what we've seen before in DFF. Plus it being horror/suspense.
I've literally been bullied myself all throughout my school years so it's not like I'm some out of touch elitist who doesn't know what being bullied is like either and can't empathise with Non.

Yeah I think so too. Luckily I'm in a chat with people who like the same DFF characters as I do and we view a lot of things the same.
I can't really seem to outlet my thoughts in this discussion thread without being labelled as a "defender" of bullies.
So it's just a little disappointing every time coming here and seeing the majority of comments being how much they hate the characters (even tho I understand that being an initial gut reaction to EP 5). I'd hoped there to be more nuance, but alas, my expectations for MDL were too high!

I think a lot of people who r watching this series do so because of Barcode and therefore see the events in black and white and without nuance. As an outsider to that majority it's incomprehensible to me that so many want these teenage bullies to die a cruel death already within the confines of a fictional story 🤷‍♀️

I kindly recommend checking out the behind the scenes on BoC's YT channel if u hate all characters except Non lmaoo

ain't no way I'm the only one here who still likes other characters and wants them to live... right?!

I have zero attachment to Barcode so maybe that plays into why I'm less extreme about my feelings towards the other characters...

I guess that's one way to watch this series! I think the goal may be more along the typical lines of seeing who survives rather than waiting to see them all die, so I still hope for my favorites to live 😩

Definitely, I wholly agree. It doesn't excuse anything, but at least to me, it lets me understand why he's doing what he's doing. He has a selfish reason, perhaps, but if I imagine myself in his shoes—working for that uncle, needing money himself for admittedly selfless reasons, ie medicine for his parent—then I might've done the same shit he's doing.

Maybe just me, though. Maybe I'm just a bad evil person too then hahaha. But that's why I still feel great empathy for him—less so for Top and Por.

Glad to be one of the few who doesn't hate any of the characters after this episode. We're clearly following a group of elitist bullies, but that's why I like these characters so much. We rarely see any real bullying/manipulation from main leads.

I mean, I totally get disliking them, obviously.

I'll be the Tee advocate. My favorite character remains him. Even though it's obviously horrible to manipulate someone into money laundering, he's not a 2D evil villain. He needs medicine for his family, and has his uncle who is forcing his hand.
Given that Tee was reluctant to join the whole project and isn't as outright bullying Non as say, Top and Por, he obviously cares the most about himself and his family.

But like I said, I get hating them, even though I feel like it's a little extreme. I personally dislike Top 20x more than any of them, but ok.

I don't think any of them deserve to die—yet. I'm very surprised to see how many of y'all outright want these characters to die lmao

This was a great episode like any other. Sad at the end? Absolutely! But I believe 100% that it was necessary for the characters and their relationship.

I feel terrible for Mhok and understand his reasoning as well as Day's, which makes this such an impactful moment.
But it's been clearly set up that Day wants to be more and more independent and achieve things on his own, and we saw how much his blindness and independence worried Mhok this episode. We saw exactly why and how the conflict at the end came to be. It makes perfect sense.

We didn't get some arbitrary, drama-for-the-sake-of-drama angst—no. If you think that way, I'm sorry, but you don't understand the craft of storytelling at all.

I believe this was the only way a healthy relationship between them could've gone. It'd be too easy for MhokDay to cling to the old, the known, the comfortable. But now both (are forced to) step out of their literal comfort zones and can individually grow.