Finished!
Hope you enjoyed this short, very rushed comic. It is actually a scene that is very dear to my heart, and I discovered in horror, 5 days ago, that the way it was interpreted by the actors in the audio drama was very different from how I pictured it in my head. Therefore, I couldn't resist, and had to do this before next week (because of other incoming events).
It seems like among readers, the interpretation of that scene is rather unanimous : WKX, for all his ridiculous and over the top fake flirting, does feel a need to express at least some form of honesty; maybe because of the grief, maybe because he knows that his decision to stay with ZZS despite him being condemned will bring suffering. His best friend is going to die, but being with him is still worth it. I think... especially after the open conversation they have before the scene I decided to adapt, that it makes sense for WKX to want to express his deeper feelings -which he may not fully accept yet, given his "It's a good thing I'm not in love with you yet" quote from two chapters before.
Sometimes, some words have to come out, and they're just a bit too much to fully take responsibility of. And thus, he backtracks, because now is not the time, because perhaps when seeing ZZS' expression, he feels like he'd rather not make this an honest statement yet.
In the AD, the whole speech is played as a joke, including the final "confession". I guess it works, but for the emotional flow and rythm of the scene, I am more interested in a visible shift in WKX's delivery. On top of that, I find ZZS being left speechless afterwards to make more sense. He's used to WKX making outrageous declarations, why would this one be different?
It also gives more intensity and contrast to the "Gotcha" moment at the end, which is a bit less convincing when it's already an obvious joke. It makes it a bit sadder, too, in my opinion. Maybe it's a bit tropey, maybe we've seen it before (=the honest confession that is then retracted), but I do think that it works well in this context.
Additionally, I like how it reinforces the "Are you sincere?" scene, at the end, since ZZS would still be marked by how he did buy WKX's confession until WKX himself made fun of him for falling for it.
That's it! Thank you for reading and then reading some more.
Additional thanks to WenBuXing and Xuxunette for their translations, and to the DZZS creative chat for cheering on me.
Big, big shoutout to Bichen, who I hope will like this version of that scene.
