The Manufactured Love Theory
Chapter 39 offers one of the clearest confirmations yet that Suae and Eunhyuk’s romance was never organic, but carefully manufactured by Haru. The curtain is pulled back in a conversation between Haru and Cheol Su, where the subject is laid bare.
Cheol Su: I thought you were gonna meet in person? Haru: Huh? Cheol Su: I mean Dohwa Baek. Doesn’t seem like you even ran into him. Haru: Oh, that! It’s all part of the plan. Cheol Su: What would you know? Haru: You need to see the forest, but you are in it. Of course you can’t see. Cheol Su: Does a manufactured relationship like that have any meaning? Haru: Manufactured? I just provided a stage for the splendid performance. You can think of it as an act of art. Cheol Su: I thought you weren’t going to do anything weird. Haru: Just you wait and see. Watch me bring Dohwa in.
This exchange is damning. The phrase “manufactured relationship” is spoken aloud within the narrative itself, and instead of rejecting the accusation, Haru embraces it. He reframes his interference as “providing a stage” and even elevates it to “an act of art.” But whether it’s called art, performance, or intervention, the meaning is the same: the milestones that defined Suae and Eunhyuk’s relationship—the scarf, the sauce, the ferris wheel—were not the result of fate or choice. They were props in Haru’s theater.
Most importantly, the final line exposes the larger purpose: “Just you wait and see. Watch me bring Dohwa in.” With this, Haru confesses that Suae and Eunhyuk’s entire romance was never an end in itself, but a means to an end. Their manufactured intimacy was a decoy, a staged play designed to set up Dohwa’s involvement. In one stroke, the supposed love story is stripped of authenticity and reframed as a pawn in a bigger scheme.
This is the essence of the Manufactured Love Theory: Suae and Eunhyuk’s bond is acknowledged by the story itself as fake, a relationship with no inherent meaning beyond Haru’s manipulation. And the reason Haru had to push so hard may be telling—he likely suspected that left alone, Suae and Dohwa’s natural chemistry could have blossomed into something real. By manufacturing a distraction with Eunhyuk, Haru ensured that Dohwa remained within reach of Garang, not anchored by feelings for Suae. In short, what Haru calls “art” is really sabotage: an artificial relationship built to block the authentic one.
