There is this part of Extraordinary You that I can't get out of my head because it was so well done. (spoilers and domestic abuse).
Baek Kyung's character was such a great example of the concept of explaining but not excusing. He is abused by his father and he constantly takes it out on his 'girlfriend' Dan-oh. The scene that hit me the most is when his father punches him, so the next day he goes to school and breaks Dan-Oh's heart monitor. And then Ha-ru punches Kyung in the face to defend Dan-Oh.
Now the second punch was totally justified, but instead of feeling happy about it, I just felt so sad, because that kid does not need more violence in his life! It was such a good illustration of how children who are abused will pass on abuse, but then also that no one deserves to be the second victim. Violence just creates more violence and pain.
In fact, the whole relationship between Dan-Oh and Kyung was amazing as an illustration of an abusive relationship and how to get out. Dan-Oh finally wakes up to how much of a jerk Kyung has been to her and realizes she deserves better. He displays a lot of classic behaviours, like love bombing, claiming she can't survive without him, and emotional manipulation (he does some things very close to threatening suicide if she leaves him, telling her she's all he has), but she just keeps saying no over and over no matter how much he claims that he's changed.
He only really starts to 'love' her when he starts getting jealous of Ha-ru, but his confession of love his horrible. He says he loves her because she just took the abuse and didn't stop loving him. That is not healthy on any level, and Dan-Oh is completely right to reject him. And then she totally refuses to be the source of his redemption arc.
Instead of getting the girl, Kyung keeps being told to work on himself. Dan-Oh tells him that he should get better so he can have someone else. Which is so good! No one is obligated to take someone back and forget the pain of the past, it's such a healthy boundary.
And the climax of his story is so freaking dark and realistic! He learns that by killing Dan-Oh he could have her to himself forever. Domestic abuse relationships are most likely to end in death once the abused person finally works up the courage to leave, as Dan-Oh has. The real life parallel is just so real and frightening.
In many ways, Extraordinary You was a very cute teen comedy about people loving each other across dimensions, but the storyline between Kyung and Dan-Oh was amazingly deep and one of the very few times a woman rejects a man even though he's trying to change because he's hurt her too much. It's a rare thing in media and it deserves attention.
