Aaand today Jaejoong posted a thorn lily (gashiyeon) which is also the name of a famous Korean yunjae fic (that Jaejoong admitted to reading lol) given to him by his mom? His mom also liked that yunjae edit a few days before, I’m so curious 😂❤️
Hey, I reviewed part 1 of Maio's Gashiyeon and so if you haven't read that go and read it and then come back because it continues right from where I left off. I'll be waiting. triggers are in the tags.
THORN LILY
Part two of the story is a total departure. We get a ten year timeskip to Jaejoong (he narrates from now on) leaving the hospital after having his wisdom teeth removed. He alludes to being in-and-out of hospitalization for awhile (due to mental illness I think?) and meets Yunho at a cafe. Yunho is now married, with a pregnant wife, and has a good job (he's wealthy remember). Jaejoong on the other hand is stuck in the past and begs Yunho to let him crash at his place, but Yunho rebuffs him. This doesn't deter Jaejoong, who finds Yunho's address and talks his way into staying over, appealing to the kindness of Yunho's wife Suh-hee. The flames of a doomed romance, stoked yet again. Also he's blonde
I'll mention that in the decade between part 1 and part 2, stuff happened and they were dating. Every so often there's a flashback to the things that happened in their young adult life. The important part is that from their encounter in the cafe, they haven't seen each other in 2 years (during which Yunho married and stuff). It's the longest of the three parts by far, but not a lot of stuff happens. It's more of an up-close psychological study of our characters and their relationships, including Suh-hee. Unlike part one, I'll start with the character analysis because it's pretty baked into the plot.
Characters/this bleeds into the plot
Adult Jaejoong's narration is moody, deprecating, dramatic, vengeful, cynical and wry. It seems Maio decided that the best way to write a mentally ill male character was to make him virulently misogynistic. He makes plenty of degrading remarks to women as a whole in his internal monologue, notably to Suh-hee, and in his downward spiral in parts 2 and 3, pretty much all of his violence is directed towards women and girls as you'll see.
Then we have Yunho. His characterization annoyed me from the beginning of Thorn Lily, because he was so cold and uninterested while Jaejoong was basically salivating over him. I get that he's married now and internalized homophobia exists, but even the slightest hint of passion from the beginning would've made their love more believable but--nope. When he shows up Jaejoong keeps ribbing Yunho to try and get under his skin (in one of the best lines Yunho tells Jaejoong to get a wife and he says "let me borrow yours"). Finally he snaps and uhh gives a pretty disturbingly extreme beating to Jaejoong. Like Jaejoong is cowering on the floor and Yunho goes back to hit him with a stool twice.
And then as if out of nowhere, he becomes super loving. He oscillates jarringly between hating Jaejoong and being super in love with him depending on the plot. It makes the sex scenes (trust there are many) hard to appreciate fully, because we don't get the heat or tension in other scenes, it's just Yunho being an asshole and pretending not to care about Jae. On-off. Suh-hee leaves for the weekend? YunJae have happy sex and cuddle. She comes back, Yunho goes back to disparaging Jaejoong. Towards the end he becomes softer to Jaejoong, even weirdly referred to as child-like in Jaejoong's perspective. In fact there's a sudden reversal between them. At the start Yunho does f-ed up stuff and Jae lovingly excuses him, and at the end, Jaejoong does the f-ed up stuff and Yunho lovingly excuses him.
The end of part two feels dissatisfying yet predictable. Jaejoong comes clean to Suh-hee about his and Yunho's relationship, and then it's a sort of cold war between her and him. Jaejoong becomes even more hateful and jealous of her as Yunho talks more seriously about wanting to marry Jaejoong. We get creepy imagery of Jaejoong wanting to slit Suh-hee's stomach open or castrate himself and basically bemoans Yaoi Jesus and/or Maio that he doesn't have a womb whyyyyyy. Ya were a few years early buddy if only Maio was writing after omegaverse became a thing. It culminates with him pushing her down the stairs. Remember Suh-hee is pregnant. She goes to the hospital, suffers broken bones including a crack in her SKULL.
I should mention that in one of the flash-backs we learn Jaejoong killed Yunho's mom by you guessed it, pushing her down the stairs. He's like "oh I didn't meeeean to she just landed on her head and went into a coma and was brain dead".
Suh-hee says that Jaejoong has to leave their house right NAOW, weirdly still coexisting with him in the meanwhile and not fearing for her life after what he did, and surprise surprise, Jaejoong corners her and stabs her with a kitchen knife. He "cOmEs tO hIs sEnSeS" and calls an ambulance, but it's too late. She bled too much, and the doctor says it was Suh-hee's wish to save the pre-term fetus instead of herself. This is when I went from enjoying the roller coaster ride to actively despising Gashiyeon!Jaejoong and wanting him to get the punishment he deserves (preferably death). Jaejoong gets hospitalized instead of sent to prison due to mental illness, and then Yunho shows up and asks Jaejoong to marry him because fuck accountability.
My thoughts
Obviously this relationship is toxic. Jaejoong is remarkably self-absorbed, glorifies Yunho and says he hates him in the same beat, that kind of thing. Suh-hee is depicted as an incredibly generous, patient, sacrificing woman, in a truly vulnerable situation no less, and I ended up caring more about her than anyone else shocker. Part one was pretty readable I'd say but part two is... not good. The tone is really off. I thought about it and I think I can explain why.
In part one, there's the good moments: fluff, sex, romance, their love is solid. And then there's bad moments: hate, violence, their love called into question, betrayal. You get a mix of both, you get moments that are good and bad, but it feels more balanced.
In part two, the bad moments are so raw and painful, like really deep reflections, but the good moments don't offset that. If you're going to have bad and bad and more bad then the good better be fucking good. And it's not. The 'good' feels superficial, like nothing more than sex or post-sex pillow talk. Their chemistry feels real but their love isn't believable beyond what we're supposed to know from part one. Having more real moments of happiness would've made the dark moments all the more heartbreaking as well--but instead we get a relationship that feels doomed from the first few lines.
Before U Go...
I have some asides that I feel are worth mentioning. Aside 1: (not really important but kind of funny) Jaejoong dyes his hair back to black mid-way through Thorn Lily at Yunho's behest. Why you ask? According to Yunho (sort of paraphrased): "You being blonde makes me feel like I'm fucking some other bitch". Not sure why it made me laugh so hard.
Aside 2: Yunho's eldest brother Jinho-hyung shows up a few times in part 2. He's a gentle, sort of paternal figure who protects Jaejoong in the wake of the Jungs' mother dying and people accusing Jae of killing her. Jeongho-hyung, the second eldest, doesn't appear a lot but we get the sense that he's more volatile and angry at Jaejoong for what he did. Speaking of families, Jaejoong has an uncle and older sister. In one scene in Thorn Lily, they sort of kidnap him and try to convince him to study abroad at his large age of 27 or else baby boy's going back to the sanatorium!!
Aside 3: Let's talk about seme/uke dynamics for a sec. Surprisingly, this fic doesn't have a lot of the stereotypical frail bottom-asshole top you see in mid 2000s yaoi. The power balance shifts a lot. And in one scene in Thorn Lily, Jaejoong does in fact top Yunho. They're at a hotel and it's framed as a noble sacrifice on Yunho's part and then it's never mentioned again. So, kudos to that?
This was Thorn Lily. Thankfully it's almost over. Part 3 features the last chapter and my closing thoughts/analysis.
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Quote of the day: (Yunho reflects on a mere 3 pages of bottoming)
“I… ha… It wasn't painful at all… They're a perfect fit… That part of you, and that part of me…"
Me: I read this beautiful fanfic. Yunho lets his brother die because he is jealous. Jaejoong kills Yunho's wife and mother. Jaejoong kills himself and after a decade and 2 years Yunho kills himself. It was beautiful...
Thorn Lily is now available in the US for sale in paperback! Kpop Books is a brand new publishing site. Thorn Lily and the other two book in the trilogy available as an exclusive set for sell. FREE SHIPPING!
All three books in one available here http://kpopbooks.miiduu.com/
The website is under a bit of construction but no worries :-)
written by Maio translated in English order your copy today
I am very well aware I might not be able to write anything more wonderful and heart-breaking than Gashiyeon and Anterograde Tomorrow, but I am pretty confident that I can write something even sicker and kinkier than 50 Shades of Grey.
