u/CarelessAudience8161

No conocemos a Jaekyung, el chico de las máscaras. (Versión en español, está un poco largo pero es que no pude parar de escribir, me llevé del gusto, espero que lo disfruten 😅😅😅)

No lo habríamos creído si hace unas semanas nos hubieran dicho que Jaekyung lloraría, que se desplomaría delante de los muchachos del gym o que, dadas las circunstancias, diría algo como “No me voy a mover de aquí hasta que Kim Dan despierte.” y que solo accediera a dejar que le ayudaran a pararse para ir al combate, después de escuchar al coach Josep decir que el doctor querría que él fuera a pelear. Todo aquello, abandonando totalmente el cuidado de su físico, todo, su entrenamiento, su higiene, su alimentación, ¡su jinx completo!, cabizbajo como lo dijo, sin importarle quien le viera ni quien le escuchara. Pero, aunque es increíble, eso sucedió, todos lo vimos, es canon, por eso lo aceptamos como una realidad.

el Jaekyung que conocimos todos estos años no es ese, pero es que no conocemos a Jaekyung.

Hasta ahora, los únicos momentos de su vida en que Jaekyung fue él mismo, fueron sus peores momentos, Jaekyung fue un huérfano con padres vivos. Ahí en lo que llamaba casa, siendo un niño pequeño, lamentablemente debía esperar lo inevitable cada vez que su padre biológico volvía a esa casa. En esos momentos no servía de nada reaccionar de otra manera, montar una actuación, porque incluso, de haberlo hecho, solo habría provocado el efecto contrario a lo que Jaekyung buscaba lograr con lo que hacía, que era no recibir esos golpes. El simplemente se quedaba ahí, inmóvil y callado hasta que todo pasara, para entonces poder llorar en silencio hasta quedarse dormido.

El día que Jaekyung fue descubierto por el director Hwang robando leche, se asustó mucho, otro adulto grande y fuerte le agarró, quizás Jaekyung pensó que este también le iba a pegar, pero rápidamente hizo lo que estaba acostumbrado a hacer fuera de la puerta de su casa, se puso una máscara, en este caso, la máscara de niño sin miedo, rudo, que reclama, que está dispuesto a pelear. Y por favor no me malentiendan, Jaekyung tenía valor, hay que tenerlo para sobrevivir en las circunstancias de vida en que él estaba y sin ningún apoyo, pero cada vez que ejercitaba ese valor, Jaekyun debía decidirlo, lo vimos en ese primer encuentro con el director, en el momento en que su carita pasa del miedo a la actitud defensiva y agresiva.

Jaekyung aprendió a ponerse máscaras muy temprano para sobrevivir, nadie estaba con él, él no le importaba a nadie. Aquella madrugada en que decidió comprarle el guardarropa a Dan, en un momento Jaekyung recordó que la ropa que él mismo usaba cuando era un niño, la recogía él mismo en las calles, quizás de la basura. Nadie nunca le dio nada, lo podemos saber por la reacción que tuvo cuando la madre del director le tocó la cabeza, esa primera vez que le dio comida, por esos ojos abiertos, sorprendidos de haber recibido algo bueno de una persona extraña por primera vez.

Y aun así Jaekyung sobrevivió seis años, antes de ese primer encuentro con el director Hwang, con sus máscaras.

Existe gente que se siente complacida con algo que están experimentando, pero que reaccionan como que ése algo no les da ninguna satisfacción y que incluso les desagrada, que no es bueno, y enfatizan el hecho de que, según ellos, eso sucede porque la persona que estaba a cargo no hace bien su trabajo. Se la pasan supuestamente de mal humor, se quejan, insultan, no suelen dar las gracias, muchos, como es el caso de Jaekyung, ni siquiera saludan, es una actitud destructiva, tanto para quien la tiene como para quienes están a su alrededor.

En muchos casos, la gente que se comporta de esa manera lo que hace es asumir una actitud de insatisfacción para mantener una fachada dura porque tienen miedo de que alguien vea debilidad en ellos, yo siempre pensé que esto es lo que sucede con Jaekyung. Y lo confirmé cuando después de visitar a la abuela, en la escena de la playa, él le dijo a Dan que no quiere que nadie sepa de su pasado para no ser percibido como una persona débil.

Las máscaras pueden proteger, incluso por mucho tiempo, pero el problema es que cuando las personas no expresan su verdadero ser porque como en el caso de Jaekyung, deben mantenerlas incluso desde muy pequeños, no logran reconocerse a sí mismos, no saben cómo son en realidad, Jaekyung llegó a no saber quién es en realidad, metido en ese personaje del exitoso luchador que es rudo, hasta en el trato personal, al extremo en el que al ser confrontado sobre el motivo por el cual le busca o si quiere algo más que sexo de él, por la persona que ha llegado a amar más que a nadie en el mundo, no sabe qué decir porque no sabe, no conoce eso que está sintiendo, no conoce el amor, nunca nadie se lo ha dado de esa forma y el nunca lo ha sentido por alguien más.

Jaekyung pudo haber sido honesto consigo mismo y con Dan acerca de la parte sexual desde el principio y permitirle a Dan ser, incluso enseñarle a conocerse a sí mismo en el plano sexual, pero por mantener esa máscara de macho rudo que no piensa en nadie más que en sí mismo, hasta ahora se perdió de disfrutar de un Dan que le hizo sangrar la nariz de placer y se perdió él mismo la oportunidad de disfrutar algo que aunque haya sido solo sexual, habría sido exponencialmente mejor, ellos pudieron haber vivido una experiencia exclusivamente sexual más intensa, no tan restringida. Pero ese tema es para otro ensayo.

Aparte de eso, actualmente a la altura del capítulo cien, ya Jaekyung ha comenzado a darse cuenta de que si se quita la máscara y no obliga a quien está con él a usar una, incluso el sexo es mejor. Jaekyung ha llegado a querer a Dan de una manera profunda y el sexo con él se ha vuelto una necesidad que le hace vivir algo muy especial, más allá sexo por diversión cada vez que están juntos. Y el sexo solo por diversión, siempre entre adultos y responsablemente es excelente, pero si hay una conexión emocional en ciertas circunstancias puede ser mejor. Antes de este cambio, por ejemplo, la noche de los lentes, después de que hizo que Dan experimentara un placer que no conocía solo con tocarle el pecho, cuando vio que Dan, aunque avergonzado, tenía cara de estar disfrutando, le dijo a Dan que se refrenara. O sea, sí, te estoy haciendo esto, pero no lo disfrutes demasiado. No quería ver la cara de placer de Dan por lo mismo, miedo a que Dan se creyera que entre ellos había alguna conexión, porque no quería ver a nadie disfrutando nada delante de él porque entendía que los demás lo percibirían como alguien débil y quizás aprovecharían eso para traspasar alguno de los límites que él había impuesto en su dictadura emocional.

Todavía Jaekyung no levanta esa dictadura con todos, ni siquiera con el mismo Dan quien sí cree que ha visto la verdadera cara de Jaekyung como cuando el otro día le dijo que si tanto quería irse, se fuera del penthouse ya, que ahí estaba la puerta, no, ese tampoco es Jaekyung, vimos lo arrepentido que estaba de haberle dicho eso a Dan y lo muy nervioso que le puso eso cuando después de haber comprado anillos, rosas y pastel, entonces estaba petrificado en su auto pensando en cómo reaccionaría Dan cuando él le presentara esos regalos, después de haberle hablado tan mal.

Junmin le rompió una máscara a puros martillazos a Jaekyung, la de persona que nunca ha tenido problemas económicos y la reacción de Jaekyung fue instantánea, pura, agresiva porque ya a estas alturas, de tanto usarla, la máscara de la agresividad está muy pegada a Jaekyung, no sé cómo hará la autora para presentarnos ese hombre que tratará a Dan con la delicadeza, cariño y respeto que Dan se merece en privado y en público, delante de otras perosonas, conocidos o no conocidos porque no sería cambio si solo le trata bien a puertas cerradas y para hacerlo en todo momento, Jaekyung deberá dejarse ver sin máscaras, como ese Jaekyung que está cuidando a Dan como el tesoro que es.

No conocemos a Jaekyung pero no se sientan mal por eso, él tampoco se conoce a sí mismo.

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u/CarelessAudience8161 — 4 days ago

We don't know Jaekyung, the masked guy. (It's a long essay, sorry I couldn't stop writing, had so much fun, hope you enjoy! 🫣😅)

We wouldn’t have believed it if we had been told a few weeks ago that Jaekyung would cry, that he would collapse in front of the gym dudes or that, given the circumstances, he would say something like “I’m not going to move from here until Kim Dan wakes up.” and that he only agreed to let them help him stand up to go to the fight, after hearing coach Josep say the doctor wanted him out to fight. All that, totally abandoning the care of his physique, everything, his training, his hygiene, his diet, his complete jinx!, head down as he put it, regardless of who saw him or heard him. But, as incredible as it is, that happened, we all saw it, it's canon, so we accept it as a reality.

the Jaekyung we've known all these years isn't that, but the thing is, we don't know Jaekyung.

So far, the only moments of his life when Jaekyung was himself, were his worst moments, Jaekyung was an orphan with living parents. There in what he called home, being just a child, he unfortunately had to expect the inevitable every time his biological father returned to that house. In those moments there was no point in reacting differently, mounting a performance, because even, of having done so, it would only have provoked the opposite effect of what Jaekyung was looking to achieve with what he was doing, which was not receiving those blows. He simply stayed there, motionless and silent until it all happened, to then be able to cry in silence until he fell asleep.

The day Jaekyung was discovered by director Hwang stealing milk, he was very scared, another big and strong adult grabbed him, maybe Jaekyung thought this one would hit him too, but he quickly did what he was used to doing outside his house door, he put on a mask, in this case, the mask of fearless, rough, aggressive child, ready to fight. And please don't get me wrong, Jaekyung had courage, you have to have it to survive in the life circumstances he was in and without any support, but every time he exercised that courage, Jaekyun had to decide, we saw it in that first encounter with Director Hwang, at the moment when his little faced goes from fear to a defensive and aggressive atttitud.

Jaekyung learned to wear masks very early to survive because no one was with him, nobody cared about him. The morning when he decided to buy the wardrobe for Dan, at one point Jaekyung remembered that the clothes he himself wore as a kid, he picked up on the streets himself, probably from the trash. No one ever gave him anything, we can tell by his reaction when the director's mother touched his head that first time she gave him food , by those wide-eyes said it all, surprised to have received something good from a strange person for the first time.

And yet Jaekyung survived six years, before that first encounter with director Hwang, with his masks.

There are people who feel complacent about something they are experiencing, but react as if it is something that gives them no satisfaction and even displeases them, which is not good, and emphasize the fact that, according to them, it happens that way because the person in charge doesn’t do their job well. They’re supposedly in a bad mood, they complain, they insult, they don't usually thank anybody, many, as is the case with Jaekyung, don't even greet anybody, it's a destructive attitude, both for whoever has it and for those around them.

In many cases, what people who behave that way do, is assume an attitude of dissatisfaction to maintain a hard facade because they are afraid of someone seeing weakness in them, I always thought this is what happens with Jaekyung. And I confirmed it when after visiting the grandmother, in the cold beach scene, he told Dan he didn’t want anyone to know about his past so he wouldn’t be perceived as a weak person.

Masks can protect, even for a long time, but the problem is that when people don't express their true being because, like in Jaekyung's case, they have to keep them even from a very young age, they don't manage to recognize themselves, they don't know how they really are, he’s immersed in that character of the successful fighter who is tough, even in personal dealings, to the extreme in which when confronted about the reason he seeks him or if he wants anything more than sex from him, by the person he has come to love more than anyone else in the world, he doesn’t know what to say because he doesn’t know, he doesn’t understand love, no one has ever given it to him in that way and he has never felt it like that for anyone else. That’s why he hasn’t say I love you to Dan, not even that night when he stayed with Dan until he woke up after surgery, so far what we know is that he apologized to him many times, gently squeezing his hand.

Jaekyung could have been honest with himself and with Dan about the sexual part of their time from the beginning and allow Dan to be, even teach him to know himself sexually, but by keeping that mask of tough male thinking of no one but himself, he so far missed out on enjoying a Dan that made him nose bleed from pleasure and lost the opportunity to enjoy something that even if it had only been sexual, would have been exponentially better, they could have lived a more intense, not so restricted sexual experience. But that topic is for another essay.

Besides that, currently at the height of chapter one hundred, already Jaekyung has started to realize that if he takes off the mask and doesn’t force whoever he is with to wear one, even the sex is better. Jaekyung has come to love Dan in a deep way and sex with him has become a necessity that makes him live something very special, beyond sex for fun every time they are together. And sex just for fun, always between adults and responsibly is excellent, but if there is an emotional connection in certain circumstances it can be better. Before this change, for example, the night of the glasses, after he made Dan experience a pleasure he didn't know just by touching his chest, when he saw that Dan, although embarrassed, had face of being enjoying himself, he told Dan to restrain himself. Or maybe, yeah, I'm doing all this to you, but don't enjoy it too much. He didn't want to see Dan's pleasure face for the same, he was afraid that Dan would believe there was some connection between them, because he didn't want to see anyone enjoying anything in front of him because he understood the others would perceive him as someone weak and maybe use that to overstep some of the boundaries he had imposed on them emotional dictatorship.

Still Jaekyung doesn't raise that dictatorship with everyone, not even with the same Dan who does believe he has seen Jaekyung 's true face as when the other day he told him that if he wanted to leave so much, the door was there, no, that's not Jaekyung either, how nervous that made him when after having bought rings, roses and cake, then he was petrified in his self thinking about how Dan would react when he presented him with those gifts, after having spoken to him so badly.

From so much use, the mask of aggression is very attached to Jaekyung. I don’t know how the author will do to deliver to us that man that will treat Dan with the delicacy, affection and respect Dan deserves in private and in public, in front of other people, known or unknown because there would be no change if he just treated him well behind closed doors and to do so at all times, Jaekyung must let himself be seen without masks.

We don't know Jaekyung but don't feel bad about it, he doesn't know himself either.

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u/CarelessAudience8161 — 4 days ago

The different stages of Dan's heart.

Dan saw the real Joo Jaekyung the day Jk went to the hospital to see Granny instead of waking KD up.

That's when KD realized there was a human being behind the mask of toughness Jk always wore.

I think that's the day when KD started to fall in love with Jk, even though he was later angered by Jaekyung's doubts during the incident in the first fight with Junmin.

When KD met Jk, he was immediately impressed. During the first massage at the gym, Dan liked Jaekyung's physique so much that he became distracted admiring his facial features, his muscles, his skin, and we know how he touched him where he shouldn't because he was looking at his face instead of where he was massaging him.

Jk's heartbreaking birthday's incident didn't make KD angry, he was just discouraged but continued to love him the same.

When KD formally left the job with Jk and the penthouse, he left a note to Jk, by that note we can say he was feeling more guilty than upset about the whole situation but when Jk found him at last in Bumfucknowhere, the KD he finds is a very upset KD, so much he didn't even want to talk to Jk.

Then there's another change in KD's heart in the twin ice bars scene at gramps, because there, KD went from being determined not to return to Seoul with Jk to actually accepting to go back to the penthouse and even being willing to sleep with him. Jk even had to reject him and remind him of his poor physical condition and doctor's instructions and that's why they wouldn't do it.

All of this confused KD, and he's been confused ever since. Dan has asked Jk a couple of times if he wants something more from him, meaning if he feels something for him, and Jk has remained silent without knowing why he reacts like that. I think that's why KD hasn't taken the initiative to tell Jk that he is in love with him and that's how we are now.

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u/CarelessAudience8161 — 6 days ago

I think Jaekyung could blame himself for what happened to Dan when he finds out that Junmin was the one who sent the evil doctor, and that's going to make Jaekyung not want to be near Dan, either to protect him or because he feels like he's a danger to Dan 😱😱😱

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u/CarelessAudience8161 — 28 days ago