Yeah, it's pretty weird that he feels uncomfortable with them when they've been living together for years now
Well, you're not exactly wrong, but as someone who spent the last 13 years trying to understand her super withdrawn nephew, as well as someone who also used to be an over sensitive, quiet teen myself (who at times must have been super difficult to communicate with, to be honest) my guess is that it's not always easy to find that balance between helping and smothering when you're dealing with a super insecure, introverted and over sensitive kid. Sometimes it feels like anything you say or do is just wrong, no matter how you say it. With my nephew, for example, I feel like the only time I'm getting through to him and getting to relax is when I tell him a bit about some of my own past difficulties as a teenager... But even those times it is mostly me doing the talking, so I'm always left in doubt... That's why I think I can imagine it a bit, what Haebom's adoptive "aunt" must have felt like, raising him and always trying her best to get him to open up...
That's kind of my point though. I'm not seeing that any real effort has been put in besides the minimum. I mean, this is probably more a fault of the writing but still. Character wise, it just doesn't match up. Haebum isn't moody and over sensitive. He wants to be helpful, he's obedient, and he wants to be liked. He and Taesung haven't walked home together in years. Why? Because Haebom never asked because he thought Taesung hated him. Taesung never asked because???
You don't want to push too hard but you have to push some. How else will people know whether you actually care or not? From what I've seen, Haebom gets asked how school is and that's it. That's not pushing. That's not even touching.
I was thinking and you know what? Doesn't it seem like maybe Taesung and his mom haven't quite done the best job looking after Haebom? Like, they are both nice people but clearly they have missed some obvious signs that Haebom has not been comfortable and is not alright.
I mean, he doesn't have any friends and they should have known this. And Taesung was his best friend before but the mom at least knows that they aren't as close now so...? He clearly doesn't spend money on himself for guilt of being a burden. Like, it just seems odd to me that Taesung is surprised to see that Haebom didn't know that he was getting the cakes from Taesung. Haebom is clearly overly polite. Didn't he find it weird that Haebom NEVER said thank you for the cake? Don't they find it weird that Haebom has NO hobbies? Like, it just seems to me that the correct effort wasn't really put in earlier to make Haebom actually was ok.