TL;DR — Don’t discredit the author’s hard work and say the first couple is bad because 1) you hate that Seunghee didn’t get a love triangle at first so you are trying to justify that dislike OR 2) you didn’t manage to pick up on what made the couple unique. This is a piece of creative work. You shouldn’t feel entitled that whatever you want should come true because this is not your work (e.g. Seungtaek and Kyubin fight over Seunghee).
Am I justified to think the story is bad because it’s a BL if I wanted a straight couple? No. If you can see that that’s ridiculous, then you expecting that this story will be about a Seunghee harem is also not justified.
That said, if you still think they’re bad even after considering these factors, that is totally fine. It’s your opinion, just make sure to have a grounded one
I’ve see a lot of people to brush off the first couple and say the author wrote them in a cliched/boring manner. Definitely, your opinion is valid. But unfortunately, I’m sure part of this hate for the first couple is because people wanted Seunghee to have a love interest when they started the manga. Because these readers came into this manga not to appreciate a creative work but just to fulfill their shipping desire, they felt disappointed when it wasn’t a typical love triangle and so disliked the first couple automatically. This is pretty unfair to the author who worked hard to write this manhwa.
We shouldn’t discredit her work because of our own biases. Just because we wanted something and didn’t get it, just because we aren’t capable of picking up on the subtext of the first couple, it doesn’t mean the first couple is boring or cliched.
I find that the first couple is very realistic. Some people think they’re frustrating because they love each other but aren’t together for whatever weird reason. But that’s reality—just because we love someone doesn’t mean we’re good together.
Seungtaek has stated that he’s afraid of what would happen AND of Kyubin. He studied like crazy for three years to get into a prestigious school. Mondays to Sundays, his schedule is packed with tutoring, after-school classes, revision. He has no time for any leisure except on Saturdays where he hangs out with Kyubin.
It was his dream and he put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it. And then on the day of the interview, he threw it all away for Kyubin. He didn’t just fail. He sabotaged himself on purpose, killing all his chances to get in. And he could never get it back. He had to shamefully face his parents and his gossipy schoolmates due to his failure. For some, they may think this is cliched because it happens all the time in romance novels—you give up everything for your lover and then happy ever after. It’s very romanticised in romance mangas to sacrifice everything for a lover.
But Seungtaek is one of the few characters who realises the gravity of what he’s done. It’s realistic, because in real life, we don’t just throw away everything for someone and then live a happy go lucky life with no worries. You don’t just abandon your family, your career, etc. for your boyfriend on a whim. Seungtaek had dreams and thinking about how his love for Kyubin made him give up that huge dream made him afraid of what else he’d immediately throw away just for Kyubin.
Of course, Seungtaek is afraid of society too. People say Seunghee is interesting because of his family problems. Well, Seungtaek fears those family problems coming up, which is why he can’t date Kyubin. He’s even asked Seunghee about this in the first few chapters.
Seungtaek also said he is afraid of Kyubin’s love for him, which is why he often says he’s anxious things will go wrong while they’re dating. Kyubin took the fall for him twice. If Seungtaek asked him to die for him, it’s clear Kyubin wouldn’t hesitate.
And that’s scary if you put yourself in Seungtaek’s shoes. I know we may be used to more cliched mangas where this sort of behaviour is romanticised, but it shouldn’t be, and this manhwa is realistic about it. It’s scary to think your lover doesn’t care at all about his own self and only cares about you—that’s not healthy. Seungtaek is right to be scared of Kyubin.
And have we wondered why Kyubin is like this? It’s not just love like what manhwas make it out to be. Kyubin has a good reason to act like this, which is what many other insanely in love couples lack. It’s partly because his family died and he has no one else. His grandma is sick and later died. He can’t count on his friends as he has said, since they only like him for his status. Suhyeok has even talked about Kyubin dismissively as well. Kyubin literally only has Seungtaek while they grew up and even now, so his world is Seungtaek. Their relationship is the only deep relationship Kyubin has—he’s willing to do anything because he’s scared to lose the last person he loves that’s still alive.
And then comes Inbeom, which makes the whole matter complicated, because he’s a bully with a warped love for Seungtaek, his victim and also aggressor.
So it’s not just some frustrating love story that makes no sense or is boring just because they happen to be best friends who are opposites. It’s not fair to say that when you didn’t read into the details the author left, so you thought of KyuTaek stagnant state as without reason. Sure, it’s plot isn’t stellar, but they’re high schoolers in a slice of life manhwa. It’s the same for HyeokSeung, you wouldn’t say their plot is extremely interesting, would you?
To stress, it’s not fair to brush off the author’s hard work on the first couple’s story as cliched/boring just because we aren’t sensitive to pick up on the nuances. It’s not the author’s fault if we are poor readers who can’t read in-depth into their dynamics. You can prefer more in-your-face kinds of plots, but the author put in care to make things subtle. It’d be good if we can keep an open mind instead of dismiss the first couple due to our own lack of sensitivity in reading.