I Love Yoo: Nol x Shin-ae (My thoughts)

Since I got positive responses on this relationship from ILY, I figure it wouldn’t hurt to go more in depth. Ahead are spoilers for the Manhwa I Love Yoo as of the recent chapter (86) and my personal opinions.

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With this recent chapter, I believe this pairing preference is only reinforced, and in such a way that’s intentional. As I’ve stated before, Nol is this interesting, ambiguous friend to Shin-ae that manages to fill her gaps and balance out her rough personality. ILY is such a great series, as I’ve discussed in my previous post, for being so human in its characterization and storytelling. As I read forward, I find Nol x Shin-ae share the most moments when it comes to friendship. By that, I mean it is with these two characters that you get amazingly truthful life lessons on how to be a good friend, and more fundamentally a good human being. We all know Shin-ae is as tough as nails, and I’ve already had my tirade on why Nol is best for her; in short, he balances out the traits of hers that require much more understanding and great levels of empathy.

In the most recent chapter, Nol and the guys have a humorous interaction before taking Shin-ae to the car. As a quick aside, I really appreciated that Soushi recognized they were being nosy when it came to helping Shin-ae, but also at the same time unconditionally helped her; I appreciate when opposite-sex friendships in stories are treated healthily without romantic implication. Continuing my train of thought, Nol criticizes Shin-ae for not leaning on her friends enough or being open, or considering that regardless of how embarrassed Shin-ae is of her financial circumstances, her friends won’t treat her any differently. More importantly, he does not dictate this and simply offers her this advice, which we know Shin-ae responds to such criticism tactfully. She’s methodical about how she’s grateful, and I have this sense it’s special treatment for Nol (also notice that she gets along much better with the guys than girls? I’m hoping we see this develop as well). When he refuses to get the cat scratches checked, she buys him medicine to deal with it, a silent ‘thank you’. Even before this, she voices how she will try and take his advice for a change, and this is a big step.

Romantic relationships can have very strong foundations if the two people start as friends; I would never assert this as fact, but you can still consider the compatibility of two people working when they do what Nol and Shin-ae do; open up to each other, support each other, criticize each other and remain honest, while also unconditionally wanting to be there for the other person. Time and time again Nol has come to her aid, and Shin-ae’s character has developed well as a friend in the story, a lot in part to his influence; he catalyzed the steps she took forward to become a better friend, even if those steps are slow. Shin-ae even changed his name on her phone to ‘Yeong gi’, which shows readers that Shin-ae actively decided he’s important to her now. It may have just been a nickname, but to blunt Shin-ae, he seemed like a stalker at times; now that she left his name as is, it’s a pretty big sign that she’s growing when it comes to relationships all senses of the word. This is precisely why these two are so compatible; he didn’t ‘change’ her, but helped her grow, because as I’ve stated, Shin-ae hasn’t fundamentally changed as a character, and Nol himself recognizes that he’s not trying to control her when he gives her advice. That’s key for platonic and romantic relationships; if you can inspire someone you care about to such a degree, however gradual that is, shows great strength in the relationship and a healthy camaraderie. We know Nol has a girlfriend, but honestly, when it comes to any scene where Nol and Shin-ae command the scene, I find myself thinking them to be the only ones there; everyone else just kind of fades away, because of how strongly you can sense these growing emotional ties. Nol is idealized in many ways, but he’s not perfect, and even if he’s not perfect at his core, he still has the ability to help others, and Shin-ae is now beginning to see that.

Compare this entire spiel to Kousuke’s character; until we get more scenes that could potentially develop his character, there is no way for me, at this point, that could genuinely convince me that he’s more compatible than Nol for Shin-ae. I mean that for both platonic and romantic, considering he currently has an employer-employee relationship with Shin-ae, and refuses to loosen up. He’s in a perpetual state of being a rigid Q-tip, and doesn’t compare to Nol in terms of character development. Again, it’s still too soon for me to make final conclusions on these relationships, but as stated, Nol x Shin-ae’s dynamic is a healthy and wonderful representation of genuine friendship and care, with or without a romantic connotation. It doesn’t always have to be about the romance, so as my thoughts finally organized, I realized that a big part of the reason I see these two as so ridiculously compatible for each other is because they have the potential to be romantically involved but at the end of the day, don’t need that, because they’re amazing as friends. You tend to only see one or the other done right, either platonic or romantic, but thanks tot he genius Quimchee, we get that ambiguity I mentioned; they could easily enter the realms of friendship and budding romance, but also are just as developed (and ever-developing) as friends. To see this perfect blur of basic codependent human psychology is just another aspect of ILY that makes me love it so much.

Edit: This is a repost, and I realize ILY is updated but I’ll leave my discussion on the newer chapters for a future post.