After the fiasco of Click, Volume 1, I was not very much looking forward to sandpapering my psyche with Volume 2.

Although this volume was not my number one bestest read of the year, by the end I began to actually enjoy it.

The volume begins with a light Yuri appetizer, as rich, powerful, popular, cute girl Yoomi falls for now-female Joonha. In the meantime, Heewon has finally tracked Joonha down. However, she’s not *quite* gotten the whole story and thinks that Joonha is a boy passing as a girl. She will eventually be told a fake story that is quite intelligent and plausible – my favorite thing so far in the story, since it actually made some sense.

Heewon and Yoomi spend the rest of the book catfighting over Joonha who isn’t even remotely interested in either. Joonha is busy as her life becomes embroiled in the life of Yoomi’s ex, the playboy Taehyun, who turns out to be way more than he seems.

However, it is clear to all of us, except perhaps Joonha, that the true object of her love and devotion is her childhood friend Jinhoo, who has just returned to Korea after a musical tour abroad. It is quite obvious that they are meant to be together, so there is no doubt that the rest of the story will be devoted to keeping them apart.

The remainder of the book is a variation on one of the above themes. The plot, which spent the first volume wallowing in outmoded gender roles, has now moved on to the eternally fascinating concept of love, as seen through the eyes of every TV soap opera ever, and a cultural lens which is not my own.

Working against the book for me is the art. The faces are so horsey and the bodies those weirdly elongated, featureless things so common in the Korean manhwa I’ve read. Not insurmountable, just not my cup of tea.

There still is an earful of gender and sex role obsession. If gender issues are of interest to you, I think the wallowing might be entertaining for you. Gender issues are not particularly my interest, nor will I ever love a story that throws around words like homo, lesbo and pervert so casually, as if they are not full of hate.

But setting those two things aside, this volume is very much not the same level of suck as the first volume. The main reason for this is that Joonha actually shows some significant signs of not-assholish behavior. I wouldn’t go so far as to invite her over for lunch, but I might at least give her the time of day if she asked. If the story improves this much again for the next volume, I’ll actually start to like it. Here’s hoping! ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 5
Characters – 6
Yuri – 2
Service – 1

Overall – 6

Our royal nod of sincere gratitude today goes out to Okazu Superhero Dan P! Thank you, thank you, for sponsoring today’s review and supporting our bad habit!