Job or Profession: Artists / Painters
The main character or multiple leads are artists or painters as their primary source of income.
Manhwa Review | Wolves Behind Bars by Joy
Title: Wolves Behind Bars
Kiyo is an omega and a struggling artist with an intense hatred for alphas due to his father. His father, a crime lord alpha, treated Kiyo and his mother as nothing more than commodities to earn money. Thankfully, Kiyo has escaped most of his father’s influence and has been surviving on commissions from people while he holds up in his small apartment. Unfortunately, after taking a gory commission from an anonymous client where he painted various murder scenes and posted them online under a series known as The Game of Darkness per the client’s instructions, Kiyo is arrested for the murder of various high-profile alphas, which were all depicted in his paintings with details that the police had never released.
Unfortunately, the client was using an untraceable online presence, and the payments all originated from the accounts of dead people, so Kiyo is the only one in the crosshairs for these crimes. He is arrested and taken to prison until his trial and possible sentencing are complete. Due to a clerical error, though, Kiyo is placed in an alpha-only institution. The head of the prison wants to avoid any complaints or scandals, so he quietly brushes the error under the rug while pushing for a transfer as soon as possible. In the meantime, Kiyo is forced to room with an alpha named Iri, placed there by the warden to protect Kiyo until he can be transferred out.
Iri doesn’t seem good or bad, which in a prison teeming with alphas that want nothing more than to break Kiyo is better than nothing. Even so, it is impossible to tell if Iri is truly Kiyo’s ally or his enemy, as there are plenty of people gunning for Kiyo both because he is an omega and because of his father. With no one else to turn to, Kiyo relies on Iri emotionally, but over time, he soon begins to rely on him physically. As Kiyo and Iri start a physical relationship, Kiyo does everything he can to fight against the overwhelming lust and love he begins to feel for Iri because what is more important is survival. Will Kiyo be able to survive prison? Even if he does, will he be able to prove his innocence? And what are Iri’s true intentions for Kiyo?
Manhwa Review | Home Alone Together by Shin Yuri
Title: Home Alone Together
Junwoo is a hikikomori – a young adult who has become a recluse. For the past five years, since graduating high school and after the death of his parents, he has holed himself up in his childhood home, where he spends his days in idle existence. The only thing he has to look forward to is the occasional visit from his neighbor Hanbit, a guy he’s had a crush on since he was a kid. Otherwise, his days are filled with severe loneliness and the self-loathing he hasn’t been able to shake.
One day, Hanbit comes by, implying that he might be moving in with Junwoo. This lights a fire under Junwoo, and he immediately assumes this is his chance to win over Hanbit. However, when Hanbit comes over, he brings along a stranger: Wooyeon. It turns out that Hanbit isn’t planning to move in. On the contrary, he is moving away to be with his longtime girlfriend. However, in fear of Junwoo being left alone unsupervised, Hanbit has the great idea that Wooyeon should move in with Junwoo.
Neither Junwoo nor Wooyeon seem jazzed about the idea, but both seem compelled to go along with it because of their affection for Hanbit. So begins the awkward orbiting the two have as they live together. Despite their disdain for each other’s company, slowly but surely, they grow to tolerate one another. And soon, that tolerance evolves into something more, something neither of them expected it would be. But these two have a lot of old wounds that threaten the peace they have created with each other. Will they be able to move forward, or are they destined to drown amid their surging trauma?
Manhwa Review | Oh! My Assistant by MILA
Title: Oh! My Assistant
Seonho is a talented adult webtoon artist. Unfortunately, though, he cannot get it up because he spends all of his time drawing naked people. If this isn’t distressing enough, he finds himself overwhelmed by all the deadlines and work associated with the life of a webtoon artist. To alleviate at least one of his problems, he hires an assistant named Muyeong. Not only is this guy astute, talented, and makes work more manageable, but he unexpectedly fixes another of Seonho’s problems. Muyeong turns Seonho on!
Unfortunately, it seems Muyeong is the only thing that turns on Seonho. Still, Seonho can’t approach him because Muyeong made it clear in his interview that he is not interested in forging any personal or intimate relationships at work. That boundary doesn’t seem to hold up, though, when one evening, after drinking together, Muyeong and Seonho end up kissing. Naturally, Seonho counts this as a win, but it’s a big surprise when Muyeong brushes it off as if nothing happened. What’s worse, though, is that Muyeong already has a boyfriend! So what did their kiss mean?
Seonho wants Muyeong, but he also doesn’t want to lose his amazing assistant. So, can the two find the balance and become more than just coworkers? Or will Seonho’s pushing ultimately push Muyeong away as both his assistant and potential partner?
Novel Review | Yes, No, or Maybe? by Michi Ichiho
Title: Yes, No, or Maybe?
Kunieda Kei lives two different lives. Externally, he is the prince of the evening news – hardworking, kind, and humble. He is the ideal man and is adored for it. Internally, though, he is a rude, conniving, and spiteful person. He plays both roles so effectively that even Kunieda isn’t sure which is the real him. However, his worlds collide when he runs into Tsuzuki, an animator who specializes in stop motion. During his day job (which takes place in the evening most of the time since he works for the evening news), Kunieda has to interview Tsuzuki.
Tsuzuki is a chill guy and immediately rubs Kunieda the wrong way. Even so, Kunieda can’t let it show, so he puts on the charm, and the interview goes well. After work, Kunieda becomes his other inner self. From the clean-cut, dapper Kunieda, he turns into the sweatsuit, mask, and glasses-wearing Kunieda, who eats junk food and curses like a sailor. Unfortunately, during his nightly ritual to go get junk food, Kunieda ends up causing a bicyclist to wreck. As it turns out, the rider is Tsuzuki. Kunieda does his best to escape, but Tsuzuki demands that Kunieda pay him back by helping him with his next animation. In order to avoid Tsuzuki discovering who he is, Kunieda goes by Owari.
As Kunieda spends more time with Tsuzuki as both straight-laced Kunieda and trouble-maker Owari, he grows closer to him. But could Tsuzuki accept both sides of Kunieda? Which even is the real Kunieda?
Novel Review | The Missing Piece by Kun Yi Wei Lou
Title: The Missing Piece
Shen Mo is an art school graduate. Unfortunately, by the time he graduated and earned a job in his field, he was abducted, and as a result of the trauma from that incident, he was unable to use his right hand to paint. However, he thankfully escaped the incident with his life thanks to Ji Mingxuan. To pay back Mingxuan’s help, Shen Mo is in a contracted relationship with him. All so that Mingxuan’s younger sister can marry Zhou Yang, her childhood friend, and Shen Mo’s ex, without worrying about Shen Mo and Zhou Yang getting back together. Three years passed as Shen Mo and Ji An’an, Mingxuan’s sister, left to study abroad together.
Though it is a fake relationship, the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur, especially when Zhou Yang and Mingxuan’s sister come back from studying abroad together. Now, with Shen Mo right in front of him, Zhou Yang doesn’t try to hide the fact that he is still attracted to Shen Mo, even as his engagement with An’an is publicly announced. While Shen Mo is still attracted to Zhou Yang, even if only due to the memories before his traumatic experience, he grows closer to An’an, and Mingxuan’s affections become more and more real. Who and what Shen Mo wants for himself becomes more and more unclear. Will Shen Mo forsake Mingxuan and An’an to return to the familiar love he had with Zhou Yang, or will Shen Mo take the plunge and trade in his contractual relationship with Mingxuan for something real?