A Love That Transcends the Multiverse – But it Takes a While to Get There
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Warning:
There will be spoilers for the manhwa series Boss, Bxtch, Baby!.
Content Warning: There may be references to sex work (including forced sex work and sex in exchange for debt payments), excessive drinking, violence, dubcon/noncon, gang activity, blood, kidnapping, death, financial abuse, strained familial relationships, power imbalance, homomisia, sexism, nepotism, vandalism, confinement, underage smoking, overwork, gossiping, classism, child abuse, false sexual assault accusations, mentions of gambling, mentions of drug use, corruption, ageism, mentions of religion, mentions of animal abandonment, depression, body commentary (specifically on weight loss), disordered eating, mentions of divorce (not between the main couple), self-deprecation, slut-shaming, attempted murder, domestic violence, extortion, deadly car accidents, classism, cheating (not between the main couple), kidnapping, mentions of drugging, suicide, murder, corruption, animal abuse, toxic masculinity, manipulation, bullying, ableism, wiretapping, poisoning, police, animal death, eugenics, mentions of arranged marriage, mpreg, dehumanization, human experimentation, gore, terrorism, gun violence, and cannibalism, as they do appear in the manhwa.
Synopsis:
Baek Yooseong has finally been brought back to Korea. He is destined to become the heir to Baeksong Group, his family’s company, and one of the most powerful in the country. But with his grandfather’s stringent and bigoted views on who the heir should be, Yooseong is on thin ice. His mother wants to be the next heir, but can’t take over because she’s a woman. His brother doesn’t want to be the next heir, but he does want to make sure Yooseong sticks to the expectations so he can avoid the responsibility himself. Enemies and overwhelming pressure surround Yooseong, and all he wants is a taste of freedom.
So, he seeks out a man named Koo Hojin.
Koo Hojin was supposed to be any other one-night stand. But for the first time, exclusive top Yooseong bottomed for him, and it ended up being one of the most satisfying nights of his life. Unfortunately, no matter how many tops he has tried to recreate that special night with, no one compares to Hojin and the night they shared. So, he finds Hojin, kidnapped by loan sharks after his brother abandoned him with all the debt. Yooseong pays the debt and makes Hojin a deal he can’t refuse:
Be confined as Yooseong’s live-in lover for a year, and all the debt is paid off.
Review:
The art in this is super rough to start with. It is very inconsistent, smudgy, and unnattractive in most panels, but this story spanned years for the creator, so it does get better, I promise. Unfortunately, though, it takes a good long while for that to happen. It is so different at the beginning that it wasn’t until the side stories at the end that I realized the Dacto who created this is the same one I fell in love with from Legroom last year. It truly is like night and day, so I beg you to give it grace. Beyond the better art, there is even more rewarding content to enjoy in the extras, but we’ll dive into that later.
First, let’s talk about the main story. I really like the small details that show how traumatized the Baeksong Group’s grandsons are. Neither of them seems to enjoy eating. Sure, this could be chalked up to stress or to them not eating much to begin with, but then we get to know their mother. She constantly gives Heeseong foods he is allergic to, and she views them as rivals because she can’t ascend the proverbial “throne” of the company as a woman, made even worse because she has sons who can. Sure, the detail of giving them things they can’t eat might be just to indicate that she doesn’t care to know anything about them, but there is a subtle threat that she’d be willing to kill them, especially through poison, if she has to. So, this lack of appetite might be more because they quietly fear being poisoned by those close to them than just an eating habit. It is powerful, and also shows just how much Yooseong grows to trust Hojin, as he willingly eats what Hojin fixes for him.
But maybe the most interesting aspect of this entire story is Hojin’s views of his father, and, in turn, himself. Hojin is the puppy-dog-like top, who is super sweet and overtly loving in the face of cruelty. Yet, there is something dark lurking within him. As much as he claims to hate his father, the one he witnessed being suffocated was his father. His mother was the perpetrator. However, he was told that his mother had been abused before he was born, and that resulted in their first separation, and the only reason she tried to kill him later on was because of her trauma. The reason he separates himself from his father is not just because of his mother’s trauma, as he claims, but because he fears becoming his father. He fears being abandoned like his father and getting hurt like his father. His mother isn’t necessarily in the wrong for being triggered by her trauma, but it was still horrific and terrifying, especially for a child. So he takes on all the negativity, much like his father tried to do to make amends, and becomes the nicest and most ideal partner. But this also leads to being abandoned and hurt anyway. He doesn’t want to admit that he is more like his father than he’d like to admit, and that leads to his loneliness. He looks and acts like a dog, but he is actually a fox, playing the sweet, playful person despite being deeply afraid and ready to run like a wild animal at the drop of a hat.
Now, if you couldn’t tell from the content warnings and even the info from this review, this story is dark. I love dark stories, but the pacing can be rough and feel like a slog. Thankfully, this does a good job of balancing the comedy with the darkness, so there is a reprieve, and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. This definitely would have been a slog had it not been for the comedy because there are so many repetitive story beats, mainly involving the sexist and bigoted grandfather being his sexist and bigoted self over and over again. There were many times I nearly dropped this because I was so tired of seeing the grandpa bitching about his antiquated views. I think it is also worth noting that there are many fun side stories to look forward to if you need a reason to get to the end. There is an omegaverse side story, a guideverse story, an actor AU, and even a special with a priest/shaman Yooseong and demon fox Hojin. The short side stories are far superior to the longer main story, and I think this creator does best in a short format (as I mentioned before, Dacto also created my favorite manhwa from last year, and maybe of all time, Legroom, which is super short). I almost wish the side stories had been published separately, because many of them have favorite potential as standalone stories, but then we wouldn’t get the amazing multiverse/fated lovers plotline, so it’s hard to say they should be completely separate.
Results:
Overall, I think the main story is rough, and the shorts at the end make this whole thing. I definitely see hints of carefully crafted storytelling that then appear more prominently in the extras, side stories, and, eventually, Legroom. Still, you can tell it seemed like the creator was making it up as they went (and that is even confirmed in their author notes). That multiverse plotline really saves the entire thing, and I think it’s worth reading the main story to get to the extras and get that plotline, but this is a long one. I’m not sure everyone will be willing to push through to reach them, and that is unfortunate. There is good in here, but it takes a lot of work to get to it.
Have you read Boss, Bxtch, Baby!? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!
