Firefighter Finds His Ex and Doesn’t Intend to Let Him Go Again
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Warning:
There will be spoilers for the manhwa series Seven Sundays.
Content Warning: There may be references to fire, peer pressure, mentions of break up, gossiping, extortion, homomisia, bullying, impotence, slut-shaming, child abuse, violence, blood, excessive drinking, ableism (implying those with a mental illness can never be happy), PTSD, teen runaways, psuedo-incest (brotherly/guardian relationship), and overwork, as they do appear in the manhwa.
Synopsis:
Kang Taeyang has always wanted to be a protector, and as a firefighter, he is doing exactly what he wants to do. After a particularly dire fire, during which Taeyang made a harrowing rescue of a child, he is offered the chance to take part in a documentary. He’s not interested at first, but when he hears the name of the broadcast network, he’s all in. It’s not clear why he had the sudden change of heart. Until he has his first meeting, that is.
As it turns out, his ex and first love, who ghosted him years ago, is now a producer at this network.
Han Jiwan, Taeyang’s ex, tries to avoid him, but as the project’s producer, that becomes impossible. And it is during their first meeting that Taeyang learns Jiwan has a son, also named Taeyang. Jiwan isn’t married, thankfully, and while Taeyang doesn’t know the circumstances of their parting or Jiwan’s role as a single father, he has no intention of letting Jiwan go again. So, he sets up a deal that Jiwan can’t refuse:
Seven Sunday dates, and Taeyang will do the show. Seven dates for Taeyang to win Jiwan over, and seven dates for Jiwan to try and shake Taeyang off again. Who will come out successful?
Review:
I was honestly surprised by how good the art is in this. I’m not going to pretend this is the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen, but for a title I’ve heard very little about, I was surprised to see something so clean. It is cute and relatively consistent, which is all I can really ask for. The smut is gorgeous, the darker elements are handled with extreme care and detail, and even the less important panels look great. This was a joy to look at.
And story-wise, I was equally as impressed. I just read and reviewed The Love We Share, which has many similarities to this title. They both feature a relationship with a single parent; both have a character who has loved their counterpart for years; the single parent has trauma that makes them feel both inadequate as a parent and as a partner; and they’re both short stories. Yet, even with these similarities, there is a stark difference in how successfully these narratives played out. Where The Love We Share ended weakly, this killed it.
Rather than having a bunch of different subplots and random villains, the focus is honed in on their relationship. We see who they are now, and then we see where they began. It is a powerful story that is really grounded in reality. There is a significant age gap between Jiwan and Taeyang, so when Taeyang was in preschool, Jiwan was in middle to high school. They had a brother-like relationship, with Jiwan spending much of his time taking care of Taeyang. This does, unfortunately, lead to a ‘raising my lover‘/’pseudo-incest‘ trope, which isn’t my favorite, but we get two interesting views of their situation as a result. One being the innocence of Taeyang, who doesn’t understand that Jiwan is being judged and persecuted for being gay, and Jiwan, who is experiencing immense abuse, yet still feels compelled to protect Taeyang from himself.
Because the narrative is cut down to these essentials, the impact of the painful parts is actually painful, unlike The Love We Share, which came off as superficial and trivial. We can see their past, their current relationship, and the resolution of all their struggles in a neat, tidy package. Add in the sprinkling of smut throughout, and this is a well-crafted short story. It isn’t perfect by any means, but comparing two titles with similar premises and seeing how this one can so deftly do what the other couldn’t is such a treat. I do wish we had seen a bit more of how Jiwan had navigated his prospective lavender marriage, naming his son, and details like that, but it needed way more episodes to explore every small detail outside of the primary relationship. If it had tried to fit it in with the episode number we have, this would’ve had the same issues The Love We Share has, so I can appreciate the choice to shorten that content.
Results:
This was an absolute treat. It isn’t the best story in the world, but it has a depth to it that is rare to find in a short story like this. Add in that we actually get smut and some child-rearing, and this has so much more to offer than one might expect on a cursory glance. I think this was worth every penny, and I am so glad I got to experience it. I recommend it.
Have you read Seven Sundays? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!
