Trope: Incest / Pseudo-Incest
These works feature relationships sexual or romantic in nature where the individuals involved are either related biologically, by marriage, by adoption, or through an adoptive method, such as unofficially taking in an unrelated child and raising them as their own and forming a child-parent relationship that then evolves into more.
Manhwa Review | Siren’s Song by Clarju
Title: Siren's Song
Yul has lived his entire life hopelessly strung along by others. “Lived” is a generous term. With his life never fully in his control, he has always been forced to follow the whims and commands of those around him. Even as an adult, that hasn’t changed. He currently lives in an apartment owned by his adopted brother, who has an unhealthy obsession with him that goes beyond a sibling relationship. In that home, alone and unable to leave, Yul spends his day under surveillance and composing music that is presented to the world under his brother’s name. His only solace is out on the apartment balcony, where he can sing and smoke to his heart’s content.
Yul’s small world is rocked, though, when one evening on the balcony, his singing is overheard by a neighbor on the balcony above. The neighbor Luan is immediately drawn to Yul for an inexplicable reason. However, Yul allows Luan to begin his plan for revenge against everyone who made his life hell, even if he has to destroy Yul in the process. Luan doesn’t expect that as he grows closer to Yul and begins to uncover the history behind his existence, Luan not only wants revenge for himself but for Yul as well. But what he fears more than anything now is losing or hurting Yul amid his vengeful warpath.
Manhwa Review | My Housemate by snob
Title: My Housemate
Jinwon has lived an unlucky life thus far. The first company he worked for went bankrupt. He got fired from another job for looking like a person that a manager’s girlfriend cheated with. He’s also been fired just because upper management didn’t like him. To say finding work is hard is an understatement for Jinwon. So, now unemployed, nearing thirty, and trying to study for the civil service exam, Jinwon is desperate for some stability in his life.
Luckily, Jinwon’s sister has recently married a wealthy older man, and the pair need some help. Gyungha, their twenty-year-old son, has run away from home because he hates his new stepmother. Worried over their son, the father and stepmother ask Jinwon to become Gyungha’s new housekeeper and keep an eye on him. Jinwon, desperate for something new and some money in his pocket, hops on the opportunity. Gyungha is less than excited about the idea but allows Jinwon into his world.
As Gyungha finally begins to open up to Jinwon, feelings emerge that go beyond a friendship or familial relationship. What are these feelings? And what do they mean for the new housemates?
Manhwa Review | Love on My Terms by GYEUL
Title: Love on My Terms
Mogyum is a former child star trying to make a comeback as an adult. However, the unfortunate accident that led him to drop out of the limelight haunts him, hindering his acting. However, what makes acting that much harder is Mogyum’s co-star, Chamin, who seems oddly fixated on Mogyum. Chamin is an established A-lister who acted with Mogyum when they were kids on the same set where the traumatic accident occurred. What Mogyum doesn’t know about Chamin is that Chamin can read minds, which is part of the reason he has become such a great actor.
However, Chamin is so drawn to Mogyum in the first place because Mogyum is the only person whose thoughts Chamin can’t read. So, to learn why and to better their chemistry on screen, Chamin offers Mogyum a contract. A dating contract, which would allow Chamin and Mogyum to intimately act out their scenes together as if they were actually dating while the two live together at Chamin’s house. While Mogyum is hesitant at first, learning more about acting from an A-lister like Chamin is too good an opportunity to pass up.
Things start to get a little too real, though, and soon, the lines between characters and reality begin to blur. While Mogyum and Chamin are sorting out their feelings, the mystery of Mogyum’s accident looms in the background, threatening to destroy everything for them once more.