This one is of MC’s rebirth shortly after ML’s suicide. ML was really pitiful as a kid (born to donate marrow for his brother with leukemia). Well, there was the lack of consent as per usual, but ML was also bullied by lots of people in school & elsewhere, neglected at home and overall a long history of abuse. MC himself is kinda also pretty pitiful himself, so this story is one of mutual redemption.
I haven’t reviewed for a while partly because I can’t seem to find anything interesting recently (also been kind of busy and reading some longer stories that I still haven’t finished). I thought the premise of this one seemed kind of interesting and I was in a bit of a mood for melodrama, so I gave it a go. Still waiting on the side stories as of today.
MC, ML and their relationship
MC is basically a mixed-raced rock singer from a richest family. In the past life, he was basically brought down by his father/cousin’s family. ML, at that time a multiple-winning best actor, saved MC when the latter was at his lowest. The story starts off basically with ML’s death scene, MC’s initial depression/refusal to believe it, and then the uncovering of ML’s past. MC realises the ML has briefly glossed over it many times, but thought it’d be better not to ask.
After that, MC basically follows him (by jumping off a cliff) and gets sent back to the past. This time, he meets ML early, takes him out of the city with the nepo school and horrible family and slowly heals him. Teaches ML that his own opinion matters and that he is valued and so on. ML also does his own bit to reassure MC’s own traumas. Their relationship is basically mutual redemption.
Their first life, the melodrama
MC and ML’s relationship isn’t melodramatic! So they don’t have any fights or anything but well, ML was so depressed in the past and committed suicide. MC ended up following him shortly after. MC also had many regrets/traumas from their first life. ML also remembers his past life eventually. I don’t know how to explain it, but there’s a lot of crying involved because the overall situation is just difficult. This is definitely not a feel-good brainless kind of story.
I have to say, there were a lot of bits in the past life that made ML interested in MC, but MC stood up for an unborn child who was a “backup bone marrow donor” for her mother was probably the most significant. ML could never really be assertive in his past life thanks to all the neglect and bullying, but I felt that that was the point where ML really reasonated with MC before they even really began to know each other.
The side characters
There’s a few important side characters. Overall, I’d say they were pretty realistically written. The sad bit is…a lot of them are definitely not on the side of the protagonist camp. The comeuppance isn’t that satisfying (because the story is supposedly realistic), but well, illegal things still get the prison sentence. The good thing is that every villain in the story got their comeuppance in some form in the first life too, it’s just that the second life made it happen way quicker while the good characters were saved.
MC has two playmates, one the traitor cousin (paternal) and the other a real bro. MC has always paid everything for them, but yeah the cousin thinks he’s been humiliated as a lapdog. Anyway, he gets a decent amount of screen time. The other guy is very loyal to MC, just a bit too trusting. In the past life he got killed by the bad cousin, in this life it took a while for him to realise the other’s true colours.
MC’s parents are also one bad, one good. The mother is surprisingly also reborn (spoiler…), and the father is the classic misogynistic married-into-wife’s family so he shells out his everything for his other family. Anyway, classic speechless father.
ML’s family…well they only care about the older brother. The older brother also basically hates ML, so ML gets mistreated by the parents even more. At the end of the day, the older brother dies before ML in both lives (just way earlier in the second life), which I suppose is the biggest ‘punishment’ for this family (not very satisfying but it is what it is).
Conclusion
This is a story that might make you cry a bit, especially reading about their past. Thank god they had a second life! So yeah, I concluded this story in a happy mood because I truly felt happy that they had a second chance to fix everything.
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