Girl Please, He Deserves to be Alone

I apologize for the delay. Life outside the internet demands that you have to put on your pants in the morning. So thank you random readers for coming by this blog. Namely, people who accidentally click on this blog, Sylphalchemist's followers from her way more popular blog, Shoutbox people from The Way to Your Heart, and Fucking Shoujo's one follower (I love you by the way). You all are awesome.

I was going to cover one shots in this entry, but they're rather silly compared to Sylphalchemist's posts. Apparently horror manga guarantees using your brain as a Rubik's cube by the end of the chapter.

"Nah, people still think it's just dirt on their computer screens."

So I'll leave it to her to find the really weird one shots. Or until I find a one shot worthy of a K.O.

And now to this entry's topic: women who end up with men who abuse them.


It's a common trend in manga for a girl to be bullied, even beaten, black and blue then later end up with her abuser. It reinforces this disturbing idea that if a woman is persistent, the guy will change his abusive ways. All through the power of love.

"I just wanted to impress you." "You didn't." -Adventure Time

In some cases the bullying indicates that the guy likes her. He was just trying to get her attention. But instead of pulling on her hair, he slaps her around so her face won't send shudders to his lower anatomy.

And usually, no one in the class tries to stop it because the boy's either revered for his godly beauty, or feared for his cruel nature and his army of hell in addition to his bone structure carved by angels. In the manga world (and sadly sometimes in the real world), as long as you have the looks, you can get away with anything. Or simply having the power of popularity works too. It overrides all common sense, and makes me weep for the better side of humanity.

It doesn't help that authors love the "damsel in distress" scenarios. Even if their heroines have trained for eleven years under the guidance of their boxer father, the girls are always in a position where they need the main love interest to swoop in and rescue them (and it's always after they call out his name--as if he'd been waiting for his cue outside the damn door). Rare are the heroines who use reason and logic, who say NO to the bullies who want to go to a secluded place.

I don't expect every heroine to haul ass and be able to beat up all the baddies like Wonderwoman. But I do expect them to use their brain.

Do the noodle dance if that's what it takes.

Such expectations are why Girl in Heels was such a disappointment to me. The author creates a great heroine and devolves her into a common shoujo girl but worse--one who gets together with her abuser.

Her name is Goh Kyung Hee. She's seventeen years old and a first year in high school. The story starts with her trying on a pair of heels. The salesgirl asks main chick if she's a star. Kyung Hee gets irritated. No, not at all. And leaves.

You and me both, sister.

The main girl definitely proves how much her beauty is a curse--an ice cream vendor decides not to charge her because she's so pretty. I was about to roll my eyes when Kyung Hee gives him the money anyway and the man starts spewing crap like "How dare you ignore my hospitality! No I love it. Ignore me some more!" That's when things begin spiraling down--her beauty really is a curse.

The next scene, Kyung Hee's trying to read a book at school with this obnoxiously loud girl yakking away on her cell phone. And she actually tells the girl to quiet down. Cell phone girl immediately snaps into bitch mode with a "Girl imma have to call you back." And demands Kyung Hee to stand up, kicking her desk when she doesn't. Instead Kyung Hee says, "Don't get so close to me. You reek of cigarettes." Cell phone girl is about to slap Kyung Hee when two guys kick in the class door.

Main girl doesn't answer. She pretends she's not here and continues reading her book. The two thugs begin to bully cell phone girl, threatening to rip off her nails. They ask her where Goh Kyung Hee is. Cell phone girl nervously nods her head in Kyung Hee's direction. The two thugs are livid. They ask her if she wants to die for making them look for her. So she looks up at them.

"My eyelashes are made of gold, bitches."

She figures they came to see her looks and will leave her alone now. The thugs are enthralled by her beauty. But no, that's not what they came for. Some guy named Ookil is wants to meet her.

Kyung Hee: Nope, don't know him. You have the wrong person.
Thug with blonde hair: What? When Ookil says to come, you come!

Cellphone girl starts signaling in the background, "Girl, you're gonna die if you don't go with them." The thugs have had enough. They tell her to either come with them or face death.

"I just want to read my book on assertiveness. Is that so hard to ask? Now GTFO."

Blonde thug says, "Fine. We'll tell him what you said. Don't regret this later." And her classmates start murmuring, "Oh snap, Yang Ookil? What she gonna do now?" How about tell the teacher? In fact, why doesn't everybody tell the teacher? Anybody who knows how to breathe can tell this is a missing girl case in progress.

Cellphone girl: You seriously don't know who Yang Ookil is?

After class is over, cellphone girl drags Kyung Hee to an old school lounge to talk about Yang Ookil. Kyung Hee isn't interested. "But he's interested in you! It doesn't matter what you're interested in!" Main chick becomes intrigued at cell phone girl's outburst. People don't usually talk to her like that. Cell phone girl bursts into tears. Yang Ookil has really killed someone and if Kyung Hee knows what's good for her, she'll beg for mercy.

Kyung Hee: And I'm serious too. I'm really not afraid to die.

Later that same day, main chick's just walking down the street, thinking about buying some cookies for her mom when the two thugs from earlier grab her.

Blonde thug: I'm gonna break your arm if you don't come.
Kyung Hee: Fawwwwwk. Okay, I'll follow you. If you let go of my arm. Right now.

They go to a karaoke place. And the thugs usher her into one of the rooms. She sees some poor man being kicked by another thug and someone sleeping on the couch. The kicking and the cries of pain are making so much noise it wakes the guy on the couch.

You're mistaken, honey. That's not a rabbit doll. It's a body bag stuffed with bones.

When he looks at her, she realizes she's seen him before. The day she bought her heels, she spotted him at the subway. He was looking at her with sad eyes. (Oh boy.) While she's reminiscing about the romantic glance, reality hits her when one of his underlings brings him the wrong milk.

Kyung Hee: No, this has to be the wrong guy. Subway dude wouldn't be this awful.

Oh girl, you have no idea.

Ookil: 'Kay so put your number in this cell phone. Come out whenever I call.
Kyung Hee: Who does he think I am? *just stares at him*
Ookil: Ah, fuck. My arm hurts. Hurry up and put your number in! (Actual quote from page.)
Kyung Hee: How I'm going to react is important. I'm not going to live a miserable life at this guy's beck and call. I can't let him push me around. GIRL POWAH!

She takes out her own cell phone and tosses it on the couch.

Kyung Hee: If you're that eager. Put your number in. And I'll call when I feel like it.

Ookil laughs, kicks over a table, and backs her into a wall. Kyung Hee decides now's the best time to figure out whether or not he's the boy from the subway. "Sorry, I don't like boys like you. You're petty. Crying like that in public."

"MY VELVETEEN RABBIT IS REAL, YOU HEARTLESS BITCH."

Ookil: Pfft. Me crying? That's the craziest thing I've ever heard in my life.
Kyung Hee: Yup, it's him. I'd react that way too if someone said they saw me crying. Don't worry I won't tell anyone. It's embarrassing.

And Ookil proceeds to slap and kick the shit out of her. Knowing that she's weaker than him, Kyung Hee accepts his abuse. To her, the more she struggles, the more he'll beat her.

"If you are attacked, you should always play dead." She must have seen Dinner for Schmucks.

During the assault, main chick flashbacks to her childhood, specifically when she was twelve years old when she experienced her first love. With a twenty year old man who played the cello. It looks like an innocent first crush. I should have known better.

He stops beating her eventually and Ookil gets Kyung Hee's number from her cell phone.
Ookil tells her not to be bratty and come out when he calls. She vows she'll never answer his calls.

She misses three days of school to recover. Her teacher calls her, wanting to know what happened, but she doesn't tell him. And for some reason, his silence over the phone triggers another flashback to when she was in middle school. One of her middle school teachers asks if she kissed Potato, the most popular boy in school who aspires to be a singer. (Pffft. Potato.) We find out Potato's the one who started the rumor. Since girls are beginning to badmouth her, Kyung Hee asks to see him by the gingko tree to clear the air. She wants to know why he did it.

"Yes, thank you for traumatizing me. I will take your confession into consideration."

One of her classmates says she found out why Potato stabbed himself. He was scared. Scared of confessing to her. And he needed a distraction.

And it's back to the present with Kyung Hee still on the phone with her silent teacher. She hangs up after she would, thinking her teacher's going to confess his love to her. Her thoughts drift back to Ookil and how she's going to tough it out. She'll let Ookil know there's one person he'll never break.

And that's the end of Volume 1. That's just the tip of the 'why am I reading this' iceberg.

Other bullshit plotpoints:

• Kyung Hee raises some rebellion and writes all over Ookil's desk. He throws her out of the fifth story window.

The Bystander Effect: One of the many douchebag traits humanity has to offer.

Being the main character, Kyung Hee's death would be too early for the series and Ookil at the last second grabs her hand and pulls her up.

• Ookil's suspended from school for a week, but when he comes back, he resumes bullying Kyung Hee like shoving her face into her soup and cutting her hair. When she tells him she doesn't like him at all, he replies, "If you were going to be like this, why did you come onto me?" (Excuse me? What kind of pineapple up the ass logic is that?)
• Kyung Hee runs and cries, finishing the flashback of what happened with the twenty year old cello player
• Cello dude sexually assaults twelve year old Kyung Hee at his house (said he would show Kyung Hee a good sound system), she bites his finger, permanently damaging his pinkie which prevents him from playing the cello ever again. He confronts her after a year, trying to guilt her with the damage she's done.

A child rapist's logic at work.

While Kyung Hee's mom hits the sick S.O.B. over the head with her bag of groceries, he "curses" Kyung Hee to spending her life seducing guys.

• We're also introduced to a girl named Sujung who turns out to be Ookil's sister, and the one who not only told Ookil to bully Kyung Hee, but to kill her. All because Sujung believes Kyung Hee looks exactly like her. Or should I say how she would have grown up to look like had it not been for an accident that stunted Sujung's growth. (The crazies run rampant in this family.)
• Some long haired dude calls Ookil to make a deal with him
• After buying some cookies, Kyung Hee gets kidnapped by some guys from a different high school, infamous for being nasty, and taken to the woods. Their leader is the long haired dude.
• Ookil and his friend coincidentally happen to pass by while she's being kidnapped and follow the other boys into the woods.
• Kyung Hee plans to jump off a cliff nearby because she'd rather die then be gang raped.

You're damn lucky she wasn't a unicorn, dude.

Kyung Hee: the only heroine I've ever read to headbutt a guy in the crotch which makes me even more disappointed when she and Ookil become an item. They get together because of this incident. Ookil and his friend strike before Kyung Hee jumps. He gives her a piggy back ride. They sneak in the school nurse's office where he literally slaps on some ointment and then another piggy back ride to the subway. And this one act of heroism suddenly rights all the wrongs he's done to her.

They fucking kiss.

The reason why I want to throw bread at teenagers: So they can make a sandwich out of their shit.

In high school, there's such thing as one day relationships. I hope their relationship is one of them. This is just terrible. Maybe such a comic exists because there's a demographic who sorely wants to believe "true love" conquers all. Or they're like me who love reading train wrecks. I'm just hoping nobody wants to be in such a relationship portrayed here--where somebody can physically abuse you, cause you to mentally break down, be emotionally manipulative, and yet still deserve to be with somebody. No, that person needs help. They need to be alone for a while and get shit sorted out.

I know my idea of a healthy relationship isn't everyone's idea of one, but I think the people you let into your life, the ones you share it with to such a deep level shows how much respect you have for yourself. (This doesn't count family. Family's just that sandpit that's either fun under the sun where you sometimes get sick of people kicking over your castles or filled with poisonous snakes.)

I don't know. I've never been in an abusive relationship. I like to pretend I'm one of the smarter twenty-something year olds. All I know for sure is that this kind of relationship--Holy shit, that's all kinds of wrong. Like feeding cows beef wrong. I heard some owners have turned to feeding their livestock candy, which sounds like a deleted scene from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Credits: Manga Abyss (Erotic Horror...the page about a pimple), Entropy (Girl in Heels)