In the latest episodes he's showing some character development, but then he keeps going back to his usual bratty self.. I really can't with him. I can understand the confusion and pain he goes thru, because i'm a child of seperated parents too, but the way he acts to his mom is just disgusting at times. He really needs to self-reflect... 

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR EPISODE 6 and 12 (I didn't put it under spoiler, because all of the text would be considered a spoiler, but if you want to, please tell me to do so)

I really can't explain my feeling properly for Joon Young, so bare with me.

I think Joon Young is a greatly written character. His feelings are so complex that even the viewers don't know what to think of him sometimes. He loves his dad, because he was there while he was growing up. He also loves his mom, but since she was always working, he doesn't have the same connection with her. 

Joon Young is damaged psychologically and I believe that even himself doesn't know what to do or what to think. Unfortunately, he is stuck in the middle of his parents battle. He wants to spent time with his dad, but also doesn't want to abandon his mother. Since he is fragile, he is easily influenced by others (Da Kyung) and he considers himself a burden for his mother. He feels alone, and it also seems that he doesn't have any friends in school, after all of these things happened (besides No Eul that I can't really call a friend yet)

On the other hand, I can't believe that he is treating his father so normally. Maybe I would  understand it, if they just got a divorce and he was living with his new wife, but it's not that. He knew that his father cheated and he saw his mom bleeding on the floor, after being hit from his father. That is not something that it is easily forgivable or forgettable (especially since he doesn't  know the truth).

He treats his mother really bad and he takes the anger out at her. That is also one of her faults, because she doesn't explain her feelings to him (a basic conversation between mother and son, not with every single detail) and just tries to (over)protect him, while fighting with his father and damaging him in the middle of it all.

All in all, Joon Young is a frustrating, but quite realistic character and even though I hate Tae Oh, because he is an a**hole, Sun Woo is also far from innocent, especially regarding her son. She almost hurt him, while she was driving in the 6th episode to get away from her husband, and she was acting hysterical. Also, she put him through something awful, when she wanted him to see her, bleeding on the floor.  

I agree with the previous comment. 

Even though he annoys me in the way he acts sometimes, I feel he's very realistic. He's a child so he's not mature enough, and he's been thrown around between his parents fights. Being a son of divorced parents can be hard enough already, but the son of parents as toxic as those? The guy has all the reasons to be unstable. 

I hated how he got upset on his mom for not forgiving his father, and how he seemed so comfortable with his father (but somehow I was able to understand him, weirdly... I thought it'd drive me insane but it didn't. Maybe because I didn't feel such a connection between him and his mom, that's why my feeling of betrayal was less? Idk). But I also think he was awesome by telling his father to mind his own business as he was the one who cheated and got a new family. The kid is conflicted. And he needs love, which no one shows him. 

Da Kyung is awful. Everytime I feel she's saying something right, she screws up. Especially what she was planning to do with the kid. It's just wrong. And selfish as hell. 

I also want to feel betrayed and feel sorry for Sun woo, but I just can't. She was always so cold to her son. I didn't feel anything when she was with him. She was always very distant. She never cared or paid much attention to him, so I couldn't relate to both of their pains when they got separated. Even the dad is more kind and nice to him than her. If she wasn't like that, I'm sure I'd be sobbing. And I'd love to feel that way, because it would feel just right. 

I can't really hate the kid. He's still one of the very little characters I support and like in this story. Because he's still a child and didn't deserve any of this. Because things would get better if they talked seriously, but none of them do.

P.S. I hated the scene on the ep 6. It made me dislike Sun Woo a lot... It was not right. What she did and how she lied..... That was awful. That's not how I would like things to happen. I'd prefer another kind of melodrama (in which he chooses his father, goes to live with him and then regrets it) but that one would be way more cliché and less melodramatic for the plot. 

I think joonyoung just wants everything to end quickly. He doesn't care if he hurts his mom and he doesn't care if even HE gets hurt. The best way for them to stop their war is just for him to live at his dad's house and his mom to move and even if he has to spend the rest of his life at his dad's house, which he obviously doesn't like, he'll do it because that way everything can just stop.  You can see more than everything that he's just so over his parents fighting. 

Another thing i'd like to note is I think joonyoung might be a bit scared of his father. Usually you talk back and yell at the parent who you're more comfortable with. He always dismisses his mother because he knows she won't ever stop loving him or leave him or hate him for it, but with his dad, he doesn't ever say no and just goes along with whatever makes his father happy. I think mostly it's because he's scared to lose his dad (his dad already dissapeared for 2 years plus has a new family) but I also don't see how watching your father beat your mother doesn't make you a little terrified of him. Honestly ep 14 just proved my theory when his father was violent and slapped him and right after joonyoung broke down whatever he was trying to achieve before and called for his mom. 

But I completely understand his mixed feelings towards his father, as I experience something similar firsthand.  No matter how much you hate him for what he did.... he's still your dad and your best childhood memories revolve around him.  You want to resent him but you can't, so you end up resenting yourself. It's a HORRIBLE feeling.

I have to keep reminding myself that the boy is only 14 years old. He's just a kid. And especially in Asian culture, we are far from mature about topics such as divorce and marriage at that age.  I was 19 and went through hell, so I can't even imagine what the poor boy went through.  

I understand why he behaved as he did. Even though my parents never divorced, they did get close to it many times throughout my childhood till I was about 28.  I faced similar feelings but I was bad with both unlike Joon Young as both never really ever come to know my thought process or things I cared about. Also they similarly forgot about us children in conflicting times, only to remember us after weeks of fights, silent treatments and finally month long separations.

Well my case was much more progressed as though it started from secrecy and deception, it culminated into knowingly asking my opinion of whom is correct/better/justified in his/her stance. So, at least they didn't go to that length with him. Otherwise I may have dropped the series as I have severe trauma associated with it.

That's why I simply abhor the two leads. First they destroy their own child, then keep on confusing him with repeated acts of conflicting behaviors. Later they irresponsibly make him aware of all their monstrous acts. Then they wreck another child, regardless of whether Da Kyong deserved it or not, her girl didn't. At that point, I just wanted both of them to just disappear.

To everyone in this discussion who's been through stuff like this...  The biggest hug in the world. Children don't deserve the weight and burden of the mess adults put themselves in. I hope everyone  grows into or are humans who can give their children the sense of family and support they had to forego.