Kusanagi made Suwon's dialogue here unreadable on purpose. based on Hak's reaction, either Thank You or Sorry? Maybe? We'll have to wait the chapter where it's gonna be clear.
I believe, from Hak’s reaction here (chapter 243), that he never truly moved on.
He says he will forget his vow to Suwon now, like he never did, until this very moment.
Now he says “there is no going back”.
He was waiting for an occasion to hear an explanation from Suwon but he never got the chance to talk to him before.
He was somehow hanging on the possibility that things could be solved, that things could return to the way he imagined them to be when they were all still happily living at the castle.
And now he is realizing it's not possible, it never was.
He is realizing he needs to let go of that hope that kept him going on until now.
“The beautiful smile of a boy he once loved. And before midnight falls upon the palace, before the silver strain of clouds morph into the glint of a sword’s edge, dipped in the blood of betrayal — a passage between death and life — there is the distinct, somber shade of pale blue.”
- pale blue solace by foggydevil
I originally drew this SuHak last year as a birthday gift for my precious friend Lumen (@/Ann_archyy) on Twitter~ Manifesting SuHak!
Happy birthday Lumen!
@soo-won
Thank you so much to both you and Project Vinland's hard work for your translations, including on series like AkaYona! You're really our strongest soldier. I also have gift arts in mind for you this year!
Sending you lots of love~ I'm happy to have met you and be your friend. I always have fun talking to you! You're so funny and your thought rambles and character analysis/meta posts really inspire me.
I always feel like seeing my friends' works reignites my love for this ship. And of course, seeing everyones' passion for it! It makes me remember what I love so much about the ship.
When I drew this last year, I wanted to make their expressions soft and tender. Suwon was very fun to draw :) I loved drawing Suwon and his hair, heehee. Thank you king!!! 👑 And Hak's colours were fun. I love warm lighting, and colouring gold, so this was a treat 😌✨
This was inspired by foggydevil's SuHak fic, pale blue solace
I had the mood and atmosphere of the fic in mind while I drew! Her SuHak fic is beautifully written. I love reading her writing, it's so atmospheric and poetic... I love the prose. Her writing style reminds me of poems... It was pale blue solace that inspired me to choose the colours and atmosphere in this.
The rest of my rambles will be under the cut!
I was thinking about Suwon's association to gold and the warmth of the sun, so I chose more cool colours for Hak and the shadows of his clothes 🙏
I'm happy that my friends said they could feel the atmosphere of pale blue solace in this drawing due to the contrast between golden colours and pale colours. Sun/Moon symbolism...
The gold tones are a reference to Suwon who is the sun. I love the colours of the 2nd one. I chose those colours for warm and cool colours contrast, and I also chose the cooler toned one to match the atmosphere of pale blue solace!
No matter how bad AkaYona got and decayed in terms of writing quality, I'm still so glad I met many of my friends because of it <3 I’m glad for everyone’s team effort in creating SuHak content~ It makes up for how badly written Ch. 243 was.
Our friend circle is why I got into Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, one of the most important and personal series to me ever. Thank you!
CSP lags every time I open the file cuz it's so big. Alas I'd love to redraw this someday.
Also love black hair x blonde hair pairings. Wahoo!
I didn't reaaly love the latest chapters tbh. It feels like the same story is repeating over and over again. The gang gets separated. Yona get kidnapped, Hak worries and it all turns out fine with small things developping along the way which is what I honestly look forward to the most. The chalice and so on...
This time, it was the SuHak confrontation. And I loved it! It was honestly beautiful, chaotically beautiful!
I feel, some fans wanted a clear cut confrontation between these two. With excellent communication.... That was never going to happen...
Kusangi sensei is the best at understanding emotions. Despite what many might think I don't see her taking sides. Especially on the emotional grounds of who's right and who's wrong...
Hak is biased and isn't speaking logically here and he is not meant to. That's how Hak is. He is idealistic and often gets disappointed because of it.
He was never going to speak about his own emotions. He only cared to face Soo won for Yona and that's what he did.
Soo won was never going to talk about his feelings. It would be illogical to think he would.
That's how these two differ. They never truly understood one another. It wasn't obvious before, although I do feel like Soo won, knew.
At first glance they would make a great team and they would but it wouldn't work with Soo won's extremely logical ways that would eventually clash with Hak's idealism...
So if course, we didn't get to anywhere between these and we were never going to but at the same time we kinda did and I love it. I don't really know how to explain that...
Anytime I think of Suhak and the trio I get so sad, like seeing moments of Hak still protecting Su-won after everything...
It’s so obvious that they all loved one another deeply in a life-long friendship/familyhood kind of way, like the bonds were THAT strong except Il and Yu-Hon’s dumb shit corrupted it. The saddest thing is that Su-Won literally HAS NO GRUDGE OR DISTRUST TOWARDS HAK. Like with Yona, she’s related to Il and is Hiryuu but Hak has zero connection and has been NOTHING BUT KIND TO HIM.
I mean seriously, the trio is the heart of this story and it’s so tragic because I know they can’t be besties anymore for the rest of their lives yet there was NOTHING as close to them as THEM ok, NOTHING!
I couldn't help but notice the similarities between these two situations and hak response to them.
I don't know what to make out of all of this, hak since the beginning wasn't following yona because he felt obligated but because of his feelings of care and deep love for yona, he was impressed with her strength as he stated and decided to follow her.
Hak still cares about soo won, probably more than he knows and more than he wants to admit
It's just as minsu said: "it tugs on my heartstrings that after everything that happened, he still doesn't want him to suffer"