#In any case both K and Soohyun deserved better than to be killed off for Gahan’s manpain

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So in episode 12 when K and Gaon have that insightful conversation in the car and K says “If you stay by Judge Kang’s side, you will end up losing everything. Including yourself” —it really hit me hard and made me wonder about the nature of K and Yohan’s relationship.

It’s obvious that K is talking about himself and essentially warning Gaon to stay away from Yohan, but not in a threatening or possessive way. He sounds genuine, truthful—as if he’s asking Gaon to not make the same mistake as he did.

But what mistake is that? Making revenge the goal of his life or making Yohan the centre of his universe? Yohan and K probably met when K was young, impressionable and in a very vulnerable position. He was brimming with so much rage, grief and hate that all he wanted was to see the woman who was responsible for his father death destroyed completely. Not unlike how Gaon was after finding out the truth behind Doh Young Chun’s arrest.

This is when Yohan took him under his wing, promised him his revenge in exchange for his unwavering loyalty. It was the best option for K and Yohan was probably the only one willing to help him. So he agreed. He agreed to be his right hand man, the perfect executioner, his own ‘unbreakable sword’. K became a part of Yohan’s world and slowly, over the years, he didn’t even know when Yohan himself had become his whole world.

He probably knew when he had started ‘losing’ himself to Yohan, but at that point it was too late to back out. Yohan was the only person who had been kind to him, no matter what his definition of kindness was. K knew that even if he ran away, he would just come crawling back to Yohan the very next day. Yohan was an addiction—once you make him a habit, you will never get enough, even if he ends up destroying you.

K saw himself in Gaon then—a younger, foolish man who was just beginning to understand the enigma that was Kang Yohan. And he despised him at first, wanted Yohan to get rid of him as soon as possible. Maybe it was the subconscious envy of not being Yohan’s most trusted anymore. Maybe it was him being territorial, protective over Yohan.

But most importantly, it was because Gaon was angry and impulsive, not thinking twice before making decisions. It reminded K of himself when he accepted Yohan’s deal, not thinking of the eventual consequences, so blind with his thirst for revenge. He hated Gaon because he hated that version of himself that Gaon was a living rendition of.

We can also interpret the ‘losing yourself’ part in a romantic sense. The initial back and forth between Gaon and K played pretty much like the passive-aggressive spat between two men vying for the affections of their common lover. The palpable tension between them had strong undercurrents of petty jealousy.

We don’t have much to go on with regards to K and Yohan’s relationship or even K’s feelings for Yohan in general (what a shame, am I right?) but we do know that they care for each other a great deal. There is a great deal both Yohan and K convey through their body language around each other—there’s a subtle, lingering longing between those two. They were a lot more intimate (emotionally and physically even) than we were shown on screen.

We see that intimacy hinted throughout the series. In Episode 3, after Yohan almost kills the demolitions guy, K urges him to stop, essentially bringing him back to reality (not to mention his unanswered question to Yohan—“Did you do it for Judge Kim?”). In another, Yohan and K share a tender moment where after giving Cha Kyung Hee an ultimatum, Yohan comforts K when he’s the most vulnerable that we’ve ever seen him.

(There’s this unspoken exchange between them and honestly, the way Yohan touches K, rubs his thumb gently over his shoulder, keeps his eyes on him the entire time it is obvious enough that their relationship runs much deeper than what we see on surface.)

In the very notorious Episode 13, we see Yohan’s anguish and despair as he screams and breaks down over K’s death, caressing him and lamenting—basically uttering an entire eulogy for him. Later, we even see him hallucinating K standing over him, asking him to get up.

Now this bit in particular is so interesting to me because was this scene the manifestation of one of Yohan’s earlier memories with K? One that would include Yohan lying there, sleeping and K asking him to get up? This doesn’t necessarily imply the morning-after a night spent together, but it also doesn’t NOT imply that. Needless to say, it’s plausible that K and Yohan could’ve been sexually intimate at some point of time.

This theory is only strengthened by the parallel of his death to Soohyun’s and of Yohan’s grief that rivals Gaon’s. Were they implying that K was to Yohan what Soohyun was to Gaon? Someone in love with one of the Male leads while the said Male lead reluctantly reciprocating the feelings but never going all the way? K was one of the only few people that Yohan knew would never betray him. K and Soohyun’s protectiveness and strong loyalty towards Yohan and Gaon respectively, while the blatant distrust and barely hidden jealousy of Gaon and Yohan respectively is what makes them so similar, as so narrative mirrors of each other.

Was that why they were killed in the same episode—to finally make both Gaon and Yohan go over the edge, once and for all?

(Gif credit @b612sunsets)

#In any case both K and Soohyun deserved better than to be killed off for Gahan’s manpain #This is my take on K and his relationship with Yohan—it has fascinated me since their very first scene together #And well...I just love K a lot and There ARENT enough posts discussing his character #I miss him gosh #Feel free to share your thoughts on this! #I just want to talk about anything that includes my soft long-legged boi #K #yoon soo hyun #kim gaon #kang yohan #lawful husbands #YohanK #the devil judge #tvn the devil judge