The pain and suffering brought about by unrequited love is unmatched. Hate Mate (story by Youngha, art by RECK) revolves around the 20s of our main character - Bang Subin, who's been in love with his best friend - Hyeonwoo for years. 23 is a weird age - you're old enough to be called an adult, but you don't feel like one. This is what Subin feels like. When Hyeonwoo returns from the military, his already reckless life becomes an even messier hot mess- dealing with unrequited feelings for your 'straight' best friend who strings you along, not letting you get that closure. In that hotmess, he finds solace in an older man. But is this rebound worth it - for him and the other man he is pulling along with himself? So this is basically the gist of what this story is about.

Realistic and such complex-written characters are hard to come by in the BL genre, which is saturated with low-effort smut. The art is interesting. It took a while to get used to the art because it's very different from other manhwas that I often read. We have read stories about unrequited love before, but what makes this manhwa stand out to me is the realistic representation of flawed humans dealing with their emotions. Rationale and feelings often tend to go their separate ways and end up clashing when it comes to love. The characters are so flawed yet so humane.

This was quite a depressing read, to be honest. But I do appreciate how the author put in moments of sheer comedy that even broke the fourth wall at times. Altogether, it was a fantastic story and I strongly recommend it to anyone looking for a well-written story about growing up while being in or out of love.