[Contemplation] The Guy Holding Flowers by AngMaChunSa
*spoiler alert*
While coping up with my school life, school works and org responsibilities, It was good that I still had a time to look through my phone and read another translated fic entitled THE GUY HOLDING FLOWERS by AngMaChunSa and translated by nGk2M. After finishing it, I am going to review it now:
So here’s a synopsis of the story:
Suh EunGyo became an orphan ever since her parents died in a car accident when she was in 2nd grade. She was then taken in by her mother’s friend who has a son named Jang Jaehyuk, thus EunGyo lived with them up to the present. But one thing was bothering her - Jaehyuk never treated her good. Ever.
He would always call her ‘squash’ because he teases her that she looks like one. Jaehyuk never bothered to ride a car going to school and would always walk with EunGyo making her carry his bag all the way. Many girls send death glares to EunGyo because she’s always around Jaehyuk making her friendless - except for Jung Hayeon, the person who can only smack Jaehyuk on the head. Thus, she thinks that Jaehyuk really dislike her so much.
Landing in the same class with Jaehyuk again, EunGyo shrugged it off and decided to join a school club for pretty girls & boys. There, she met Kang EunWoo who quickly became her friend who then only smiles whenever he’s with her!
Alright! So as you have read in the synopsis, there’s actually something’s wrong with Jaehyuk treating EunGyo differently - no, he’s not bipolar or something - he’s a guy after all! You know those people that kept bugging you and annoys the hell out of you? Well Jang Jaehyuk is an example! It doesn’t take a rocket science to figure out his feelings ever since EunGyo narrates all the things she experienced with Jaehyuk. I think EunGyo is the only one that’s insensitive, that’s all. lol
When I first heard about Suh EunGyo, I was like, “Oh, so the main lead is a guy,” - but gosh, I flipped out when EunGyo turns out to be a she. I really thought it was a guy because EunGyo (as what I know) is a guy’s name *ehem* Doremi's Shin Eungyo *ehem*. Anyways, as I was reading this, I was quite confuse with most of the supporting characters's names because usually we are used to cool and easy-to-remember names, but since this is a translated fic, hard to memorize names popped up, confusing me a bit. But other than that I had a few twitterpaters because of how JaeHyuk expresses his feelings towards EunGyo, especially when she heard his side of the story - that's right, it contains chapters that has Jaehyuk's point of view!
You know what made me kinda think that this story is another cliche? If a cliche drama is when a poor girl meets a rich boy and they fell in love; most korean fiction cliche stories are when a guy and a girl met under certain situations, being lovey-dovey and perfect, then they suddenly turned out to be siblings (or somewhere along those lines) - and this story is another tailored-fit for that kind. So yeah, other than that overused twist, The Guy Holding Flowers is something that is very light and would fit readers who like reading short stories. I’d recommend this to people for a past time reading but do not expect too much because you’ll probably disappoint yourself.
The last thing that bothered me was the title. The title was very catchy (at least to me), yes, but it didn’t get the whole context of the story whatsoever. The title was actually irrelevant to the story. Since a title is an important part for charming me, I think I was actually tricked into reading this story because of the scenarios I envisioned upon reading the title, so I ended up being displeased. BUT DON’T GET ME WRONG. The story is worth a try since it’s an another outlook to how translated fiction works. The author did an good job showcasing the characters’ side stories and placing them in the right spot. That’s what I commend the most :)
My Rating:
Plot: 5.0/10
Characters & Dialogue : 5.5/10
Structure & Pacing: 6.8/10
Theme: 4.5/10
Style & Tone: 4.0/10
OVERALL RATING: 5.2
NOTE: This review came from my old tumblr account and was posted in July 2013.