Considering this webtoon started with archery scholarship student Dayeol getting in trouble for forcibly kissing his classmate Taehyun despite doing no such thing, this work explored many facets of youth.
There are no people more boring to me than teenagers but the characters in A Shoulder to Cry On sure are compelling.
Dayeol begins the story with so much turmoil over potentially losing his scholarship that it is interesting to view the story back and see how he allowed himself to be trapped into an agreement over something that had been trapping him all along. Naturally he starts off by hating Taehyun but there are plenty of opportunities for him to change his perspective.
As readers we are privy to the thoughts in Taehyun’s head and that allows us to change our perspective on him too. He might be popular but he’s a weirdo. He doesn’t fit in. He doesn’t want to fit in. Have you ever seen him without that stupid smile on his face? I don’t want to give too much away but as you learn more about Taehyun, you can’t excuse him for what he did to Dayeol but you at least begin to understand who he is as a person. Whether you think he deserves Dayeol’s liberally applied label of ‘sociopath’ is up to you in the end.
One aspect that strongly underlines the emotions conveyed through the story is the art style. Not only is the art pleasant to look at but there appears to be a lot of space in the character designs. The faces have room to make Taehyun’s smiles look devious and there is plenty of space to show all that isn’t being spoken.
At 28 episodes and so many unresolved feelings, I’m really satisfied with the way it ended. It is as happy an ending as these two could manage and the patient expectation of the last line was really healing.
Hush Nili 
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