미숙한 표현 (Unripened Expression)

Unripened Expression is a Boy's Love manhwa written by Aga, and was released in 2016. Lee Jae Won is by all means a normal high school student, attending his classes with his best friend Kyang, trying to keep his grades afloat. But, he has the most terrible crush on the Vice President of his class, Han Karam. This wouldn't be a problem... if only he weren't a male! Yes, our Lee Jae Won is a closeted homosexual, and he would rather die than let his secret get out. Although this theme has been explored countless times before, the quality of the story depends on how you approach such a deeply human and personal topic. Aga handles it with care, as we delve into Jae Won's backstory. Jae Won has known he was a homosexual since elementary school, but when he confessed to a boy he liked, he was called weird and shunned for it. This is why he is terrified of liking someone new, even though he can't help himself.

I think it is quite obvious to anyone reading this that homosexuality is still stigmatized in most developed societies, even though there have been great developments in regards to the validation of their existence and right to marry. Southeast Asia is much less accepting of homosexuality than Western societies, unfortunately. UCLA's Williams Institute reveals that out of 175 countries who have taken a stance on LGBT acceptance, South Korea, of which Unripened Expression was based in, ranked 75th, compared to most European countries and the United States, ranking above 30 (thisisloyal.com, 2026). So, realistically, it makes perfect sense that Jae Won would experience such discrimination even so young. Thankfully, he is not the only one that has to keep his secret. He confides in an anonymous person online with his burgeoning feelings, only to find out that the person coincidentally goes to his school, and goes by Junseo.

Junseo is objectively (subjectively) the best character in this story. He not only has experienced discrimination in his earlier years, but he was brutally betrayed by his crush, who saved his own skin and accused Junseo of being a rapist when their coupling was discovered. It was portrayed as more of a tragedy, since Junseo's crush really did like him, but was stuck in abusive relationship at the time. Because of this, Junseo switched schools and was much more wary of who he lets close to him. And this included Jae Won. In fact, Junseo didn't want anything to do with Jae Won at first. But as Junseo got to know Jae Won and his innocent and honest personality, he became soft and a great wingman. He's still a bit standoff-ish and grumpy, though it is more endearing than anything else.

Compare this to Han Karam. What do we know about this character? He's the Vice President of his class. He has brown hair and blue eyes. He has a white pomeranian. He's... nice, I guess... Unfortunately, the author never really gave him the development or personality that he needed to justify Jae Won's infatuation with him. And, spoiler alert, he ends up liking Jae Won back! I suppose the audience doesn't need whole chapters dedicated to explaining Karam's homosexual tendencies, but I really feel like it would've made the ending make more sense, and not have his inevitable confession come out of nowhere.

The art style was good. The character designs were good. This manhwa is your typical slice-of-life story, with exams and summer vacation and... love... pentagons?!? Squares?! We have evolved far from the notorious love triangle at this point. One of the boys on the cover art isn't even a love interest, so I'm not sure why he is there to begin with. I liked the theme of internalized homophobia that is prevalent in the main character and his soon-to-be best friend Junseo, but I don't think the author fleshed out the other side characters enough to make their love square have any tension whatsoever. Me and most other readers vehemently agree that most of the "screentime" was given to Junseo more than, spoiler alert, who the main character Jae Won actually ends up with. I don't think this is a writing problem, since the author managed to make Junseo a very compelling character, as a man who was able to overcome the odds of being bullied for being gay so much to the point that he had to switch schools because of it. He and Jae Won were able to bond over that shared trauma, per se, making their relationship inequivocally the strongest throughout the entire story.

I do think my reading of this manhwa was a bit influenced by the quality of the translation. As far as I am aware, I don't think this work ever received an English translation, and so it was left in the hands of young volunteers who likely didn't pay too much attention to the dialogue and what the author actually wanted to communicate, or were not fluent enough in English to get the message across effectively. This is the case for at least half of the story, and there were many panels that straight up did not make sense. Of course, I do not wish to place too much blame on these translators, as doing this tedious work for no compensation and greedy readers is no easy feat. I should know, as I was in a scanlation team for over 2 years at one point. Still, I think there are a lot of meaningful conversations being had by these characters that are lost in absent minded Google Translate mumbo jumbo. This is not to say that the manhwa was unreadable. I think it is very easy to surmise the context of these chapters through the visuals alone, but even doing that, I think the author falls short of giving most of the characters real depth.

To summarize, this manhwa definitely has the potential to be a compelling story about a guy who finds love with someone who went through the same struggles with homosexuality as he had. Unfortunately, it was wasted due to the author's insistence on the main character falling in love with his crush who has the personality of a pebble. Although the story had funny and wholesome moments, the ending soured most of the enjoyment that would've otherwise been had had the couple been chosen right.

Citations

thisisloyal.com, L. |. (2026, April 30). Social acceptance of LGBTI people in 175 countries and locations. Williams Institute. https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/global-acceptance-index-lgbt/ /