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lej222 · 8 months

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Seo Jisu Character Analysis (ASLFUA)

After the latest chapter of Unripe Apples (117), I felt like I had to write this post because of the immense hate this character received. I personally find him the most interesting part of the series because in order to understand his actions, you need to put all the pieces of the puzzle together that the author has given us from the very first chapter. I've seen posts about him being a "bully" or "an unserious funny guy" and I found these pretty bad interpretations of his place in the story as of now.

Let me explain. In my opinion, there's a high possibility that Jisu is on the autistic spectrum. Let's look at all the clues that can lead to this conclusion.

Physical appearance

Jisu has an "expressionless" face from his very first appearance. He also has his mouth open a lot of times, especially when he's supposed to emotionally react to a certain situation or he doesn't understand something. These are typical signs of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We can also see that even when he's feeling more extreme emotions, such as surprise, his facial expressions don't change significantly like in the case of other characters, the change is always slight. It's probably important, as all the other characters show a wider range of emotions with their faces, and we are talking about a manhwa where body language is clearly important (like how Miae or Cheol walk, for example, tells a lot about their characters).

Behavioral patterns and personality

Let's quickly get one thing out of the way - if Jisu is indeed on the spectrum, then saying that he's an unserious guy or immature or a bully is insensitive and a bad misinterpretation of his character. Autistic people are not immature, sometimes they even deal with stronger emotions than most people, but they have a hard time expressing these feelings. Just because they seem expressionless doesn't mean they are ignorant, it means that they see the world in a different way, which is not a problem. Miae doesn't need to make "a man out of him" and other weird takes I've seen in the last few days.

Having clarified this, let's look at some things that Jisu does in the story that could show us he might be neurodivergent.

-We see that Jisu is often sleeping and yawning in the story, even as a kid. For neurodivergent people, sighing and yawning are not only the signs of boredom/tiredness, but also tools for emotional regulation. Autistic fatigue is a real thing and it can be caused by many things like major life changes, sensory overload or even prolonged interactions at work or school. Some autistic people do not even notice that they are yawning until someone points it out to them. He also sometimes looks away while talking to Miae (like in ch117)

-Jisu is shown to have exceptional mental capabilities, it wouldn't be an overstatement to say he might be a genius. Many people on the autism spectrum have higher-than-average intelligence and Jisu clearly has exceptional capabilities if he could earn the first place in school without much effort. He also knows the names of all his previous classmates as shown in ch 117 so he seems to be good at memorizing factual information.

It connects to my previous point, but Jisu has his own unique way of perceiving the world and other people find it hard to understand. Even among his schoolmates, Jisu is famous for his "unique" personality, as Miae's friend points it out. Miae sometimes doesn't understand what Jisu wants to communicate and she ends up misinterpreting his intentions, the latest chapter was the biggest proof of this. Here's the thing, Jisu doesn't know that what he did annoyed Miae. He seems to have trouble understanding social clues and is genuinely surprised when Miae calls him a bully - because he never felt like he was bullying her. He always asks back when she's accusing him of something ("Me?" "Is that true?") because he cannot understand why she's saying those things about him. He isn't trying to be rude, he's simply confused, and Miae takes it the wrong way because she's an impulsive person. Jisu talks in a blunt way and his way of showing remorse is also strange to Miae, the best example is when he flipped over the plant just to prove that he wasn't bullying her.

-Jisu also seems to take things literally, like when Miae told him to stop yawning or when she told him she would twist his arms if he put them on her desk. Like many people with ASD, he seems to observe others and imitate their behavioral patterns, like when he imitated the way Miae was walking and she thought he was bullying her. He simply said that her way of walking was interesting. Talking about interesting, Jisu finds his coincidental meetings with Miae fun and interesting and it ties with the fact that neurodivergent people can have unique "fixations" including fixations on people. Jisu finds these occasions fun, but fails to read the social clues that Miae is bothered by it. While Jisu seems to avoid socialization at school and is mainly alone most times, it might seem strange that he has a fixation on Miae, but for autistic people this contradiction is not weird at all. She was also the person who helped him as a kid, so the theory that Jisu showed her how to count airplanes doesn't seem far-fetched knowing that it's indeed a pretty unique habit. In conclusion, Jisu was probably not even aware that he was being rude, because he just wanted to get close to Miae and found her fun. He even apologized in ch117 for not understanding her feelings.

So, extra thoughts quickly:

Jisu is not immature, he actually seems to have mature thoughts, but has trouble picking up social clues like how he should behave normally (that's why we see him doing all that ninja-stunt and hiding in the bush), and he cannot seem to realize that his direct approach to Miae seems excessive to other people. People on the spectrum are NOT immature, they won't magically change and they do not do a lot of things intentionally. Jisu seems to be pretty wise as well, he can see situations rationally like when Miae wanted to disrupt the faceless girl's confession (sorry, forgot the name)

So, what's his role in the story?

In my opinion, he's definitely the catalyst to Miae's growth as a person. Ch 115 even calls Miae out saying that Cheol has changed a lot, is it Miae's time to grow? Miae was Cheol's catalyst for sure, she brought him out of his shell, encouraged to make friends at school etc. But what about Miae? Sure, she has a few moments when she reflected on her actions when she was with Cheol, but she didn't mature significantly, whether people accept it or not she's still emotionally immature in many ways. It's not a coincidence in my opinion that the relationship between Jisu and Miae parallels the Cheol-Miae dynamic, in ch 117 Miae even used the same words and expression Cheol once told her ("Don't act like we're friends.") Let's just quickly look at some things where Miae's immaturity could be felt:

Miae is a messy person, doesn't clean her room and loses her stuff. She's forced to clean the school because Jisu didn't understand her frustrations, so SHE had to be the responsible one. Cheol always says that he will take responsibility for her, but Miae needs to be responsible on her own. Same goes to when she wanted to teach Jisu. Miae doesn't take her studies seriously, is often distracted, but she had to be responsible (even if it was not her choice and felt betrayed)

But most importantly, Miae thinks about Jisu's advice whether she hates him or not. Two good examples: when he called her out on her relationship with Cheol while they were cleaning; and when he stopped her from interrupting the confession. Deep down, Miae knows that Jisu was right, but she's too prideful to admit it. Jisu doesn't want Miae to be the "weird" girl probably because he was also bullied for being "weird."

Miae is also very impulsive, which is not necessarily a bad thing but she keeps hitting Jisu for the reason that he annoys her. But what if, she realizes, he indeed meant no harm, wouldn't she feel bad? We are shown that she used to hit kids who made fun of her, but as you grow up, violence is not the answer. You have to be level-headed in situations even when you feel angry. And understanding Jisu's intentions might be the first step to achieve that.

So, these are just my speculations, could be totally wrong as always, but I'm interested in what others think.

Edit:: it's not my purpose to diagnose these characters, but there are enough clues in the story to conclude that Jisu is indeed neurodivergent. Obviously, these traits are not strictly connected to ASD, this is just a theory, and I do not condone any hate on teenagers, even if they are fictional, so please refrain from doing so. Miae also shows signs of ADHD, but there's a possibility these things won't get addressed directly as the story takes place in the 90s.

Edit2:: I feel like the latest chapter on Naver(124) reinforced this theory again. Jisu was not simply angry, he was livid. Most people on the spectrum find it difficult to regulate their feelings, especially anger. It can lead to outbursts or even meltdowns, just think about how Jisu wanted to hit Cheol and how intense his reaction was compared to his usual behaviour. It definitely felt like an outburst. Also, have you guys seen how often he avoids eye contact since I first made this post?

(Btw, for those who say that Jisu's biggest problem was that he couldn't catch Miae - I feel like it had to do more with the fact that he almost smashed his head into the ground and was humiliated in front of everybody. We know that he was bullied as a kid so it's no surprise he felt intense anger, even his head kept hurting from the fall.)

#aslfua #hwang miae #seo jisu #after school lessons for unripe apples #mi ae hwang

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