Why is it that damn near every fanfic I read, there’s always going to be one or two characters with some unprocessed issues and trauma getting into relationships, doing the absolute most and stressing me out and having me scream: BRO. YOU NEED THERAPY for chapters on end?
But am I seated for the drama and the mess like the masochist that I am? Yes. Yes I am
Welcome back to the messy and drama bitches. I’ll be reviewing Triple Dog Dare by majorblinks. Thank you @Azelfty, for the recommendation.
Quick trigger warning. This review involves mentions of suicide. So if it’s a topic you’re not comfortable reading, please take care of yourself, and I’ll see you in the next one.
Let’s get into it.
This story begins with our Y/N meeting Wonyoung at a bar. Apparently, it’s Wonyoung’s 25th birthday, and there’s some history between these two and my first thought based on their interaction in the first part of the fic was that they were exes.
We then rewind to seven years ago when they first met in college. Y/N was just minding his business at the campus coffee shop when Wonyoung pulled up like, “This is my table. I sit here every time I come here. So move.”
….
Honey. Baby. Sister in arms. This is a public place. FUCK YOU MEAN “This is my table.” Honestly, people like this who gatekeep places, or in this case, a table AT PUBLIC PLACES, are truly an enigma coz HOW DOES ONE GATEKEEP A TABLE? THAT?! THERE IS AN ABUNDANCE OF NIGGAS WHO HAVE SAT AT THAT TABLE EVERY DAY, 24/7, 365.
Shit, I WISH I could claim ownership for the good parking spots at work so I don’t have to park outside the facility and worry about the government clamping my car and paying a $50 fine for exceeding the hours I paid for parking.
So, unless the table has a banner or a tag that says “Property of Jang Wonyoung”, I ain’t moving. Either you sit and coexist with me, or you find another table. Thank you.
Anyways, Yujin pulls up and is like: Yo, Wonnie. This is the guy I’m going to marry when I hit 30. And Y/N is like: I’m her boyfriend.
And I was like: wait, is this going to be some kind of a life triangle where Y/N ends up cheating on Yujin with Wonyoung.
So basically, Y/N and Yujin met in one of their classes and within a week, these niggas were already dating. And all it took was baby girl sucking this nigga’s dick.
Now listen, this is just me. Personally, I kinda see it as a red flag to rush into relationships without properly getting to know the person you’re dating and in most cases, the relationship is likely to end faster than it started (this will be important for later).
Look at Anna from Frozen, the nigga she got engaged with on the same day he met him ended up leaving her to die when Elsa struck her in the heart with her ice powers.
BUT IT TOOK YOUR DICK GETTING SUCKED TO BE LIKE: yeah. She the one.
MY NIGGA WHAT?! HOW DOWN BAD CAN YOU BE?!
Oh yeah. Yujin was also hooking up with Wonyoung, too. These two girlies have known each other since the seventh grade.
So now these two niggas have to coexist with each other because of one person.
Remember when I said that I kinda see it as a red flag to rush into relationships without getting to know the person you’re dating, and in most cases, the relationship is likely to end faster than it started?
Yujin breaks up with Y/N.
20% into this story, and this girl breaks up with this nigga.
Was it to be expected? Yes.
Was I still surprised how fast this relationship sank and became the new Titanic? Also yes.
Did I roll my eyes when Yujin pulled the classic “It’s not you. It’s me” excuse and how she didn't mean to break his heart and how she didn't want things to end like this. Yes.
Did I think she was an audacious bitch for asking him if they could stay friends after that? Also yes.
Did I want to jump into this fic and scream at Y/N like how SpongeBob screamed at Squidward for agreeing to stay friends, this is bitch even after she shredded his heart. Hell yeah.
But he’s a y/n. Of course, he’d agree to it despite it potentially hurting him and have zero to no self-respect or self-preservation. We had a Y/N who agreed to fuck her brother-in-law to get pregnant before her bum ass entitled man-child of a husband refused every alternative she gave him, and a Y/N who agreed to be a sex tutor to a nigga who was still emotionally entangled with his ex.
Quite a lot happens in this fic
Sophomore year, Yujin ended up dating some nigga who ended up breaking up with her and talking shit about her to anyone who would listen about how Yujin is a psycho. Next thing, Wonnie and Y/N are trashing this nigga’s care, and Yujin is cheering.
Senior year, Yujin is drinking heavily to the point that Wonnie and Y/N have to stay sober to and baby to make sure nothing happens to her. And at some point, these two were so upset with Yujin that they decided to make out to make her jealous. Yujin gets mad at them over it. But by some miracle, these niggas graduate. They start talking about how they wanna die.
Then Yujin dies by suicide. Wonyoung is a mess. Y/N is… coping the best way he can. Meets new friends. Tries dating other people. And somehow these two decide to spend the next three years hate-fucking, trauma-bonding, and eating cake at her grave while Wonyoung slowly kills herself with cigarettes and eating disorders, and Y/N just watches like "babe, please eat something."
And not once have these niggas ever thought of going to therapy.
Like let's break down the layers of what the actual hell is happening here:
Layer 1: Yujin loves everyone, belongs to no one, and demands total devotion anyway.
Layer 2: Y/N and Wonyoung both love Yujin, hate each other for loving her, bond over loving her, then realise they're the only two people on earth who understand what it's like to love her.
Layer 3: They kiss to make Yujin jealous. Yujin gets furious—not because she wants either of them, but because she can't stand the idea of them wanting each other instead of her.
Layer 4: Yujin dies. Now, Y/N and Wonyoung are stuck together forever, wearing her ghost like a second skin.
Layer 5: They start sleeping together—not because they love each other (though maybe they do, a little, in that broken way), but because grief sex is the only way to feel something that isn't her.
Layer 6: Wonyoung keeps asking to be hurt. Y/N keeps refusing. Yeah, maybe talk to someone, preferably a therapist to address WHY you feel the need to get hurt instead of asking your dead situationship/girlfriend/childhood friend’s ex boyfriend to hit you, Wonnie.
Layer 7: They celebrate her birthday at her grave every year. They eat cake she'll never taste. Wonyoung won't even swallow it.
Layer 8: The bracelet. The matching bracelets that Yujin was buried in. And Wonyoung still wears hers. And Y/N touches it. And that's basically the most intimate thing two people can do at this point.
Layer 9: "Aren't we all?"—the callbacks to that parking garage conversation, when Yujin joked about taking them with her, and now she's dead and they're still here and that's the joke, except nobody's laughing.
Layer 10: That one kiss in college where Y/N thought "I could love you, if you'd let me" and then they never spoke of it again. And now they're fucking on the anniversary of her death and STILL not speaking of it.
My only grip with this fic is I never got to know WHY Yujin was doing this shit and where these issues and demons she was dealing with that drove her 💀 herself in the first place.
It’s a tragic thing that she took her own life, and clearly she had issues, probably from when she was a child, since Wonyoung knows what’s wrong with her. But it didn't really give me a reason to care or feel sympathetic towards her. It was more shock value, and GIRL SEEK THERAPY, JESUS AND GOD IN THAT ORDER. And I genuinely did not like how she was manipulating Wonnie and Y/N to the point that these nigga ended up fucking on the anniversary of her death for the past five years.
And NGL, this trio’s whole dynamic kinda reminded me of Greg Universe, Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz and Pearl from Steven Universe.
Yujin = Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz
Charismatic to the point of worship
Collects people like pretty things
Leaves a trail of broken hearts and confused devotees
"I'm too pretty to squander my youth" = "I'm a diamond, I'm not supposed to be this" energy
Ultimately chooses death over staying, and everyone left behind has to figure out what that MEANS
The "blaze of glory" thing??? Rose literally gave up her physical form for Steven. Same energy.
Everyone remembers her as this perfect, radiant being. But was she? REALLY? Or did she just present that way?
BIG "you think you knew me, but you didn't" energy
Wonyoung = Pearl
Obsessed since day one (literally since SEVENTH GRADE)
"You're too pretty for me to not know you" — that's Pearl seeing Rose for the first time, energy
Will do ANYTHING for Yujin. ANYTHING. Destroy a car? Yes. Clean up her messes? Yes. Watch her date other people? Painfully, yes.
The devotion. The YEARNING. The "I would die for you, but also I'm so mad at you" energy.
The way she carries Yujin's memory like a physical weight. Pearl carries Rose's gem. Wonyoung carries that bracelet.
The "hit me" thing? Pearl's self-hatred and need for punishment after Rose "died"?? IT FITS.
She knew Yujin the longest. She knew her FIRST. She knows things nobody else knows. And she keeps them SECRET because that's all she has left.
The way she can't move on. Pearl can't move on. Wonyoung can't move on. They're stuck in perpetual grief because their entire identity was built around this one person.
Y/N = Greg
Met Yujin later. Got the "fun" version. The "I'm gonna marry you when I turn 30" version.
Was never fully let in. Thought he was special. He was. But not in the way he thought.
"I was actually special to her, too" — Greg and Y/N both trying to claim their place in the grief hierarchy
More functional than Wonyoung/Pearl in the aftermath? Greg has Steven. Y/N has... a job and failed relationships. But still. He can ALMOST move on.
The way he and Pearl/Wonyoung are RIVALS, and also the only two people who understand. That's Greg and Pearl's energy. The "we both loved her but differently and now we're stuck together" energy.
He doesn't get WHY she died. He never fully understood her. Greg never fully understood Rose either. They both loved a version of her that wasn't the whole truth.
Wonyoung knew Yujin when she was MESSY. When she was a teenager who got drunk and tried to kill herself. When she was a high school girl with hospital stays and demons. Wonyoung saw the darkness. She was there for all of it.
Y/N met Yujin in college. He got the "fun" version. The "I'm gonna marry you when I turn 30" version. He got the dimples and the charm and the "you're mine forever" energy. He didn't know about the hospital stays until later. He didn't witness the rooftop incident firsthand.
And now Yujin is dead, and they're both trying to reconcile the person THEY knew with the person she ACTUALLY was, and NONE of it makes sense.
Like other readers saw this fic as a tragic masterpiece, and I'm just reading a fic about three people who did a lot of things together, but go to therapy.
So yeah, that’s my sassy review of this fic. Hope I did justice to it.
Until next time my loves.
1 recommend from Azelfty.