It’s finally time to cover this forgotten TSF masterpiece!
TSF Showcase 2025-09
Girl In My Dream by Sizzkun and BurntWitch
Throughout my years of writing for this site, I’ve regularly alluded to my true introduction to TSF back in the summer of 2008. When I was a 13-year-old, on the cusp of discovering who I really wanted to be, and I fell into a rabbit hole that sent me across all corners of the internet. I remember sifting through DeviantArt as I looked for art. Crawling through obscure BlogSpots that are mostly gone. Digging through the old Farhad manga site. Stumbling upon the horrifying and long-forgotten Paheal Rule 63 site. Crossdressing in my older sister’s clothes when nobody else was home. Binging the entirety of Ranma ½ anime in a week. And scouring through Fictionmania, just overwhelmed by the sheer volume and scale of this new interest of mine. And interest that, evidenced by when I’m writing this, I’ve kept for a solid 17 years.
I have a lot of respect and nostalgia for the things I encountered during this era, but there is one series that I remember more than fondly than any other. One work that showed me the possibility and potential of TSF as a narrative tool, and that has stuck me, crystallized in my mind in a nebulous clarity. However, it is a work that I feel has been forgotten, a work I have rarely seen anybody else cite as an inspiration or exemplary example of the genre. While I can understand that, given the circumstances of its distribution, mostly existing on DeviantArt and TGComics, I feel that gives me all the more reason to talk about this work. It been a specter looming over Natalie.TF for at least 6 years, so it’s time to finally do a deep dive into Girl in My Dream.
Girl in My Dream is a Korean manhwa created by the writer artist duo of Sizzkun and Burntwitch and completed sometime in 2009. The series follows a high school boy by the name of Ji-hoon as, following a traumatic event, he begins seeing a girl in his dreams. A girl who comforts him, promising that one day they will be together, all while Ji-hoon’s body slowly begins to undergo certain changes, compounding until his body becomes fully female. A fairly standard slow-burn vanilla TSF transformation story on the face of it, but one with a level of drama and tension that I felt was unprecedented at the time and, even now, look back as something special.
…But before I begin the series proper, I need to talk about the production quality on display. The work was translated by Sizzkun himself, and the quality of English is less than professional, with minor grammatical errors, odd phrasings, and some questionable formatting choices. He also did a pretty bad job of cleaning the dialogue balloons of their original Korean characters.
Also, because this comic was made in 2008 and 2009— possibly even earlier, I’m not sure— the available resolution of the pages is rather low, so I am using Waifu2x to upscale the featured images for your convenience.
Girl In My Dreams often looks like it never left the storyboarding phase. Backgrounds are frequently omitted, characters are drawn as little more than sketches, and the series has a rough look. This is not due to a lack of skill on behalf of the artist, BurntWitch. I think the composition, mood, and use of shading is quite impressive by the webcomic standards of 2009, and there are many instances of gorgeous composition that warrant praise. I view this approach as a compromise between passion and economics.
This series is over 700 pages long, and in order for someone to get that out in a remotely short length of time, they would need to cut some corners. And if I had to have a complete story with some cut corners, or a more polished yet unfinished work, I’d probably choose the former. Not that I always get to choose, or always get either one of those things.
Part 1: The Dream Girl
The series opens by introducing us to Ji-hoon Park, an average 18-year-old high school boy, a bit on the dorky side, who is longing for love, yet plays second banana next to his best friend, Jin-young Jung. A handsome lad who’s constantly showed in gifts from girls at the school, with Ji-hoon frequently acting as his delivery boy. While pining over his lot in life, Ji-hoon is approached by Ji-soo Han, a pretty young woman who confesses her love for Ji-hoon, rather than Jin-young. After going without a romantic relationship for his entire life, Ji-hoon is thrilled upon hearing this news, and swiftly goes to brag about it to his family. Yes, his family.
In the first in a series of many little things that I like about Girl In My Dreams, rather than be an independent minor with no parents or siblings to acknowledge, Ji-hoon actually has a father, mother, and younger sister. All of whom are consistent secondary characters throughout GIMD. Though, they’re pretty much what one would expect.
The mother is more involved and considerate of her son’s life. The father is more distant yet supportive of his son growing up and becoming a man. While his younger sister, Ji-seo is the teasing type, poking fun at her big bro (or rather Obba), shocked that an unpopular guy like him managed to get a genuine love letter. It’s a little thing, but it does a lot to humanize Ji-hoon as just some kid by giving him a family to speak of, rather than having him effectively live on his own.
The following day after school, Ji-hoon meets up with Ji-soo, but is surprised to see her wearing large face-obscuring swirly glasses that make her look like a different person. Partially because her eyesight is quite poor, but also because these glasses were originally worn by her late mother, leading her to wear them as a memento. It’s a nice gesture, even if there’s no way Ji-soo has the exact same eye issues as her dead mom, but I have to point out how these glasses supposedly transform her face.
Glasses can skew and alter the perception of someone’s face with their frames and how they magnify certain facial features, However, if a cute girl is wearing glasses, even swirly glasses, they will look like a cute girl with glasses. And this is especially true in GMID where Burntwitch often shifts the shape and form of the glasses depending on the scene.
Regardless, Ji-hoon still finds Ji-soo to be remarkable cute even with her glasses, but asks why she is interested in him, and her answer is interesting. She would frequently see Ji-hoon and Jin-young as they hung out, and was always drawn to Ji-hoon’s smile. By the warmth and affection that radiated from his smile. Ji-soo envied that feeling, and that envy turned into longing, wanting to be with someone who felt such joy when in the company of a friend. She also notes that thinks Jin-young looks too “perfect” and that he’d never be interested in a girl like her.
They both say disparaging stuff about themselves as they muse over the prospect of entering a relationship, unsure if they deserve the other, before accepting this burgeoning affection, becoming boyfriend and girlfriend. …And then they head over to Ji-hoon’s house. Yeah, I don’t know if this is a cultural custom or anything— I surprisingly little about South Korea— but this is presented as a rite of passage in the story. A way of introducing someone as a potential future family member. Ji-soo, upon seeing Ji-hoon’s house, even says that she “always hoped to live in a house like this.”
Ji-soo meets with Ji-hoon’s family, and they just adore her. Ji-hoon shows Ji-soo his room— another gesture to say ‘this could be your room’ I suppose. They make plans to go out on their first date tomorrow at 10:00. And when it comes time for her to leave, Ji-soo caps off the night by giving Ji-hoon a kiss on the cheek. Things are looking just peachy for Ji-hoon. He found his dream girl, her family likes her, she clearly wants to get closer to him, and everything’s great! What could possibly go wrong?
The following morning, Ji-hoon leaves his home dressed to the nines, with a Marilyn Manson tee, cargo shorts, jacket, and scarf and meets up with Ji-soo, looking cute as a button with her hair down, short skirt, and a baggy jacket. They walk down to the cinema, talking about what genre of film they want to check out, before crossing and… stepping right in front of a speeding truck.
Reality slows down, the driver screams in horror, locking his eyes with Ji-hoon, and… darkness follows.
Ji-hoon awakens with blood covering half his face, in a white void, wondering if this is heaven. There, he is approached by a white-haired girl in a breezy dress. He begs this angelic figure for answers, crying at the thought that he may be dead and will never get to see his friends and family again. The figure watches his suffering before informing him that he is not dead and walking away, escaping his grasp as this world of white fades into darkness.
Ji-hoon awakens to find himself in a hospital bed, bandaged, hurt, but still able to stand, with his family by is side. He apologizes for causing them to worry so much, but when he asks what happened to Ji-soo, they grow quiet, and he remembers everything.
Ji-soo shoved him out of the way of the truck. The truck slammed into her, and a stream of blood followed. Her body was crushed under the weight of its wheels, and all that remained was a mangled corpse. He looked at her form in awe, grabbed what he could, and screamed with every ounce of his person. Returning to the hospital, he is wearing the same devastated expression.
Ji-hoon had everything he ever wanted and, just like that, just with one careless action, he lost it. He lost the girl of his dreams.
Tangent 1: Come Dream With TRUCK-KUN Tonight!
Goldarn do I love the introduction to this comic. It gives the reader just enough to think this will be a romance series of two people finding love, gives them just enough personality and character, before nearly killing the protagonist and actually killing the love interest. This move kicks off the plot for the rest of the series, the instigating vent for everything that follows. It is brutal, it is harsh, it is rendered with an artistry that impressed me back when I was 13, and now that I’m 30, I’m still impressed.
The inverted colors, striking red blood, and slow deliberate framing that really allows the scene to set in, all within the context of a comic that prioritizes page economics. …All for a scene of a character getting run over by goldarn truck-kun!
All according to Keikaku!
For context, I would like to note that GIMD was created years before truck-kun became a meme and became the go-to way for characters to get other worlded. (Or sent to the next dimension.) It was still a semi-common trope, present in Yu Yu Hakusho, Minky Momo, and even… goldarn Astro Boy? Grief, everything really does come back to Osamu Tezuka, doesn’t it?
However, all of those examples, and most examples, involve the protagonist getting hit by a truck, instigating the main plot, or a plot shift. (Or triggering a natural disaster in the real world.) In GIMD, the protagonist lives, but now needs to deal with the fact that his carelessness killed someone. It’s an interesting twist on what was a semi-familiar idea, and one that serves as the emotional bedrock for the next few episodes of the series.
Part 2: The Next Girl
After processing what happened to Ji-soo, Ji-hoon is in utter despair, blaming himself for her death, thinking that this is some kind of divine punishment, and that he should be alone forever. Jin-young, being a decent friend, tells him to stop thinking like this, but Ji-hoon’s too consumed by self-loathing to listen to him. He just wants to stew in his misery and sleep his emotions away.
When he finally falls asleep, Ji-hoon finds himself in a white void once again, where he is met by the same white-haired girl he met after his accident. She explains that this is not heaven, but before Ji-hoon can ask any questions, the girl kisses him on his lips and tells him to chase her, throwing him into an impromptu game of tag. Ji-hoon continues until exhaustion takes over him, laughing at the absurdity he was thrown into, before the white-haired girl sits him down to chat. She reveals that she does not have a name, leading Ji-hoon to give her the name Yuna.
The encounter with the girl in his dream then ends and Ji-hoon returns to the waking world, feeling a little better, but still pining for whom he lost, feeling like he cannot move on with his life. A feeling that is only deepens when he meets Ji-soo’s middle-aged father.
He does not blame Ji-hoon, and tells him not to apologize for the accident. Instead, the father explains how much Ji-soo cared for Ji-hoon, saying that she spent years talking about him, called him her prince, and after she confessed to him, she was positively beaming with joy. He can still see her joy when he closes his eyes… yet knows he must say goodbye at her funeral tomorrow.
Ji-hoon goes to bed thinking about this and encounters Yuna once more, venting with her as he muses over his sorrow, wanting to ask her questions about who she is and why she’s in his dreams, but before he can put the words together, her comforting words and gestures are too much for him to bear, and he bursts into intense emotions.
Throughout the series, Yuna exists as a tool for Ji-hoon to cope with his feelings of sorrow and despair. One who offers comfort, who keeps her origins wrapped in mystery, and serves as emotional support above all else. It’s not a bad thing, but if I skip a Yuna scene, and I do, that’s why. Because a lot of Yuna scenes serve the same purpose.
This isn’t to say these Yuna scenes are bad or frivolous. Many of them are lovely bursts of emotion that serve to break up the main story, and they give the reader time to view Ji-hoon’s mind as he deals with all the crap he is going through.
Anyway, Ji-hoon wakes up and notices that his hair has been growing longer. A natural thing to happen while one is spending a prolonged amount of time at a hospital, but if you’re here, you know where this is going. Just don’t get too excited. I called this a slow transformation for a reason.
After waking up, Ji-hoon and his mother dress in black and meet with Ji-soo’s father for the funeral. Ji-hoon asks where everybody else is, but Ji-soo says that nobody else is coming. Ji-soo had no friends at school, they have no relatives, and he has no friends himself. It’s just the three of them, to say their goodbyes to her, and all Ji-hoon can do is apologize, saying that he wants to forget about her so he can make the pain of her loss go away.
After the funeral, Ji-hoon returns home and enjoys some time with his family, returning to his bedroom and calling up Jin-young to hang out, trying to regain some degree of normalcy before returning to school the following day. His still shaken up by everything, but believes that so long as he has Luna to comfort him every night, he’ll be fine. He doesn’t need to get another girlfriend or anything. …But fate just so happened to throw another girl into his life.
While he was at the hospital, a new girl by the name of Miya Jung transferred into his class. A short-haired “ice princess” who just so happens to sit next to Ji-hoon. The two hit it off almost immediately when Miya pulls out her Lemon Park CD, and the two start gushing about one of their favorite bands.
For the record, Lemon Park is a legally distinct analog of Linkin Park. Because this is a comic from 2008-ish. I guess Sizzkun or BurntWitch, maybe both of them, happened to be fans of American rock and nu metal, and I find these references to be cute. It grounds the story more in the real world, establishes a firm sense of time, and gives BurntWitch the opportunity to use some black and white photographs that I don’t think would be considered fair use, and make a few other visual references. Such as Marilyn Manson and Jonathan Davis from Korn, both of whom appear as teachers in later episodes.
Also, if you want to listen to something while listening to Girl in My Dreams, I can vouch that the first three Linkin Park albums (and The Rising Tied) work surprisingly well. …Or maybe that’s my own weird taste in music creeping up again.
With this mutual interest established, Ji-hoon and Miya start hitting it off, with Miya explaining that it’s normally hard for her to talk to people she doesn’t know, but Ji-hoon seems different. They eat lunch together, exchange phone numbers, and start chatting on Korea’s IRC equivalent circa 2008. It’s a rapid, yet not unnatural development. I know I’ve become friends with people after just a couple hours of textual chatting. Still, Ji-hoon is adamant that they are just friends, as he does not want to get hurt again, or hurt someone he cares about.
However, Yuna urges him to start a new romantic relationship, to move on from Ji-soo, to discard his fears, and pursue his own happiness. He knows she is right, but Ji-hoon is also a one woman man. He feels like he needs to be committed to either Yuna or Miya… and he thinks he likes Yuna more. Yuna got him through his darkest hour, is there for him when he’s asleep, and as an imaginary dream person, she cannot die. While Miya is a girl he is still trying to get to know.
On that note, the following day Miya invites Ji-hoon out to a Lemon Park concert in a few days, having already bought him a ticket. It’s a bold, and expensive, gesture of friendship, but Miya explains that she has been a social outcast for her entire teenage life, a victim of bullying who has put up a frosty exterior to protect herself. She has not had friends in years, and wants to treat Ji-hoon for opening up to her. …While saying the tickets were not that expensive. Sure, girl.
After thanking her, we get a transformation status update on Ji-hoon, where Miya comments that his hair is getting longer and his “face is so white.” A very… East Asian way of saying that his face is becoming more feminine and complexion is getting lighter. (This isn’t the place to talk about colorism in East Asia.) Ji-hoon just writes this off as a result of being in a hospital for so long, though Miya takes this as an opportunity to tease him, saying he looks like a cute girl.
In response to this, Ji-hoon goes to get a haircut the following afternoon, getting a mane of short spiky hair that honestly does not look very good, but is unmistakably a boy haircut. Despite this, Ji-seo, Ji-hoon’s sister, comments that his eyelashes are getting longer, and eyes more feminine in appearance. It’s a bit hard to tell this change though, given how much artistic drift is present in the series. BurntWitch is good at drawing eyes, but he was probably churning out pages at a pace comparable to an overworked mangaka.
Ji-hoon brushes these signs of a slow burn transformation aside and instead skips ahead to his dream with Yuna, where she effectively tells him, again, to pursue Miya. Yuna knows that Ji-hoon likes her, and while he says he actually loves Yuna, she merely kisses him and pushes him away. Pretty clearly conveying that while they can be together in his dreams, she wants him to find love in the real world. Unfortunately, Ji-hoon does not see things that way, and he remains conflicted, wishing that he could be with Yuna all the time.
It’s mildly annoying how much this ‘will-they won’t they’ persists throughout during this stretch of the story, but I think it’s generally justified considering the context.
So much of adolescent existence is full of lies, contradictions, and double-meanings that even if someone says one thing, there can be a doubt that they mean something else. Ji-hoon went from nothing to having a dream girl, to being comforted by a figure from a dream so potent she felt real, to finding a girl he likes as much, if not more than his dream girl. This should be a win for him, but he feels the need to be honorable, to commit himself to one person, as he exists in a society where that is encouraged, if not expected. So, he must position himself as a protagonist in a love triangle, deciding if he prefers an ethereal unreal beauty who helped him in his darkest hour or a tangible girl who he relates to on an intimate level.
It makes sense for there to be so much back and forth, but right now I’m at episode 12 of the comic, and this subplot is not resolved until episode 18. I think the pacing is fine while reading the story, but it sounds more repetitive than it actually is. On that note, let me breeze past these episodes.
The following morning, we see that Ji-hoon’s body has continued to show obvious signs of feminization as his hair grows back to shaggy after only a day. Everybody can tell this is not normal, and Ji-hoon is chided for his shaggy style as he enters school, but he does not view it as a problem, thinking that his hormones are acting up. A bit careless on his part, but whatever. It’s just hair!
After school, Miya asks to visit Ji-hoon’s house, and his family naturally takes it the wrong way, assuming that they Ji-hoon has a new girlfriend, making a production of it. They escape when Miya asks to see Ji-hoon’s room, where she uses this private and intimate encounter to snatch a tender kiss from him. Ji-hoon, a boy who has only kissed a girl in his dreams up until this point, somehow thinks means that Miya must, somehow, be Yuna. A move that makes emotional sense, and mostly exists to broach the topic of Yuna with Miya.
Miya assumes that Yuna must be a prior girlfriend of his, before confessing her love of him, dazing him as she pours her heart out, saying she cannot control her feelings any longer. She embraces Ji-hoon, but despite wanting to, Ji-hoon cannot embrace Miya. He’s too conflicted about Yuna to make a choice, saying he will tell her tomorrow. After episode 17, where basically nothing happens beyond an encounter with Yuna, where she says nothing new, episode 18 resumes with Miya demanding an answer from Ji-hoon.
…Who takes this as an opportunity to tell Miya about Ji-soo. Something you’d think he, or somebody, would have brought up to Miya before this. I get that Ji-soo didn’t have friends, but when a student dies, they’re typically a recurring topic for at least a few days, regardless of the culture.
Immediately, Miya cools her jets upon learning this news, with the art perfectly conveying her sense of surprise and regret in coming onto Ji-hoon like this. Ji-hoon tells her that he thought this was an act of God, that he was not supposed to have a girlfriend, but before he can turn her down, Ji-hoon chokes, unable to reject Miya, as he does love her. As he muses, he lets this truth slip. Ji-hoon returns Miya’s love, and the following night he returns to Yuna to tell her that he cannot love her, that he can only be her friend. And she’s… cool with this, as she should be. He did specifically what she told him to do.
Part 3: Help! I’m Turning Into My Dream Girl!
With that subplot out of the way, the story finally follows up on the Lemon Park concert mentioned… nine episodes ago, by having Ji-hoon and Miya take the train to the concert venue, dressed for the part in questionable clothing considering it was scarf weather a few weeks ago. Miya’s in a graphic tank top and plaid skirt, looking ret-2-rock, while Ji-hoon’s in a T-shirt and shorts with his hair past his shoulders. Maybe this is just one of those series where the weather in-universe reflects the weather out of universe. Those always drive me bonkers.
However, long hair is far from the only feminizing part of Ji-hoon, saying his skin is getting paler, face is getting smaller, and he is losing weight, looking very androgynous at this point. Still, the two don’t let this stop them from having a blast at the concert, losing themselves in two hours of hype, only to realize that train service ended. …And Miya did not bring enough money for a taxi.
With no place to go, no money, and evidently no cell phones, the duo walk outside in the dead of night and decide to spend the night sleeping on park benches. (Another endearingly dated element, but for all the wrong reasons.) They talk as the moonlight burns, falling asleep on each other’s laps, before waking up in the wee hours of the morning, finally returning home.
Ji-hoon is chewed out for his reckless behavior by his mother, but she ultimately forgives him, telling him to take a shower… only for him to start a bath and notice just how much his body has changed over the past day. His hair grew nearly a foot in length, his face is past androgynous, and even his bone structure looks to have changed, with flared hips and a narrower waist. Combined with the aforementioned thinner face, basically all of his secondary sexual characteristics have transformed under his nose, and he recognizes that something is dearly wrong.
Like a sane and reasonable person, Ji-hoon heads to the hospital to visit his doctor, who performs all sorts of tests, only for the doctor to find that nothing is wrong. Which to me indicates that he didn’t do a basic blood test to check his hormone level, as that has to be all out of whack. In fact, I’m surprised that his doctor even recognized him or accepted his ID. To the nurses, they view Ji-hoon as a boy that they want to crossdress, and to people on the street, they just see him as a girl. I’m not saying the doctor is not doing his job. Just that he is sticking a bit too closely to checklist doctoring if he does not think a radical physical transformation warrants special attention. I’d expect this from an immediate care place, not a hospital!
The following night, Ji-hoon is barely able to sleep as his transformation continues, with his chest breaking out into a rash. He tries to reach out to Yuna for some answers or support, but all she does is silently smile at him. Despite knowing that things are not as they should be, Ji-hoon still decides to go to school, dressed in his usual boy uniform, but he is so effeminate that Jin-young does not even recognize him as they walk to school.
Also, the scene where they are walking together highlights a more underacknowledged part of the transformation, Ji-hoon’s shrinking height. …But it’s also not very consistent. Jin-young was originally roughly half a head taller than Ji-hoon. Now, Ji-hoon’s anywhere from half a head shorter or a head and a half shorter than Jin-young. As I said before, the artwork is quite strong all things considered, yet I guess heights weren’t BurntWitch’s strong suit.
Frustrated and unable to find out what’s going on with his body, Ji-hoon sulks his way to class, ignoring Miya for the entire day. He’s bitter, confused, and ditches her without giving her even a faint explanation, as he knows the only person who can explain this is Yuna. He forces himself asleep to visit her, yet he does not demand answers. Ji-hoon is too stressed and confused to fight her in this dreamscape, and merely uses her for comfort, not wanting to connect the dots that, maybe, she has something to do with this. He just holds her as his worries fade away… before waking up and seeing that his body has developed breasts.
The truth hits Ji-hoon like a truck. He’s becoming a girl, and the only person who could be responsible for this is Yuna. He compares his body to hers, and reaches the conclusion that he’s becoming her. Furious about these changes, he gives himself a sloppy haircut in the bathroom and binds his breasts in a sashimi, storming off to school.
Logically, he should bring this up to his parents, get their support while the changes are fresh. However, he deliberately avoids their gaze, not wanting to bother them And I can see why. He has been relying on his family a lot over the past few weeks, worrying them sick after he nearly died, and he wants to overcome this personal struggle himself. Plus, it’s early in the morning, people have to go to work and school, and explaining a literal girl in his dreams would be a tough sell.
Ji-hoon heads to school in the meantime, yet he can’t even get into the building before he’s surrounded by guys, all convinced that he’s just a girl in a boy’s uniform. Whatever confidence propelled him out the house vanishes, and he runs to the doctor again, begging for help. The doctor examines Ji-hoon to the best of his ability, examining his breasts, and finally running a blood test that reveals his body is gushing with female hormones. He theorizes that this might be an endocrine disruptor, yet Ji-hoon explodes at him for such a theory, saying that does not explain the rapid hair growth or the rapid feminization of his body. (Actually, it could kinda explain the latter, but I digress.)
Frustrated yet again, Ji-hoon runs out of the hospital into heavy rain and checks his cell phone to see several missed calls from his mother and— wait, what? If Ji-hoon has a cell phone, why didn’t he call his mother when he was sleeping in the park? That was literally two days ago! Oh, and the genius drops it where it presumably breaks, because late 2000s phones were not known for their water-proofing. Then what was even the— Anyway, Ji-hoon drops his phone as his body crumbles in pain, his stomach twisting as his body creates a womb.
Having lost faith in the medical establishment, Ji-hoon wanders through this downpour and eventually arrives at Jin-young’s house, looking so unlike his prior self that Jin-young can only identify him by his school bag. Changing out of his clothes in the bathroom, Ji-hoon looks at his body with sorrow, saying that he looks nothing like himself only more, except for his “thingy.” Even his leg hair is gone. Which… is not a sexual characteristic, at all. Pretty much every woman, around the world, grows leg hair, guys. I guess a magical transformation could suppress leg hair from growing, but Ji-hoon acts like this is some immutable biological female trait.
After his bath, Ji-hoon sits Jin-young down and explains that he’s turning into a girl. Jin-young tries to deny it, but after Ji-hoon takes off his shirt and reveals his growing breasts, Jin-young is not able to deny it. Ji-hoon then tells his friend everything, about his dreams, about Yuna, and about how he fears that Yuna is trying to take over his body. That, after his form is fully feminized, his mind might go next, and he will disappear. Full identity erasure, a complete takeover.
Through Jin-young’s warm embrace and offer to spend the night here, Ji-hoon hatches the pretty obvious plan of confronting Yuna in his dreams and demanding that she turn his body back to normal. He falls asleep swiftly, wanders through his usual dreamscape to find her, and pins her down to the ground, strangling her.
Yunavacantly stares up at him, unaffected by his actions, before vanishing, reappearing behind him. Ji-hoon’s bravado shatters as she expresses such dominance, and she silently approaches him, planting her lips upon him once again. A familiar action at this point, but one that sends him screaming into the waking world.
Jin-young calms him down as he wakes up, yet stops as he realizes that Ji-hoon’s hair grew back overnight, this time reaching his waist. …But before Ji-hoon can so much as acknowledge that, blood starts pouring out of his mouth, coating his shirt and hands as he is left to writhe in pain and fear. He feels his grip on his mind loosen. His body grow weaker. And as his consciousness fades, all he can think of are the good times he had with Jin-young. How he doesn’t want to die. How, above all else, he just wants to go back to living his normal, unremarkable, life, as a man, as Ji-hoon Park.
Part 4: One Step Closer (to Identity Death)
As Ji-hoon wakes up from his bleeding incident, he finds himself barely able to speak, his throat damaged from whatever Yuna was doing to his body. Technically, he mentioned that his Adam’s apple was gone earlier, but we could never ‘see’ it, and I much prefer the idea of his Adam’s apple being shredded along with his vocal cords. The Adam’s apple does not strictly deepen one’s voice, but the idea of it representing a change in voice at least feels right.
Jin-young wants Ji-hoon to go to the hospital, but he refuses, saying that they won’t believe him anyway. However, he does allow Miya, who Jin-young called eralier, to come in and see him. She rushes in, stares at Ji-hoon, and promptly smacks him for disappearing on her. She explodes in rage in sorrow, reminding Ji-hoon that she’s his girlfriend, that she loves him, that she would do anything she could to help him through this. Ji-hoon apologizes, saying he was afraid of losing her if she knew the truth.
Unfortunately, there’s really nothing Miya and Jin-young can do beyond offer moral support. Ji-hoon knows the only way out of this is to see Yuna again, to fight this internal problem internally. He’s terrified of her, just the thought of her makes him shake, but it’s his only option. Confront Yuna… or die.
…But before that, Ji-hoon’s family then arrive to see what’s happened to their precious boy, listening to his story, accepting it as the truth, bringing him home, and allowing Jin-young and Miya to spend the night with him. They share dinner together, try to ease the tension with some much-needed levity, and Ji-seo even throws Ji-hoon into a nightgown, because she’s kind of an asshole like that. Your brother’s being transformed by a dream ghost, his body feminized against his will, and what do you do? Force him into the girliest thing you can!
Ji-hoon and his friends sleep side-by-side, chatting, reassuring Ji-hoon that no matter what, they’ll be there for him. Even if he’s stuck as a girl forever, they’ll “take responsibility.” With this support, Ji-hoon falls asleep with confidence… only to find himself in an unfamiliar place. His usual dreamscape was defined by white, then white with an ethereal haze. But now? Now he is the only speck of light in a void of darkness. He wanders blindly, calling for Yuna, before she emerges, slowly walking toward him before placing her hands on his face, examining him like a piece of meat, or perhaps, a new outfit for her to wear.
Yuna makes her plan clear. She is going to take over Ji-hoon’s beautiful body and make it hers. But, as she speaks, she says a familiar line. That she wished she could always hoped to live in a nice house with him. From these familiar, fairly awkward, echoes of past statements, Ji-hoon figures out who Yuna actually is. That she is… Ji-soo! …Sort of.
Yuna is quick to respond that she’s not exactly Ji-soo. She’s a vicious part of Ji-soo’s mind that, in death, lingered in this mortal coil as a ghost that attached itself to Ji-hoon. And as a vicious, vengeful spirit, she knows all the truths that lurked in Ji-soo’s heart, but may be obscuring the truth for the sake of her own motives. I feel the need to emphasize that possibility, because what she has to say about Ji-soo makes her look like a callous manipulator who was trying to play 3D chess to achieve her goals.
Yuna claims that Ji-soo never actually cared for Ji-hoon, and was only ever interested in Jin-young, her beloved Obba. (In Korean Obba is both a way for younger sisters to refer to their big brothers and for younger women to refer to slightly older men they fancy. Go figure.) However, Ji-soo was too shy to ever get Jin-young’s attention, so she decided to use Ji-hoon to get closer to Jin-young. That was her goal from the very beginning, and she lied to her father about who her ‘prince’ was, all to create a cover, to protect herself as she enacted a vague plan to snag Jin-young’s heart.
…Which begs the question of why did she save Ji-hoon from the truck? Unfortunately, the series doesn’t have a very good answer to this question. It just moves onto how Ji-soo was filled with such regret and anger that her spirit could not leave the mortal world. This hatred turned her into Yuna and used ghost powers to transform Ji-hoon’s body into something beautiful enough to make Jin-young hers.
Did Ji-soo plan for this to happen? Did she know she was going to become a spirit upon death and deliberately kill herself? Because this seems awfully convenient for her. The main text leaves things ambiguous. However, I have a headcanon explanation for what happened.
Per my headcanon, Ji-soo had accepted that she would never become Jin-young’s lover. Instead, she aspired to become Jin-young’s friend through Ji-hoon. So she tried to learn to love Ji-hoon as well, tried to accept him as a consolation prize. However, her plans changed when she saw Ji-hoon walk in front of a truck. A vicious part of her wanted Ji-hoon to die, knowing that Jin-young would be miserable upon the loss of his best friend, and that he might take pity on his best friend’s girlfriend. While the kind part of her could not let an innocent and nice boy like Ji-hoon die like this.
In a split second of fight or flight, these two halves of Ji-soo clashed, kindness won, and as the truck ran her over, that kind side died. Her vicious side, fueled by rage, managed to persist in the mortal realm and embedded herself inside Ji-hoon, wanting to take vengeance upon this dumbass by making his body hers. Ji-hoon was left weak, his spirit was shattered, and in this weakness, vicious Ji-soo— Yuna— made her move, slowly shoving Ji-hoon out of the dominant position in his own body, and using spirit magic to reshape it.
…I think it’s a pretty decent non-canon expansion of what was laid out in the text itself, except for the spirit magic thing. No idea how Yuna has these powers, but I’m mature enough to accept that ghosts inherently have magical powers. Because if ghosts were real, they would be able to do things like this. That’s just basic chemistry! A CHILD would not need that explained to them, okay?
Upon hearing this truth, Ji-hoon is crushed. His first love was a lie. He was being used from the start. All of that pain, all of that anguish he went through, was for someone who wanted to destroy him, to steal his body and life. He is unable to refute her, unable to speak, and as he fades away, Yuna says that her takeover is near its end, that she won’t be able to see him in a day or two. That she will use his body to make “happy love” to Jin-young. (I love jank translations sometimes.)
Ji-hoon wakes up early, and is still devastated. His voice has been altered into “a girl’s voice,” his “thingy” has shrunk, and as he cries in isolation, Miya approaches him. She tries to offer comfort, but Ji-hoon is too wound up, too afraid to listen to reason, and tells Miya to find a new man. He runs off the moment she lays a hand on him, dashing out the door in nothing but a nightgown, and after running a few blocks, another downpour begins.
Following a positively iconic line, “AHA HA HA HA! OK FINE! RAIN HARDER! MAKE ME MORE DEPRESS!” Ji-hoon wanders the rain swept streets, going further and further into the city until he reaches a park, where he sits down and waits. Waits as the heavy rain seeps across his person, as its coldness leaves him shivering, and as his body slowly shuts down. He has no recourse, no way to stop Yuna and take back his body. So, rather than accept death at her hands, he decides to stay there and die from hypothermia. At least then, he will die as himself.
It is a plan that I… cannot help but sympathize with. While death should be avoided and suicide should only ever be a last resort, there is no hope left for Ji-hoon here. He tried, he struggled, but he cannot fight Yuna with violence or words. All he can do is sabotage her with self-harm. And while his methods may be painful, if not deeply cruel to himself, it’s also a passive form of death. He doesn’t need to do anything but shiver and wait until the warmth leaves his body.
…However, Jin-young and Miya cannot let their friend just kill himself like this, and they dash out of the house, grabbing raincoats and umbrellas as this goldarn typhoon rages on, risking their own lives as they search for Ji-hoon. They travel as the storm worsens until, in a moment of immense fortune, Miya finds Ji-hoon, rescuing him right as he begins doubting his decision and choosing to live.
It’s a good scene, showing Miya’s tenacity and dedication to supporting Ji-hoon no matter what. However, reading through the story, I couldn’t help but wonder why Ji-hoon’s just at this random park, and how Miya knew where he was. I think this sequence would be more cohesive if Ji-hoon wandered to the park he and Miya stayed at after the Lemon Park concert. Then we could infer that Ji-hoon intended to die in a happy place, and that Miya found him because of their shared experiences. The story almost hits this mark, but the parks look nothing alike. The first one had a big fountain, this one is designed more like an arena theater.
Miya lets the winds take her umbrella as she walks Ji-hoon through the rain, crossing the street with him before he collapses, his stomach erupting in flame once again. Miya tries to grab him and get off the street, but before they can react… they see a truck speeding through the rain.
Ji-hoon’s mind flashes back to the start of the story, to the death of Ji-soo. Fate has chosen to fuck him yet again, in his darkest hour, and is trying to take Miya away from him. Mustering whatever strength he can, Ji-hoon shoves Miya away. She screams as she realizes what he’s doing, but Ji-hoon looks at her with a smile. Thinking that he understands the kindness that Ji-soo felt before she died. “A bit… disappointed… But also a little happy…”
Silence follows. Darkness follows. And Ji-hoon finds himself in his darkened dreamscape once more. Except, this time, he’s… himself again. His body is as it was before the accident, before he met Yuna. Confusion, perhaps even relief, linger for a moment, before he feels a tingling upon his feet, peers down, and sees them engulfed in darkness. He shouts, he flails, but the darkness does not cease, coming for his legs, his arms, and all too soon, his head. He begs for help, but there is no one to help him. There… never was.
He is reduced to nothing.
Darkness consumes all.
…Then, from this darkness, comes a light. A dim, faint glow that grows brighter, brighter still, before giving away to an explosive radiance that reshapes this dreamscape to what it was weeks before. A land of white light with only faint haze. And in this white void… stands a woman. But… who is she.
Part 5: And This Morning, The New Me Suddenly Awakened
Episode 31 opens up on a familiar scene. Ji-hoon, fresh from a truck accident, being looked over by his friends and family, all overjoyed to see him open up his eyes. They clamor around him, begging for attention, only for him to look upon those by his bedside with… confusion. His mother, Ji-seo, Miya, Jin-young, all look like strangers to him, and he does not even remember who he is.
As he rests, we learn that his body is now 100% female. Organs, hormone levels, and probably even his DNA, have all changed. The transformation is complete, but his body is not occupied by Yuna. Or, at least it does not seem to be. Instead, the person inside appears to be… blank. Childlike, silly, and unmistakably feminine with their comments and manner of speech. She thinks she is a girl, that she has always been a girl, and when people tell her her name is Ji-hoon, she’s confused, thinking that her name should be Ji-hyun.
She is not Ji-hoon, nor is she Luna, she is her own person, own identity, and she’s so… happy to be alive, happy to be around everyone. Ji-hyun rubs faces with Ji-seo, embraces her mother, asking to call her mommy, approaches Jin-young, asking if he is her boyfriend, and thinks that Miya must be her best friend. She wants this new life she has fallen into, but as Ji-hoon’s friends and family see her act in such a way, they are mortified.
This girl isn’t their son, their Obba, their boyfriend, or their childhood friend of however many years. He’s… gone. Missing. Replaced by someone new. Someone who acts differently, speaks differently goes by a different name, and, is not interested in their past, wanting to instead build their life together from the pieces they have been given. …And God DAMN do I love this! I know I just started this part, but I need to indulge in another tangent!
Tangent 2: A Quite Versatile Fantasy
I’m sorry, but I need to gush about this, because I could not stop thinking about the layers to this scene and situation, and the ways you can view it. Especially if you look at this scene through a transgender lens. Which isn’t to say Girl in My Dreams is a transgender story or Ji-hoon is trans. It isn’t and he ain’t. But allow me this indulgence.
There’s the obvious fantasy to the transformation itself. To undergoing a gradual shift in one’s personhood as they gain a body of another sex, in every measurable way. But there are layers to the exact type of the transformation that all add to this fantasy.
For starters, wouldn’t it be swell if you could just get a new body, a perfect body, and forget everything, just start over as a girl? As a bubbly anime girl? The trans experience is a versatile one, but I have certainly seen a few who wish they could just forget who they were before they realized they were trans. To adopt a wholly new identity, free their mind of all the trauma, and replace it with sugarplums and rosemary. Identity death is a prominent subset of TF (Transformation Fiction) for a reason, and for as unsettling the introduction of Ji-hyun is meant to be, I could easily imagine someone reading this and saying ‘hell yeah. I wish that were me!’
…However, I also had another thought when reading this. What if someone in Ji-hoon was just lying about getting amnesia, and took this as an opportunity to adopt a new persona while retaining their memories. The freedom to pretend to start over as a girl? They would be afforded the freedoms of a new identity. The freedom to be childish, to hug their mother and call her mommy, and to indulge in a bit of girlish fun that has been prohibited to one for so, so long. To openly shout that’s not my name as people call them by their birth name and assign themself a new one. A fresh start, with some plausible deniability. They could keep it up for a few months then bam, they could say memory returned, but at that point, their friends and family would have already gotten used to their new self.
Plus, if one were to accept this new change, through identity death or otherwise, they would be in an excellent context to warrant sympathy. Because Ji-hoon’s friends and family have seen the transformation unfold, seen his anguish, and are desperate to see him pull through. To see him live in whatever way they possibly can. They are not in a position, authoritatively or emotionally, to deny his new identity, as they have been beaten down with emotional stress.
…Also, wouldn’t this be a perfect cover for Yuna to use in order to take over Ji-hoon’s life and claim his body for herself? To restrain herself, veer into the more playful side of her persona, and trick everybody into thinking she hasn’t taken over, while gradually making this body her own? I’m sorry to spoil that before it becomes clear that this isn’t Yuna piloting Ji-hoon’s body, but I think the idea has merit as a sucker punch twist, or as a gradual story from her perspective, playing into her vindictive nature and hyper-competence. …Or maybe I just have a thing for hyper-competent women taking over the bodies of teenage boys. (I absolutely do.)
Okay, okay, that’s the perspective of the girl-ified protagonist, but I also need to stress what this is like for the other people in this situation. From the perspective of Ji-hoon’s friends and family, this is a truly heartbreaking thing to bear witness to. They nearly lost Ji-hoon a few weeks, maybe a month, ago, then they hear that his body is transforming. Then Ji-hoon nearly dies, again, and now Ji-hoon does not even remember who he is. They have gone through so much loss, so many scares, and now the person before them is not even willing to accept they are who they are supposed to be. The onlookers want to think that they are still buried there, but after fighting so long and doing so much, it’s simply disheartening to see that they are not back to normal.
However, the entourage does not hate Ji-hyun by any stretch. They want to get Ji-hoon back, but they are visually upset whenever they are rude to Ji-hyun. They can’t hate her, but they also lack an outlet for their frustration. A solution to solve this problem other than… wait and hope for the best.
…Oh! I also think that their reactions are somewhat relatable to a semi-commonly cited experience among some unfortunate transgender people. That they came out to their parents, and rather than accept them, the parents act as if their child became a completely different person, refusing to reconcile that their son could now be their daughter or vice versa. This is almost always a callous, selfish, and unsympathetic reaction to something that should have been obvious if you fully cared for your child. But I’d imagine that, from their (BAD) perspective, it looks something like this. Like a drastic irreconcilable shift in form and personality that could only be explained by something as fantastical as fictional amnesia. …And ghosts!
Okay, I think that covers it for my theorizing thought dump. Back to the manhwa!
Part 6: Don’t Ask Me! I’m Just A Girl!
The next few episodes in Girl in My Dream… are not the most compelling to recap. They can be largely summarized as Ji-hoon’s family accommodates Ji-hyun, take her back home, and accepts that she is a wild girl who does not understand certain social cues. Running around naked, dismissing her ‘predecessor’ by saying things like ‘this photo would be better if Ji-hoon wasn’t in it.’ Fawning over Jin-young, and keeping Miya at bay as, to Ji-hyun, Miya is just an ice princess. I’d say Miya should have played some Lemon Park to try to rejigger Ji-hyun’s memory, but I think she’s too much of a creampuff to get through Papercut.
It’s far from wasted time. It gives the story room to breath, to illustrate just how different Ji-hyun is from Ji-hoon. Happy-go-lucky, cheery, yet prone to approach serious topics with disregard, as she just does not know any better. She’s a blank slate like that. In fact, she knows so little, commits so many social faux pas, that she probably should stay at home until her parents gauge where her academic abilities are. Instead, they send her off to school the day after she comes home, dressed in a female uniform and joined by her friends.
After meeting with the principal and a teacher— who is the spitting image of Jonathan Davis from Korn, right down to the CORN T-shirt— Ji-hyun is introduced to Ji-hoon’s class as a transfer student. …Where she is immediately targeted by a gang of horny boys for being such a beauty. They bombard her desk with notes, gang up around her after class, and stare at her from outside during lunchtime, being just absolute creeps, and leading the main trio to wander around the school for some privacy.
During this search for a secluded spot, Ji-hyun breaks the pretense and declares her love to Jin-young. She does not care what their relationship was like before, she just wants to be in a romantic relationship with him, as he is a kind, handsome man, and she’s just an innocent little maiden. This just breaks Miya’s heart. She thought she had someone she could trust and be with forever in Ji-hoon. She could accept the physical transformation, she risked her life to save him, but seeing this stranger replace him, reject her affection, and gallivant with someone else, is too much for her.
With Miya heartbroken and Jin-young… conflicted over Ji-hyun’s affection, the two meet up after school and reach an agreement. Miya will look after Ji-hyun, as she cannot bear to be alone or watch her former boyfriend latch onto someone else. Meanwhile, Jin-young will keep his distance from Ji-hyun, giving her the cold shoulder, as he seeks out a girlfriend for himself. Not out of a desire to find love, but to distract himself.
It’s actually a surprisingly composed plan for a pair of teenagers, but I guess after going through so much trauma and heartbreak, the pair need to cling to reason. To some form of structure in order to retain whatever happiness they can and avoid doing something they might regret.
The following days, Miya adopts the role of Ji-hyun’s best friend, trying to view her as her own person as she indulges in Ji-hyun’s childish whimsy. Grabbing her as she tries to wake up. Taking a bath with her and walking her to school, arm-in-arm. In fact, they are so together that background characters start speculating Ji-hyun’s a lesbian, a thing Ji-hyun does not understand, as she’s basically working with a 10-year-old’s brain. It might seem like Miya is being selfish, hogging Ji-hyun for herself, but I don’t really view it that way. I view her actions as an act of desperation, literally clinging onto Ji-hyun so she does not lose her.
Meanwhile, Jin-young looks beyond the singular class seen thus far to find a potential girlfriend. While he has boundless options, he chooses a girl he had rejected many times, yet never seemed to give up on him. A wavy-haired glasses-wearing girl by the name of Se-hee, who practically collapses in on herself when Jin-young asks her out to lunch. For Jin-young, this is something he is doing for his own benefit, feigning words of interest while maintaining a dispassionate and distant expression. But for Se-hee? This is her dream come true, and she won’t let anything or anyone stop her.
This new normal persists for a few episodes. Showing Jin-young, alone in his big empty house, inviting Se-hee into his life as he accepts her affection, but is unable to reciprocate it. Seeing Miya fawn over Ji-hyun as she asks where Jin-young is, trying to make her forget about him. Having Ji-hyun rush toward Jin-young whenever she is free to move by herself, only to be nudged away. It’s a lot of relationship drama, drifting a bit away from the whole ‘a ghost is turning me into a girl and I identity death’d myself’ angle. However, it’s all competently done, and executed with the same visual pizzazz as the rest of the series.
…But that all changes in episode 44. After Ji-hyun is learns Jin-young has a girlfriend, her happy-go-lucky demeanor fades, despair settles, and she hears a voice in the back of her mind, urging her to fight, to steal Jin-young from that bitch. Ji-hyun tries to resist this voice, shouts as it strains her head, but she is too weak to resist. Ji-hyun’s body falls to the ground, darkness fills her mind, and from this darkness, a familiar face emerges. The face of Yuna.
Yuna tells Ji-hyun not to worry, promising that she will take care of Jin-young, before reaching down to her body and claiming it for herself.
Miya takes Ji-hyun to the nurse’s office, hoping for the best as she leaves to get the nurse. Once alone, Yuna makes her move and rises from her bed. She takes a moment to enjoy the simple bliss of a body. The ability to stretch and feel her fingers, smell the air wafting around her, and feel the warmth of a body. She remarks that the second accident nearly trapped her in Ji-hoon’s mind for all eternity, but only once Ji-hyun’s mind faltered, she was able to take control. And now that she’s free, she only has one goal in mind. Jin-young. Her precious Obba.
Part 7: The Bad Bitch is Back!
Yuna has finally achieved her goal, is piloting Ji-hoon’s body with no resistance, and all she needs to do is execute her plan. …However, I don’t think she developed a proper plan while transforming Ji-hoon’s body. I think her only plan was to wing it. Because that’s what she does.
Before Yuna can leave the nurse’s office, Miya returns with the school nurse, giving her the opportunity to play the role of Ji-hyun… and she doesn’t. Yuna is cold, standoffish, and explodes at Miya, saying that she hates her, that she doesn’t need someone getting in the way of her relationship with Jin-young. She channels a level of rage that is unlike anything Ji-hyun has ever expressed. Clearly something is wrong, but Miya is too upset to see it. Instead, she smacks Yuna across the face, saying she’ll get out of the way, before running off, leaving Yuna alone with Jin-young.
Jin-young is shocked by this display, asking Yuna why she acted like that, but he receives no answer. Yuna merely says that she loves him, asking him to go to come home with her. Jin-young, red in the face, embraces her. He tried to hide his feelings with a synthetic love, but no matter how close he tried to get to Se-hee, he could not erase the love he was developing for Ji-hyun. The two then leave for Jin-young’s home, leaving Se-hee behind.
As Jin-young and Yuna walk to his house, they get caught in a sudden rainstorm, soaking their clothes. Yuna, playing up her role as Ji-hyun flashes Jin-young with her soaked underwear before pressing her body against his, asking to go to his room. …And on the next page, the two find themselves lying on Jin-young’s bed, half-naked and making out. Well, that escalated quickly.
Things escalate further as Jin-young strips Yuna of her bra, lowering his head as he licks her nipples, leading her to moans in pleasure, repeats words of love. Everything is in place for this otherwise reserved comic to veer into being full-blown erotica… all until Yuna makes one teensy mistake by calling Jin-young her Obba.
As lighting cracks through the night’s sky, Jin-young realizes that the woman before him is not Ji-hyun. He asks who she is, wanting to delay the truth, before accepting that she must be Yuna. He then grabs, demanding that she bring back Ji-hoon, but Yuna refuses. She argues that she deserves this body. Without her, Ji-hoon would have died in the accident, and she did not want to live within Ji-hoon like some parasite. She wanted to live as a person. She wanted to use this opportunity to get the perfect body. To claim a life she had lost. And be with the man she always loved. She made this body for him and all she wants is for him to reciprocate her love.
Jin-young makes it clear that he could never love her, not after what she did, not after trying to murder Ji-hoon… but he’s also willing to do nearly anything to get him back. So, Yuna makes him a proposition. She will fade away, give this body back to Ji-hoon, if he has sex with her. …Okay, the text just says “sleep” with her, but I think Sizzkun was just being a bit prudish with the language here. This work is at least PG-13, you can say SEX.
To help ease his concerns, Yuna then provides Jin-young, but mostly the readers, with some exposition. She explains that Ji-hoon is unable to experience anything that happens when she is in control. That Ji-hyun was a persona Ji-hoon created to protect his mind Yuna. And that, when she leaves, Ji-hyun will take over until Ji-hoon’s memories are recovered.
Yuna also says that the Ji-hoon and Ji-hyun have the “same personality” but I think that’s just a translation flub. Sizzkun’s translation is fully readable, but there are several tiny contradictions like this in his English script. They don’t act the same, so how can they have the same personality? Maybe he meant they were two parts of the same soul?
Weighing the options before him, Jin-young decides that he will give Yuna what she wants and have sex with her. He leaves to take a shower, and Yuna takes this time to monologue about how this is all according to her plan. That she will pretend to be Ji-hyun again, but this time… she’ll be more careful. She also intends on pressing him about what happened tonight, hoping that she can use the confession to have sex with him again and… Yuna, you really don’t have a plan, do you?
For a good chunk of the series, Yuna is this dominant, unstoppable figure. A capable, confident woman who loves being a villain, and delights in tormenting the protagonist. …But once she gets a human body, and is interacting with other people, she’s kind of… stupid. She is terrible at acting, needs to rely on vague threats and promises to get what she wants, and will act as if she has won when she only has the concept of a plan. She is not a mastermind, she is just a teenage girl who has been given immense powers and thinks that makes her a supervillainess.
As a kid, I thought she was just a mastermind, a mistress of malice, and that image of a dominant body stealing woman of immense beauty has… impacted me in ways I could spend hours quantifying. (She was a key inspiration in creating Abigale Quinlan, and I did not realize that until I started writing this showcase.) But now, as an adult, I just view her as a teenager trying to act like a big shot, when she’s just winging it.
Back to the comic, Yuna, wearing shots and a camisole, approaches Jin-young in his bedroom. His heart skips a beat at seeing her dressed in so little, and the two reach for each other on the bed, silently preparing to do the deed, before words of resistance echo in Yuna’s mind. Words spoken by… Ji-hoon.
He shouts at Yuna, causing her grip on this body to falter. She screams, flails, before collapsing on the bed, her eyes vacant as her essence is exorcised, and this vacancy is filled by none other than… Ji-hyun. She’s bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and eager to smooch Jin-young. Jin-young is filled with uncertainty when greeted with her affection, but rather than ruminate on such matters, he and Ji-hyun choose to sleep this off. Hoping that things will make a little more sense tomorrow.
After the two wake up to some playful banner, Ji-seo storms into the bedroom— seeing Ji-hyun as she’s getting dressed— and takes her back home, away from this ‘dangerous man.’ Jin-young sees them out of his apartment, but before he can walk back in, Se-hee approaches him, and explodes at him. She is hurt by how he abandoned her at school to make merry with some other girl, demanding answers as anger leads into sorrow.
…But Se-hee is ultimately a desperate girl and, when given a flimsy explanation that Ji-hyun was sick, all is forgiven! Oh Se-hee, you really need to find someone who actually likes you as a person, not some hot guy who makes your heart go doki-doki.
Part 8: In The End…
We are now in the final stretch of Girl In My Dream, and this is where the story starts getting a bit… strange. I’ll explain why this happened later, but things aren’t going to go in the direction you might be expecting.
Following a brief recap, episode 49 opens with Ji-seo waking up Ji-hyun to go to school, pulling her out of bed, into the living room, where Miya is waiting for her. …Despite having had a violent outburst toward her less than a day ago. You might think that Jin-young informed her about what happened, but her first question upon seeing Ji-hyun is about that. I guess she just got over ‘Ji-hyun’ saying she hated her? The characters then head to school, the story reestablishes that Jin-young is not too fond of Se-hee’s demanding nature, before ending the episode with Jin-young telling Miya about his encounter with Yuna the other day.
Episode 50 is similarly odd, insisting on going back to basics by having Miya invite Ji-hyun over to her house, crying until she accepts. Jin-young comments on how he must stay away from Ji-hyun, to protect Ji-hoon. …And then he immediately breaks up with Se-hee, saying it’s not because he’s in love with Ji-hyun, when it absolutely is. Things then cut to Miya’s mansion, where the author explains that her family is part of the Jopok (Korean mafia) and lives in an expansive mansion, with bodyguards and the like. A factoid that comes out of nowhere, and probably should have been foreshadowed.
Episode 51 sees Miya show Ji-hyun around her mansion, her bedroom with a giant clearly edited Linkin Park poster, before staying the night, where Miya asks Ji-hyun to have sex with her. To which Ji-hyun, who has previously expressed befuddlement about gay relationships, says that she wants to go out with Jin-young. That she can’t be Miya’s girlfriend. It’s something that Miya, who has seen Ji-hyun fawn over Jin-young, repeatedly, should have expected. Yet, she is so angry, so offended, that she tells her to leave, that a driver will take her home. Filled with rejection and sorrow, Miya then crumbles onto the floor, knowing that, this is it. She tried so hard, got so far, but in the end, it did not even matter. She is still all alone.
Then we arrive at Episode 52, or Episode -&- if you look at the cover image. The longest episode in the series. The only one to be colored. And the last episode of Girl In My Dream.
Opening in the classroom, a teacher announces that Miya has transferred to another school. The news shocks Jin-young and the now pink-haired Ji-hyun, spurring them to run back to Miya’s house, where some Jopok thugs start beating up Jin-young until Miya tells them to stop and explain herself. She thinks there’s no place for her between Jin-young and Ji-hyun, and she loves Ji-hoon too much to see him like this any longer. Miya tried to love him when he became a girl, but the longer this went on, the more she has come to hate Ji-hyun. But, she does not want that. She still considers Ji-hoon to be her best friend, but he’s locked away, and if he’s going to stay Ji-hyun, then she just wants her and Jin-young to be happy.
Miya leaves on this bitter note. Ji-hyun and Jin-young go back to living their teenage lives, until one day when, somehow, Yuna returns. She beings to rape Jin-young, only to stop as Ji-hoon takes over his body— for real this time, and punches Jin-young in the face.
…No, I’m serious, all of that happens in like two pages. Yuna comes back, then Ji-hoon takes over his body again, apropos of nothing. No trigger, no instigating event, he’s just in control… kinda. Ji-hoon is back, but he still hears the voices of Ji-hyun and Yuna in his mind, regaling him with assorted commentary. …At least for a little while, as we are told they eventually came out less and less as Ji-hoon’s mine got stronger, likely eventually disappearing altogether.
This then leads into the epilogue scene of the series, where we see that Ji-hoon and Jin-young have basically become a couple. With Ji-hoon still insisting that he’s a guy, while Jin-young teases him for being so cute, calling him his girlfriend, and… making it obvious that both of them love each other now. Not as friends, but as lovers, even if Ji-hoon is reluctant to admit it.
As the two hold hands as they walk through the park, laughing and ranting, the story of Girl In My Dream then comes to an end.
Part 9: About That Ending…
…So, I know what you’re probably thinking. What the hell was with that ending? Why wrap things in such a sloppy way? Was this a publisher demand? Was this the result of something going completely wrong? Well, not quite.
The answer as to what happened with Girl In My Dream is rather mundane, but nevertheless upsetting.
From what I recall, and as far as I can tell, the English version of Girl In My Dream was originally published on DeviantArt under Sizzkun’s alternate handle, Walt7. Starting with the release of Episode 16 on March 2, 2009, he included a message stating that the series was completed after 53 episodes, but not in the manner he was “aiming at.” Instead, he says that the ending was created by Burntwitch. However, Sizzkun never specifies when Burntwitch took over the writing duties.
Sizzkun is the writer through episode episode 51, BurntWitch is the illustrator through episode 51, and episode 52 has no credits. However, due to an artistic drift, continuity errors, and things feeling… off starting in episode 49, I would theorize that episodes 49, 50, 51, and 52 were all written by BurntWitch.
Across his uploads on DeviantArt, Sizzkun repeated the same general comment. That the series was completed at 53 episodes, but he also entertained the idea that he and BurntWitch may resume work on the project, assuming BurntWitch can take time away from his original manhwa. This changed with the publication of Episode 46, where Sizzkun said that BurntWitch was having back problems and was taking a hiatus from drawing manhwa.
Afterward, Sizzkun continued to search for another comic collaborator, hoping to repeat what he was able to achieve with BurntWitch by creating a new TSF comic series by the name of Mask Girl. However, I do not believe this ever amounted to anything beyond sketches. After a brief journal update on April 9, 2015, Sizzkun’s DeviantArt account has not had any measurable activity. Accordingly, I feel comfortable in stating that this account has been abandoned.
That would be a shame, but there is one more developmental silver lining I need to address. Before leaving his DeviantArt account behind, on July 22, 2013, Sizzkun released a series of bullet points that describes how he originally intended to end Girl In My Dreams. For the sake of posterity, because this update has only ever been seen by 5,100 people, I am going to post these bullet points in their entirety, typos and all:
So this is what happened through out the story.
- Miya leaves Jin-young and Ji-hyun. She give a letter to Ji-hyun saying the letter is for Ji-hoon.
- Jin-young decide to be with Ji-hyun but as a friend.
- Ji-hyun meets this new guy Min-joon.
- Min-joon have a crush on Ji-hyun.
- Ji-hyun doesn’t like Min-joon, but somehow they end up going watching movie together.
- Jin-young see them being together.
- Ji-hyun meets Jin-young and says how she loves him and wishes to be together.
- Jin-young refuses her as she’s his best friend Ji-hoon.
- Ji-hyun gets angry by saying how Ji-hoon don’t exist anymore, she gets upset as her family was also only caring about Ji-hoon.
- Ji-hyun comes home and rips off Ji-hoon’s photo.
- Ji-hoon’s mom sees that and slaps Ji-hyun’s face.
- Ji-hoon’s mom yells at Ji-hyun by saying “give back my son”
- Ji-hyun decides to run away from home.
- Ji-hyun meets Yu-min, Yu-jin couple (cameos from my previous novel)
- Ji-hyun stays at their house for a while.
- Ji-hyun meets Min-joon, decides to go to his house.
- Yuna takes over.
- Yuna reacts very bad to Min-joon (Bithcy?). Min-joon kicks her out from his house.
- Yuna wonder around the street, meets Jin-young.
- Jin-young becomes angry at Ji-hyun as she ran away from home, but yuna pretends to be Ji-hyun.
- Jin-young decides to go out with Ji-hyun, while its still Yuna.
- They go to Jin-young’s house
- Jin-young sense that Ji-hyun is Yuna.
- Jin-young refuses Yuna once again, Ji-hoon’s mind comes back.
- Ji-hoon finds out his personality is mixed up at the moment, He feels good when Jin-young hugs him but bad at the same time etc.
- Ji-hoon explains how Yuna tried to take over his body near the time at the car accident, but failed due to the accident, amnesia makes Ji-hyun, Ji-hyun was created because Ji-hoon didn’t want to die. Strong feeling created a shield against Yuna. Yuna could only took over when Ji-hyun was feeling weak, sad.
- Ji-hoon sleeps over at Jin-young’s place.
- Ji-hoon meets Yuna again.
- Ji-hoon talks to Yuna how Yuna’s plan has failed.
- Yuna panics, have a big melt down, she keeps saying “if I was just a bit more prettier, Jin-young might love me”.
- Ji-hoon tries to kick her out of his body. Yuna refuses. Yuna says she won’t leave Ji-hoon’s body no matter what. Instead, she says she will make Ji-hoon more beautiful and beautiful as that could be more painful thing to Ji-hoon.
- Out of the dream, Ji-hoon meets his family again.
- Ji-hoon finds the letter that Miya gave him a while ago.
- The letter says how Miya tried to still love Ji-hoon even though he became a girl, but Miya couldn’t find Ji-hyun attractive, etc.
- Ji-hoon decides to see Miya.
- Ji-hoon cuts his long hair, tie his breasts to make him look more boyish. He also weas guy’s school uniform.
- Ji-hoon and Jin-young goes to Miya’s house, meets Miya.
- Miya talks cold to Ji-hoon and Jin-young, “There’s no point for you to cut your hair like a boy” etc. She says that she doesn’t feel the same way as she use to be to Ji-hoon.
- Miya says she has a new boyfriend in her new school.
- Miya and Ji-hoon decides to be just friends.
- Ji-hoon have a boyish hair cut. Goes to school
- Ji-hoon meets Yuna again for the last time, Ji-hoon have a fight with Yuna and leaves a scar under her left eye. Yuna is out of her mind, cries and yells at Ji-hoon. When she was about to disappear she promises to curse Ji-hoon forever.
- Miya comes back to Ji-hoon’s school, Miya, Ji-hoon, Jin-young get along together.
- Jin-young finds Ji-hoon more attractive, Jin-young thinks Ji-hoon is getting more beautiful, while Ji-hoon thinks he is getting more boyish as Yuna is gone.
- 10 years later……………
- Miya is a businesswoman; she takes a taxi to the hospital.
- She finds a room 304, gets in, and meets Ji-hoon.
- Ji-hoon is now taller, more beautiful than he used to be.
- Miya says congratulation to Ji-hoon. Ji-hoon just gave a birth to a baby.
- Ji-hoon talks to Miya and says how weird that is. The doctor told Ji-hoon that they are expecting a son, but Ji-hoon finds that her baby is a daughter.
- Jin-young comes in. Miya greets him. Miya is jealous of Jin-young and Ji-hoon. Jin-young married to Ji-hoon.
- When Miya, Ji-hoon and Jin-young took their photo and uploaded them on the internet, Ji-hoon became an internet idol, eventually became a famous TV Star,
- Ji-hoon’s family comes in to the room.
- Two nurses comes in to the room with Jin-young and Ji-hoon’s daughter.
- A baby cries all the way. Ji-hoon receives the baby and feels happy as Ji-hoon is now a mother.
- Ji-hoon hands over the baby to Jin-young.
- As soon as the baby goes to Jin-young, baby stopped crying.
- Everyone in the room makes a joke, how their daughter only seeks for nice lookimg man.
- Jin-young find that the baby has a scar in her left eye.
- Ji-hoon freaks out.
- Ji-hoon thinks how doctor told her that the baby would be a son, but eventually it was a daughter, when the baby is with Jin-young, baby doesn’t cry, Baby has a scar in her left eye.
- Ji-hoon shuts her mouth an[link] don’t tell anyone about it, and hope her baby isn’t….you know who.
Reading this conclusion 12 years ago, this list of ideas about how the story was supposed to end, I was elated. So many writers, creators, and artists abandon their work, leave no insights into their plans or intentions, and let things rot mid-storyline. As someone who loved obscure, weird, and niche comics as a teenager, it always pissed me off when people would just ghost an audience, not tell them anything, and abandon something they spent hundreds of hours on. So I need to give Sizzkun major props for his commitment here. He could have said nothing, but he said something! And while this is not great, I’d say it meets the bare minimum of a standard people should follow.
…However, what he describes is also rather vague, rough, and undeveloped— typical of an outline. And, at the risk of seeming ungrateful, I do not care for certain things it does. Min-joon just seems like a random addition. The idea of Ji-hyun running away seems strange, especially with a couple letting her stay with them. I think the conclusion to Miya’s character sounds at odds with her characterization throughout the series. But I also LOVE everything about the 10 years later section.
I love the idea of Yuna festering inside Ji-hoon, only to be reborn as their daughter, just so they can be close to Jin-young. I think the time skip is a good way to brush aside the gender struggles that Ji-hoon would experience after their transformation. There is a good amount of plausible deniability in what happened to lead to this point, while still clearly showing where the characters ended up.
Also— not to play outline doctor— but I think the story might have worked better if Ji-hyun did not come back in episode 47, if Ji-hoon actually took over again and the story, more or less, progressed from point 25 on the outline. The first 24 points don’t sound particularly intriguing given how little there is to Ji-hyun’s character. And why have Yuna regain control, and be resisted, twice? Just have one encounter and make the story leaner.
Despite these misgivings, I would have been elated to see this project to conclude on Sizzkun’s terms, but alas, it was not meant to be, and Girl In My Dreams was left in this nebulous state for the past 16 years. Complete, yet incomplete. A work that was rushed to conclusion with an ending that feels like a compromise, because it was. And a work that has largely been forgotten about. It’s locked behind older platforms emblematic of its era. It lacks the polish that people have come to expect from modern online comics. And it’s not even part of a greater legacy, as far as I can tell.
Per my light research, GIMD is the only long-form English language writing from Sizzkun, or to use his real name, Walt Kim. And despite efforts over the years, I have never been able to find much on BurntWitch. It is possible that I may be able to find them, some way, somehow, if I were to delve into the Korean internet, maybe someone on TSForever knows, but knowing how fickle the internet can truly be, I would not be surprised if that work is simply lost at this point. And that is a damn shame because, for most of its run, I consider Girl In My Dream to be… amazing.
What I adore about GIMD is… how bold the story is. How far it goes. And just how much it’s able to do. It is a story about love, friendship, and the loss of self, the loss of someone in so many ways. It is a story that does not shy away from trauma, from violence, yet never feels indulgent or overly fixated on it. The characters, even in their flaws and rapid decisions, feel like people, behave with an emotionality that’s appropriate given the precarious situations they’re thrown into. It is a story with some unbelievable and immense cruelty, with no shortage of dark themes stemming from identity erasure to suicide, but they are offset by love and kindness. By characters who earnestly care for others, even as their love brings them little more than pain.
It has an emotional cadence and maturity that I find surprising for a work envisioned by a student. The artwork does so much to breathe life into these scenes, these characters, and has such a brilliant eye for composition that I often forget how sketchy or unfinished it actually is. And as a work of TSF, it’s an innovator that I still think stands tall next to many other, more recent, more enthusiast-geared works I’ve covered over the past two years.
Girl In My Dreams has the confidence to be a slow burn. To not open with a transformation, but to let it fester in the background, serving as the result of everything that happened in the story so far, and the core element that drives it forward. It is the story about ‘a boy becoming a girl,’ but that is the mere foundation the rest of the narrative is build. It does not feel the need to embark on any indulgences, in many tropes of the genre, yet it does not ever feel unaware of them. It’s different by choice. A TSF story that looks at the genre with curiosity about what could be done, and shows the audience just how malleable familiar concepts can truly be.
It’s an inspiration. It’s an influence that I have been carrying with me for as long as I’ve been creating works of my own. It even served as the conceptual bedrock for an entire novel I wrote a few years back. And going through it this many years later, after reading hundreds of TSF comics, there’s still something raw, earnest, and unique about Girl In My Dream. It may not be sloppy in places, incomplete in others, and its completed ending… sucks, but Girl In My Dreams is still one of my favorite TSF comics ever created.
Part 10: Subpar Side Story
…Oh, right, there’s also the side story. …Yeah, I guess I need to talk about this before I’m done-done.
Originally released between episodes 30 and 31— right after the second truck accident, BurntWitch worked on a non-canon what if side story that Sizzkun considers to be the 53rd episode of GIMD. I didn’t bring it up earlier as it’s kind of a pace-breaker in the main story, and it’s always been presented after the main story, at least here in the Anglosphere. It also lacks the same drama, dread, and all the other stuff I was just gushing about, instead being an indulgent exploration of familiar tropes, but not in a good way.
The side story follows Ji-hoon after he undergoes a spontaneous physical transsexual transformation overnight. He conveniently looks just as he did after Yuna manipulated his body, and kicks off the day by visiting Jin-young, dressed in his male school uniform. Specifically, he knocks on the door, waking Jin-young up, and then storms into his house, acting like it’s obvious that he’s Ji-hoon. But Jin-young does not believe Ji-hoon until he reveals a private secret. That Jin-young has an “uneven thingy.” This largely convinces Jin-young that this random girl before him is Ji-hoon, and he proceeds to become a massive pervert.
He goes from staring at her boobs to stripping her down in a matter of seconds, cackles as Ji-hoon screams at him to get away, before shoving a finger into Ji-hoon’s pussy… only to abruptly stop. With his curiosity satisfied, he says Ji-hoon’s “100% girl” and for such cruelty, Ji-hoon rightfully kicks him in his crooked cock, hopefully breaking that thing in twain.
After… raping his best friend (yes, that does count as rape), Jin-young then provides Ji-hoon a girl’s uniform that he received as a gift a while back and the two head off to school. Like nothing even happened! At school, Jin-young is bombarded by a gaggle of girls giving him presents while Ji-hoon wanders off to the library to sleep. Because that’s what you’re supposed to do at school!
Jin-young then wakes him up, and remarks how all the girls throwing themselves at him don’t know the real him, and if they did, they might think he’s generic, boring, or not really their type. He says he wants to be with a girl who understands him, or tries to understand him… before realizing that Ji-hoon is actually the girl of his dream. Someone who gets him, and someone with a hot body.
In light of this revelation, Jin-young theorizes that Ji-hoon became a girl through an act of god, to heal his “tortured soul.” With this flimsy justification, Jin-young then proceeds to rape Ji-hoon again, this time going all the way.
…And then Jin-young wakes up, finding Ji-hoon, in his usual male form, looking down at him, telling him to get ready for school. Meaning that this was all a dream!
What was even the point of this? This is just a ‘guy turns into a girl and gets raped by his best friend’ story. While that genre is not bad, it’s also a blasé, often lazy, premise to work off of. Why is it like this? Why do simply and re-characterize these characters, and why base the entire thing around not one, but two rape sequences?
Well, the simple answer is that this episode was written and illustrated by BurntWitch. He was responsible for the plot, characterization, everything, and in trying to compose an original storyline, I think he completely lost sight of what made this comic special. Maybe it’s meant to be a parody, a play on what were already established tropes in the late 2000s, all before concluding with a dream ending. But based on the ending he created for the main series, I have my doubts.
I don’t like this side chapter. I don’t think it adds anything to the story surrounding it. And I’m only talking about it for the sake of completeness.
On that note, I should also mention a bit of GIMD fan art I stumbled onto years ago. A remake of Girl In My Dream by and artist who goes by HappyGoDaisy, or Daisy Summers. It’s a loving panel-by-panel recreation of the original story, expanded with a revised script, and artwork that’s… actually finished!
…Unfortunately, this project began in 2022 and all she has produced for it is a remake of the first episode and a character sheet. …Well, thank you for your contribution, Daisy. It was nice to see someone make fan art of this unjustly obscure series.
…Wait, wasn’t I supposed to tackle a shorter TSF work this month? Instead, I wrote my longest showcase so far this year. UGH!
Interesting! I had not ever stumbled across GIMD on TGComics on my own.
Relatively few comments on the main page of the comic itself on TGC although searching their forums there’s a 100 page thread in the TGComics Artists forum running from Feb 8, 2009 to Nov 19, 2010
tgcomics.com/tgc/forum/index.php?action=vthread&forum=3&topic=1446
and a 16 page thread in The Site forum running from Feb 26, 2009 to Jul 17, 2014
tgcomics.com/tgc/forum/index.php?action=vthread&forum=2&topic=1506
and in the TGComics Artists forum also an 11 page thread “Vote for Burntwitch! Vote for GIMD!!!” started by Admin femur May 28, 2009 running to Jul 6, 2009
tgcomics.com/tgc/forum/index.php?action=vthread&forum=3&topic=1799
(The poll itself is at
tgcomics.com/tgc/forum/index.php?action=polls&page=6
and was begun by Sizzkun. 629 votes in favor of BW continuing to draw it; 13 no; 11 not interested.)
On the whole a lot of love for it in the forum discussions! Also some participation by sizzkun who shared some bio info about BW. And forum poster ccmariecc mentions having helped with sizzkun’s college art history essay. I’ve only skimmed through the two shorter discussions so far not the 100 page one.
Of course you would think of digging through old forums to learn more about this series! ^^
Starting to look now at the 100-page thread, sizzkun had also posted under the username minsub2 from which I found another thread “TS Manhwa” from Dec 15, 2008 posting some Korean examples of it and proposing making and uploading an English version:
tgcomics.com/tgc/forum/index.php?action=vthread&forum=5&topic=1314
minsub2’s profile had an old hotmail address, identified as a student in New Zealand with interest/hobby of kendo.
Yeah, had to have a look at the forums! Was curious how much engagement it had gotten and multiple threads of significant length is pretty good for TGC. Also wanted to see if there was any post-comic ending posting by the creator, but seemingly not.
minsub2 gave some history in the long thread (and in another post gave a link to an unrelated digital animation based on Kumiho done by minsub2 but the YT video is now private):
12 Apr 2009 06:22
Here’s a bit of small history of GIMD
Original GIMD novel was written on 2006~2007
GIMD Comic started on 2008~2009
GIMD Remake novel 2008~2009
My fist GIMD had some issues, (such as too many people dying, not revealing who yuna was, what her plan was etc) so I decided to have a remake of it to just make it more perfect.
BW’s comic started a bit earlier than the Remake novel so the first 25 episodes followed the original. from episode 27 ish.. I think BW followed the Remake version.
and of course, novel is written in korean, this is why I need some people’s suggestions if they want to read beyond episode 54.
[And another minsub2/sizzkun post:]
: 18 May 2009 00:19
I don’t know what to say. It’s not like I was paying BW or anything. we were doing this only if people on the internet loved our works, and also because they made comments on our works.
but BW stopped GIMD as he wanted to draw his own manhwa. (it’s called “A prayer” it’s mainly focused on crossdressing. I would say its very diffrent to GIMD)
I could only say enjoy the next 20 episodes…
and If I have the chance I will upload the written form of my GIMD translated somehow..
I don’t think I can find someone who would draw for nothing.
Read through the 100 page discussion. Bunch of posts by sizzkun in it, who mentions being in touch with some other artists but nothing came of those contacts. The summaries going up to 62 got posted there in 2009. Sounds like maybe the novel version in Korean was posted online somewhere (?) but no link was ever given. Author also mentions writing other TG stories/novels. Sizzkun lists some odd stuff BW put in GIMD apparently for his own amusement that I guess Sizzkun tolerated because the work was being done for free:
“Manchester United logo on Ji-soo for episode 1 (Manchester soccer players name gets mentioned few times too)
“Marilyn manson, and Jonathan from KORN, Coach Hiddink from Chelsea Soccer team etc”
“Rei from Evangelion, some charcters from HENTAI ANIME appears in the Hospital scenes..”
“Some characters from korean web comics was in the hospital scenes too.”
“Characters with the name of Sizzkun and Burntwithch were using the same room as Ji-hoon when he was in the hospital”