DASH Chapter 156 Discussion

What a great story. It can be a bit of a difficult read at times if you are sensitive to topics such as depression, low self-esteem and self-harm Spoiler

(At one point MC increases his medication, hiding it from his partner and knowing that the side effects will be extremely harmful to his body, in order to have his pheromones have less impact on ML's physical condition)

[collapse] But the way the author depicts these things is so well written that I still recommend picking up this story.

I think it's important to mention how the story is tagged with the Unreliable Narrator tag. Except for a brief few chapters in ML's POV, we are seeing the world through MC's eyes. He used to be a national athlete and retired at the top of his career at the age of 17-18. Now 28 years old, on the outside MC projects as a reliable, nice, sociable and responsible person that everyone loves. On the inside, however, he self describes as a coward and as someone keeps putting up barriers to prevent himself from being happy.

Spoiler

Personal opinion: I really wish he could surround himself with better friends. I do not appreciate how his university friend keeps putting down MC by bringing up how he used to date a lot. It is *ok* to date a lot. It is *ok* to not date.

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As for ML, I was expecting him to be a much bigger red flag as he turned out to be. Spoiler

I've probably read too much scum-gong novels before because when ML brings up conditions to the contract I was like "here we go" but he just asked to "swim together" and "stop smoking", and when MC didn't stop smoking he never brought it up again ahah

[collapse] He is not perfect and lacks basic communication skills, but he is a 20 year old Olympic athlete who has had his entire life handled for him by various coaches, managers and his mother so I was expecting him to be much more childish and immature than he turned out to be. I appreciated a lot how he always put MC's well-being and his relationship with him before his athletic goals, and also how he tries to prop him up every time he can.

So basically! Do read if you want characters and a story with depth <3