thank you for all the online translations. from what i have read and seen, this unit is not decided on a whim. both of them had plans for themselves yet chose to push through considering every circumstance.
If you haven't listened to the 37-minute JxW “THIS MAN” audiobook, let me actually explain the entire story from beginning to end, because there is so much more happening here than “Wonwoo is a mysterious man who appears in people's dreams.” The story is built around two completely different figures: Wonwoo, the Protector who enters people's dreams to bring them back to reality, and Jeonghan, who creates an entire dream world because he cannot accept the reality of losing someone. And the tragedy is that, from the outside, you don't immediately understand which one is saving people and which one is trapping them.
Wonwoo is the Protector. He moves through the space between dreams and waking life, entering the dreams of sleeping people and seeing the things they carry with them when they fall asleep: their regrets, failed exams, unanswered messages, lost relationships, people they never got to say goodbye to, and all the things that continue hurting even when nobody else can see them. When he finds someone suffering inside their dream, he doesn't erase what happened to them. He simply approaches them, leans down, whispers into their ear, and gives them a peaceful, dreamless sleep.
When they wake up, they can't properly remember him. All that remains is a vague image of a tall man in a dark coat, a presence they can't quite place. Those fragments slowly turn into a rumor, the rumor becomes an urban legend, and the figure comes to be known as “THIS MAN.”
Then there is Jeonghan, whose story exists somewhere completely outside the normal flow of reality. His world is permanently stuck at 8:47 AM. The same morning keeps repeating because Jeonghan created this world for one reason: someone called “A” has disappeared from his life, and he cannot accept that A is gone.
So instead of returning to reality and grieving, Jeonghan builds a place where A can still exist. Breakfast is always prepared. The surroundings remain familiar. Everything stays exactly as he wants it to be. But there is a problem with the world he created: a dream can recreate the appearance of something you remember, but it cannot truly bring back someone who is gone. And Jeonghan's memories are beginning to disappear.
At first, it's small details. Then A's voice becomes harder to remember. Eventually, Jeonghan can no longer remember A's face. That is what frightens him most, because as long as he can remember A, he can continue pretending that A is still there. So he covers A's head with a white cloth and cuts two holes for the eyes. He no longer has to look at a face he can't remember. The figure underneath the cloth can remain A simply because Jeonghan chooses to believe it is A.
But eventually, A runs away.
And once A disappears, Jeonghan's dream world begins to deteriorate. The sanctuary he created needs something to keep it going, so Jeonghan starts entering other people's dreams. He approaches sleeping people and offers them the same escape he created for himself: “Come with me to a place where wishes come true.”
People follow him because the offer is almost impossible to refuse. In their dreams, they can have the things they don't have in reality. They don't have to deal with regret, loneliness, failure, or loss. They can simply stay somewhere beautiful. But the more people Jeonghan brings into his world, the more their dreams become part of the world he has created.
And while all of this is happening inside the dream, something terrifying is happening outside.
People across the city begin falling asleep. They collapse on buses, in offices, on the streets, and in other public places, but they aren't screaming or fighting it. They are sleeping peacefully, often with happy expressions on their faces. Even television broadcasts begin to disappear because the people working there have fallen asleep. Little by little, the waking city becomes empty because people are choosing the dream over reality.
In an era when society encourages hustle culture, when overworking yourself is the norm... this arc serves as a VERY important PSA about mental and physical health.
I appreciate that Naganosensei chose to tackle this topic NOW when Chiikawa's popularity is at its highest.