*All rights belong to Lezhin comics, author Gaje, and artist Dodal. This is the first season (chapters: prologue – chapter 26). It’s a mature comic so it does have sex scenes so just in case you’re not comfortable with that, although I don’t talk about them in this review, just a warning if you’re going to read it. This contains SPOILERS!!!!!!!!*
The Vanishing twin is about two twin sisters, the older one is Yeon Janghwa who is basically perfect, she has everything well in her sister’s eyes. She’s the golden child among the parents. The younger twin is Hong-ryeon who is a little bit of rebel but doesn’t live up to her sister’s standards. She got held back and overall failure in the family.
One day where Hong-ryeon is outside and avoiding going inside because she failed again, her sister Janghwa says she’ll help her out also adds to follow what she does. Janghwa says “I’ll show you what to do.” Something symbolic about this was the setting, it’s winter and snow is everywhere and when Janghwa says those words and leaves, her footprints are on the snow. Hong-ryeon literally follows her footsteps. I think Janghwa might have said this as guidance but Hong-ryoen takes it to another level.
Hong-ryeon copies her sister in everything from clothing, make up, hair style…EVERYTHING!!! One thing that sets them apart is Hong-ryeon has a birthmark or beauty mark by her eye but she sometimes covers it up with concealer. Janghwa feels uneasy because of how much her sister copies her. She arranges her clothing like her sister and has a similar bracelet like the one her boyfriend gave her. It’s so creepy. Something that bugged me was Janghwa’s friends, she has two best friends, mainly a blonde one named Mikyung. She would voice her concerns about her sister and they would be dismissive about it. Listen I understand if it was the same sweater or maybe the same shade of lipstick, but this is overboard. They act like this is normal and she’s overthinking the whole thing. So, you see Janghwa struggle because she really has no one to turn to.
There is one incident that maybe should have opened her friend’s eyes was when Mikyung mistakes Hong-ryeon for Janghwa and they have a laugh about it then get some coffee together. Mikyung mentions to Hong-ryeon that her and sister are really different. She tries to leave because she has a group project to work on. Hong-ryeon stops her and asked in what way are they different in a desperate matter. Mikyung tries to explain that she is who she is but Janghwa comes over and hits her sister thinking that she has a bracelet that has given to her by her boyfriend. Turns out to be a look like bracelet and her friend Mikyung takes Hong-ryeon’s side. I honestly can’t with both of them. It’s like the reader knows she’s psycho but no one in story does, well Janghwa does.
As the story goes on, we find out that Hong-ryeon is sleeping with her sister’s boyfriend. She mimics her sister and of course covers her birthmark. We find out how she does it by deleting messages from her sister’s phone or taking her phone by “accident”. She also tells Wonim (sister’s boyfriend) to turn off his phone when they’re at the motel so when he’s showering, she deletes texts or calls from her sister that she might have sent during that time. I really don’t think her boyfriend knew until he slept with the real Janghwa, who is a virgin. He noticed the blood on the bed, but he doesn’t say anything!!!!!! (which happens towards the end of story.)
A character that brings the story together is Kwak Sangjin, he was out of school because he stalked Janghwa and kidnapped her. He’s really unstable, I’m surprised he’s out. He mistakes Hong-ryeon for Janghwa and she basically becomes his new obsession. He starts stalking her and this is how he found out that Hong-ryeon is pretending to be Janghwa. He even took a photo of them walking out of the motel. He tries to tell someone, but nobody believes him because of his past. At the same time Hong-ryeon’s locker gets vandalized, Wonim thinks it’s Sangjin and tries to hurt it him. He tries saying the truth, but nobody is listening because Hong-ryeon is crying. Everyone dismissive him, he goes back to stalking Hong- ryeon for revenge. He runs into Janghwa who just standing outside, and he tells her about her sister and boyfriend. She is shocked and makes a request to keep stalking her sister. Hong-ryeon meets with Sangjin at school and tells him to delete the photo and stop with the other nonsense like coming to her home or pretending to be a couple online. He asked if she is admitting that she is one in the photo, and why should he should delete it. She then agrees to sleep with him only if the photo is deleted forever and never mentioning this whole thing again.
Sangjin isn’t going to turn down this offer. So, they end up sleeping with each other and around the same time, Janghwa and Wonim are at the same motel. This happens to the time where Janghwa loses her virginity and I think this makes Wonim question things because of what happened at the motel. Meanwhile Sangjin thinks Hong-ryeon likes him all because she called him cute. He asked her out the next day, but she turns him down. He agrees with Janghwa’s plan to mess with her sister. He kidnaps her, later Janghwa gets a phone call telling her she’s missing.
Janghwa and her friends also her boyfriend try to find her. Janghwa avoids alerting her parents. Wonim calls a school friend and asked where Sangjin’s study room was, which is where they are at (Sangjin and Hong-ryeon). While with Sangjin, Hong-ryeon manipulates him by saying that maybe he’s the problem instead of blaming the sisters for not going with him (which is low-key true) but she confesses to liking him, but adds he only likes her when she acted like her sister. Sangjin falls for this and says he likes her more than her sister. Wonim burst through the room finding Sangjin almost hugging her. Wonim then hits Sangjin, he then pulls out a knife at Wonim. Hong-ryeon tries to calm the situation but saying let’s forget about this, Womin is in disbelief like why…then the others make it to the room.
The others like Janghwa are shocked to see what’s happening while Hong-ryeon doesn’t want to police involved. Sangjin on the other hand doesn’t care if the police come or not but wants everyone in the room to know that this wasn’t his plan but Janghwa. Janghwa denies it of course, then Mikyung speaks up and she believes her but thinks it’s strange to she didn’t want to call the police and of course the things she says about her sister. It clicks with Janghwa that this is repeat of what happen to her when Sangjin stalked her and realized it was set up by her sister. She obviously gets upset at Hong-ryeon but others don’t understand the situation. Sangjin realized what happen once he confess to Hong-ryeon that it was her sister’s idea. Hong-yreon’s smirks and says, “you said it after all”. Then adds that why she wanted to cover it up and forget about the whole thing. Sangjin has been talking to Hong-ryeon the whole damn time!!
In the end, we see why Hong-ryeon is obsess with her sister because she is thinks others want her to be like her sister and she felt like she didn’t have anything that is hers. She didn’t feel like a person so when her sister gave her that advice “follow what I do”, she took that literally. I honestly think Janghwa just wanted to give her guidance like how older sisters often do. Hong-yreon goes into how she copied her sister and how she set her plan in motion. She also mentions she not done yet. I honestly feel bad for Janghwa because she didn’t know anything, and no one believes her. Hong-ryeon manipulates everyone from her friends and boyfriend. Janghwa basically drops out of school and is always at home. Nobody reached out to her, what friends she has…I mean not even her man also. But then again, her sister takes her so-called boyfriend. Hong -yreon even sends her a photo of her and her boyfriend who is sleeping in the background. Just an FYI she’s still covering up her birthmark!!! Ugh I can’t with her, she’s straight up bitch. The story ends with Janghwa being depressed and never leaving her room while her sister is just living life… well her sister’s. We are introduced to a new character, arriving and calling Janghwa, so I hope this new character helps her or maybe helps her move to new city because her sister is a crazy.
I low-key want Janghwa to move and just start a new life. The whole reason they (Janghwa’s friends) hang out with Hong-yreon is because of Janghwa. I hope her sister Hong-yreon gets hit by bus, ok very extreme …but still she needs to be in a strait-jacket. It’s like everyone in this story is drinking the Kool-Aid. I really want Janghwa to either get vengeance or come back 10X better because it’s like that quote – You can’t make a move unless I do…because Hong-yreon is a copy. We all know originals are better (well most of the time). So, I can’t wait for the next season to see how things play out. I would honestly highly recommend this story, I finished the first part in a day. So be sure to check it out!
- Till next time because I’m so inconsistent…… but hey I was catching up on Poldark ok! 🙂
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