What do you do when the one closest to you is hurting in silence? In Between, a romance manhwa, follows Eunseo and Sihwa, two childhood best friends who reunite in college, as they navigate their chaotic and messy friendship (if you can call it that) amidst Sihwa’s traumatic family life. Previously in In Between, Eunseo learns about Sihwa’s dysfunctional family, Haerang accidentally exchanges her phone with Yu-an (and develops a huge crush on him), and Sihwa encounters a boy in a black baseball cap. What more will reveal itself in In Between Chapter 21-28? Let’s find out!
In Between Chapter 21: Blind Date Gone Wrong
In Between Chapter 21 begins as Eunseo politely denies the offer of going out on a blind date organized by her distant friend. “Is there someone you like already?” her friend asks nosily (while, for some reason, looking pointedly at Sihwa). The question piques Sihwa’s interest, and he asks if she was right. Eunseo looks away and mutters that there was no such thing. Impulsively, she agrees to the date. Really, how bad could it be?
Flash forward to Eunseo, dressed up all pretty, sitting in front of two loud and brazen college students in a cafe. She cringes while she listens to the two boys brashly joke around. Yes, the date was definitely worse than she’d thought possible. While she suffers through her date, she takes care not to mention Sihwa. She didn’t want anyone to know of their acquaintance.
[Enter Main Lead Through Front Entrance]
Suddenly, the cafe doors burst open. And who should walk in but Sihwa himself?
Eunseo tries to hide from him behind a shot of alcohol… and fails. Sihwa slings an arm around her, greeting her and her blind date, before she can protest. Even when he finally leaves their table, he sits within eyesight of Eunseo and makes winky faces at her. Meanwhile, the two boys in front of Eunseo start to gossip about the ‘gross-looking’ Sihwa, who ‘probably had plastic surgery’ in bad taste. “Honestly, I don’t know if he’s actually handsome enough to get that amount of attention,” one of them says (presumably reeking with an overwhelmingly pungent scent of envy).
Triggered, Eunseo splashes a glass of cold water in his face, saying, “Why don’t you take a look in the mirror?” Not letting him off easy, she proceeds to call him a ‘half-formed animal’. The boy, livid, begins to yell back, causing a commotion in the cafe. Eunseo puts her fists up in preparation for a fight when Sihwa abruptly appears out of nowhere and “accidentally” shoves him to the ground. When he tries to inch towards his phone on the floor, Sihwa presses his shoe onto his hand and tells Eunseo he’ll walk her home, concluding In Between Chapter 21.
In Between Chapter 22: Catching Petals of Luck
In Between Chapter 22 begins as Eunseo and Sihwa stroll through blooming cherry blossoms in the brisk night air. Sihwa brings up Eunseo’s ‘cool’ father, a detective who was perpetually in danger, and how he almost felt like him in the cafe. Reminiscing about Eunseo’s short-tempered nature in school, he advises the hothead to think before using her fists in fights. “I’m just saying this because I’m worried about you,” he says, truthfully looking at her.
Fighting her hardest to remain unfazed, Eunseo forges ahead. She asks Sihwa how he’d figured out the location of her date… only to realize it was just a coincidence, embarrassingly. She paces ahead faster when Sihwa suddenly reaches out to touch her. Touch her? Nope, just pluck a blossom petal off her hair. However, the small gesture is enough to spur Eunseo’s beating heart.
Sihwa rubs the pink petal between his fingers, musing over it. “I haven’t had a chance to really enjoy them yet… because someone keeps avoiding me,” he says mysteriously. According to him, catching the rosy flowers as they gracefully descended to the ground boded well for the collector’s lover. He begins to leap around like a monkey, grabbing the pink blossoms in the air. New theory: could catching more than one petal mean multiple good things for that lucky person?
Laughing with childlike glee, Sihwa encourages Eunseo to catch the blossoms too. After a sad attempt, Eunseo ends up with zero flowers in her hands and a whole bouquet over her clothes instead. Laughing, Sihwa reaches out to brush a petal off her cheek, making Eunseo’s cheeks turn the same color as the cherry blossom floating around them. Fed up with Sihwa’s mixed signals, Eunseo grabs Sihwa’s arm and demands to understand his actions, concluding In Between Chapter 22.
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In Between Chapter 23: No More Clowning Around
In Between Chapter 23 begins as Sihwa processes Eunseo’s question with some difficulty. Why did she want to know why he cared about her? That’s what their friendship had always been. However, he wasn’t blind. He knew the effect he had on Eunseo; she liked him. But while he struggles to understand his own emotions, the only words that come out of his mouth are: “Are you that desperate for a man?”
Immediately, he recognizes his mistake. Eunseo roughly pulls away from him with tears in her eyes, angry and hurt beyond reproach. Sihwa, without wasting a second, pulls her into a tight embrace and profusely apologizes for his words. He tries to put his feelings into words, stuttering over each syllable, but eventually fails. Instead, he promises to find her a better man to date.
Eunseo thwacks Sihwa upside the head and storms off in disappointment, thinking, ‘If I like you even one more time, I’m officially a clown!’ In her furious march, she accidentally brushes past the black-capped guy from before (now they’re even). In Between Chapter 23 concludes as he briefly glimpses her face, recognizing her, before picking up a call from Haerang.
In Between Chapter 24: No Rest for The Weary
In Between Chapter 24 begins as Eunseo and Haerang, both of whom look worse than the most sleep-deprived and dehydrated of zombies, meet for coffee. Why was Haerang so drained? She had finally exchanged her phone with Yu-an (and had become extremely star-struck on the spot). But her energetic and bold attitude had clashed with the blonde boy’s quiet nature in a way that completely embarrassed her. How was she supposed to live with such a humiliating first impression?! “He’s so angelic and… how should I put it? He’s like a princess or something,” Haerang blurts out in a tortured voice. Eunseo gives the distressed lover some hope by reminding her that she could always talk to him in the next class. Eunseo’s reason? Sihwa wouldn’t leave her alone!
The previous night, he’d randomly knocked on her bedroom door. Between her noisy roommate and her own confusing feelings, how on earth was she supposed to sleep?
Later, Haerang reveals that she’d signed up a new member for her club. And, as if on cue, the black-capped guy walks in and plops down in a chair beside Eunseo. She awkwardly recognizes him, while he brushes a strand of her hair back to confirm if she really was ‘The Meddler’. “This is Jihyeon,” Haerang says, while Sihwa watches the trio from outside the cafe window, concluding In Between Chapter 24.
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In Between Chapter 25: Back In Style
In Between Chapter 25 begins as Sihwa receives another call from ‘Sigyun Kang’; subsequently, he goes missing for the day (a pattern emerges). Later during Haerang’s club meeting, Eunseo, Haerang, and Jihyeon meet up for a few laps around the track. Eunseo notices a call from Sihwa but declines it without a second thought.
While she jogs beside Jihyeon, he asks her what she’d tried to tell him the night they’d first met. But when she doesn’t remember, she changes the topic and asks him if he was close with Haerang. Although he denies it, Eunseo clearly observes their close bond when he calls Haerang a ‘squirrel’ and she playfully fights him for the comment. Later, they head out to do boxing- on Eunseo’s whim- at the gym both Haerang and Jihyeon went to.
The next day, Eunseo meets Haerang at college. When Sihwa calls her again, she finally picks up- only to see him standing in front of her. Sihwa, wearing sunglasses, flashes a radiant grin at her and introduces her to Yu-an, concluding In Between Chapter 25.
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In Between Chapter 26: Over Before It Began
In Between Chapter 26 begins as Eunseo has a momentary lapse in judgement; her eyes focus on Yu-an, and Sihwa’s promise of finding her a better man echoes in her head. Was he being serious?! Not Yu-an! Finally, something clicks in her head and she realizes that he was here for the group project. But apparently, that logic is something Sihwa hadn’t considered either. Eunseo hadn’t had a lapse in judgment; Yu-an had been brought here as a potential date! But before Sihwa can spill the beans about his promise to everyone else, Eunseo claps her hands to his mouth, making him smirk.
Later, Eunseo runs through the plethora of reasons why she’d never date Yu-an, but eventually decides to just entertain Sihwa. She didn’t want to argue with him, so she’d just let this run its natural course and hit its destined dead end.
On a date with Yu-an, Eunseo honestly explains the entire situation to him. However, when she tries to bring up Haerang, as a good wingwoman does, he covers his face in embarrassment. Eunseo begins to hope that Haerang’s relationship with Yu-an wasn’t doomed before it began.
Meanwhile, Sihwa talks to a girl who recognizes him as ‘Rainbow’ from the college group chat. When she brings up his famous family, he nearly slips up and curses them out loud. He stalks away from the girl, ignoring Haerang, who was on a nearby sidewalk, and gets into his car. Sighing, he picks up his phone and answers another call from Sigyun Kang, concluding In Between Chapter 26.
In Between Chapter 27: Flowers Uncared For
In Between Chapter 27 begins as Sihwa, dressed in a sleek suit, arrives in front of a magnificently tall building with a bouquet of flowers clutched in his hands. It being his mother’s death anniversary, he was about to attend a family dinner.
Eunseo finds out about Sihwa’s plans through her mother, although she doesn’t get much information from her, and immediately begins to worry about him. From what he’d told her about his family, Eunseo knew that his going home was a big deal. She worriedly texts him when he doesn’t pick up his phone.
In a dark room, Sihwa lies slumped against the wall with his floral array discarded to one side. Between bruised fingers, his phone lights up with Eunseo’s text and casts an eerie glow about the room.
Running In Circles
Later, Eunseo, Haerang, and Jihyeon meet up for a few laps around the race track. In the bright illumination of the floodlights, the entire ground was occupied by groups of young students on picnic blankets, chattering with lively enthusiasm amongst themselves. But in the joyous atmosphere, all Eunseo could think about was Sihwa. Was he okay? She stops running mid-lap after the stinging sensation in her foot finally becomes unbearable. Her sneakers had been bothering her for a while- and now they’d given her a big red shoe bite. Even as she dismisses the pain, Jihyeon seems to doubt her.
Suddenly, Eunseo’s phone rings with a call from Sihwa. She wastes not a millisecond in answering the phone and frantically looking around for him. Still donning his formal ensemble, Sihwa casually strolls onto the field and is immediately pounced on by Eunseo, who thoroughly shakes him- an effective method- and checks to see if he is fine. But the conversation quickly flips onto Eunseo as Sihwa notices her injured foot. He’d remembered the way she acted like everything was fine, even when they were young. “I could carry you,” he offers slyly, concluding In Between Chapter 27.
In Between Chapter 28: All The Pain Within, Beneath and In Between
In Between Chapter 28 begins as Sihwa holds out his arms to offer, carrying Eunseo, revealing his bloodied hand in the process. Eunseo gasps as she sees the shabbily bandaged wound. Without any fuss, Sihwa turns to Haerang and asks her about the club, dismissing the scrape completely. With her characteristically infectious optimism, Haerang introduces Jihyeon to him. The two boys make eye contact and pretend to have never met. As Eunseo and Sihwa leave together, Haerang explains their situation to Jihyeon, who curiously watches them walk away.
At the apartment, Eunseo watches Sihwa doze away on the couch. She stares at his wounded hand and wonders what happened. When she reaches out to touch it, Sihwa wakes up and asks what she was doing. Eunseo finds herself panicking again. What could she ask him about? What if it was something he couldn’t tell her? She asks him how he’d play the piano with his hand, barely causing ripples on the surface of the ocean of questions she had for him. When Sihwa dismisses it again, Eunseo bursts out in anger. “If you’re not okay, just admit it,” she says finally. Instead of replying, Sihwa asks her if she wants to visit the beach.
As Deep As The Dark Sea, As Deceiving as The Blue Sky
In the middle of the chilly night air, Eunseo and Sihwa gaze out at the horizon and the waves crashing against the shore. Sihwa begins to explain himself, starting with the fact that he didn’t play the piano anymore; it reminded him of his mother too much. He looks down at his palm and says that ‘this kind of injury’ didn’t matter to him anymore. He reveals that he’d given himself his injury.
Sihwa had arrived home to yellow flowers that decorated the building; the same flowers his mother had loved. But when he’d realized that his stepmother had arranged them, he’d shattered the glass vase onto the floor, cutting his palm.
Eunseo listens to Sihwa in silence. She didn’t feel sorry for him; instead, she felt sorry for herself. Since Sihwa seemed like such a happy-go-lucky guy, someone who might nearly burst with infinite cheer, she never considered that he could be hurting on the inside. Eunseo just wanted him to stop hurting. ‘I want you to think of me as a friend you can truly rely on,’ Eunseo thinks, as Sihwa plasters a smile on his face again and playfully pulls her into the frigid seawater. In Between Chapter 28 concludes as a shirtless Sihwa leans over Eunseo, asking if she is awake.
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