Killing Stalking

Killing Stalking (Korean: 킬링 스토킹) is a South Korean manhwa written and illustrated by Koogi. It was published online in Korean and English by Lezhin Comics and won the ₩100,000,000 Grand Prize Award at the Second Lezhin World Comics Contest.[1][2]

Killing Stalking
Cover of the first comic volume (Italian edition)
킬링 스토킹
GenreDrama, horror, psychological horror
AuthorKoogi
MagazineLezhin
Original run2016 – 2019
Collected
volumes		4

Plot

The story follows Yoon Bum, a young, mentally ill man with a difficult past. After becoming infatuated with Oh Sangwoo, a peer from his time in the military who saved him from a rape attempt, he decides to enter Sangwoo's home while he is out of his house. Yoon Bum finds a tied up, bruised woman in Sangwoo's basement and before he is able to free her, he is discovered by Sangwoo, who is revealed to be a serial killer. Sangwoo then breaks his ankles and despite Yoon Bum's previous love for him, Sangwoo puts Bum into a highly abusive and manipulative relationship until the very end.

Characters
  • Yoon Bum (윤범)

Yoon Bum is the main character of Killing Stalking. Due to his parents dying when he was little, Bum was given to his grandmother and uncle with the latter severely abusing, raping and starving him, making Yoon Bum a lifelong abused victim due to also getting bullied in school, getting sexually abused and raped in military and Oh Sangwoo abusing him in several ways as well. Getting little to no affection from anyone, Bum frequently cut his wrists due to loneliness and gets attached to those who show him affection, making him a sensitive person. Central to Yoon Bum's character is his obsessive love for Oh Sangwoo, a university classmate with whom he serves in the military. Due to the requirement for mandatory military service in Korea, Bum receives affirmation of his enlistment after his first semester of college, despite his previous presumption that his low body weight would exempt him from active duty. He is ostracized in his unit, and his commander attempts to rape him. He is later told that the attempt was stopped by Sangwoo and it led Bum to see him as a saviour. After Bum completed his military service, he sees Sangwoo with a girl, ending up in despair as he now thinks Sangwoo is straight. Bum's crush transforms into an obsession, mostly fueled due to the fact that Bum suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder and Sangwoo was one of the first persons who, in Bum's eyes, showed him affection by saving him. Although he attempts to deny his feelings of attachment toward Sangwoo, Bum is unable to stifle them and "wouldn't be able to forget as easily as before."

  • Oh Sangwoo (오상우)

Oh Sangwoo is the second main character of Killing Stalking, the primary Antagonist. He is a classmate of Yoon Bum after Bum enrolled college for 4 years and is enlisted in the same military unit as him. He saves Bum from an attempted rape by his superiors, which causes Sangwoo to become the object of Bum's obsessive affections. Sangwoo is frequently seen in the company of female admirers for his good looks. He adopts a "happy, energetic" face and is shown to be often smiling, even when making eye-contact with strangers in social surroundings. During his time at the university, he appears to be an extroverted person with a large circle of friends. According to Bum, he attracted many with his "empathetic, considerate, gentle aura". These traits, however, mask his true psychopathic, violent and sadistic characteristics. Sangwoo is actually a cruel and ruthless individual who kidnaps, abuses, tortures, rapes and kills people, showing absolutely no mercy to his victims or remorse for any of his actions. He's highly narcissistic and looks down on everyone, pretending that he actually cares for others, only to strike them with honest hostility when he feels like it. His emotions, when facing his victims, alternate unpredictably between fake mercy and violent hostility. When speaking to established acquaintances, he teases them in a light-hearted tone and is not above making better acquaintances with strangers by doing so. Around his victims, he utilizes demeaning, harsh expletives, berating them with slurs. He tortures his victims slowly, yet with a certain pace, selecting to also manipulatively coddle them with simpering words and conduct before returning to his brutality. He appears to favour female victims, though not hesitant about males, either, despite having not murdered a man since his father's death in high school.

  • Yang Seungbae (양승배)

Yang Seungbae is a former investigator who has been demoted to patrolling police officer. As noted by his superior, he appears to pry too much into investigations and trusts his (usually accurate) intuitions even when lacking evidence. Dutiful and prone to skepticism, he often second-guesses others' conclusions. These traits prove to be detrimental, as they cost him his position on the investigation team. Three years earlier, he had looked into the murder of Oh Sangwoo's parents. Though the case was declared cold, he investigated further and became suspicious of the assumption that the culprit was a burglar, finding the evidence of a break-in too convenient. This left him apprehensive of Sangwoo's character.


References
  1. "1억원 고료 레진 공모전에 `킬링 스토킹` 선정". ET News. 3 April 2016.
  2. "제2회 레진 세계만화공모전, '킬링 스토킹' 대상 원문보기". NoCutNews. 1 April 2016.
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