I am so ambivalent towards this work. I don't know what it tries to achieve, frankly. If this is a guilty pleasure done for a niche public, since ML and FL don't end up together, it's a failure. If this is a nuanced, heavy psychological drama, it also fails, since, expect the ML, most other characters were too broadly written and the plot goes completely bonkers in the last third of the manhwa. So while this gripped me until a certain point (and boy was I hooked and enjoyed it), it lost me completely after that. And what a sad, sad waste.
No, to be more precise about whta buggs me here, it's mostly the contrived setup and the way the story flows. IMHO, this would have been a much more profound, deep manhwa if it dealt with a messed up FL and a majorly messed up Ml, and their complex, love hate relationship. But the author went down a different route, trying to make this into a cautionary tale against Stockhold syndrome and this was not handled well.
If this were a manhwa about a messed up woman who falls into a sick, twisted relationship with a lunatic, this story would make sense. But when we have a normal, boring FL with a terribly Mary Sue perfect husband (hated this characer so much), who can't escape from a overbearing gangster, we have a problem. I can see about 10 different ways how FL could have reacted at this whole mess and go on with her life. But to feel that she must divorce her husband, hide stuff from him and accept being the ML's mistress... Heck no. Too stretched, too unrealistic, and the ML isn't an Emperor or Duke or something that can coerce her into this relationship as he pleases. Granted he is powerful, but come on, not that powerful! Does ML really thing he was threaten the lives of her parents and husband and then end up with her in a relationship? Too many plot holes here.
As I said, it would have been infinitely more interesting if the FL wasn't such a bland, normal person, but also a bit shady, and with some weird desires. But nah, we don't get that. and the FL's husband... I really, really disliked his character. he's simply the perfect husband, worker, friend... You get the picture. And these kind of characters are the most boring, and the ones I don't want to read about at all.
Also, the plot goes south after FL escapes. Don't want to spoil it too much, but the things that happen afterwards were one miss after the other. While the plot had some coherence before, it falls apart spectacularly. The only thing that interested me by that point was the ML, he's by far the most well drawn, interesting char. He's not a good person, but a intriguing fictional char for sure. Sadly he also starts to unravel by the end of the manhwa, like the writers simply went haywire for some reason! But I enjoyed the buildup and there were some pretty good moments between ML and FL.
But the art was top class! Loves it so much!