Character	Kim Yoosung
Appearance	Mystic Messenger
Media	Otome Game
Type	Obsessive
Love Interest	Protagonist/ You, Rika

Yoosung is an undergraduate at SKY university, and also a member of the RFA. Initially a perfect student, he began paying lesser attention to his academics following his college entry. Yoosung is also a game addict.

SPOILERS AND PERSONAL OPINION

The whiniest brat in RFA; I did not enjoy Yoosung’s route. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a good route, but rather Yoosung’s personality was too similar to people in reality, and I can totally see the scenarios happening.

Yoosung has a cheerful and innocent personality. On the bright side, he is very trusting and friendly, so he instantly warms up to you when you first entered their RFA chatroom. He is also very caring and relatable, which makes him likeable. However, this also means his naivety can get the best of him, and his inability to see things at a deeper level may also cause misunderstandings between him and his close ones. As Yoosung is very sensitive, he can be easily hurt, and well-intended acts may be misinterpreted and exaggerated into betrayals by him.

When the two of you first got to know each other in the RFA chatroom, Yoosung immediately trusted that you were good and innocent, despite you suddenly breaching the chatroom’s security and joining their chat out of the blue. As the two of you got to know each other, and you showed support and care for Yoosung, he began to develop feelings for you. Yoosung had never liked a girl in romantic way; you were the first for him, so it was an unfamiliar experience for him. Unfortunately, this also made him confused, and he approached this feelings the wrong way.

When Yoosung heard news of Rika’s alleged death over a year ago, he was devastated and could not bring himself to accept that his dearest cousin would commit suicide. Yoosung had harbored doubts over the Rika’s demise, and had never really gotten over it. This incident had also resulted in the tension between Yoosung and V, Rika’s ex-fiancé, as Yoosung believed that V had the responsibility to care for Rika and notice should anything go amiss with her. Yoosung fully blamed V for Rika’s death, and had not been on good terms with him ever since.

When you first joined the RFA to act in Rika’s role as the party coordinator for the RFA, Yoosung had already made a faint connection between you and Rika. After he developed feelings for you, his delusions got even worse. He believed that if Rika had indeed passed away, then she might have watched over him and sent you into RFA. You were a special entity for him sent by Rika, to help, guide, and love him, just like Rika did when she was around.

He began attributing everything about you with Rika. If you were kind to him, it was the type of kindness that Rika would have displayed. The way you talked, the support you gave, and the role you took – everything can be likened to Rika in one way or another. Yoosung even began to wonder if you would have the same appearance as Rika. In the same moment, he was obsessed with the shadow of Rika, and his feelings for you also turned into a twisted obsession.

To be precise, he was obsessed with you in two aspects: your similarity with Rika, and the need to have you for himself. As the two of you grew closer, he began too show extreme possessiveness towards you, and jealousy towards the other RFA members. As Zen is very good-looking and popular among the ladies, Yoosung was the most wary of him. He started to antagonist Zen for no reason, and even told you not to speak with him. On multiple occasions, Yoosung also expressed his discomfort in witnessing your interactions with other RFA members, and wished that you would only notice him. He started to behave irrationally, and began to see the RFA members’ concern as needless meddling.

If you choose to feed his delusions and make him worse, Yoosung will fully think of you as Rika’s replacement. When he heard that you were residing in a dangerous apartment with bomb installed, he went bonkers and ran out to find your apartment without listening to any advices or explanation from the members. Yoosung was desperate to keep you with him this time; he won’t allow another tragedy like Rika’s to happen again. But the bomb installed in your apartment was equipped with a sensor, and any RFA members entering the vicinity would trigger it’s detonation. By now, Yoosung had lost his sanity and declared that he just love you so much, he wouldn’t even care about his life. The scene ends when the bomb finished its countdown, ready to ignite.

On the other hand, you can discourage Yoosung from his behavior while supporting him through his struggles. By doing so, he gradually comes out of his shell, and admits that he had been living under Rika’s influence for too long. Yoosung learns to see you as who you are, and love you for yourself. When you were in danger, he took the courage to face the perpetuators to ensure your safety, and even sustained a serious eye injury in the process. In the end, he was able to grow from the immature and naïve boy he once was, into a fine man that can stand up for those he loves.

It is worth noting that the game specifically labelled Yoosung as a yandere – 707 called him that during a phone call in the early point of Yoosung’s route. I thought about this for a long time. In the end, I do not think that Yoosung ticked the checkboxes for a yandere.

For one, his attention was too divided between Rika and you. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that he focused more on Rika than you for most of the game, although his feelings for her were not romantic. Another point was that although there were quite a few times where Yoosung became possessive, jealous, and monopolizing, there was only talk and almost no actions. Even in the bad end where he went crazy and came to your apartment, he only appeared long enough to realize you don’t look like Rika, and state that he loves you anyway. Then the bomb detonated. For these reasons I do not consider him to be a yandere, but the obsessive qualities are definitely there.

Overall, I found Yoosung’s route to be much less interesting than most other routes in Mystic Messenger. I did not find Yoosung’s growth to be very fulfilling since the change happened in too short a time, and for quite unconvincing reasons. In less than 11 days, Yoosung fell in love with you, and with this love he decided to stop his game addiction, and even change to become a mature and courageous person. I get what the game developers and script writers are going for, but I am unconvinced.

Yoosung is cute, sweet, and thoughtful, and I really liked those parts about him. However, he can also be a selfish and whiny brat, which becomes more apparent in other routes. There will definitely be people who find his innocent and cute personality a breath of fresh air in this plot-heavy game. Unfortunately, Yoosung was not for me.