Character	V/ Kim Jihyun
Appearance	Mystic Messenger
Media	Otome Game
Type	Obsessive
Love Interest	Rika

V is the head of RFA, taking over his fiancé Rika after she had allegedly committed suicide. V has a gentle and conservative personality, and is an extremely talented photographer.

SPOILERS AND PERSONAL OPINION

V first met Rika at an art exhibition when she was admiring one of his works. V approached her after he noticed how she had been standing in front of his work for almost an hour. After a short but heartfelt exchange, V offered to gift Rika the art piece which she had been admiring in exchange for a cup of coffee, since Rika felt bad about simply accepting his offer.

From then on, they began to grow closer, to the point where they decided to enter a relationship.

Since young, V had desired to be an artist. However, his ambitions were constantly put down by his father, who viewed art as dispensable. He wanted V to become a businessman like himself, regardless of what V had actually thinks. V’s deaf mother, who was once a professional violinist, saw through V’s desire and supported him. Unfortunately, V turned away from her.

It was only after his mother’s death that V regretted his decisions, and begin to face himself. He broke away from his affluent family and chose the life of an artist. While he wanted to paint more than anything else, he was also afraid of it. V had spent too long denying himself, and did not know how to draw art to reflect himself. As per his friend Jumin’s advice, V decided to pick up photography, another form of art that V finds easier to start with. After years, he honed his skills to become a renown photographer.

For long now, V had been fascinated by the sun – how it embraces all things on Earth the same way, how it shines everlastingly, with no judgement, and no discrimination. He imagined how it would be for one to act like the sun, to accept everything and anything, and bestow everlasting love onto others.

Through their interactions, V had realized that Rika craved for love and acceptance. He, on the other hand, was looking to love someone unconditionally. As a result, V sees Rika as a perfect candidate to be his partner, but also a canvas he that can freely work on. V wanted to nurture and heal Rika with everlasting love, and wanted to see how she would grow under such conditions. While Rika roughly understood V’s aim, she was willing to accept his way of love.

However, Rika also had a darkness of her own. Rika had suffered terribly as a child, and yearned for love and acceptance from others as she grew up. At first, Rika tried to achieve this by helping out others, doing charity and volunteer work. She felt best when she was needed by others. Unfortunately, her mentality slowly took a turn for the worse, and she started contemplating other methods to establish her place. Eventually, this led her to create her own religious cult, brainwashing and drugging victims into obedience, while she acts as the ‘savior’ of all these victims.

V was aware of Rika’s thoughts and behavior early on. However, instead of reporting her to the police like any normal person would, he chose to keep silent. He kept Rika’s increasing unstable mental state a secret from their close friends, and tried to resolve this by himself. He thought that by persistently showering Rika with unconditional love, by understanding her and embracing everything she do, she would come back to her senses.

Obviously, this idiotic plan isn’t going to work. Instead of coming to her senses, Rika turned aggressive during one of their fights, injuring V’s eyes in the process. The injury was so bad that V’s eyes could not heal by itself, and he needed medical attention. However, instead of seeking help, he kept the injury to himself and lets it worsen.

Later, V realized that if left untreated, the injury could blind his eyes permanently. Nevertheless, he refused treatment. To him, the wound was something Rika bestowed upon him. By his ideals, he wanted to embrace everything that Rika gave him. If Rika is to hurt and scar him, it is what he will accept. No matter what, V will love Rika endlessly, like the Sun casting warmth to the ones on Earth. V was obsessed with Rika, as well as the idea of loving her regardless of everything else.

In Saeran’s route and after ending, V got even crazier. He chose to side with Rika even after she tortured Saeran, manipulated innocent victims, and chose to side with the wicked prime minister and hacking organization to bring the RFA down. Rika wanted to kidnap Saeran and Saeyong, to force them into silence under her surveillance, under the claim that she is protecting them from harm. V simply indulged Rika, all while proclaiming his love for her.

In V’s route, he also wanted to give everything up and accept Rika as she is. By his words, if he alone will satisfy Rika, then he will gladly sacrifice himself for Rika and the RFA. Fortunately, with your help, he began to realize that what he attempted to do was plain retarded. He also began to understand his motivations. All along, he was obsessed with the idea of loving someone endlessly without judgement, and Rika was simply someone who he could perform his ideals on. He realized that he was obsessed with Rika, but it was not love.

Due to V’s stubborn personality, it took much persuasion from the RFA members and you for him to let go of Rika. Although a slow process, he begin to find courage to walk out of his past. With the matters with Rika settled, V began to explore his artistic side in a different form. While it took a few years, he eventually came back to find you and start anew. This time, he will love you correctly.

To me, V is one of the most annoying character in Mystic Messenger, along with Yoosung and Rika. He is portrayed as a gentle an self-sacrificing person, who thinks too much for others and bears all the burden by himself. If his approach had worked, or had at least benefited either Saeran or the RFA, I would not have been so judgemental.

Instead, his silence on the situation with Rika and Saeran caused harm to everyone around him. V got himself almost blinded, Saeran tortured, Rika left without treatment, roaming around creating religious cult and scouting victims, and the RFA anxiously kept in the dark.

Despite all this, he still truly believed this was for everyone’s good, and that he was doing great deed, sacrificing himself for everyone. Umm hello..? I would say he sacrificed everyone, including himself. Lols. This man is delusional.

Now, not everyone is as critical towards V as me, and the RFA is definitely much more understanding towards him in this situation. Even so, many of the members, such as Jumin and Zen, could be seen getting increasingly frustrated by V’s silence.

Should V have told the truth and sought help from the beginning, Saeyong would have been able to help Saeran, Jumin and Jae Hee would have been able to use their resourcefulness to stop the proliferation of the religious cult, and Rika could have gotten treatment earlier. As the head of RFA, the amount of idiocy V had demonstrated was ridiculous.

In terms of the romance in his route, even if I were to ignore his personality, I would still not be able to enjoy it. Due to the complicated and deep relationship between V and Rika, I felt like a third wheel trying to break the two of them up. Much of the route was spent exploring the complicated feelings of V and Rika, while you as the protagonist simply gave V the moral support and help to let go of Rika. Only towards the very end did V really ended up with you, and it felt forced in every way possible.

In V’s route, the creators narrated V to be obsessed, but not in love with Rika. This was clearly done to negate the relationship portrayed between Rika and V in the game thus far, so as to path way for a new romance between you and V. However, from all the other routes (which you probably would have to play before getting to V’s), you can clearly see his devotion and love towards Rika. He cared for her so much in the other routes, it is ridiculous for his feelings to simply turn into platonic obsession in his route.

Really, a V route should not have been created; the bond shared between Rika and V as explored in the other routes in is just too deep. I think his route was only created because of demands from the fans, and the creators just tried to force it out. Sadly, this was the result.