I remember reading this, but stopped cuz it was just too depressing, they're painting South Korea to be like some hell for high school kids and that bullies rule all lol
Really liked that one. Not as much a coming of age story (though that theme has a strong presence), but more of a musing on friendships and striking a proper balance between solitude and loneliness.
You may get angry about the open meta-(non)ending, but in my opinion it really drives a point home.
It's slightly more refined and less introspective version of how Gainax does (did?) things.
Up to the moment of
boarding the train, epilogue seems pretty straightforward, but from that point on, it goes rogue - which puts in question how much of the chapter's content actually happened in narrative, in-story sense. Did they really meet, and are talking to each other as two people in physical proximity to one another, or is it some kind of shared dream experience? And what's with the conversation's flow itself - is it implying some sort of distant finale for the two, or is it just author musing about youth, loneliness and fleeting nature of human relationships through his-hers creations? Work commenting on itself, or characters inside that work sharing perspective on their fictional lives and expressing a wish about their possible futures? Likely the former, but who knows.
Either way, the narrative shift comes out of nowhere, much like the one in Evangelion's two final episodes. I wouldn't look too deep into it, cause in a sense, all things that fiction is supposed to present had already happened - there were tears, drama, fun, peaceful moments, ennui, personal growth, and all other kinds of whathaveyous - but with
Yool leaving and relationship between the two possibly ending, or at least changing its nature
, the story reaches something of a natural conclusion, and it doesn't really matter what happens next.
That lack of conclusiveness and sudden mood whiplash pisses some people off though. Personally i liked it, and the ending may be the sole reason i still remember this webtoon years after reading. It complements and plays well with what preceded it - if not story-, then at least tonally-wise.
On a side note, if this was a Japanese title, i would've probably wondered about how the ending alludes to "A night on the train of the Milky Way"*, but since it came from Korea, and i have no idea how popular and-or culturally significant that novel is there, i'll pass.
*A lie. I just wanted to namedrop a book that i didn't even read (but read on it, because Mawaru Penguindrum) - aside from oneiric ambiance, droplets of dream logic infusion and trains, they don't seem to have much in common.