A review by pasarmalam
花樣年華 HYYH The Notes 1 by Big Hit Entertainment

4.0

No one else had opened that door and stepped in here. Maybe no one ever would. All those who meet must part, without exception. It could've been our turn. But, if someone still felt the need for "us" to be together, I wanted to send him a signal that i was here.

trigger warning: suicide, mental illness, self-harm, domestic violence

Before you read this, i highly recommend to read 'Save Me' webtoon which is the prequel and includes majority of basic information about BU and the storyline. As someone who grew up and spent most of my late teenage years with BTS and HYYH series, my opinion might be heavily biased and subjective, but i still think everyone could enjoy this book because the theme and issues that being discussed here is very universal, especially for people in young adult ages (also, make sure to be careful with the trigger warning). Yes, the overall tone is very heavy, angsty, and sometimes just straight up painful, quite a contrast to the beautiful cover—i swear, that's one of the prettiest book cover i've ever seen, the prettiest book i've ever own and touched with my own two hands. I love how this book is constructed like a diary (or journal or notes?), so it could explore each characters without being too focused into just one of them. It also feels more intimate and their different narration styles added more depth to both their characters and the story. Having watched every videos connected to HYYH series, i found it easier to imagine almost every scene in this book, but there's also many parts which are entirely new or never been mentioned before. I think they really help to answer questions i've been asking for all these years.

This book and the whole HYYH series feel so close to my heart. I just love them so much. It's a perfect epitome of the phrase 花樣年華 or 'the most beautiful moment in life'.