Hyperventilation is a completed six chapter manhwa written by Bboong Bbang Kkyu. First released in 2017, the manhwa has been published by ABJ Company. An ONA that includes six episodes at around two minutes each was released by ABJ Company in 2017. This was followed by the Hyperventilation Special in 2018. A web novel was released in 2020.
Synopsis[]
Manhwa[]
Myongi and Sunho haven't seen each other since they were 18 years old. Now 27, they run into one another at a high school reunion, and the romantic feelings they had for one another come rushing to the surface. But are they the same people now that they were back then?
Anime[]
Hyperventilation is a short animation and manhwa series that follows the story of two men, Myongi and Sunho, who are reunited with one another at a high school reunion. Seeing each other after so long brought up old feelings from their high school days.
Novel[]
Myeong and Seonho haven’t seen each other since their high school graduation. Now 27, they meet again at a reunion, and their lingering feelings resurface.
Characters[]
Lee Myongi[]
At 27 Myongi only came to the reunion to see Sunho, but he leaves with the excuse of taking a smoke after the prospect of Sunho meeting a woman is raised. During his school days he considered him handsome. Myongi has a lung condition (pneumothorax) hence why he sat out of gym class during school, and which also causes him bouts of coughing. He hates the negative attention it draws from others.
Han Sunho[]
He feels Myongi likes him and only came to the student reunion to see him. During school he was the class president, and one day he took Myongi by the hand to the nurse's office during a fit of coughing. He did not pay much attention to the problem with Myongi's lungs since he was not interested in it, but then seemed to develop an interest in him as a person after that.
Story Overview (Original Manhwa)[]
Beginning at a school reunion, the interactions between Myongi and Sunho, now 27, alternate between the present and nine years ago, when they were seniors at an all-boys' high school.
At their class reunion drinking party, Myongi stares as Sunho plays with a gold ring on his finger and humors another former classmate trying to set him up with a woman. Myongi excuses himself abruptly, claiming a cigarette break. He pauses in surprise at the door when he hears Sunho also announces he's going out to have a smoke. This astonishes many of his ex-classmates there, as he was the "goody-goody" class president during their school days.
Sunho finds Myongi sitting smoking on the curb and sits next to him. Interestingly, though he claimed to be a smoker as well, Sunhon has to ask Myongi for not just a light but for a cigarette as well. Myongi, flustered, gives him both.
Sunho wonders aloud how Myongi can be a smoker; when Myongi asks why, Sunho cites his lung condition. Myongi dimisses that he's he's better now, and adds curtly that it didn't excuse him from military service. Sunho smiles and says that, besides smoking now, Myongi hasn't changed a bit. Myongi realizes that Sunho actually remembers him.
We flash back nine years: during one unbearably hot day after gym (which Myongi, while looking glum, has sat out as always), Sunho and two of his friends are horsing around the classroom trying to keep cool while Myongi, pretending to read, sneaks looks at the handsome Sunho. Suddenly Sunho remarks that Myongi is lucky, as he doesn't have to get all hot and sweaty. All three boys turn to stare at him, clearly taking him off-guard, as he is usually something of an outcast whom other classmates (other than Sunho) essentially ignore.
Sunho's friends, rudely regarding the flustered Myongi, snottily discuss his lung condition as if he's not present and even speculate that a "hole in your lung" can exempt you from military service (which is mandatory for men in South Korea for 18 months). At the very idea of not having to put off his higher education for the military, Sanho remarks wistfully that he's jealous, not noticing Myongi's angry stare.
After the three boys turn back to their conversation, Myongi mutters angrily that what they said is bullshit, but only Sunho notices, looking both surprised and curious.
Myongi is beset by coughing before Sunho takes him to the nurse's office.
Back in the present, outside the reunion they kiss and get intimate before heading home together for the night with Sunho having removed his wedding ring at Myongi's request. Flashback to 9 years ago, upon leaving the young Myongi with the school doctor, Sunho wonders about him, then licks away some saliva Myongi left on his hand.
In the current timeline, after placing his wedding ring on Myongi's finger once he fell asleep, in the morning Sunho wakes up to realize that he has left. Contemplating the ring, Myongi recollects recent and past events and rushes back to Sunho but finds he has no idea what to say. They meet again and embrace, Myongi admitting that he left because of the ring. Sunho reveals to him that, in fact, he is not married, and that the ring is just for looks.
The bonus episode takes place after an indeterminate amount of time has passed since the events of "Hyperventilation" 1-5.
It's Myongi and Senho's graduation day, months after Senho has realized his feelings for Myongi. As the teacher gives a standard farewell speech, Myongi seems to feel Sunho staring; he looks back at him and looks surprised, then resigned. When the entire class stands to leave for the last time, Sunho realizes he has missed any chance to be with Myongi.
In the present, Sunho wakes up with a gasp in the bed he's now sharing with Myongi, a tear running down his face.
Later that morning when Sunho has left for the day, Myongi studies the "XL" shirt Sunho had slept in the previous night. He tries it on without particularly flattering results, and when he's taking it off, he inhales the fabric deeply, a hazy memory coming to him: Sunho, wearing it in bed before they went to sleep the night before, looking very attractive in glasses and suggesting weekend plans that Myongi barely seems to have heard.
Myongi becomes aroused as he keeps inhaling the smell of the shirt. He almost doesn't hear the door opening, and is struggling to take off the shirt as Sunho comes in, saying he forgot his car keys. Sunho becomes speechless when he sees Myongi with the shirt halfway pulled off, giving him a perfect view of his naked torso and clear arousal. Sunho promptly locks the door and doesn't even take off his shoes before crossing the room to be with Myongi.
As they kiss, Sunho unbuttons his work shirt and tells a confused Miyongi not to undress him any further than undoing his zipper. Instead, he removes all of Myongi's clothes besides the XL night shirt, pushing it high up on Myongi's chest.
Sunho remains fully clothed as they begin to make love, this time face-to face and both being much more tender. Sunho has another flashback, or perhaps fantasy, of their graduation day: Sunho, the last student left, watching Myongi walk away as a tear wells up in his eye.
In the present, he pauses and asks Myongi to tell Sunho he's not going anywhere. In answer, Myongi laughs softly and reaches up to toy with Sunho's bare chest; Sunho is surprised, then laughs hard at the unusual reply, which takes him easily back into the present where he hasn't let Myongi walk away.
After they're finished and recovering, Myongi suddenly realizes Sunho will be, at the very least, very late to his job. When he asks Sunho about this, Sunho mumbles "what work?", making Myongi laugh and kiss his neck.
We see that both of them are now wearing matching gold rings.
Hyperventilation Images[]
Link to Wiki[]
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