{ Alternate title: Dawn, Clouds, River | Original Title: 새벽, 구름, 강 | Publisher: Lezhin | Audience: Mature }
If there’s one genre I absolutely love, it’s the supernatural genre. Ghouls, spirits, youkai, etc. GIVE ME ALL OF IT. So of course I picked up Dawn, Clouds, River aka Dawn of the Dragon once I read its summary. What’s surprised me so far is how much I’ve come to love this story, and I’m looking forward to seeing the second season release on Lezhin soon.
SEASON ONE REVIEW
In the universe of Dawn of the Dragon, the supernatural exist but have dwindled in prominence as human kind has become more modernized. Now, their presence is only known to a select few. Those who are fortunate enough to receive divine protection from guardian spirits are rewarded with wealth and prosperity. Their gains are proportional to the power of the spirit they serve, and the most powerful deity of them all is the dragon.
And the dragon deity of the Yoo family is threatening to leave.
To prevent their family from falling into ruin, the Yoo family suggests that their youngest daughter announce herself as the reincarnated mate of the dragon. Taehyuk, not wanting to sacrifice his little sister, offers to take her place instead. He’s a businessman, after all; he can just make a deal with the dragon. No marriage or reincarnated mate necessary.
Taehyuk goes to the secluded yet well maintained property of the dragon, and he’s quickly met by an amorphous black blob who is a little too friendly. He’s assaulted by the blob (think: tentacles) to get his *ahem* “essence.” And as Taehyuk passes out, out of the black goo forms a large, rather good-looking man, the dragon in his human form: Hyo-un.
Right from the start, Hyo-un is hostile towards Taehyuk. He wants Taehyuk to leave immediately. With his back against the wall, Taehyuk decides there is no other option for him than to lie and tell the dragon that he is his reincarnated mate. However, just like Hyo-un, he doesn’t have his memories of the past, so wouldn’t it be in both of their best interests for him to stick around? Although Hyo-un is skeptical, he begrudgingly lets Taehyuk stay and the two become housemates.
Slowly over time, Hyo-un gradually warms up to Taehyuk, but Taehyuk’s guilt soon gets the best of him. He comes clean about his original intentions and also confesses one more thing: he’s likes Hyo-un. That’s why he wants Hyo-un to know the truth.
Hyo-un is understandably upset, and back at the estate, he avoids Taehyuk to the extreme. Taehyuk, however, still attempts to talk to Hyo-un whenever he gets the chance, and during one encounter, Hyo-un accidentally injures Taehyuk. Despite it being a small scratch on the cheek, Hyo-un is paralyzed in fear/guilt/???, so Taehyuk takes this chance to calm him down and talk it out. He apologizes again for deceiving him, and announces that he’s trying to find Hyo-un’s real mate, as a way to make it up to him. And when he’s successful, Taehyuk’ll leave the estate.
As these events are happening, we get glimpses of Hyo-un’s illness. When we first meet Hyo-un, we’re aware that he’s not in the best shape, but his illness worsens as the two spend more time together. Hyo-un hallucinates, suffers from high fevers and coughs up blood. But the thing is, Hyo-un gets even worse when Taehyuk is not around or threatens to leave. So does Taehyuk’s presence help or hurt Hyo-un?
Taehyuk consults other guardian spirits for a cure, but no one seems to know any remedy. After all, dragons aren’t supposed to get sick. The mountain lion spirit suspects that it’s Taehyuk’s presence that is making the dragon ill. Being close to someone from the same bloodline of his mate is possibly causing Hyo-un’s sickness. Taehyuk begrudgingly acknowledges the lion spirit may be right. He doesn’t know it for sure, but if there’s a chance that Hyo-un will get better if he leaves, then that’s what he needs to do.
So he does just that. In the middle of the night, while Hyo-un is still asleep, he leaves the estate for good. The next day, Taehyuk is on a plane when some unexpected turbulence pulls the flight out of the sky. Literally. And that “unexpected turbulence”? It’s Hyo-un in his dragon form kidnapping the plane back home.
After bringing the whole plane back to the estate, Hyo-un begs for Taehyuk to stay with him. This is the scene where Hyo-un deservedly earns his moniker of “crybaby dragon” and I mean that in the nicest way possible. He makes an impassioned, heart-wrenching speech to Taehyuk, telling him that he doesn’t care about his past mate anymore. He doesn’t care if he’s sick. He just wants Taehyuk to stay by his side.
Taehyuk agrees to stay and my, my, buckle up for some insane make-up sex. I mean, they’ve had incredibly passionate (ha, that’s an understatement) scenes all season, but this time in particular is… wow.
Afterwards, Taehyuk and Hyo-un live in domesticated bliss, but it’s short-lived. When returning to the estate after a date, Taehyuk finds that Hyo-un, whom he thought had simply fallen asleep on the ride home, won’t wake up.
Taehyuk calls in as many guardian spirits as possible to help cure Hyo-un, but no one knows what to do. Then, the lion mountain deity tells Taehyuk of the existence of another dragon. Who would know better how to help a dragon than another one of its kind? Determined to get answers, Taehyuk sets up a search party. He’s going to turn the mountain inside out to get him the answers he needs.
During the search, however, the search party disappears right in front of Taehyuk’s eyes. He goes after them, but the slippery ground causes him to fall off a cliff. He’s rescued by a kind older woman who lives in the mountains by herself. Turns out that this lady is the very dragon he’s been looking for. She tells him not to worry, that Hyo-un will wake up in time. He’s just in a deep sleep, recovering his lost memories.
Suddenly, Taehyuk awakens, and we all realize that he actually never left the spot he landed when he fell off the cliff. (So what was that whole thing with that dragon lady then?!) He’s trying his damnedest to stay awake, but as Taehyuk passes out, we see a beautiful blue butterfly fly away… and travel through space and time to land on the shoulder of someone wearing traditional Korean clothing. And that someone has Taehyuk’s face.
This must mean…. AHHHH!!! TAEHYUK REALLY IS HYO-UN’S MATE!!!!
But is he really? It feels a little too obvious, but I won’t complain if it’s true. It would explain why Taehyuk is drawn to the portrait of the dragon in his family’s study… although I’ve always suspected that the torn up portrait isn’t of the dragon but it’s of Taehyuk’s ancestor.
My Season Takeaways
You know, I’m really disappointed that Lezhin didn’t translate the author’s end-of-season message because in it, the author gives brief character profiles for Hyo-un, Taehyuk, Ryeo-ah, and…. Taehyuk’s brother Hyeon? What? Come again??? Now if that isn’t some kind of tell, I don’t know what is. Why would the author possibly profile the brother unless he’s a major part of the plot?
The brother is just all kinds of sus, isn’t he? First, he looks nothing like his siblings with his brown hair and those weird yellow-red eyes. His name doesn’t follow the family naming convention either: his name is just Yoo Hyeon. That’s nowhere close to Taehyuk or Taehee. He’s immediately dismissive of their family’s guardian deity, and even has the audacity to suggest that there are “other ways” to deal with Hyo-un. Excuse me? Are you really suggesting to physically harm the dragon?
Along similar lines, at the beginning of the story, it’s mentioned that something happened to have awakened the dragon. All three of the Yoo children are adults, so the supposition that the dragon’s mate was suddenly reincarnated can’t be it. What could have happened recently for there to be enough of a development that Mr. Dragon woke up? At the beginning of the story, the only person missing was the older brother. He was supposedly off in Hong Kong for business, but I’m thinking maybe he was up to something else. Exactly what, I have no idea. But he’s so suspicious, I can’t help but doubt everything about him.
My Final Thoughts
Like I mentioned in a previous post, Dawn of the Dragon is back for its second season on Bomtoon and will (hopefully) release on Lezhin soon. From what I could understand from episode one, Taehyuk and his brother Hyeon have a complicated past. Looks like Hyeon tries to control every aspect of Taehyuk’s life, and because of it, Taehyuk runs away. He goes to a remote village and it’s there that he meets Hyo-un, whom he finds lying face down with his head submerged in a river. Quite the intense season premiere, if you ask me!
The last thing I want to say is this: If you decide to pick up this manhwa, be aware that the sex scenes in it are over-the-top. This manhwa wears its Smut tag PROUDLY. So be prepared if that’s not your thing, but please don’t let that deter you from reading the story. Taehyuk and his crybaby dragon are totally worth it.
