Does 'My Bully Is My Lover' Have A Happy Ending?

Recently I binged My Bully Is My Lovers. The ending was so cute and it made me happy for days. Without giving away too much, the main character finally confronts his bully (now lover) about their past in a very cathartic scene. Their healing up and progression to trust each other is shown through little things such as them having lunch together and the insults that the bully used to say to him being turned into jokes. In the final chapter the two of them go back to their old high school and are holding hands the whole time, looking back and laughing at how far they’ve come. It was very satisfying because their happiness wasn’t just handed to them on a plate, they had to work for it and it was often painful and difficult to get to where they are. All of the supporting characters also get closure. For example, the main character’s best friend takes a while to approve of the bully/later lover because he is convinced that he will go back to his old self but in the end he is proven wrong and even becomes sort of like a protector to him.

This ending works so well because it is messy happy, not Disney happy. The bully doesn’t just say sorry at the end. No, the bully spends chapters proving that yes, she has changed. This is demonstrated when she nearly gets fired for tearing into her coworkers for mocking her boss’s love of her employee in that way, to defend the protagonist of this story. Her temper is still there, of course, but it is now a fierce protector of the protagonist. And the protagonist is not some passive saint either. No, she grows and also becomes better and actually calls out BS and sets boundaries and all of that good stuff. Their moment of reconciliation takes place in a really lovely and unexpected place (a karaoke bar, of all places) when the bully sings a really poor rendition of a terrible love song off-key. They both laugh at her off-key singing and it is clear that they will be okay.

Each of the side plots gets resolved in a pretty satisfying way. The bully’s ex-best friend appears to have finally found her own path to redemption and is helpful in the bully getting back with the protagonist. Even the bully’s confrontation with the protagonist’s mom is very sweet as the bully is doing a good deed by fixing the leak in the roof of the protagonist’s mom’s house. Not everything is tied up perfectly with a bow, as there is still a lot of gossiping between the two of them and some of the other classmates. But the main couple looks like they are going to be just fine. They even look happy buying matching ugly sweaters in the final panels. They tease each other, but you know they are going to be okay.

'My Bully Is My Lovers' ends in a good psychologically intricate way. The first part of the ending follows the consequences of the bully having become the lover of the boy she used to bully. Her past behavior suddenly surfaces and she loses her job opportunity. The turning point of the story comes when she publicly stands up for her former victim against their new bully. The cost to her of this action is social and shows her growth.

The confrontation with the deepest secrets of both characters takes place in the rain. The first confesses his deepest fear, the other her greatest shame. The reconciliation is not instant, however. A three-month-long reconstruction of their relationship is shown in detail: the therapy sessions, the forced family dinner, the lover teaching the bully to show affection without dominating her. The finale ends with the two of them adopting the stray cat that they had once fought over. This is what makes them happy: the nurturing of something that they had once destroyed. This ending is happy not in spite of the pain but because of it. It is realistic.