There comes a time in every fanfic writer’s life when she realizes there is more to her masterpiece than meets the eye. For me, Nicole Hearstdalesteinberg, that time has finally come. In this paper, I will outline the most important major aspects of the MTIAPS universe that have until now been swept under the rug and left to collect dust in the murky shadows of the world of Asian fanfiction. By the end of this paper, I hope that you will walk away imparted with all the answers to the many questions you may have asked while reading these stories.

Good luck and Godspeed.

Yunee: a Mary Sue or a Subversion?

With Yunee, what you see is what you get. She’s immature, obsessive, erted, passionate, unintelligent, and oblivious. In some respects, Yunee has the makings of a Mary Sue, mainly lying in the fact that she wins the heart of a super-hot, realistically unattainable man (who has a lot to lose in dating her) without doing any work. Despite this, the universe recognizes her flaws, and so do the characters. Although Kris, Sehun, and Baekhyun do put up with her foolishness much of the time, there are many moments where she’s called out on her immature or irrational behavior. For example, Sehun shows anger toward her when she coerces him into having with her in Kris’s bedroom (MTIAPS, chapter 28). Kris has several moments of annoyance, both before and after he falls in love with her. He is particularly annoyed when she accidentally fills the bathroom with bubbles (MTIAPS, chapter 47).

The characters also recognize that she is quite stupid, most notably Baekhyun when he tells her, “I don’t know if you’re capable of handling complex instructions.” (MTIAPS, chapter 42) His surprise that she graduated high school when he didn’t (DTTWB, chapter 3) also signifies this realization of her stupidity. Likewise, Yunee’s daughter, Lana, calls her stupid outright and reproaches her for it (DTTWB, chapter 14).

Yunee’s personality shapes the story in a significant way. That is, her narration is intentionally unreliable. The main way this unreliable narration manifests itself is in her overglorification of Kris (see section: Yunee's Kris vs. The Real Kris). She also displays a skewed view of Kris’s best friend, Marina. She portrays Marina as a hideous, evil being who is hell-bent on destroying Yunee’s relationship with Kris and taking him for her own. In reality, Marina is never shown doing anything more than harassing Kris about not sleeping with Yunee because she worries he’ll end up impregnating her, getting caught, or otherwise ruining his career (MTIAPS, chapter 30). She even states that she respects Kris’s decision to be with Yunee if it makes him happy, yet Yunee continues to vilify her.

Yunee's Kris vs. The Real Kris

Kris is a total Gary Stu—at least, that’s what Yunee would have the reader believe. On the outer surface, Kris has all the makings of a “perfect” man if not for a few minor shortcomings: he’s tall, he’s handsome, he’s a great actor, he’s caring, he’s rich, he’s famous, and he’s amazing in bed. But how much of this is really accurate? The truth is, Yunee’s view of Kris is incredibly skewed. In Yunee’s eyes, Kris truly is all of these positive things. She sees him as the sum of everything she desires in a man. She sees him as someone who can do no wrong. In actuality, it is often implied that many of the characteristics she so loves about him are not really characteristics he possesses. Let’s take a closer look.

Yunee exalts Kris’s acting. He is her favorite star, and she claims this is because she “respects him as an actor” (MTIAPS?, chapter 13), supposedly not because she enjoys watching him have with men or because she finds him incredibly attractive. There are many indicators though that Kris is not a good actor at all. Kris himself admits that he could never land a role as a mainstream actor even though this was his original dream (MTIAPS?, chapter 25). When he befriended Marina, she offered him a job as a star on the basis that she wanted to sleep with him because he has an impressive package (MTIAPS?, chapter 27). Not once has any character aside from Yunee suggested that Kris is a good actor; even Kris himself shows doubts and hesitations about his acting skills, such as when he withholds his first film from Yunee (MTIAPS?, chapter 25).

Though Yunee never praises Kris’s teaching skills per se, she never questions his lack thereof either. It is implied however that Kris is not a very knowledgeable English teacher. He rarely teaches lessons and instead opts to pass out worksheets and sit at his desk while the students complete them. He even fills out Yunee’s worksheets for her, and despite months of remedial lessons, he is unsuccessful in teaching Yunee a of English by the time she graduates. It’s implied that she’s failing both English and Mathematics, yet she still graduates from high school in spite of this, while Baekhyun, who is also failing both classes, does not graduate. He even points this oddity out (DTTWB, chapter 3). It’s possible that Kris uses his teacher status to falsify her grades and thus help her graduate high school when she otherwise could not have.

The reason Kris is such a terrible teacher is that he has no interest in teaching itself. In fact, he only uses his English degree to become a teacher because he has a for schoolgirls (DTTWB, chapter 17). He sleeps with his students, but Yunee herself is never actually made aware of this despite his obvious attempts to have with her, such as the night he takes her to his apartment during a thunderstorm or their first remedial lesson when he tries to seduce her by telling her a ual dream he had about her.

Kris's Love for Yunee

Though Yunee sees Kris as a shining beacon of light, he is actually a dull, uninspired person without her. He’s bored with his life and feels unfulfilled, as evidenced by the fact that his only real relationship is with Marina, who is dominating and not someone Kris is ever seen actively pursuing a friendship with. She’s not exactly a good friend, she doesn’t actually consult Kris or care what he thinks, and she doesn’t even spend Christmas with him knowing he has no other family or friends. Aside from Marina and his students, the only other people he interacts with are work friends, such as his fellow teachers and other stars. He is only ever shown interacting with these people at work though. It’s implied that he has trouble keeping a relationship, as his own best friend thinks he’s gay until she learns about Yunee (MTIAPS, chapter 30).

When Yunee enters Kris’s life, he initially sees her as nothing more than just another random fan, another girl who only likes him for his body, or another schoolgirl to sleep with. This is because she initially only shows interest in Kris as the hot star, Dragon Express. He doesn’t exactly care for her as a person, but he does find himself ually attracted to her because she’s a student, so he decides to try to sleep with her. At this point, his main motivation is to have with her once and then forget about her like he does with his other students, because he doesn’t believe she values him any more than the other students and fans do.

Kris’s perspective of Yunee begins to change though when she tells him she respects him as an actor—the first time anyone has ever told Kris she likes him for more than just his body, the first time anyone has ever complimented his talent (or lack thereof). Although Yunee’s view of him is obviously still very highly ualized, for Kris, this is the first time he’s been seen as something more than a object. Thus it’s only natural that he would want to surround himself with this person who gives him the kind of attention and affection he really desires. It helps that Yunee is so easily excitable and that her emotions are so exaggerated, so every little thing he does is praised by her. She makes him feel special, and that’s what really makes him start to fall in love with her despite her stupidity and major downfalls.

Kris's Reluctance to Have with Yunee

Though is what Kris initially desires from Yunee, once he begins to fall in love with her, he shows a marked unwillingness to sleep with her. In fact, he goes from being willing to sleep in the same bed with her (MTIAPS, chapter 18) to insisting on sleeping separately as he grows closer to her (MTIAPS, chapter 26). Despite Yunee’s numerous attempts to bed him, it’s not until weeks after she moves into his apartment that he gives into her desires.

In actuality, Kris still feels insecure about Yunee’s intentions with him. Though he knows she loves him, part of him still worries that she’s only using him for his body and will run as soon as she gets what she wants from him. He references this worry twice: once when he finds Yunee sleeping with Sehun (MTIAPS, chapter 31) and again when he believes Yunee has broken up with him (MTIAPS, chapter 49). He thinks he’s been a fool for letting himself get wrapped up in a relationship with her when it was, as he believes, obvious from the beginning that all she ever wanted was to sleep with him.

Still, he eventually lets himself sleep with her for a reason that is never made apparent in the story: he’s already decided that he wants to marry her. Though never explicitly detailed, this is vaguely alluded to the night he has with her for the first time (MTIAPS, chapter 48). He sees that Yunee has gotten a heart-shaped tattoo with the words “Property of Kris Wu” written inside. His reaction to this tattoo is actually a total non-reaction. Instead of questioning why she has the tattoo, he laughs and tells her, “This means you’re stuck with me forever now.” He also refers to her as the love of his life during a meeting in the teacher’s lounge (MTIAPS, chapter 50.) The reason he doesn’t propose for two more years is that Yunee is so young, still only seventeen years old, and he wants to give the relationship time to mature before asking her to make such a big commitment. He waits until she has turned twenty and thus is no longer a teenager but a full-fledged adult.

Lana's Distaste for Yunee

Lana displays an obvious dislike for her mother and a clear-cut preference for her father. It’s apparent that Kris is the parent she spends most of her time with, evidenced by the fact that she visits museums with him on a weekly basis while Sam hangs out with Yunee instead (DTTWB, chapter 1). This distaste for Yunee stems from the fact that Lana is completely mistaken about the circumstances leading to her parents’ marriage. In fact, she doesn’t even believe that the two ever really loved each other and suspects that they only married because Kris unexpectedly impregnated Yunee (DTTWB, chapter 2).

Because Kris and Yunee try to hide details about their early relationship from their children (in hopes of hiding the fact that Kris was once Yunee’s teacher), Lana has to do her own math to figure out how they met. Lana learns from Suho that Yunee was a high school senior at the same school Kris taught at. From this, she assumes that Kris and Yunee engaged in a purely ual affair, not a romantic one (DTTWB, chapter 2). She also realizes that her mother conceived before she married her father, and thus she believes that the two only married because Yunee was pregnant. In short, she believes that Kris and Yunee are only together because he accidentally impregnated her and wanted to take responsibility, not because they were ever in love or would have otherwise wanted to marry each other. Because of this, she pities Kris for having to be stuck with Yunee because of the mistakes he made when he was young (DTTWB, chapter 2).

The main reason that Lana cannot believe Kris truly loves Yunee is because she sees her mother as daft, dumb, and undeserving of his love. She doesn’t see what someone remotely intelligent, handsome, and responsible like her father would see in a woman like Yunee. She comes to the conclusion that Yunee purposely keeps Kris tied to her and that she’s using him for his body and his money. This is implied when Lana finds out Kris and Yunee had been actively trying to conceive a third child more than a decade after Sam’s birth. She questions why her father would want to have another child with her mother when it would only ensure he would be stuck with her for another twenty years (DTTWB, chapter 3). In the end, she hopes that her father will be able to free himself from his marriage to Yunee but still respects him for taking responsibility and sticking with the family despite the supposed lack of love between him and his wife.

Sehun's Relationship with Yunee

Sehun is always shown to have a crush on Yunee, even from the very first day they meet, when he shows her the way to the gym and accepts punishment for being late on her behalf (MTIAPS, chapter 4). He wants to be with Yunee and will do anything it takes to win her over, as seen by the fact that he becomes a gay star solely for the chance to meet her again (TRHW, chapter 11). He admits to being in love with her and suggests that Kris isn’t the one she’s meant to be with. While Yunee and Sehun have a sometimes cute, seemingly mutual crush on each other, Sehun is always too focused on winning Yunee over and wouldn’t know what to do next if he actually did.

In actuality, I don’t think this couple would ever work out in the long run. Nothing would change between them even if they did someday manage to enter a romantic relationship. Their relationship would probably consist of nothing more than playing video games and bad . In the long run, I believe they would get tired of each other and split, because unlike Kris, Sehun isn’t selfless enough to put up with Yunee’s personality.

Yunee's Lingering Feelings for Sehun in Relation to Sam

Though it is never fully explored in the story, it is somewhat implied that Yunee has unresolved feelings for Sehun. It’s possible that she has always had a bit of a crush on him, even after she becomes officially involved with Kris. For example, when she starts to go stir crazy from being stuck in the house too long after giving birth to Lana, the first person she seeks for comfort is Sehun (TRHW, chapter 8). She calls him up and essentially takes him on a date to an arcade, shopping, dinner, and a movie.

The biggest piece of evidence for Yunee’s unresolved feelings for Sehun though is the way she raises her son, Sam. In essence, she raises him to be a copy of Sehun. She frequently takes him to the places where she used to hang out with Sehun, such as on weekly trips to the arcade (DTTWB, chapter 1). She encourages him to be a gamer by buying him as many video games as he wants, mimicking Sehun’s hobby for video games. It’s possible that she raises Sam this way to make up for lost feelings for Sehun after he marries and starts a family of his own.

Sehun's One-night Stand with Yunee

While many people believe that Yunee’s one-night stand is nothing short of vengeful jealousy and that she is entirely to blame for taking advantage of Sehun, in reality, he takes advantage of her as well. Yunee is heartbroken, in tears, and drunk when he arrives in her bedroom after her meeting with Marina (MTIAPS, chapter 27). Though it is Yunee who initiates the kiss, Sehun is at fault for letting the situation go any further than that. Yunee is clearly inebriated and not in the right frame of mind or capable of clear judgment, yet it is Sehun who lets his hands wander and ultimately instigates what leads to . He follows her all the way to Kris’s apartment and doesn’t even question where they are until after the fact. Instead, he takes the opportunity to have with her knowing she’s drunk. Ultimately, Sehun is not a mere victim of Yunee’s jealousy and is just as much to blame for what occurred that day.

Baekhyun's Negative Impact on Yunee

Baekhyun is Yunee’s best friend. The two grew close after she caught him having with Chanyeol, the school librarian, in the closet. While Baekhyun genuinely cares about Yunee as a friend, he has a semi-toxic effect on her. This mainly manifests itself in Yunee’s confidence when it comes to Kris. Yunee is entirely assured that Kris loves her and never questions his feelings for her until Baekhyun comes into the picture. Baekhyun has a tendency to plant horrible baseless ideas in her head, such as the notion that Kris doesn’t love her enough or will not love her under certain conditions. He’s the one who makes her doubt whether Kris is willing to settle down with her when he’s on the verge of proposing marriage (TRHW, prologue 1). He’s also ultimately the one who freaks her out when she finds out she’s pregnant by telling her that she’ll get stretch marks, which leads her to believe she’ll become ugly and thus Kris will not love her anymore (TRHW, prologue 4). Despite this, Yunee never seems to notice that Baekhyun has a negative impact on her and still hangs onto his every word when it comes to relationship advice and the like.

Marina's Friendship with Kris

Marina is known to be Kris’s best friend, although Kris himself is never really seen actively pursuing this friendship. Still, she insists that she cares about him very much and tries to look out for him the best she can. This manifests in her constantly harassing him to break up with Yunee and find love with someone more appropriate for him (MTIAPS, chapter 30). But the real question is, why is Marina so insistent on taking care of Kris?

Marina is essentially the catalyst for Kris’s loss of family. She’s the one who suggests that Kris become a star and signs a contract with him (MTIAPS, chapter 25). This career choice ultimately leads to Kris’s parents disowning him, claiming that he has disgraced the Wu family name. Because of this, Marina feels responsible and obligated to take care of him. She wants to protect him from the pain of losing a loved one ever again. In fact, her main distaste for Kris’s relationship with Yunee seems to stem from the fact that she believes Yunee’s feelings for him are fickle (MTIAPS, chapter 31) and that she’ll only end up hurting Kris in the end.

It’s possible that another factor plays into her dislike of Yunee: Marina’s potential subconscious, never self-realized feelings for Kris. Though she herself believes her feelings for Kris are platonic, the extent to which she looks after Kris’s love life is overbearing and could almost be seen as jealousy. It’s also curious that she inevitably ends up marrying a man who looks almost identical to Kris.

Satire of Fanfic Clichés and the Star Idol

In the series, a star is essentially portrayed in the same light as any other idol. stars have dedicated fan bases and message boards (MLIAPP, chapter 26). Their films are even judged by how well they rank on adult DVD charts (MTIAPS, chapter 49). The original intention for My Teacher is a Star? was to serve as a satire of the fanfic cliché in which an adoring fan girl wins the heart of her beloved idol no matter how unrealistic the circumstances. In this case, not only was the idol an older man and a teacher who was obviously far, far out of her league, he was also a gay star. The chances of Yunee winning Kris’s love were virtually nonexistent, yet she did so with ease.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to conclude this paper.