AO3 fic about Kim Dokja is honestly such a trip because the source material basically builds him up as this guy who defines himself through text, through stories he reads and the one he's in. The fanfiction that sticks with me really digs into what happens after the ending, when he’s technically back but still feels… disconnected? A lot of writers pick up on that lingering self-sacrificial wiring, the idea that even saved, he might default to seeing himself as a tool or a narrative device rather than a person who gets to live. I love the fics where Yoo Joonghyuk has to literally teach him how to want things for himself, not for the 'story.' It’s this painfully slow process of unlearning a lifetime of using fiction as a shield.
Some of the most interesting takes aren't even romantically focused. There's this one gen fic that had him working through his issues by trying to write his own story, and it was just him battling blank pages and his own internal voice telling him he wasn't a protagonist, just a reader. The growth feels earned when it’s that granular. The ship fics, especially with Yoo Joonghyuk, often use the relationship as the catalyst that forces him to be present in his own body and life, which is a neat narrative shortcut. But my favorite bits are the small, quiet moments of character growth some authors slip in—him developing a dumb hobby, or getting genuinely annoyed at something trivial, things that prove he’s finally inhabiting his own existence.