Heartwarming / Eleceed

• Jiwoo and Kayden's friendship. They both start out very lonely, Jiwoo because he's shy and different and no one wants to be his friend, Kayden because everyone cares about his power but not Kayden himself. Kayden becomes a protective father-figure to Jiwoo and guides him into the dangerous world of the Awakened, and Jiwoo gives Kayden the unconditional love and concern that Kayden has never had before.
• Jisuk and Jiyoung. Jisuk is a difficult kid, but he and Jiyoung seem to genuinely care about each other, as evidenced in the flashback when Jisuk reveals that he doesn't want to challenge Jiyoung for leadership and is concerned for her well-being under the stress of being Shinhwa's chairwoman. He also shows no resentment over not being as strong as Jiyoung to the point of bragging on her abilities to the Klein brothers. Jiyoung reciprocates this by facilitating Jisuk's friendship with Jiwoo and Wooin and praising him for fighting to protect his friends rather than to just cause trouble.
• Jiwoo and all of his friends
  • Jiwoo stands up for Wooin even though he barely knows him, both rescuing him from bullies and from Kayden's protective wrath. Wooin in turn fights one of the most powerful Awakened rookies in Korea in retribution for hurting Jiwoo.
  • Jiwoo reaches out to Jisuk even though he manipulated Jiwoo into an unfair fight and was all around cranky and unfriendly. Later on, Jisuk (like everyone who succumbs to the Jiwoo innocence charm) becomes protective of Jiwoo and treats him like a little brother, bragging on him to friends and giving him affectionate noogies.
  • Despite Subin's initial hostility, Jiwoo almost immediately begins greeting her like a friend any time he sees her and invites her to his friends' pre-academy party. By the time they get to the academy, Subin is hanging out in his room. By the time they leave the academy, she's unashamedly expressing concern for him like he's her little brother.
  • The unaffiliated kids at the academy. They start out very hostile toward Jiwoo and Wooin, taking Jiwoo's cheerful attitude to be insincere. After Jiwoo stands up for them to the affiliated kids, they realize that he really does care about him and join Jiwoo's growing cadre of ride-or-die friends.
  • Inhyuk. When he first shows up, it's not clear how benevolent Shinhwa is. However, Inhyuk quickly demonstrates that he really does have Jiwoo's best interests in mind, slapping down Jisuk when he tried to intimidate Jiwoo, putting in a good word for him with Shinhwa's chairwoman, reassuring Jiwoo that his cats will be cared for while he's gone, making sure the school is notified when Jiwoo is in the hospital (even if his excuses are terrible).
  • Not to mention everyone else whom Jiwoo interacts with, if they aren't a completely irredeemable waste of oxygen, becomes fond of or at least friendly with him.
• For all of Delein's shortcomings as a person and a parent, his rescue of Wooin from experimentation and continued care of him with apparently no desire to exploit his Awakened power is really sweet. His subsequent abuse during the initial arc of the story is retrospectively even more disappointing, but his care of Wooin afterward, cooperating with the Union in exchange for amnesty for Wooin, going along with the breakout so that they won't find out about Wooin, attacking his rescuer to protect Wooin, deciding to let a brain-washed Wooin kill him rather than hurt him again, encouraging Wooin's friendships, is reassuring of his role going forward.
• Kayden knocking out a brain-washed Wooin and then chewing out Delein for trying to commit suicide by Wooin because 1) that would crush Wooin and 2) Wooin being sad makes Jiwoo sad.
• Kayden curbing his murderous impulses simply because Jiwoo asks him to. This is a guy who literally does not care what anyone else in the world thinks of him or wants him to do. But if Jiwoo wanted the moon, Kayden would fly up and zap it out of the sky for him.
• Any time Kayden comes to Jiwoo's rescue, especially if he take human form to do so.
  • When Delein breaks Jiwoo's leg and is prepared to kill him, Kayden nearly annihilates him.
  Kayden (to Jiwoo): Don't worry about me. Just rest.

  • Extra dose of heartwarming when Delein, in spite of his earlier abuse of Wooin for a perceived betrayal, does not want Wooin to die trying to protect him from Kayden.
  • When the Klein brother is torturing Jiwoo to death, Kayden smashes him into the ground and prepares to serve him his own torture medicine, though he reluctantly stops when Jiwoo begs him not to.
  • When Dusik Kang is breaking Jiwoo almost literally in half as punishment for refusing to join Baekdu, Kayden destroys the building with the queen mother of all lightning bolts, crushes Kang (a very powerful Awakened in his own right) and claims Jiwoo as his apprentice. When Kang later decides to get his revenge by leaking information about Kayden and Jiwoo, Kayden shows up and sinks his whole boat. Baekdu has yet to figure out exactly what happened to their elder.
    • Kayden's whole interaction with Jiwoo and the academy staff on Jiwoo's behalf is sweet. Besides threatening to come after anyone who endangers Jiwoo, he also has a talk with the principal about how he has to leave Jiwoo behind. The principal correctly intuits, though Kayden won't admit to anything so sentimental, that this is to protect Jiwoo. Also Kayden's face when he talks to Jiwoo in the hospital and during his leave-taking. When a guy spends as much time glaring or smirking as he does, any softening of his expression speaks volumes.
  • Kayden transforming to deal with Supil Kang, who questions how Jiwoo could get so good as an unaffiliated Awakened. Also his conversation with Jiyoung afterward when he acknowledges how they've looked after Jiwoo and that he owes them for this.
  • In the kidnapping arc, the proud Kayden begging Shinhwa first to help him find Jiwoo and then to heal him. Also the whole sequence when he finds the pair that have kidnapped and tortured Jiwoo. He kills the one doing the torturing and only lets the other one go because he was a former friend and promises to kill him the next time he messes with Jiwoo. Even before the fight, a battered Jiwoo assures Kayden not to worry, that he didn't tell them about Kayden's force control. Kayden tells him that he doesn't care about that; he just cares that Jiwoo is safe.
• Jiwoo caring for the cats. As a kid, he didn't have friends, except for cats. Now he feeds the strays out of his own budget.
• Seongha Park looking out for Wooin even when the higher-ups don't want to take a risk because he knows Wooin is just an innocent kid who's a victim of circumstances.
• When Dusik Kang is using his power to crush Jiwoo, Giwook, Seongha and Inhyuk step up without hesitation to stop him even though he's a powerful member of Baekdu and could cause a lot of trouble. Even the principal, who is hesitant at first to directly intervene given the far-reaching consequences, moves to stop Kang regardless when it looks like he's going to permanently injure or kill Jiwoo.
• When Iseul shows up to check on Jiwoo after the kidnapping incident, Subin and Jisuk don't tease her, and later we can even see Iseul dozing against Subin and Subin with her arm around Iseul.