'Til Debt Do Us Part (달콤 살벌한 부부, also known as A Bittersweet Couple), is a Romantic Korean Webtoon by flowbee and janggreen. It was released in Korean in 2020 before an English Webtoon release in 2022; the latter can be found here
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Shin Subin, a kind and headstrong young woman who works paycheck to paycheck as a restaurant manager, is tired of how her money either goes to supporting her parents or to paying off the gigantic debt she owes her old schoolmate, Ji Yejun. Yejun approaches her with a proposition: if she agrees to marry him for a year, he'll clear her debt and secure a future for her parents. Subin eventually agrees. As she gets used to her new high-flying lifestyle as the rich Mrs. Ji, she becomes intrigued by her old friend and new husband's past and family environment, and eventually draws him out of his shell.
The comic's main story has 66 chapters; 6 extra side-story chapters were released after it concluded.
Tropes:
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head: One of the signs Yejun is developing real feelings for Subin is that he is voluntarily affectionate with her. In Chapter 46 he rubs her hair, and she notices that it's only the second time he's given her genuine physical affection.
- Affectionate Nickname: Invoked by Subin. To make their fake marriage more convincing, she insists that she and Yejun call each other "Honey", "Baby", or "Sweetheart" thrice a day. This "H.B.S." training causes a lot of romantic tension when the nicknames start to hit home.
- Alone Among the Couples: While on "honeymoon" in Hawaii, Subin complains that she's the only single person there. Her new husband eventually accompanies her.
- Babies Ever After: The webcomic ends with Subin giving birth to her daughter with Yejin, Seorin, who becomes the light of her family's life as part of the happy ending.
- Bedmate Reveal: Early in their relationship, Subin passes out drunk and wakes up next to a naked Yejun. She freaks out, but he explains that nothing happened.
- Boyfriend Bluff: Exploited by Yejun. When Subin's ex Geonho shows up, Subin has Yejun come to where they are to scare him off. Yejun uses this opportunity to get her to agree to a fake marriage with him.
- Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: The stoic, rich, and traumatized Yejun marries the cheerful and kind Subin, who not only draws him out of his shell but does the same for his similarly closed-off family.
- A Day in the Limelight: The second side story focuses on the love lives of Yejun's younger siblings, Yena and Yehun, who have been minor characters for the duration of the webcomic.
- Domestic Abuse:
- Yejun's mother had a string of abusive relationships and left her son with her abusive father, who was also physically abusive towards him.
- It is eventually revealed that Subin ended the relationship with her ex Geonho after he beat her so badly she ended up in the hospital. When he comes crawling back and quickly resorts to striking her when she doesn't agree to come with him, Yejun beats his face in.
- Doting Grandparent: Yejun's step-grandmother was the only person in his new family to treat him with love and care.
- Family Theme Naming: Yejun's younger half-siblings are named Yehun and Yena.
- Fiery Redhead: Subin is introduced as a redhead with a flaring temper.
- Good Parents: Subin's parents obviously raised her with love and care, and her motivation throughout the story is to provide for them in turn. Yejun, who grew up first the victim of an abusive grandparent then a Lonely Rich Kid, is jealous of this.
- Grand Romantic Gesture: While at a friend's wedding on Jeju Island, Subin engineers romantically meeting Yejun where she has laid out a ton of candles and flowers. Subin asks him to be her real husband and have a happy life with her, and he accepts.
- Happily Married: Subin and Yejun eventually grow into a genuinely loving and happy couple with an an adored daughter.
- Lonely Rich Kid: Yejun was adopted by his stepfather, a rich man who wanted a son. However, he never found happiness with his new family, especially after the births of his younger siblings. It hurt him when they acted like he didn't exist, with his own mother introducing his younger brother as the eldest son. In a conversation with his mother late in the story, Subin learns that his mother regretted Yejun's upbringing, but saw it as a way out from their abusive backgrounds. This way, Yejun grows up with resources and can find his own way in life.
- Love Epiphany: Yejun starkly realizes he has fallen in love with Subin when he sees her ex-boyfriend Geonho about to strike her in a parking lot and thinks he wants nothing but to protect her in that moment.
- Marriage of Convenience: Subin initially agrees to marry Yejun for a year because he had offered to clear the large amount of money she owed him. Yejun only wants a wife to make his ailing grandmother happy before she goes.
- Operation: Jealousy: When preparing for her Grand Romantic Gesture to Yejun, Subin enlists the help of Jaewon, a friend of Yejun's who had earlier admitted attraction to her. Knowing Yejun would be jealous, she and Jaewon hang out in order to lure him to the site of Subin's grand love confession.
- Playing Drunk: Early in the comic, Subin goes out drinking with Yejun and pretends to be dead drunk to see how he would treat her.
- Romantic Fake–Real Turn: Subin and Yejun pretend to be a lovey-dovey couple early in their Marriage of Convenience but later develop real feelings. The impetus for their fake coupling, Subin's large debt to Yejun, is not even brought up in later chapters as the main conflict becomes coming to terms with their feelings for each other.
- Sick Episode: Two chapters see Subin develop a fever and Yejun voluntarily take care of her.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Subverted. Of the Ji children, Yejun looks the most like the patriarch, Mr. Ji (and they are drawn similarly as well, with strong features and dark purple hair). However, he's his stepson rather than biological son. In one of the side stories, Mrs. Ji explains that she had found it shocking how strongly her second husband resembled her first (Yejun's father).
- The Unfavorite: Yejun's new family basically pretended he didn't exist growing up, with his mother and stepfather openly preferring his younger siblings.
- Uptown Girl: Subin is from a working-class background and marries into the very wealthy Ji family as she is indebted to the eldest son, Yejun. The financial disparity between them stops becoming an issue as they develop true feelings for one another.
