Bailin and Li Yun
is a Webcomic on Webtoon by January "Jayessart" Sun, about an Arctic scientist, Li Yun, and an Arctic merman, Bailin, both trying to find their places in the world. It began on June 30th, 2022, updating on Sundays, and was rereleased as a Webtoon Original on January 18th, 2024.
Tropes featured in Bailin and Li Yun include:
- Androcles' Lion: Subverted early on when Li Yun treats Bailin's arrow wound. The moment that the bandage is set, rather than sticking around at all, Bailin unhesitatingly departs into the sea without a backward glance. However, it's then Double Subverted, albeit downplayed, when Bailin returns to shyly drop him off a fish as a thank-you gift.
- Age-Gap Romance: While excoriating his horn-dog pursuit of Li Yun, Tanlin pointedly tells Jiangwen that he's over a decade his senior, and that he should give it up already.
- Apology Gift: After Bailin mangles Li Yun's field workstation out of curiosity, he dives back into the sea to collect a small mountain of fish as an apology.
- Art Shift: From highly-detailed illustrations to chibi-style doodles, the webcomic's art style is all over the place.
- Bathtub Mermaid: When Bailin crosses the globe to return to Li Yun, he decides to fill his bathtub with ice water to keep Bailin in, when one of his scientist friends says that there're no aquatic tanks for him to borrow. While Bailin's happy to be back in cold water and be with his dearest, Li Yun recognizes that this gives him a whole new cavalcade of problems to deal with, such as inevitable water damage in his bathroom, and the fact that it's not healthy for Bailin to stay in such a small space.
- Cute Mute: Bailin doesn't speak at all and doesn't understand spoken language, either, and Li Yun's initial attempts to communicate with him were clumsy at best.
- Dope Slap: In Chapter 29, Jiangwen has a lengthy Inner Monologue about possible romantic implications behind Li Yun compensating him for picking up the slack at their workplace (there weren't any), which Tanlin interrupts by lightly thwacking him over the head with a clipboard.Jiangwen: I didn't even say anything!!!
Tanlin: Your thirst could be heard from space. - Ear Fins: Bailin has flower-like fins for his ears, to underscore his aquatic nature.
- Foreign Queasine: Done recursively and Played for Laughs in Episode 7: Bailin's repulsed by Li Yun gutting and cooking a fish, who then asks Bailin how mermaids eat their fish. Bailin proceeds to nosh on one raw, which likewise grosses Li Yun out — making the same disgusted faces as Bailin did.
- His Boyfriend's Jacket: Played With when Li Yun takes Bailin to his house. He shows a fondness for the coat that Li Yun wore in the Arctic when they first met, but Bailin was originally puzzled when he saw Li Yun without it, initially thinking that he was a completely different person.
- Humanity Ensues: Chapter 38 sees Bailin shed his tail to reveal a pair of human legs in their place. He also sheds his arm-fins and his white scales, retaining only his clawed fingers and his Ear Fins.
- Icy Blue Eyes: Bailin's eyes are periwinkle blue, and he's an Arctic merman who can be distant and aloof when not thinking about Li Yun.
- Lilypad Platform: In the one-year Milestone Celebration, a human Bailin visiting a pondside temple in Hunan sits on a lily pad the size of a dining table.
- Meaningful Name: When the mysterious merman doesn't give his name to Li Yun, he decides to name him Bailin, from the Chinese for "white scales".note
- Mystical White Hair: Bailin has snow-white hair (and scales), and is a creature whose like had never been seen on Earth before.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: Bailin has Ear Fins, arm fins, pelvic fins, and a cetacean tail. He can also survive on dry land, and eventually sheds his tail to assume a bipedal form.
- Painting the Medium:
- Bailin's telepathic speech bubbles are blue and watery, to set them apart from human speech.
- In the "Snapshots" chapter where Bailin scrawls over some photographs that Li Yun took of the two of them, Bailin's chicken-scratch handwriting is in red ink and typically shorter than Li Yun's writings.
- Psychic Link: After their First Kiss, Bailin forms a telepathic link with Li Yun.
- Rainbow Puke: Used (along with a digital mosaic) to show Bailin retching in the backseat of Li Yun's car on the way to the latter's apartment.
- Role Swap AU: The one-year-anniversary trilogy features Bailin as a human and Li Yun as a jiaoren.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Played for Laughs when Jiangwen and Tanlin finally find an aquatic tank to fulfill Li Yun's request from some time ago. While Jiangwen finalizes the non-refundable deposit, Tanlin gets a call from Li Yun where he says he doesn't need the tank anymore. She hangs up to tell Jiangwen, only to find that he already blew five hundred bucks' worth for nothing.Tanlin: It was only a two minute phone call! Why did you go so fast!?
Jiangwen: You were right next to me! You could've stopped me! - Trauma Button: Bailin's family was devoured by orcas, which he's reminded of when he sees a television program about them. He panics, and smashes the coffee table.
- Wham Episode: In Chapter 38, after Bailin has been scratching at his tail for some time, it falls off entirely, revealing a pair of human legs. He's now effectively a human, which both solves the Bathtub Mermaid dilemma by letting him move around as a human, simplifying Li Yun's requirements for housing him, while also ensuring that he can't return to the sea.
- Wham Line: Chapter 30 has a huge one, not so much because of what's said, but because of who says it:
