Boy, with Caution

So much love and so much pain

I definitely wasn’t expecting this when I pressed play on the first episode, I thought it was going to be another ‘just okay, maybe questionable’ kbl but it was so much more, Hyeonjae and Giwoo’s feelings are the result of so much regret, resentment, anger solitude and despair that culminated in a type of love that isn’t quite right, or healthy but that exists nonetheless. They were two people that recognised each other’s pain and somehow found comfort in it.
Though it can be argued that what they shared wasn’t love per se, as it existed in a grey area that is difficult to explain with words; I felt it all so deeply and I couldn’t help but feel immense sadness to what was their inevitable end. Maybe this is not the ending I would’ve liked to see, but ultimately it was the most realistic one.
Cinematography and soundtrack were also very stunning.

Read More

I know the premise seems iffy, but this was really well done.

For those of you on the fence because of the subject matter, I would still advise you to give this one a try. I know open/sad endings aren't for everyone but there is something almost romantic about how this show dealt with the misery our four mains went through. This is not in any means a love story. This is the most incomplete complete story you will find this year. Things are left unsaid and actions and affections are not returned. The acting was brilliant. you could really feel the weight of the stakes in this show, which is something I appreciate. I know cheating and age gap is some thing that most people tend to skip but if you could sit through just 8 30 minute episodes, I truly feel you would get something out of this show.

Read More

A Breathtaking & Heartbreaking Story Of Despondency

Series from South Korea this year have been either disappointing or almost getting there. Until now. This is an exceptional and rare story and, for me, an objet d’art. With a caveat emptor, however. This is NOT a story or series for the BL traditionalist, as it has no romance warble to it. In fact, it is the antithesis of that. It has realism and veracity. This narration stands alone and is an epic. From the very beginning, the story envelops you in an aura of darkness and keeps you there throughout. It is a story of and about depression and its depth on one specific man, who tries on occasion to rise above it by attempting to display empathy towards others. Unfortunately, every time he does so, it creates the wrong impression on the person with whom it was intended to help. And worse than all of that, he is powerless to stop himself or see how his compassion may have caused the pain. He is too far down into the depths of his own despondency. This is a harsh and cruel story. While it might appear that there are no winners here, only losers, I would argue just the opposite. To appreciate this story, you must suspend your own sense of what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. These protagonists and antagonists are not playing by our rules. They have given up on living. This is a story of a vast swarth of people who live life functionally, not humanly. This is their reality and it is not pretty. And there are no happy endings here for most of them. The bad people will continue to do bad things. Such is the existence of this (literally our) world. I was profoundly moved by the story, its production, and the intense acting of this drama. It is a pensive and reflective saga of the less glamourous aspects of love storytelling. This does not diminish its validity; it simply offers a different perspective. One that is real, honest, genuine, yet disheartening. Such is what life is all about. This is unquestionably a quiet and deeply pensive masterpiece,

Read More

The Cruelty of When Life Offers

This is just gonna be my one hell long personal reflection on the series, rather than a critique focusing on the two main characters.

There is something deeply cruel about the way life sometimes offers us things. Just when we have almost stopped expecting anything from it, it gives us something we might have desperately needed, only in circumstances where we cannot possibly accept it. And I think that is what makes *Boy, with Caution* so affecting.

Let’s start with Gi U. He is thirty-two, at an age by which the world expects you to have figured things out, accomplished something, built a life of your own. Instead, he seems to have settled into the monotony of simply existing. Between his mother’s expectations, his estranged marriage, his responsibilities as a teacher, and his own sense of what his life should have been, there are so many knots that he doesn’t even seem to know where to begin unravelling them. So he goes through the motions. He carries on, getting through one day after another. I wouldn’t necessarily call it depression. It feels like something much harder to articulate: a profound exhaustion with life itself. A loneliness that comes not from having nobody around, but from having nobody to lean on when you have always been the one expected to carry everything.

And then there is Yong Jae, barely twenty-one, who has already been given more than enough reasons to distrust the world. He finds in Gi U someone who notices him, believes in him, and cares enough to look beyond the person everyone else thinks he is. What begins as a source of comfort gradually becomes something he holds on to with all he has.Ha Jung Hoon conveys this beautifully, particularly through the gradual changes in Yong Jae’s expressions. There is a fire in him, dimmed by the life he has lived so far, that Gi U’s small gestures of kindness seem to rekindle.

But I think this is how the age difference comes into play as something more that just a number. It isn’t simply a matter of twenty-one and thirty-two, or the boundaries of a teacher–student relationship. They are standing at entirely different points in life. Yong Jae thru Go U is still reaching towards the possibility of a future, while Gi U seems to have lost the ability to imagine one for himself.

There is something deeply tragic about being at that point in life when someone comes along and loves you so earnestly, so completely, and yet is precisely the person you cannot accept that love from. Perhaps some part of you even wants to. But what can you do with a chance that arrives in a form you cannot make a life out of? What do you do when you are barely holding yourself together, let alone imagining what you could offer someone else?

One of the moments that stayed with me was the hug, when Yong Jae tells Gi U that he doesn’t have to do anything, that he will still love and care for him. I felt that hug. There is something so vulnerable about being told that you don’t have to prove your worth, accomplish something, or become someone else to deserve affection. Gi U has spent so much of his life being expected to carry things, to be something, to fulfil one obligation after another. And here is this boy telling him that he can simply exist and still be loved. I don’t know what Gi U feels in that moment, but I can imagine how profoundly it must affect someone who has almost forgotten what it feels like to be understood. And ye, as Yong Jae continues to confess his feelings, Gi U keeps asking him to stop.

This brings me to another favourite scene towards the end, when Yong Jae tells him that he would have stopped if he knew how, if that was what Gi U wanted, but he simply doesn’t know how to. Ha Jung Hoon’s expression in that moment is heartbreaking. There is no grand declaration, no dramatic outburst. Just the gradual resignation almost like that fire dimming again - of someone who has tried so hard to explain himself and still cannot make the other person understand. What is he supposed to do now? How does he make someone understand that he cannot simply switch off what he feels?

Both actors are remarkable in how much they convey through so little. Ryu Se Il’s Gi U is never simply expressionless; his exhaustion reveals itself in the smallest changes of his gaze, his pauses, and the moments when he cannot quite meet Yong Jae’s eyes. There are so many microexpressions throughout the series that say what the characters themselves cannot. That restraint is what makes their performances so affecting. These are two people who, for entirely different reasons, struggle to articulate what is happening inside them.

One of the threads that runs consistently through the story is Gi U’s instinct to notice students in need and extend a helping hand, even as the emotions between them become increasingly complicated. The scene of their reunion in the staff-room toilet, the very place where they first met, is where I felt my heart break for Yong Jae. After the anonymous chats are leaked, Yong Jae is an obvious person to blame, given that they came from his phone. But Gi U almost immediately tells him that he knows it wasn’t him, taking Yong Jae by surprise once again that someone believes in you without presuming the worst. What makes the scene even more poignant is what happens immediately afterwards. Gi U is present during the meeting with the other boy’s mother, but when the chairman asks him to leave him and Yong Jae alone, he has no choice but to walk away. He wants to help, he understands what is happening, and yet he cannot intervene. It is such a painful reminder that recognising someone’s suffering and actually having the power to stop it are two very different things. Gi U has spent so much of his life trying to carry others, and yet there are situations in which he can do nothing but watch.

And this brings me back to the night they sleep together, a moment I found myself conflicted about. I don’t think it was a romantic culmination, nor do I think it necessarily meant that Gi U had reciprocated Yong Jae’s feelings. More importantly, it was not a testimony to the idea that Gi U’s kindness had ever come with the expectation of something in return. He was already overwhelmed by everything unfolding around him. Perhaps he wavered in a moment of vulnerability, loneliness, or attraction that he himself could not fully understand. But the encounter means something different to each of them. For Yong Jae, it may offer hope; for Gi U, it may be something he cannot reconcile with the boundaries he has tried so hard to maintain. The story seems to insist, time and again, that Gi U’s kindness for his students always existed but with Yong Jae, he found the reciprocity when Yong Jae kelt diving into the deep end to pull him up making Gi U realises with a start that he, too, needed saving, but how do you let that same person pull you up for whom you wouldn’t dive in for?

By the time Gi U decides to leave, Yong Jae has begun to find the courage to resist his father’s control and imagine a life that belongs to him. In that sense, their encounter has changed him. But I think it has also left him more wounded than before. He has already experienced what it means to love someone who may not love him back. But now he has experienced something even more difficult: the possibility that he may have been wanted, in some way, and still not be chosen. When Yong Jae finally gives up pursuing Gi U, I don’t think he is simply accepting rejection. There is a quiet heartbreak in the way he seems to understand that he cannot keep reaching for someone who keeps pulling away, someone who might disappear altogether. And perhaps the most devastating thing is what this leaves him with. He was already looking to life for a reason to believe in it, for someone who could make him feel that he was worth something. Gi U gave him that. But the experience may also teach him to be afraid of reaching for someone again. When he says that loving someone can itself feel like a mistake, I wanted him to know that it wasn’t. His feelings were never wrong. But it is heartbreaking to think that he might carry this experience into the rest of his life as yet another reason not to trust what he feels.

Gi U’s own ending is just as unresolved. He confronts his mother and makes decisions about his marriage, but we still see him breaking down alone. Has he finally begun to reclaim his life, or is he simply escaping something he doesn’t know how to face? The final bus-stop scene, with the night giving way to morning, seems to leave room for hope. I want to believe there is some change, some movement towards a life of his own choosing. But the series doesn’t tell us enough to know.

And this is why Boy, with Caution could have benefited from more time. Across eight short episodes, it introduces so many aspects of their lives, and while many of these details enrich the story, some remain underexplored. There is a difference between leaving something unsaid because it is more powerful that way and leaving something unexplored because there simply isn’t enough time. I wanted more room for both characters to sit with the consequences of what happened, and for their journeys to arrive somewhere more emotionally complete. Not necessarily together. Just somewhere.

What stays with me is not whether these two should have ended up together. It is how profoundly they change something in each other, even when they cannot give each other what they need. Yong Jae finds someone who sees him and makes him imagine a different life. Gi U is offered the extraordinary experience of being loved when he no longer knows how to receive it.

And perhaps that is the cruelest part of it all. Life gives Gi U a reason to want to live differently, but in the form of someone he cannot bring himself to choose. It gives Yong Jae a reason to believe he is worth loving, only to leave him wondering whether love is something he should ever reach for again.

They both leave changed. But neither leaves unhurt. And there is no guarantee that what they gave each other will be enough to heal what they take away.

Read More

watch something else

A boring series about being dull and boring.Dull and boring.Dull and boring. Dulk and boring Dull and boring.Korean cruelty is getting a reputation!🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬😓🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬😓🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬😓🤬😓😓🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬😓🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬😈🤬
🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

Read More

Dark themed series

This is actually a very controversial series because the relationship is between a teacher and his student. However, to put things into perspective, the student is supposedly 20 years old, so we're not dealing with a minor here. Let's make that clear.
But what I really want to talk about with this series is how deep it actually is. If you're going to analyze it, this is a very quick watch since it's only eight episodes and the episodes are quite short. There were things I wanted to dissect and understand further.
You know what I love about this series? It's how misunderstood the characters are. Everyone has their own struggles, and almost all of them are misunderstood by the people around them. What's worse is that sometimes, the people who misunderstand them the most are the ones closest to them.
This is not a BL that everyone will enjoy because, honestly, I didn't really care much about the romantic relationship between the two characters. What I cared about was how messed up their lives were because of how cruel the world could be.
So yeah, this isn't simply about a student falling in love with his teacher. You know how sometimes, when everything becomes too much, even the smallest glimpse of light or kindness can make you want to hold on to it? That's what I felt happened here. And again, this is something that can be interpreted in different ways. Was it really love, or was it simply a reaction to everything they had been through? Was it genuine affection, or did they find comfort in each other because they were both trying to cope with their own struggles? That's one of the things I kept thinking about while watching.
The script has its own magic, too. If you really listen to the dialogues and pay attention to what's being said, almost every conversation leaves you with something to think about. There are lines that might seem simple at first, but when you look deeper into their meaning, they carry so much weight.
So yes, this is definitely not your usual high school BL trope. I'd say that if you're looking for romance, this might not be for you. This is more about the darker realities of human emotions, emotional struggles, and depression.
As for the ending, well, it is what it is.

Read More

Complicated, Real and Thought Provoking

I wanna start off by saying to read the reviews, very specifically Kate's because it's such a great review of the series.

The characters are all extremely complicated., and it is hard for me to fully express that enough without giving a play-by-play on what, how and when (once again Kate's review is 10/10) The theme's that are covered are very raw, very real and don't skimp out on the morality of the romance itself.

I was wondering how exactly they were going to end the series and I wont lie and say it's a happy ending. It's not a sad ending either, in the normal sense of happy/sad endings.
It's really bittersweet.

I felt so deeply for Hyeon Jae from beginning to end, him attempting to combat the abuse and neglect he was receiving by acting out and clinging to the first semblance of affection he had gotten in who knows how long was both parts realistic and heart breaking.

There is a lot of story telling being done within 8 episodes, and I really wanna applaud the cast and crew for giving us this gem.

Read More

A subversion of expectations

The very start throws you rather headfirst into the plot without giving much context, but luckily it is easy to figure out what is going on and what the characters roles are. However it takes some time for some characters to be established fully and concretely, with kim jeongha being a fairly ambiguous character through his motivations and relationships until around episode 3 or 4.

The story is one of desperate connection and the need to be wanted and desired, with lee hyeonjae clinging so desperately onto han giu despite obvious drawbacks within their relationship. It brings up the topic of unhealthy or unfair power dynamics and abuse of authority, however, it is (in my opinion) one of the reasons why this story is so captivating, as it explores those topics in a way i haven't seen before, with the character in the typically vulnerable position actually being the one to initiate and curate all their interactions and tension, creating a nuanced and interesting dynamic that is not very often explored in media. I would not go as far as to say that it is one sided or manipulated by the younger, as they both become intertwined in each others life in a way they should not be, however the student is far more active in their explicit relationship, for example letting himself get hurt so that the older will patch him up, whilst the teacher lets himself be approached by the student, for example letting him stay at his apartment and giving into the kiss, when it is obvious they both desire each other and what the other makes them feel. Besides their relationship is entirely legal, with both characters being over the age of consent, and even with a considerable age gap of 10 years between them, hyeonjae is still noticeably an adult. The series is dark and passionate, and the tension and atmosphere creates an exciting and engaging story filled with serious topics and morally grey characters/ relationships which are nuanced and complicated. It's a bit messy, and that is fun, it introduces forbidden and sensual relationships that draw this drama together very nicely.

However this drama is not all dark and passionate tension, what really resonates with me is how they both seem to be on similar and equal planes of existence, they are both trapped or stuck in life and seem to find a comfort and relatability within each other which naturally draws them to each other and breeds that desire and almost dependence on the other. Hyeongjae is trapped in a life of invisibility that he did not choose, stuck between people who either fear his father or respect him too much to question his authority, forcing him into a stagnant and melancholy existence. Yet Giu gives him a luxury no one else has ever afforded him before, visibility. He establishes that he wants to help hyeongjae, not because he is the chairmans son, but because he sees that he needs help. On top of that, Giu lives a dull and lifeless life, with no real human connection or secure job in place. Hyeongjae introduces a purpose into his life, something to show him that he is still alive and capable of real emotion again, after having been told he is a dull and boring person. They both grant each other something the other had never been granted by another person. This is why i find their relationship so entrancing and fascinating, that despite the power dynamic put between them, they are still able to live through each other as equals.

The acting is rather stand out as well. the actors are good at portraying the ambiguity and complicated nature of the characters and their emotions, with the lead couple having good chemistry and understanding of the complex emotions experienced throughout the series. Only 4 episodes have aired so far, but its new and interesting premise, alongside the good acting and palpable tension make this series one which has stood out to me this year, and i am excited to watch more and see what comes next!

Read More

Boy, with Caution

From the first episode, I knew this series was going to be really good. The acting and the story are both amazing, and it immediately hooks you in. Unlike typical high school romances, this drama takes a much darker, slower-burn psychological approach that makes it stand out completely.
The male leads—wow, bravo to them! Their chemistry and performances are incredible. Ryu Se-il plays the temporary teacher, Jang Ki-woo, with so much depth and nuance. You can really feel his internal struggle as a man trying to maintain a perfect persona while dealing with his own past trauma. On the other hand, Ha Jeong-hoon is phenomenal as Lee Hyun-jae. He portrays the bruised, volatile chairman's son with a perfect mix of dangerous defiance and heartbreaking vulnerability.
It is a really interesting and special story. The plot beautifully handles heavy, complex themes like isolation, abuse, and forbidden emotional attraction. The way the show explores their intersecting emotional voids is brilliant. When Ki-woo refuses to look away from Hyun-jae’s distress, it triggers a deep, desperate fixation. The clever inclusion of the anonymous chat app "Anyone" adds an intense, thrilling layer to the narrative, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.
The pacing is excellent, and every 30-minute episode feels impactful. The cinematography and moody atmosphere perfectly match the intense melodrama. It is rare to see a BL series dive this deep into psychological scars and toxic family dynamics with such maturity and care. It is a masterpiece in the making, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a unique, high-quality drama.

Read More

Of Predators and Nice Men

I am so sick of the talk about this being in any way, shape, or form pedophilic. So let's take a different approach to this, please. Just hear me out.
I want to talk about everything that is already good about this series, and I also want to get into why I don't like people equating fiction with real life, especially when they blame fiction for taking direct inspiration from real human beings and real-life situations.
Psychologically, fiction serves a different purpose from real life. Fictional rape, fictional incest, fictional abuse, and other taboo topics can serve very different purposes from their real-life counterparts. I am going to cook this out of my brain as I go, so I don't have to keep trying to formulate exactly what I think about it every time. Take it with a grain of salt, but I know what I mean.
So, first things first.
(+) THE OLDER MALE LEAD
I really want to praise the older male lead. I think they have done a great, painful, and very diligent job portraying him.
He is obviously a very soft person at first sight, but everything we know about him supports that impression. Just take his story. He is a husband — or was a husband. He and his wife have separated. He is still trying to maintain a relationship with his mother and probably does not want to hurt her, so he and his ex-wife are pretending that they are still together. That requires an immense amount of cooperation between two people who were once very close, and I think that has been portrayed beautifully.
It also messes with our brains because we are not particularly used to seeing an adult male character in a BL series who has actually been married and is dealing with the consequences of having tried to live a conventional, traditional life.
Usually, if a male character in BL has a wife or a previous marriage, it is either treated as something dirty, as cheating, or simply not portrayed particularly well. This is, so far, one of the first portrayals I have seen of a man who genuinely tried to live that conventional kind of life and simply could not make it work for one reason or another.
Unfortunately, we do not yet know why the marriage broke down. I don't know whether the issue mentioned in the synopsis had anything to do with the destruction of their marriage. We don't know whether he has been gay since day one and that was ultimately what destroyed their relationship; whether she was more career-oriented; whether he was perceived as a loser and could not deal with that; whether she wanted to pursue a career; whether she found somebody more suitable for her; or something completely different.
The one thing we do know is that he is not the one who has another person in his life, so he probably was not the one who initiated the divorce because of another relationship.
And beyond the marriage, it is not even clear whether he is homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual. We literally do not know.
What we do know is that he is very obviously portrayed as trustworthy, reliable, and soft in nature.
Does that tell us anything about how sexually attractive he is? Yes, no, maybe. My first impression would be that no, but experience argues with that, so he might be potentially very attractive to other people.
And I think this is particularly interesting in the context of an age gap and a teacher-student relationship. We rarely get this type of “older” male lead: the supposed to be predator simply because he is older and occupies a position of authority - while keeping a persona of the reliable, responsible, emotionally soft person.
That is genuinely exciting to me because of how he is portrayed.
Of course, you can read his character differently. Character interpretation is subjective. He might still read as unreliable to someone else. But based on the direct indications we have been given, I don't see that character here.
I genuinely believe he is meant to be the good person in a bad set of life circumstances.
(+) THE ATMOSPHERE
The next thing I really want to praise is the atmosphere.
We have these very dark tones, the black and blue, the cold colours, and the overall darkness of the cinematography. It immediately tells you what kind of drama this is.
And the drama is genuinely dramatic. It deals with serious topics in a respectful undertone, which is not always the case.
For this genre, for this style, for this atmosphere, everything is extremely well attuned.
And I especially appreciate how they cut the music in situations where what is actually happening matters.
They don't constantly try to manipulate you with music. They don't show you one thing and then use the soundtrack to tell you that you are supposed to feel something completely different.
They leave the scene to speak for itself, and that makes the serious moments hit much harder.
The older I get, the more I appreciate that.
Surprisingly enough, I have even appreciated this in another BL series where one scene started without music whatsoever and was edited into the middle of a kiss.
Points to those of you who know which series I am talking about. I don't think I have ever stopped talking about how lovely that series is and how beautifully made it is. Those who know, know. Those who don't, you can ask me.
But this is another version of the same idea: silence can speak louder than music.
If you understand that the important part is the action itself and not the soundtrack telling the audience how to feel, you can create a much stronger scene.
You can start without music and then introduce it, and emotionally, that can have a similar effect. But if you cut the music completely and trust the scene to carry itself, then kudos. You know what you are doing.
(+) THE TWO COUPLES
Another thing I want to praise is that we have two couples here, and neither of these future couples is easy.
They are not simple relationships. They are complicated, and you can already see the underlying problems developing between them.
That makes them much more interesting to me than a relationship that exists simply because the story needs two people to fall in love.
(+) THE SCHOOL, BULLYING, AND DRUG-RELATED TOPICS
I also appreciate the way the series handles the bullying and the topics that are particularly relevant to Korean schools, including drugs.
Again, they match the tone and severity of the situation with the visual and audio presentation. They do not turn these things into some exaggerated spectacle. The seriousness of what is happening is reflected in how it is presented.
And then we have the other male lead.
(+) THE STUDENT IS NOT WHAT EVERYONE THINKS HE IS
He may look like a troublemaker, but he isn't really.
He is in a terrible situation, with terrible support from the people around him and from the authorities. He is being beaten. He is bruised. People want to remove him from school. They even go as far as trying to put him in prison.
And yet he keeps fighting.
This is another thing that is genuinely interesting to me because of my experience with BL series.
He is obviously already fascinated by the teacher. From the very beginning, you can see that the teacher caught his attention.
But he is not written in the way some authors write the pursuing character.
Some authors seem to think that the person who pursues has to be excessively brazen. He has to be daring, pushy, slick, constantly aware of what he is doing, and somehow almost predatory.
It is like the psychology gets completely switched around because that looks better on paper.
But here we have someone who is definitely portrayed as that kind of person from the outside perspective — and yet you watch him and realise that the people calling him that simply do not know him.
He is quiet.
He is brave, but not brave through bravado. He is brave in the sense that he genuinely keeps going despite everything happening to him.
He suffers a lot, and he has nowhere to hide, nowhere to heal, and nobody to confide in.
He does not want to rely on anyone.
The only person he can rely on is himself.
And that does not make him more audacious or more arrogant.
It makes him quieter.
So we have two people who are, in very different ways, extremely closed off. Both of them keep things to themselves. Both of them are carrying things they don't really know how to express.
And then they meet.
(+) THE TOILET SCENE / THEIR FIRST ENCOUNTER
The situation in which they meet is actually very clever.
The teacher is vomiting in a toilet because the person who is taking him to his new school and new job opportunity has asked him a question that was too close to an extremely sensitive subject: the rumour about him and the student at his previous school.
That question hits very close.
He comes out of the stall, washes himself, and puts his wedding ring down beside the basin. He knows rationally what is going on, but the stress is simply too much for his body to process.
Then the other male lead (= student) enters.
He has been beaten and wants somewhere to hide and recover, but now he notices this new person standing there.
He does not recognise him, so he knows he cannot be a teacher. But he is in the teachers' toilet, which means he is probably going to be a teacher.
Something in him immediately wakes up. He becomes aware of his surroundings.
They exchange a few words, fewer looks.
The teacher leaves his ring behind.
The student takes it.
And we are now at episode three, with the ring still not returned even though they have already encountered each other several times.
The interesting part is that the teacher knows who he met in that toilet. He can probably make an educated guess about who took the ring.
But he never asks for it.
We even see in the trailer that the student is going to examine the ring and it seems as though he wants to put it on his own finger.
Which is actually quite funny if you think about the symbolism literally, because the only other person who could realistically have that other ring is the teacher's wife, not the teacher himself.
So the intended implication is obviously, the connection between the student and the teacher, while the literal object technically connects the student to the teacher's wife.
And neither of them normally wears that ring anymore anyway.
(+) THE TEACHER DOES NOT BACK DOWN
Then we get the testing of the waters.
The student is portrayed as someone who, from the outside, appears irresponsible, rebellious, and unwilling to obey rules.
Even some of the teachers reinforce that impression. They know what family he comes from. They know he can afford not to attend school. They don't want trouble.
So they try to get this annoying new teacher — who is all justice and no practice, as far as they are concerned — out of the situation.
But he doesn't budge.
And that is extremely annoying to them.
They are willing to do genuinely wild things to a student who is younger than them, and it is honestly disgusting.
What I like about the teacher, though, is that he is not simply a "rules are rules" person.
His attitude is much closer to:
"Am I really the only person here who cares about this student?"
And he doesn't even need to ask that question.
Because even if he is the only one, he is still going to be the one person who cares.
He never wanted anything beyond that.
He never imagined anything beyond that.
He just wanted to be kind.
He just did not want this other person (the student) to think that he was completely alone in the world.
He also does not want him to believe that he can get away with anything simply because of who he is.
And that is exactly how the student begins to recognise that the teacher actually cares.
He might genuinely be the only person at that school who does.
(+) THE ROMANCE PART
And that is where the student's trust starts.
First comes trust.
Then, with trust, he starts noticing details and differences between them.
And with those details comes love.
Importantly, the love does not come from some supposedly "born rebellious" nature. Winning the ultimate authority’s attention. Conquering the system.
He does not want an illegal, hidden, twisted relationship.
The teacher does not want that either.
Neither of them is thinking, "Let's have a secret relationship because this is exciting."
Instead, what happens is much more psychological.
The student quickly realises that the teacher cares.
And because he is someone who has been deprived of reliable human connection, he starts breaking rules and inserting himself into the teacher's personal space very quickly.
(There is also this thing, the act of desperation coming from the student. He knows that his teacher is probably married, and he knows if he does not act fast, which is of course out of desperation, he's not gonna get a chance. So he cannot afford to think twice before he acts. His dreams are basically crushed before they even begin - the very first scene and the ring.)
But notice who is not doing the pursuing.
The teacher is not the one initiating it.
He is not the one approving the boundary shifts.
He is not the one creating those opportunities.
The student is.
And if you want to look at the psychology of that without immediately turning everyone into a monster, it is actually quite interesting.
If you have a student in that kind of situation — someone with a deeply troubled family life, someone being hunted and bullied at school, someone who has absolutely nobody he trusts — and you suddenly become the only person he trusts, pulling away from him is not necessarily experienced on a purely logical or professional level.
It is experienced on a human level.
You know that if you suddenly withdraw, he may simply close himself off again.
And situations like that can very easily lead to much worse outcomes.
So the teacher keeps trying to help.
And this is exactly where the boundary becomes complicated.
Because when you try to help someone emotionally, you are no longer completely outside the equation (situation) - you are part of it.
You are emotionally entangled in it.
And that opens a door for the other person to keep coming closer.
The teacher's mistake, if you want to call it that, is not that he consciously seeks intimacy.
It is that because he cares, he does not pull away quickly enough from the affectionate and intimate attention the student is seeking from him.
His hesitation is used against him, perhaps in the purest possible sense.
Not because either character consciously wants to hurt or manipulate the other.
But because human beings use each other subconsciously all the time.
That is how families work.
That is how friendships work.
That is how relationships between human beings work.
We affect one another, lean on one another, seek things from one another, and sometimes exploit vulnerabilities without consciously intending to.
And that is where the transition happens.
The teacher's vulnerability is shown too openly, the teacher is in touch with it.
He does not protect himself quickly enough.

Read More

Honestly so so underrated

I know this series might be a hard watch due to the trope of student x teacher and the power dynamics, I'd say it's already the tip of the ice berg of problematic relationships considering all the other ones in korean BL manhwas, it's definetely not allowed irl but I'm going to focus on the series and critique just like any other show. (and the student's 21 too btw)

ANYWAYS! The overall pacing and storytelling of this series was perfect. Sure, there's some confusion with the messaging app on episode 1-2, but episode 3 clears all the confusion and the overall pacing felt perfect and readers could easily immerse themselves into the story. The screentime with the side characters were perfectly assigned and balenced too. I also really loved the overall song used in this series, it felt natural and the songs were used effectivly to convey the emotions of the specific scene. The overall filming felt natural and it was easy to catch up. Some concerns I have though is the translation issues impacting the understanding of some scenes. I guess that the translation wasn't straightforward enough/what the original dialogue was trying to show, hence in some scenes throughout the show was hard to understnad, like for example (spoilers) the conversation the teacher had with his wife at the corridor in episode 3. I didn't understand how the student knew that the teacher treated the same way to other students with that diagoluethat he saw through the ringbell.
However this rating isn't perminent until I'm fulyl finished with the series, very high hopes with this series though, it's so underrated.

Read More