assez

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.