FreshKicks

I'm starting to think it's all in her head and that Sunwoo also misunderstands, while Yugyeom (the eternal people-pleaser) is at fault for not clarifying things with her.

When Doyeon and Sunwoo are having a beer together she disgruntly refers to her relationship with Yugyeom as a friendship. Then, at the end of Episode 6, as she's leaving Yugyeom's condo the two of them stand several feet apart and don't so much as hug goodbye. They part company the way friends do.

In the first episode, where Yugyeom tells their classmate that he and Doyeon are officially dating, I got the impression that she had put him up to it because the classmate was showing signs that he likes her. I think the real purpose of that within the story was (1) to get Yiwon to mistake Yugyeom as saying that he's in a relationship with a male classmate, thus further confirming Yiwon's fear that the BL novel is coming to life, and (2) for Sunwoo to overhear and also get the wrong idea.

Doyeon also seemed less upset than you'd expect when Yugyeom didn't show up for her birthday party. Sure, she was full of it when she said she didn't know where he was and didn't care, but if they were an official couple I think she'd have been a lot more insistent that he be there.

They seem to rely heavily on dubbing. From what I understand, dubbing can happen because of surrounding noise, like nearby crowds or traffic, or if the actors screw up their lines or can't be heard due to mic issues.

It's too bad the acoustic for the dubbed dialog is so different from when it's recorded live, because as much as I love the series this can be quite distracting.

For people just now coming to this series, I repeat: Watch on iQIYI if you can.

Viki's versions of the episodes does not include on-screen text for messages, etc., and the subtitle translations are sometimes completely off.

the boom mic deserves its own cast credit. 😂😂😂

My god... that opening scene of Episode 9. I wasn't ready for the emotional wallop. Whoever wrote this is a poet.

And who better to deliver that dialog? Maru the puppy is one of the best BL characters of all time. The actor did a superb job with both the humor and the romance.

The MDL score has to be the most off-kilter of any I've seen. I hope more people will discover this series and over time raise its rating into the 8's where it belongs.

Bingo. Good call.

Oh wowwww....!!! 🤪

They're too busy crossing tropes off the list.

That wind/windmill idiom is more clunky than romantic

This!

I mean seriously, flashing back to dialog that happened only seconds earlier ... They must think viewers have the attention span of a flea.

the wattpad is wattpadding

I've wondered the same thing.

Since Doyeon doesn't get up from her seat when Yugyeom comes into the classroom and greets him only the typical way a junior would greet a senior, it seems they're not too close yet.

Which lets me continue to theorize that Yugyeom got close to Doyeon mainly because she's friends with Sunwoo.

(And I like the little detail of her seeming to notice the way that Yugyeom looks upon Sunwoo so happily after giving him the drink.)

Interesting that you say that, because I've started to hope that the way the Doyeon-Sunwoo-Yugyeom triangle gets resolved is that she goes on that scouting assignment with that other guy and ends up liking him.

In that earlier scene where Yugyeom tells the other guy that they're in a relationship, I got the feeling that he was doing it as a favor for Doyeon, perhaps because the other guy was flirting with her too much.

Sunwoo seems to have been on Yugyeom's radar from the beginning. I even wonder if Yugyeom first got close to Doyeon because he saw that she was Sunwoo's friend.

During the Freshman Orientation in Episode 1, you can see Yugyeom watching in the background as Sunwoo shows up late, and then you can see him watching again as Sunwoo gets his face painted (for the loss of a game that Sunwoo wasn't even involved in!)

Yugyeom later tries to force an interaction when he purposely misspells Sunwoo's name on the name tag, but Sunwoo is too averse to conflict to get draw in by that.

But then there's the Epilogue of Episode 1, which also takes place during the Freshman Orientation, where Yugyeom approaches Sunwoo as he's trying to make a purchase at the vending machine.

Yugyeom finally gets the interaction he wants. He pays for Sunwoo's drink and in the process notes the choice that Sunwoo made. Then, a full year later, he remembers that choice enough to know which drink to buy and "accidentally" leave for Sunwoo at the convenience store on the night of the back-to-school party. I don't know about you, but after a year's time I'd be able to recall that kind of detail only if the person had been on my mind almost constantly.

(Which is something Yugyeom himself admits to in the Epilogue to Episode 2: "Whether it's from my own will or not, I'm so attracted that I can't stop thinking about it.... What brought him to me wasn't magic, but rather my subconscious will.")

We eventually see Yugyeom stalking Sunwoo to take pictures and video, but for me the real eyebrow-raiser is when Yugyeom is ready to skip Doyeon's birthday party (that's some kind of boyfriend Doyeon's got there) but changes his mind (and ditches the guys at the group blind date) when he realizes Sunwoo is there, because Sunwoo texted him about it.

(iQIYI's subtitle shows Sunwoo's text as "Why r u not here?" ... cute, huh.)

When Yugyeom gets to the restaurant he makes a momentous choice between the drunk Doyeon and the drunk Sunwoo, which of course marks the start of a new phase between him and Sunwoo.

Yugyeom is manipulative, and this is a definite yellow flag. After he spends that first night sleeping next to the drunk Sunwoo, he tells Sunwoo that he didn't leave because he'd also been drinking -- which isn't true. And did he really need a model to pose for him for a photography assignment?

In Episode 6, after Sunwoo keeps giving Yugyeom the failed-confession brush-off, Yugyeom decides to treat the entire Directing class to drinks as a ploy to get Sunwoo to show up to participate. It's a lot of trouble to go to, but it doesn't work. As soon as Yugyeom realizes that Sunwoo won't be coming he runs off to find him. (Btw, I think Sunwoo was lying about having to work.)

So, yes, Yugyeom is manipulative, but I sense that it comes from a good place. I think that deep down Yugyeom is lonely and afraid. He needs to experience a cathartic moment where he is honest with Sunwoo and himself, and the preview for next week -- where we see Yugyeom in tears as he talks to Sunwoo -- makes me hope we'll get that before the series ends.

You didn't misremember. She has talked to Sunwoo about how much Yugyeom frustrates her, so if it's a fake relationship it would seem to be fake only from his end.

Their status is clearly up in the air, though. He has yet to have her with him at any of the social events we've seen. He even skipped her birthday party without telling her what other plans he had ... which was a group blind date involving other girls!

When Yugyeom told the Student Council member to scout event locations with Doyeon while he does other stuff, the council member also seemed pretty confused.

Extremely doubtful, but the kissing has been pretty stellar so far.

I think the real actors dubbed, it's just that they did it in a studio where the ambience is different than when the live shot was done.

They're very different, and the original is something of a classic, but I do love this adaptation.

Thanks! I didn't want to come across as a know-it-all but these kinds of details can add a lot.

P.S., the first time Yiwon addresses Jioh as "Jioh-yah", we'll know he feels close to Jioh.

(The sound is different from "ah" because Jioh's name ends with a vowel sound.)