TianQi

Nah. Kris Wu was cancelled on Chinese media long before he was detained. It’s important to remember that because Kris Wu has Canadian (not Chinese( citizenship, people were much more quick to criticize him. Even if the brands didn’t, the public had already judged Kris Wu a long time ago.

You don’t, but this shrine garners public attention every year because of the controversy. It’s literally the only jinja that any Chinese person would know because of the fact that it deifies war criminals. No, he shouldn’t be cut from ads and shouldn’t have his tv shows removed, but what he did (posting the picture, not attending the wedding) was very stupid. On the original post, people had also pointed that out, even back then. And this place isn’t just offensive to Chinese, but Koreans and Filipinos as well. :/

"he did say that Shin Woo made his heart flutter"
Not to be a stickler, but he didn't say that. He said, he knows how to make one's heart flutter, which is an implication of that, but could also imply that Shinwoo is just charming in general.
Based on what we've seen so far, I genuinely feel like SW actually holds TK's fun side back and that TK is the one to be burdened with showing SW what fun even is. The date at the mall was the most basic opportunity for SW to express himself and it was just an awkward mess until the end when SW ever so slightly managed to be direct and momentarily catch TK's attention. I'm sorry, but watching someone as inept at verbally expressing themselves as SW trying to verbally express themselves to someone as blunt as TK is only cute for a bit. After a while it gets weird and annoying and I don' think it's brought the best out of TK in any way at all imo. TK, in spite of having no friends at the beginning, was literally friendly with EVERYone. SW stifled that. Sohee did too. Sohee has since apologized outright in some way and SW is still mumbling his way through everything (albeit in the most caring way) and fumbling with his own feelings. I pity him. in a way, more than I pity Daon.
If SW and TK end up together, fine, but it's SW who will have learned much more from TK, not vice versa and there's nothing wrong with that, I guess.

Well, it said he 'completed' it, so...haha I guess we'll see.

To be honest, by the end of the date, I got the feeling that Tae sees him as "cute" and romantic in a way that you would think of someone who has a crush on you, but you're not all that interested in them outside of being friends, but you're still appreciating their attempts. For as many "aww" moments as we got between SW and TK over the course of this series, I still feel like if you're looking at things through TK's lens, it's been amicable sometimes, funny sometimes, sweet sometimes and awkward the overwhelming majority of the time. I thought we were going to see TK coming to the realization of all the amazing things SW had been doing for him and how he felt for him at the end of ep 13, but that didn't happen and in ep 14, it's business as usual. TK's like, "You're really weird, but stick around." to SW. I don't not want them to be endgame (and I don't doubt they will), but all the indications that TK feels anything for SW have been more or less subtle or could be easily attributed to something else (I'm referring to your list btw haha). I just wish we'd see more of an actual interest from TK's side. There's 40 minutes left of the series and that's enough time, but it's going to take something really substantial for me to believe that TK falls for SW.

I do love a pouty bottom lip and that he does have when he's sad.

A verbally-expressed interest in girls is not a verbally-expressed disinterest in guys. Bisexual and pansexual people exist.

I mean, Daon is definitely privileged enough to study abroad. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Yeah, for me this is more like a psychological case study on three individuals...in K-Drama form. haha Literally ANY decision any of them makes is intriguing me because I'm just having fun getting to know them all. ^_^

Yeah, I'm not team anyone, so that be it. lol Thanks for responding though. <3

" falling for him subconsciously" is the part I was referring to, not the " read my crush's text as soon as they replied and now they will know I like them" part.

Ah. Well, that's a little boring if that's the case. lol Still excited about the rest of the show though.

Also, what was with Tae worrying about whether or not Shinwoo would think he was waiting for his text? Is it because he knows Shinwoo likes him and he doesn't like Shinwoo (yet) so he doesn't want to send a signal that he does?? Or does he really just wanna tease Shinwoo and he's mad that Shinwoo tripped him up? lol I'm not sure.

I'm sorry, but that 'date' was more awkward than it was anything else for me. The way Tae always stares at Shinwoo with this look of "What's wrong with you? Why are you like this?" makes me feel embarrassed on Shinwoo's behalf every time. :(

Sorry for the litany ahead of time btw. 😂

Shinwoo loses me because in spite of his courage and confidence of now being able to stick up for himself regarding his sexuality and being able to tell his best friend that he likes the guy that his friend also likes to love him properly or he’s gonna take him, he’s still doesn’t have enough to chutzpah to have communicated his feelings to Taekyung in the best way that Taekyung could have understood. Shinwoo has been the quiet observer this whole time and knows how Taekyung is (arguably better than anyone else…even Namgoong who “knows everything” 😂). He’s even indirectly admonished Taekyung for how bad he is at reading the room (Shinwoo’s feelings) at times, but still, it took an accidental barrage of text messages *delivered at the same time* and Taekyung finally asking him “Hey, why do you care about me?” for him to finally say that he cares. And even then, Taekyung asks, “What if I never saw the messages?” Shinwoo doesn’t respond with, “I would have figured out another way.” or anything else proactive. Instead, he says, “I assumed YOU would figure it out eventually.” Everything we’ve seen from Taekyung indicates that he probably wouldn’t have and that beating around the bush is not the way to communicate anything to him. Your initial comment also attests to this. He’s a no bullshit kind of guy. So when I say Shinwoo is bad at communicating, this is what I mean. Shinwoo, as a person, is BEAUTIFUL, but I just don’t see him being a match with Taekyung if this level of subtlety is his way of communicating deep emotions. Taekyung is the polar opposite.

The mundaneness of those texts were totally an awesome display of love and consideration, though. I won’t deny that.

Daon garners so much love from me because he has everything to lose, while his best friends meant well, their ways of advising him were a little tone deaf (the teacher does well communicating with him though), and coming out of the closet and/or being outed is f*cking HARD. Everyone deals in a different way and everyone deserves the patience. Shinwoo dealt with the exact same thing years earlier which is why he’s so empathetic with Daon (even when the audience imho wasn’t so much) which is another reason I love Shinwoo. HOWEVER, and I’m seriously paraphrasing here “Just admit you like him” (Shinwoo) and “Do the right and honest thing and I love you the most” (Namgoong) weren’t the most sage pieces of advice Daon needed. Daon needed self-affirmation and a long conversation with his friends about his own life *before* he needed advice about how to deal with Taekyung. Ironically enough, Taekyung is the only one of the four to whom this was possibly obvious, but then we later see Taekyung call Daon a bad person etc. in the middle of all of it. I don’t hold it against him though since both of them were in a bad place at the time.

Yeah. Dark skin, when being perceived positively is associated with good physical health, strength, and a good sense of justice. When it's being perceived negatively, it's aggressive, ignorant, and comedic. This is why in Asian TV shows, it's only acceptable for men in lead roles to be even remotely 'dark', because it adds to their masculinity. We see this in BL too. The darker one is always the 'top'. Kris/Singto, Tay/New, Earth/Mix, Perth/Saint, Om/Fluke, White/Captain (this one's ironic), and to a less dramatic extent: Mew/Gulf and God/Bas.
The only times I can recall the 'bottom' was remotely darker than the 'top' are in BLs in which the top is clearly mixed race Asian/Caucasian (2gether and Calculating Love).

I pretty much agree. I think TK is beyond both Shinwoo and Daon. I don't think his life would be more enriched by being in a relationship with either of them aside from just having someone around to care about him (being alone isn't fun most of the time). TK's too self-actualized for them both. Shinwoo thinks too much and takes too long to communicate anything to anyone. Daon's just coming into himself and his sexuality. Dating someone who's in, partially in, or newly out of the closet when you're someone who's open and non-chalant about your sexuality can be extremely difficult. I'm not saying really like Taekyung (the character I find most endearing is actually Daon) or that he's 'better' than Shinwoo and Daon, I just don't find either of these guys to be suitable for him.

Please, let’s! Because I was slain.

Though Woo Taekyung is a character, he is, within context, a person, not a prize to be won, earned or stuck on to another person to fulfill the notion that everything that comes to people is earned/deserved. Also, even though ShinTae is meant to be, let’s not forget how big of a role circumstance played into that and how much of a role circumstance can also -get in the way- of what’s earned/deserved.