denryion

This was okay, as far as shorts series go. You’ve got the typical shorts issues, in that the runtime is inherently short so the romance is relatively shallow, and the vertical format sucks as per usual. The acting was fairly decent compared to other shorts series, though. The pacing and overall production quality was pretty decent too.

My main issue is that the story didn’t make much cohesive sense. I don’t know if maybe the subtitle translations weren’t completely accurate and that was the issue, but I couldn’t really make sense of the character motivations or why they would suddenly go from mad to forgiving.

After Jinwoo and Eunhyeok kiss in Jinwoo’s room, Jinwoo seems fine until his roommate finds Eunhyeok’s watch in the room. Maybe he freaked out about getting caught (it wasn’t clear to me), but he tells Eunhyeok that they should be strangers from then on. But he tells Eunhyeok that the reason is because he doesn’t want to be distracted from his studies and that Eunhyeok is a bad student. So Eunhyeok proves him wrong and gets his grades up, and when they happen to meet for drinks as part of the same friend group during break, they’re suddenly acting friendly again. Jinwoo never apologizes for what he said about Eunhyeok being a bad student, and Eunhyeok doesn’t seem upset about it. And whatever concerns Jinwoo had seemingly disappear because they start acting like friends again like nothing happened.

After Eunhyeok non-consensually kisses Jinwoo and they both get expelled, I really didn’t understand either of their reactions. Jinwoo was actually the first to reach out to Eunhyeok, watching his Instagram story (so Eunhyeok would see he viewed it) and calling him. Eunhyeok ignored his call, I guess because he had just fought with his mom, but he still liked Jinwoo and it didn’t make sense to me that he was ignoring him instead of groveling. And it didn’t make sense to me that Jinwoo wasn’t angry. When Eunhyeok shows up at his house, Jinwoo is happy to see him until Eunhyeok pretends he was just using Jinwoo to get expelled on purpose. Forget the fact that Jinwoo got expelled…why isn’t he mad that he was sexually assaulted? Eunhyeok apologizes for getting him expelled, but not once is the sexual assault acknowledged or apologized for by a single character. Even when the teacher saw the video of Eunhyeok forcibly kissing Jinwoo, they’re both expelled for dating when it was so clear in the video that Jinwoo wasn’t a willing participant. I don’t know why he was expelled too and not treated as a victim of sexual assault.

And Jinwoo immediately sees through Eunhyeok’s act and knows that he actually likes him and is lying when he said that he was just using him to get expelled. So why does he go off on him and tell him that he wasn’t going to like him anymore and that he’d find someone better in college? Why does he cut ties and block him? Meanwhile Eunhyeok had only said all that because he promised Jinwoo’s sister to stay away so Jinwoo wouldn’t get hurt again. But when they run into each other again, they’re both completely friendly. Jinwoo doesn’t act at all angry. And Eunhyeok seems to have forgotten all about his promise to stay away, because he immediately asks Jinwoo out and Jinwoo immediately agrees. So what was that giant period of ignoring each other about?

Also, in the end Eunhyeok does what he’s always wanted to do, and drops out of college to make music. It’s not particularly good music, and he’s most definitely not making any money from it. And he’s not working a part time job to make money either. So I don’t really understand his character arc. He went from repeatedly failing the college prep school on purpose to rebel against his parents, to studying for and passing the college entrance exam, presumably due to Jinwoo’s good influence, to dropping out to rebel against his parents. What was the point?

Consent / boundary issues: Eunhyeok nonconsensually kisses Jinwoo the first time they meet. Eunhyeok is drunk and kisses him as "revenge" because Jinwoo put something in his mouth (a mint to mask the alcohol). It's a peck and Jinwoo immediately pulls away and leaves. Also, during the whole jealousy arc, Jinwoo threatens to tell the teacher that Eunhyeok is dating, and Eunhyeok responds by saying something along the lines of, "Go ahead and tell them. And tell them about this too." Then he forcibly kisses Jinwoo even as he's struggling and actively trying to push him away. When they're arguing outside of Jinwoo's house, Eunhyeok tries to leave and Jinwoo forcibly grabs his sleeve to prevent him from walking away.

There are two consensual kisses, and neither are dead fish lip presses. But physical affection was fairly lacking as a whole. There's no casual physical intimacy, and although they alluded to a kiss in the finale, they didn't actually show one (Jinwoo stops Eunhyeok when he leans in for a kiss, saying there are cameras, and then pulls him out of shot).