This review may contain spoilers
While this was overall a decent production, with a good script, acting, and pacing, I felt something was missing in terms of the relationship dynamic all the way through to the end.
Jaehyeon was so honest and sincere. He didn’t play games - no hard to get, no mind games. He was honest about what he wanted and direct about what he did and didn’t feel. I loved that. But Sunwoo was the exact opposite. All he did was play mind games. He provoked Jaehyeon into accepting his bet and into kissing him. He purposefully ignored texts and said he didn’t want to meet up to play hard to get, flirted with girls to make him jealous, and pretended to be sick so he would worry about him. He was always acting nonchalant, like nothing bothered him and he didn’t care that much, even when Jaehyeon was being passionate and honest.
Like there’s a scene where Jaehyeon talks crap about Sunwoo behind his back because he’s jealous and doesn’t want his friend to get close to him. Sunwoo catches him, and Jaehyeon literally gets down on his knees and begs for forgiveness in the middle of the school. And Sunwoo just says not to contact him again and walks away…yet pretends to be sick for a week so Jaehyeon will worry about him while simultaneously ignoring his apology texts. Meanwhile, after they get together, Sunwoo insists that they distance themselves in public and hurts Jaehyeon as a result, but he never apologizes or does anything to make it up to Jaehyeon. It should have been Sunwoo that confidently declared their relationship after that, but instead it was Jaehyeon once again, willingly outing himself in the process of defending Sunwoo. When Jaehyeon is trying to confess back to Sunwoo, Sunwoo hangs up on him and goes out with friends, and then sits with headphones in and ignores what he’s saying. And when Jaehyeon finally does confess, he literally laughs at him for being cheesy when he’s being completely sincere.
If it was something that was acknowledged and addressed as part of a character arc, that would have been fine, but it’s not. Given that Jaehyeon has a history of people leaving him and him being the one to beg and chase after them, and given that he feels that puts him in a position of being the weaker party, I so wanted his relationship with Sunwoo to be different. But it’s the exact same. Jaehyeon spends the entire time chasing after Sunwoo and there’s never a scenario where Sunwoo reciprocates. Given that Sunwoo even acknowledges and likes that Jaehyeon is a pure, straightforward person, I just found that really disappointing.
The ending was realistic, but mildly disappointing for me as a romantic. It was essentially, they live together but are super busy and barely have time for one another, but they’re still in love. They live separate lives during the day and lean on each other at nights. Realistic and sweet, objectively, but the “live separate lives during the day” part rubbed me the wrong way a little bit. Maybe it was just the way it was phrased.
There were no dead fish lip presses in this, but it’s all closed mouth with very minimal lip movement. And they cut all the kiss scenes extremely short, like a second or two. There was a (closed mouth) make out scene, but they cut it and just showed second long snippets as flashbacks, which was disappointing.
In terms of other people drama…Jaehyeon has an ex, but he’s completely over her. She approaches them once and hits on Sunwoo via DM, but he never responds. A girl that Jaehyeon had confessed to reciprocates and they hang out a few times, but Jaehyeon accidentally blurts out that he kissed someone (Sunwoo), so that ends. Sunwoo had a friend in high school who he liked but fell out with after the girl the friend liked confessed to Sunwoo, and the friend proceeded to shit talk him behind his back in response. That friend transfers to the same college and while Sunwoo tells him to keep his distance and they ultimately cut ties, their relationship still bothered me a little. When Jaehyeon calls to apologize, Sunwoo hangs up on him when a friend approaches and then changes his mind about hanging out with friends after finding out that the ex-friend would be there. Why would he WANT to go for drinks with him? And the ex-friend gave Sunwoo a pair of headphones back in high school that he constantly used, all the way until the end of the show when Jaehyeon gifts him new ones. It felt symbolic, like he was holding onto that guy until Jaehyeon replaced him, and that didn’t settle well with me.
Consent issues: Sunwoo provokes Jaehyeon into kissing him for the first time - “I bet the reason you keep getting rejected is because you’re a bad kisser.” They kiss while both of them are drunk twice, and Jaehyeon is not fully mentally on board with it in the morning either time.
Boundary issues: When Sunwoo tells Jaehyeon not to contact him again, he respects that. He sends a bunch of apology texts but doesn’t harass him when he gets no response. But when he finds out he’s sick and hasn’t been seen in a week, he goes to his house and says that if Sunwoo ignores his texts, he’ll just come to his house instead. There’s a scene where Jaehyeon tells Sunwoo not to drink because he’s sick, and it’s phrased as an instruction rather than a request. Jaehyeon outs both of them without Sunwoo’s consent in response to someone picking on Sunwoo, but he does apologize afterward.
Jaehyeon was so honest and sincere. He didn’t play games - no hard to get, no mind games. He was honest about what he wanted and direct about what he did and didn’t feel. I loved that. But Sunwoo was the exact opposite. All he did was play mind games. He provoked Jaehyeon into accepting his bet and into kissing him. He purposefully ignored texts and said he didn’t want to meet up to play hard to get, flirted with girls to make him jealous, and pretended to be sick so he would worry about him. He was always acting nonchalant, like nothing bothered him and he didn’t care that much, even when Jaehyeon was being passionate and honest.
Like there’s a scene where Jaehyeon talks crap about Sunwoo behind his back because he’s jealous and doesn’t want his friend to get close to him. Sunwoo catches him, and Jaehyeon literally gets down on his knees and begs for forgiveness in the middle of the school. And Sunwoo just says not to contact him again and walks away…yet pretends to be sick for a week so Jaehyeon will worry about him while simultaneously ignoring his apology texts. Meanwhile, after they get together, Sunwoo insists that they distance themselves in public and hurts Jaehyeon as a result, but he never apologizes or does anything to make it up to Jaehyeon. It should have been Sunwoo that confidently declared their relationship after that, but instead it was Jaehyeon once again, willingly outing himself in the process of defending Sunwoo. When Jaehyeon is trying to confess back to Sunwoo, Sunwoo hangs up on him and goes out with friends, and then sits with headphones in and ignores what he’s saying. And when Jaehyeon finally does confess, he literally laughs at him for being cheesy when he’s being completely sincere.
If it was something that was acknowledged and addressed as part of a character arc, that would have been fine, but it’s not. Given that Jaehyeon has a history of people leaving him and him being the one to beg and chase after them, and given that he feels that puts him in a position of being the weaker party, I so wanted his relationship with Sunwoo to be different. But it’s the exact same. Jaehyeon spends the entire time chasing after Sunwoo and there’s never a scenario where Sunwoo reciprocates. Given that Sunwoo even acknowledges and likes that Jaehyeon is a pure, straightforward person, I just found that really disappointing.
The ending was realistic, but mildly disappointing for me as a romantic. It was essentially, they live together but are super busy and barely have time for one another, but they’re still in love. They live separate lives during the day and lean on each other at nights. Realistic and sweet, objectively, but the “live separate lives during the day” part rubbed me the wrong way a little bit. Maybe it was just the way it was phrased.
There were no dead fish lip presses in this, but it’s all closed mouth with very minimal lip movement. And they cut all the kiss scenes extremely short, like a second or two. There was a (closed mouth) make out scene, but they cut it and just showed second long snippets as flashbacks, which was disappointing.
In terms of other people drama…Jaehyeon has an ex, but he’s completely over her. She approaches them once and hits on Sunwoo via DM, but he never responds. A girl that Jaehyeon had confessed to reciprocates and they hang out a few times, but Jaehyeon accidentally blurts out that he kissed someone (Sunwoo), so that ends. Sunwoo had a friend in high school who he liked but fell out with after the girl the friend liked confessed to Sunwoo, and the friend proceeded to shit talk him behind his back in response. That friend transfers to the same college and while Sunwoo tells him to keep his distance and they ultimately cut ties, their relationship still bothered me a little. When Jaehyeon calls to apologize, Sunwoo hangs up on him when a friend approaches and then changes his mind about hanging out with friends after finding out that the ex-friend would be there. Why would he WANT to go for drinks with him? And the ex-friend gave Sunwoo a pair of headphones back in high school that he constantly used, all the way until the end of the show when Jaehyeon gifts him new ones. It felt symbolic, like he was holding onto that guy until Jaehyeon replaced him, and that didn’t settle well with me.
Consent issues: Sunwoo provokes Jaehyeon into kissing him for the first time - “I bet the reason you keep getting rejected is because you’re a bad kisser.” They kiss while both of them are drunk twice, and Jaehyeon is not fully mentally on board with it in the morning either time.
Boundary issues: When Sunwoo tells Jaehyeon not to contact him again, he respects that. He sends a bunch of apology texts but doesn’t harass him when he gets no response. But when he finds out he’s sick and hasn’t been seen in a week, he goes to his house and says that if Sunwoo ignores his texts, he’ll just come to his house instead. There’s a scene where Jaehyeon tells Sunwoo not to drink because he’s sick, and it’s phrased as an instruction rather than a request. Jaehyeon outs both of them without Sunwoo’s consent in response to someone picking on Sunwoo, but he does apologize afterward.
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