denryion

Several great examples of seeking verbal consent, and several other examples of dubcon/noncon. Win asked for verbal consent several times, but he also kisses Team immediately after Team says not to touch him, until Team physically pushes him away. There was one scene where he asked for verbal consent, and Team did not give a verbal or physical answer, but it was taken as a yes anyways. I appreciate the attempt, but it wasn’t truly a good depiction of consent overall.

Team constantly looked uncomfortable. He was always backing away from and pushing Win away, even once they were in an established relationship. From a real world perspective, there was a lot of noncon/dubcon as a result, because consent is determined by someone’s words and actions, not what may or may not be going on in their head. I think that was a poor character / acting choice.

Lots of boundary crossing from Win, such as finding Team’s address and coming to his room when Team was avoiding him, or making comments about Team knowing what’s under his swim trunks when Team is uncomfortable with their recent hook up.

Win primarily took charge and took the lead both in the bedroom and the relationship. Team had this inexperienced, virginal thing going. Win was much more dominating, like slamming Win into the lockers, pinning his wrists, and I guess a kind of sexual intimidation? Team did flip the script a few times but Win primarily took the lead. None of the roughness was pre-negotiated.

Win was also the one responsible for taking care of and protecting Team and not so much in return. I feel like a lot of the time, the way this presents itself in BLs is that the caring/protective one is either controlling or parental, and both of those are a turn off. Like the whole showing up to take care of him when he’s drunk when he’s not talking to you and didn’t give you his location, or forcing him to sleep in your room for his insomnia, or demanding that he tell you in advance if he’s going to skip class - it’s presented as sweet and romantic, but it’s really violating his wishes, boundaries, and autonomy. Caring for someone when they don’t want to be cared for or in ways they don’t want to be cared for is not actually caring for them. It’s indulging your own controlling impulses.

Plus, the way Win spoke, it felt he viewed Team as a little kid some times. Like he kept petting his head and saying “good boy” like Team was a 5 year old or a dog.

There was one scene where Team almost drowns and Win saves him. The first thing Team does is start apologizing to Win, like a little kid scared of getting in trouble with his parents. And Win proves him right because he immediately starts going off on him, cussing at him and even raising his fist to punch him, but stopping at the last minute. The whole scene was gross. Win’s anger is meant to stem from a place of worry and fear but the minute you feel tempted to hit your partner, it’s already gone too far. Instead of Win comforting Team, who just nearly died, he just made it all about himself. The way Win kept going off on Team for not listening about the pool being closed was bullshit, because people have the right to make bad decisions without their partners berating them and telling them they’re not allowed. And telling your partner that they’re not allowed to make choices that you perceive as harmful to them is still controlling, even if it stems from a well-intentioned place.

Overall, I wish the relationship was on a more equal ground. I wanted Team to put in the effort to caring for Win too. And I wanted Win to stop being so aggressive in his “care”.

There were two good NC scenes at the beginning of the series, but the heat really dies down from there. I would have traded the sex scenes for some proper, continuous physical affection. Like it’d be great if Team wasn’t always dodging Win and actually kissed him once in a while. It would have been better of the NC scenes were later in the series as well, because as it is, we start strong and end disappointed.

There were way too many couples. Bee/Prince and the M/F couple could have been cut. They were awkward and boring and a waste of screen time. The last 2 episodes felt more like an ensemble romance and I felt that the main couple was put to the side to close up all these boring side stories.

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Sweet relationship. Boss was cold but not cruel, with a softy interior.

There were a few scenes with good consent: asking for consent prior to kissing and stating that he’d take no for an answer, respecting a “no touch” boundary when he’s upset, and accepting no for an answer when physical affection is rejected.

There were scenes with poor consent as well, though: locking Cher in the car and refusing to let him out to force a conversation, dubcon kissing him when he wasn’t completely comfortable to provoke some type of reaction from him, and demanding answers about his feelings in a tone like a parent scolding a child. There was also a scene where Boss gets upset and shakes Cher, to the point that Cher says he’s hurting him. He also hugs and refuses to let Cher go during that argument, even as Cher struggles to push him off. Boss also grabs and pulls Cher along to get him to come instead of just asking him in some scenes.

The relationship was overly chaste. Very tame kisses, and the type of relationship where mentioning sex or asking for a kiss on the cheek in public is scandalous. Cher kept rejecting Boss’s affection. There were so many scenes where Boss would say something sweet or say that he loved Cher, or would hug and cuddle Cher, or would ask for a kiss, and Cher wouldn’t reciprocate whatsoever. He’d shrug Boss off or respond with a sarcastic comment. Boss would be so head over heels and meanwhile Cher would be questioning if it was really love or not. It was frustrating.

In terms of the story line, there were two things I didn’t like. First, the whole Tian story line. She’s a girl Cher used to like but she rejected him and later committed suicide after being raped by her step-father and getting pregnant. I didn’t like the set up that Cher always had and always would love her. They were kids, at the time, and they could have written it off as puppy love and instead portrayed their relationship as friends or family that he’d always love. Honestly, they could have cut the whole him liking Tian part out altogether and still had the exact same story line. As it is, I didn’t like feeling like Boss was the second choice. Also, in the end, the mom who knew about the 3 year long persistent rape by her husband of her daughter and did absolutely nothing is forgiven. And the step-dad’s fate isn’t addressed.

Second, the break up was so unnecessary that it made Cher look selfish as hell. Boss’s mom tells Cher he doesn’t deserve Boss and that he should back off. So he does. He chooses to leave and better himself. What does “better himself” mean? Winning a gaming championship and graduating college. Both of those things would have happened anyways even if he had stayed with Boss. Neither of those accomplishments had any impact on the mom’s opinion of their relationship. Cher left Boss for the second time after promising over and over to always stay by his side. He didn’t tell Boss that he was coming back. He was happy and functional during their time apart, while Boss was falling apart, and Boss just immediately forgives Cher. I didn’t believe any of Cher’s promises of “forever” in the finale after he’d already promised and broken that promise a million times during the series.

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I really, really did not enjoy this. Dropped at the beginning of ep 7.

One character is rich and living of mommy’s money and one character is poor with little family. The first few episodes gave off sugar daddy / gold digger vibes, the way all the time spent together and all the “wooing” was transactional in exchange for financial favors and free meals.

Sant is a live streamer, and boy does he have the most obnoxious, annoying live-streaming personality ever. Extremely, extremely cringy. The school dentist play they put on for kids at the school was also incredibly cringey and I don’t know why they made us sit through the whole thing.

As far as I watched, there was some boundary-crossing and mild manipulating. Touching their face in their sleep, pretending to be hurt to hold their hand, lying about what your doing to crash them hanging out due to jealousy, saying he’ll have to sleep in your bed if he’s staying over because the couch is being cleaned, saying you’re looking to get a specific dental treatment in order to spend time with a student doctor that needs to do said treatment as course work (side couple). There were also childish games of playing hard to get and acting like you don’t like them when you do, and also a weird mild-bullying dynamic, like a five year old that can’t process their feelings so they act mean to their crush.

Jay was really annoying when pestering Sant about not eating so many sweets. Let him live, damn. And Sant was unnecessarily mean. I lost track of the number of times he said something a long the lines of “Who’d want to date someone like you?” Like even after they’re friends, even after Sant is starting to feel something for Jay, he’s still being an asshole for no reason.

There was a full 2 episode jealousy arc between Sant, Jay, and Jay’s childhood friend Captain. It wasn’t the jealousy arc itself, but the way both Sant and Jay reacted to the situation that made me drop the show.

Captain shows up and shows an interest in Sant. Sant actively plays into it, consistently flirting (or being extremely friendly, at the very least) with Captain and pretty much completely ignoring Jay. He consistently actively choses to hang out with Captain, often without Jay, when given the choice between the two.

Meanwhile, Jay is obnoxious with his jealousy. While Captain takes no for an answer when Sant says no to doing something Captain suggested, Jay insists on crashing every activity Sant does with Captain. He’s constantly showing up and sticking around when he wasn’t asked to, and won’t take a hint to leave either. Captain was also sweeter and kinder to Sant than Jay, in my opinion, and he actively helped Sant’s career.

Jay and Captain fight over Sant like he’s a toy and they’re literal dogs having a pissing content. They literally agree to “compete” and let Sant choose the one he likes more. Like it’s some sort of game.

And Sant, when presented with the choice, has to actively think for multiple days before he chooses Jay. When Jay asks to go on a date, Sant literally forgets to respond, then turns him down in order to go to an influencer party with Captain. Jay settles for scraps because he has no self-respect and says they can see just the second half of the movie after the party. The event runs over and Sant ends up bailing early, but he still misses the entire movie and Captain was the one who gave him a ride to Jay. This was shown as a sweet gesture, since Sant left the party early, but Sant literally just chose the party over Jay, then stood Jay up and rolled up with Captain afterward. And if anything, it showed that Captain was sweeter than Jay because he prioritized Sant’s desires and helped him get to his date with Jay, whereas Jay tried to intervene every single time Sant and Captain tried to hangout together.

And on the date, Sant essentially asks Jay to confess his feelings and refuses to do the same himself. Afterward, Sant suddenly debates whether he should choose Captain instead of Jay since Jay abruptly got up instead of confessing since Sant was refusing to voice his own feelings. He has zero commitment or loyalty. It got to a point where I think Sant and Captain would have been better off together since Sant was so clearly more into him, and I don’t know why Captain suddenly ceded to Jay when Sant showed him so much more interest than he ever showed Jay, and Sant hadn’t yet definitively made up his mind.

Honestly, Sant doesn’t deserve Jay. Jay is always trying to be nice to Sant because he likes him, and Sant never does a single thing in return. He doesn’t even choose to hangout with Jay over Captain and doesn’t follow through on his promises when he does. He doesn’t confess first, call first, or make the first move ever. He wants to be pursued without doing anything himself. Is he even into Jay or is he just an option that’s available? Does he just get off on having two men chase after and do things for him, and like the power of having a choice? If Captain hadn’t backed out of the competition for Sant, would Sant have even followed through with Jay?

Even after the whole date fiasco, where Sant was talking about choosing Jay, he suddenly leaves for home without telling Jay. He has time to tell his best friend, but no time to text Jay. I’m pretty sure if I keep watching for a few more minutes, Jay is going to show up at Sant’s home because the man has no respect for boundaries or himself.

I stopped watching at that point. I have no patience for Sant being selfish and not giving a damn about Jay, or Jay continuing to chase after a man who so clearly does not give a shit about him.

Also, side note, but they kept talking about “tomboys” as if a tomboy is equivalent to a lesbian. You can be a masculine woman or a feminine man and neither mean you’re gay. Your gender expression is not equivalent to your sexual orientation.

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I know all the warning signs that this would be toxic were there, but I still wasn’t prepared.

There’s just zero consent whatsoever. Tuo does whatever he wants whenever he wants and makes Jun Xi out to be the bad guy if he doesn’t like it. And it’s not like Jun Xi not liking it or saying “no” stops Tuo either.

They go to a movie and Tuo essentially feels up Jun Xi while pretending he’s just picking up fallen popcorn. Jun Xi looks shocked, displays zero welcoming body language, and asks what he’s doing, but it doesn’t stop Tuo. Jun Xi gets aroused and goes to the bathroom, and Tuo follows him and asks if they should help each other out. But he doesn’t give him the opportunity to answer. He repeatedly kisses Jun Xi and reaches into his pants while Jun Xi pushes him away and tells him to hold on multiple times, all while displaying extremely uncomfortable body language. Jun Xi eventually gives in after probably the 3rd time Tuo reaches into his pants after being told no.

When they’re playing the lead roles in a play, Tuo kisses Jun Xi for real even though they had agreed upon a fake kiss. He acts like he did nothing wrong and says that Jun Xi should be happy because it got a good audience reaction and would lure more club members. When Jun Xi says that he should have asked first, he doubles down and says that Jun Xi is the one that kissed him this time, even though that only happened because Tuo pulled him in. And then Tuo backs Jun Xi into the wall and noncon kisses him again, confessing his feelings, until Jun Xi pushes him away.

There’s also a scene where Jun Xi is lying in bed with sunburn, and Tuo pins him down and physically restrains him and Jun Xi is protesting, saying no, and clearly thinks he’s about to be sexually assaulted again. I don’t care that he was just trying to help with the sunburn. No means no, physically or verbally. Silence means no. Discomfort means no. Nothing except an explicit yes means yes, and that extends beyond just sexual activities.

Tuo is also just extremely manipulative. He will lie about his intentions to try to get Jun Xi to do or feel what he wants. For example, feeling him up while pretendisg he was just picking up popcorn. Or telling him he’d help him confess to a girl while instead intending to get close to him and convince Jun Xi to like him instead. Or telling him that what happened at the movies was just him helping and that close friends often do that. Or telling him that he didn’t initiate the kiss during the play and that Jun Xi should be thankful for attracting club members, which is straight up gaslighting.

After Tuo confesses his feelings and starts giving Jun Xi the silent treatment when he doesn’t respond positively, Jun Xi tries to talk to Tuo. He says he’s confused about his feelings, but Tuo takes that as permission to pin Jun Xi against the wall and noncon kisses him again. He insists that Jun Xi likes him the way that he likes Jun Xi. Jun Xi repeatedly tells Tuo to let him go, but Tuo refuses, doubling down that Jun Xi likes him, until Jun Xi forcibly pushes him away. And after that, Jun Xi mentally excuses Tuo’s behavior, thinking that he shouldn’t have pushed him and that he only acted that way because he likes Jun Xi.

When they get together, Tuo chases Jun Xi down on the street, grabs his wrist and refuses to let go despite repeated verbal and physical protests, drags him all the way home, steals Jun Xi’s keys, lets himself in, and then refuses to leave when asked to. He noncon hugs Jun Xi from behind, says he’s always liked him and was only dating others to try to get over him, and when Jun Xi is uncomfortable and makes an excuse to leave, he noncon kisses him again. This kiss eventually turns consensual and from here on, Tuo takes it to mean they’re together.

Except Jun Xi was never given the time to process what he was feeling, even after communicating that he was confused. And not one physical interaction between them has been consensual. Jun Xi constantly looks uncomfortable. It’s like he was just pushed into this and not given any real opportunity to say no. Even at school the next day, he tries to stay with his friend instead of walking home with Tuo but Tuo pulls him away by the wrist once again. When they’re hanging out and Tuo kisses him, Jun Xi immediately makes an excuse to leave.

There’s also a number of boundary violation issues. Tuo repeatedly invades Jun Xi’s personal space, getting in his face, backing him up, and touching him after being told not to. There are a number of scenes where he grabs Jun Xi’s wrist and refuses to let go, either trying to prevent him from leaving or dragging him along. He’s extremely jealous, to the point of not even letting him talk to a girl that shows interest in him. He’s the type of caring that’s really just controlling, because it removes Jun Xi’s personal agency and right to make his own choices. Like forcibly carrying his suitcase when Jun Xi wants to carry it himself, or forcing him to take a shower first by threatening to join him if he doesn’t. He’s domineering, controlling, and pushy, and will persist and manipulate until he gets the outcome he wants, regardless of what other people want.

Jun Xi tells Tuo that it’s annoying that he gets jealous over everything and that they got together too fast and he needs time to adjust. Tuo responds by once again trying to kiss him, and Jun Xi stops him, telling him to not just kiss him whenever he wants until he’s adjusted. Tuo says that he likes Jun Xi and therefore wants to kiss him, and somehow it turns into a game of rock paper scissors where Jun Xi wins, saying no touching or kissing unless he says it’s okay. I’m sorry, but why are they arguing about whether Jun Xi has the right to consent before Tuo just does whatever he wants? He had to win a game of rock paper scissors to get Tuo to agree to wait for his consent? And the worst part is, Tuo says he’ll agree, but only for a month, and in exchange Jun Xi has to do something that he wants him to do. Like why is this a negotiation?

That scene disgusted me so much that I just called it quits. I give up. It’s only been 3 episodes and all I’ve seen is a whole lot of sexual assault. There’s nothing sweet or romantic or entertaining about any of this.

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This was genuinely really good. I wasn’t expecting much given this is a shorts stories, but this is truly on par with a standard full length series. There are compilations available of the episodes on the official YouTube, so the shorts format wasn’t too annoying, but this would have been so much better if it was filmed in landscape as opposed to portrait.

There were two stories shown here - one is of the two idol/actors, and one is of the two students. The student story is the film that the actors are filming in universe. The first 6 episodes are the student story, then we jump into the idol/actor story, and then the ending of the student story is shown later when the actors film it. I thought both were really compelling. I genuinely liked the student story and would have watched a full BL series dedicated to it. But the way it was shown, with the first 6 episodes of just that, you get invested in that story only to find out that’s not the real story. So it ends up being a kind of bait and switch. I think interspersing the student story in between the actor story as they filmed the scenes would have made more sense.

I really liked that both leads were complete equals. Both shared in the responsibility of caring for each other and both took the lead at different times. There was mutual and reciprocal affection.

I absolutely loved that when Bai Xing found out the truth about Hei Yan’s feelings and identity, he didn’t immediately fold and forgive him. He was angry, demanded an explanation, and went off about Hei Yan’s continued lack of communication. I so love when a character actually stands up for themselves instead of just accepting anything they’re given in the name of love.

And I loved the ending as well. We had plenty of time with the happy couple, and it was so refreshing to see an idol drama where they don’t hide from the public. They also get married in the end, which I always love. Plus the relationship wasn’t overly chaste - they sleep in the same bed, they kiss properly and frequently, and they don’t pretend to be virginal people in a long term relationship that get shy at the mention of sex.

If I had one complaint, it would be that they played into the fan service aspect of their relationship, posting fan club content and selling merch. I feel like it’s never a good thing to be monetizing your relationship.

Also, I thought it was funny that these guys were supposed to be singers, dancers, and actors in universe because they very clearly could not sing or dance. They can definitely act though, and their in universe acting scenes were just as compelling as the overall story. Out of all the shorts series I’ve seen, I think this one has the best acting.

There were several good kiss and NC scenes (waist up making out, implied sex). There are also throat grabbing (not choking) scenes from both couples (not pre-negotiated), if that’s something you want to be aware of in advance.

Boundary/consent issues: In the student story, one tries to kiss the other while he’s sleeping, but he wakes up. In the actor story, there were several sleep violations on both characters’ parts - watching sleeping, touching faces/hair, taking photos. Bai Xing also tries to lift Hei Yan’s shirt when he’s sleeping to see a scar, but Hei Yan wakes up. There were a couple scenes where one would grab the other one to prevent them from leaving as well. For the second couple, one of the characters grabs the other’s face while drunk and won’t let go when he’s trying to pry him off. He also kisses his cheek and hugs him.

There were a couple non con / dub con kisses as well. Hei Yan kisses Bai Xing when he’s sleeping, and while Bai Xing responses, it was an unconscious response, like sleep walking or sleep talking. Bai Xing kisses Hei Yan on stage without prior discussion, and Hei Yan isn’t happy about it. Bai Xing also kisses Hei Yan as a form of revenge, saying it was just performative since he thinks Hei Yan has just been immersive acting with him and playing with his feelings. During one makeout session, Bai Xing says to wait, and Hei Yan does stop, but when Bai Xing voices a concern about people being outside, Hei Yan just pushes him down and continues. It does proceed consensually from there though. And there’s one scene for each couple that involves non-pre-negotiated throat grabbing (not choking).

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This was really great. My only complaint is that it was so short, and that I wanted a bit more closure at the end.

The pacing across the overall series was perfect. I think the progression of the two characters falling for each other was great. In typical KBL fashion though, the actual content feels like it’s playing in slow motion. It’s perfect at 1.25x speed. The acting, from both leads, but particularly Shi On, was pretty good as well. It’s short, and the love story is simple without tons of conflicts, but it was well executed. The dancing was good enough to be passable for the story they wanted to tell. They were clever with the camera angles and cuts, and what was shown wasn’t mind-blowingly impressive contemporary dance, but it wasn’t so bad that it detracted from the story or anything. And props to this show for no dead fish lip presses! Nothing super steamy, but multiple real, proper kisses all the same.

My primary complaint is that I didn’t feel all the loose ends were tied up in the end. Hong Seok was being forced to go to Vietnam. Did his boss just completely let go of that after hearing Shi On’s confession? She was cold and uncaring the whole series so I don’t know why she changed her mind. Is she going to let him quit like he originally wanted to, and if so, what’s he going to do now? And what was her deal anyways? She was inappropriately caressing Hong Seok’s face sometimes, and that was never explained. What happened to Shi On’s mom? Is the end of that story line just that she abandoned him and we’ll never know anything more? And what about Jung Hoon? Is he not going to have any reaction to losing the audition to Shi On? And the show ends right when Hong Seok comes back to Shi On. They hug and kiss and live happily ever after I guess. I needed like 5 or 10 more minutes to see them actually happy together and see some semblance of what their happily ever after would actually look like.

No consent issues, but some minor boundary issues. Their first meeting, Hong Seok ties up and carries Shi On away over his shoulder — he’s a debt collector and Shi On was running. Following that, Hong Seok signs as the guarantor for Shi On’s debt, which Shi On plans to pay off by getting the lead role in his audition. Hong Seok starts entering Shi On’s house uninvited, essentially moving in, trailing him around, and micromanaging him, including force-feeding him and preventing him from working instead of practicing. Shi On says he’s uncomfortable with this, but it’s not really acknowledged. Hong Seok also demands that Shi On answer the phone whenever he calls. Hong Seok is very grabby — there are multiple scenes where he grabs Shi On by the arm to prevent him from leaving.

But overall, both consent and respect of boundaries were relatively good compared to other BLs. When Hong Seok starts staying over, he never presumes or insists that he sleep in the same bed as Shi On, and instead sleeps in a sleeping bag on the floor, even though the heat isn’t working. When Shi On tries to hold Hong Seok, and also when he tries to lean on his shoulder, Hong Seok immediately rejects him and Shi On immediately backs off. When Shi On first kisses Hong Seok, he gives him ample time to stop the kiss before making contact. When Hong Seok stops them and says it can’t happen again, Shi On listens. When Shi On says he wants to be alone that night, Hong Seok listens. I also appreciated that despite the creditor / debtor dynamic, there were no power dynamics between Shi On and Hong Seok. Shi On was confident and assertive, not afraid to voice his opinions, stand up for himself, or say no, and he was often the one making the first move.

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Really, really good. The story, pacing, and acting were all on point. The relationship was very green flag and sweet on both sides.

I really enjoyed the fact that both partners were complete equals. Both of them take care of each other, both of them pay for things, and neither of them are domineering or controlling. Although Thap took the lead early on since In was inexperienced and had never been in a relationship, by the end, In was also initiating caring gestures and both emotional and physical affection. In the second NC scene, Thap tells In that he took care of In last time, and tells In to take care of him this time. And at the end, In comforts Thap emotionally after Kan’s betrayal.

The only thing I would say I wished there was more of was In doing small gestures to care for Thap. Thap was always doing small things, like bringing an umbrella to keep In out of the sun, putting his hand on the car frame to prevent In from hitting his head, helping with his hand injury when he noticed it was acting up, etc. I wanted to see more of that minor, day-to-day type care reciprocated from In.

There was a brief period at the beginning of their romantic relationship where In was shying away from from Thap’s affection (which I didn’t like since it can read like dub con), but he gets over it relatively quickly, and Thap always backed off when In told him to. There’s one scene where Thap is taking off In’s shirt to give him a sponge bath and In grabs his shirt sleeve, so Thap immediately backs off and turns away so In can take his own shirt off. That kind of fine-tuned non-verbal consent is top-tier.

There were a few scenes that involved crossing boundaries, but it was overall a very green flag romance compared to most BLs. There are two scenes where In is hysterical / upset and keeps telling Thap not to touch him, but Thap keeps grabbing at him anyways. And there was one scene where Thap blocks In up against the wall and puts his face really close, supposedly to check if his hair was wet (a typical BL flirting move, basically), but In seemed uncomfortable. And also there’s the brief period where In was shying away from and seemed uncomfortable with Thap’s affection right when they’re first getting together.

There were scenes on both sides where one character wanted the other to do or not do something because they wanted the best for the other person. A lot of the time in BLs, this comes off as controlling behavior. Like forcing someone to do something that you perceive to be in their best interest, regardless of their own thoughts or feelings on the matter. That’s not the case here, and that was incredibly refreshing. Help, support, and care were offered, but not forced.

When Thap tells In to get unsweetened soy milk to avoid sugar or to blow dry his hair so he doesn’t get a cold, he does not coerce, manipulate, guilt, physically maneuver, or otherwise force In into listening to him. In is fully capable of and does say no if he doesn’t want to listen. They also have an actual conversation about boundaries (!!), during which In tells Thap to stop nagging and Thap agrees. In also wants Thap to run away and to not make his presence known to the public because he’s concerned about Thap’s safety. Again, he gets upset and emotional given the severity of the situation, but he does not force Thap to do what he says. And they have actual conversations - Thap agrees to run away and be more considerate about his safety, but doesn’t want to stay hidden away from the locals and In doesn’t force him to despite not liking it. There’s a mutual understanding that despite the concern for each other’s wellbeing, In is still going to help the people in his visions even if it puts his health at risk, and Thap is still going to help people that are hurt even if it may publicize his location and put his life in danger. There’s no pressuring or guilting or demanding each other stop something important to them in the name of “caring”.

I really valued the communication. They discuss and agree on boundaries, and there are apologies and adjustments when those are broken (like Thap fixing In parents’ furniture unknowingly after agreeing not to touch his stuff). They have an actual conversation about the feasibility of a long term relationship given their differing beliefs.

The ending was also great. There was pretty much a full episode left to give them a proper HEA and wrap up all loose ends. So many BLs only have a few minutes at the end where the couple is finally together and all the conflicts are resolved, and it often feels rushed and unsatisfying. That’s not the case here. I really enjoyed the 2 ring proposal. I didn’t get why they had Thap forgive Kan though, and I also didn’t understand In’s career because he graduated college but is a fortune teller that no longer does readings…so how exactly is he making money?

The one thing I didn’t like was the ex drama in episodes 7 and 8. Thap and Wan dated back in college, and Thap hasn’t dated anyone since, although he seems completely over him both mentally and emotionally. When Wan comes back, Thap is not shy about saying he’s dating In and shutting him down. But they’re realistic exes, so they’re kind and friendly to one another, and they have the longest ever closure conversation about the downfall of their relationship, the mistakes they made, and well wishes for each other’s futures. I just didn’t want to see all that, given that In was simultaneously having a breakdown due to his own inferiority complex.

Speaking of, I understand In’s discomfort with the ex being the one to help Thap when In couldn’t save him (by donating a rare blood type), with Thap’s mom saying Thap and the ex should get back together, and also with the ex posting a very couple-y type photo on Instagram. But Thap had just gotten shot and In didn’t come see him at all, even if he did go to the hospital and stay outside the room. He essentially abandoned Thap emotionally immediately after he just got shot to prioritize his own feelings, and that wasn’t fair.

The only thing that fell a bit flat for me was the kissing. There are a couple NC scenes, mainly just shirtless kissing and a cutaway with implied sex. They’re not very steamy, but they are sweet. And there’s a lot of overall physical affection, including casual kissing, which I felt solidified the couple. The problem was the actual quality of the kissing. Either the actors weren’t opening their mouths wide enough, or they weren’t matching each other’s mouth movements well, because the kissing looked really bad on camera. Simultaneously chaste, like they were trying to open their mouths as little as possible, and like they were trying to eat each other’s mouths (and not in a good way). The second couple had much less screen time and not much kissing, but they knew how to kiss for the camera.

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This was good, overall. Depressing all the way until the finale and special episode though, so you’ve got to be in the right mood.

The beginning of the story was very much about high schoolers being in situations bigger than themselves and making high schooler level decisions as a result. Haruki had so much going on with his abusive father and his head was a mess, so he kept disappearing and then re-appearing at his convenience. The separation, with Haruki pushing Jin away and leaving because he felt like he wasn’t good enough, and Jin letting him go without a fight, was very much high school-level thinking and frustrating, because it was a situation that could have been dealt with as partners with some communication.

I think Jin initially let Haruki go because he was a kid, Haruki dumped him, and he felt like he didn’t have the power to make anything better. But I didn’t really understand why he never reached out during their years of separation, especially once he found Haruki’s letter. They showed that Haruki tried to find Jin again, but Jin’s number wasn’t working and he had moved, so why didn’t Jin ever do the same?

The beginning of their relationship was a lot of dub con/non con and sexual harassment. The first three kisses were all dub con or non con, and the fourth started dub con and became consensual. It frustrated me that Haruki kept non consensually kissing Jin, even after promising that he wouldn’t anymore. He also did a bunch of other things that made Jin uncomfortable, like making him feed him water, hugging him from behind while Jin was washing his hands, smelling him, licking ice cream off his hand, sending kissing emojis, asking if Jin was trying to seduce him after Haruki pulled him and Jin fell on top of him, and the list goes on. I don’t understand why boy love dramas as a whole think this whole non-consent thing is a romantic way to showcase a developing relationship. It’s not sweet, it’s not cute. It’s sexual harassment and sexual assault and it shouldn’t be romanticized. Once they got together though, everything was consensual, both before and after the separation.

As typical for JBLs, the kissing is very chaste. Mostly pecks and dead fish lip presses. Even the shirtless make out scene had pretty much no lip movement. I thought the beginning half of the story was fine with those types of kisses. After all, they were inexperienced and awkward high schoolers. But when they reunited in college in the finale after being separated for so many years, a single lip peck was absolutely unacceptable. Even a passionate hug would have been better. It totally took the passion out of the situation. There was a proper kissing scene in the special episode, but if they were going to include a proper kiss, it should have been when they reunited.

The special episode was realistic, but disappointing to me as a romantic. Gay marriage isn’t legal in Japan and homophobia is a realistic reason not to want to come out. But all the same, I wish they had ultimately told their friends and at least had a symbolic non-legal marriage, especially given that Haruki was on board for that. It was just Jin that stopped them, although for fully realistic reasons. All the same, they did promise to be together forever, married or not, and I think a full epilogue-type episode like that was really needed to wrap the series up.

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Dropped after episode 8 due to abundant consent issues. Yejun laid out clear boundaries that he didn’t want to kiss while standing in, but Jaehyeon tried to go in for one anyways. When Yejun runs away, Jaehyeon gets in his face as if he’s going to kiss him again and then whispers in his ear about whether he’s tempted. And Jaehyeon touches Yejun hair. It’s made worse by the fact that Jaehyeon personally picked Yejun to stand in because he likes him. Jaehyeon grabs and hugs Yejun without consent and uses the excuse that he’s preventing classmates from seeing him. When Jaehyeon hurts his leg, he guilts Yejun into nursing him and makes Yejun feed him even though his hands work perfectly fine. Jaehyeon watches Yejun sleep and kisses his cheek. All within the first 8 episodes <2 min episodes. There was absolutely nothing sweet, redeeming, or entertaining present to make me want to keep watching.

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Bad, overall. First of all, this is 100% love triangles and ex-drama. I minded less because the two leads only have feelings for each other. It’s just other people that one-sidedly like them. But 3 people in love with Daonuea? Seriously?

Khabkluen was a piece of shit. Seriously.

First of all, he’s as emotionally stunted as a rock. He’s liked Daonuea the whole time. He liked him before Daonuea confessed to him back in high school, but rejected him for absolutely no reason. But he lets Daonuea believe he has a girlfriend. He runs after said “girlfriend” and prioritizes her when in the middle of an emotional and important conversation with Daonuea. He refuses to answer when asked what he’d do if he had to choose between his ex and Daonuea. He refuses to verbalize his feelings when Daonuea tells him he likes him or makes it clear that his feelings haven’t gone anywhere. He tells Daonuea to date someone else then gets upset that he does. Like…what? All this drama created for no reason. What was the reason, motivation, or logic behind not verbalizing a single damn thing when he had every opportunity and no obstacles? Daonuea is upset and ranting at Khabkluen, he’s emotional and needs a response, a conversation, something…and Khabkluen just stands there in silence like a brick wall. ALL THE TIME. The way I would actually go insane.

Second of all, there is zero consent. Daonuea is upset in the bathroom, and Khabkluen comes in and kisses him, multiple times, non consensually. Daonuea shoves him away, multiple times, tells him no and is vocally upset, but Khabkluen keeps going in again and again. If you didn’t know he’s supposed to be the lead, you’d think he’s the villain that the lead is going to step in and save the other guy from. That’s not all though. He later non consensually kisses Daonuea again, stops when he’s shoved off, but then goes in for a non consensual hug where he’s once again shoved away. Once they get together, he goes in for a surprise kiss so Daonuea has no time to say no or react, and he jerks back in response. Then he reveals that he KISSED DAONUEA IN HIS SLEEP because Daonuea had said he liked Khabkluen while sleep talking. Wtf??? Typhoon also noncon kisses Daonuea and gets punched by Khabkluen for it, but honestly, the scene wasn’t all that different from what Khabkluen himself did. We get a couple consensual pecks / dead fish lip presses in the finale, but that’s about it.

There’s more, because when Daonuea is upset and storming off, he chases after him and tries to stop him from leaving by grabbing him and standing in front of his car. When Daonuea is shitfaced, he chooses to sleep with him in one twin bed when he could have easily slept in one of the 3 other beds.

Not to mention that back in high school, he was in a long term relationship with a girl and dumped her after gaining feelings for Daonuea (who he’d never actually spoken to, btw). Just the act of gaining feelings for someone else while in a relationship is infidelity of some sort in my mind.

And him and his ex, they’ve got some kind of weird, way too close to be just friends but also not romantically involved, relationship. The ex clarifies that they’re just like siblings now, but I’m sorry, if I’m in an emotionally tense conversation that is going to determine whether or not things are going to work out with the love of my life, am I going to 1) pick a call from my ex-girlfriend, 2) run out to immediately meet her and make said love of life wait, 3) tell said love of life that they’d have to adjust to my and my ex’s relationship and that asking to choose between them is ridiculous?? Granted, the reason he ran out was because the ex has been a victim of DV, but I promise you that no matter how much I loved any of my friends, I wouldn’t react in that way and put the supposed love of my life so far below them in priority.

Honestly, people were annoyed and Daonuea for dating Typhoon but I don’t blame him. He only gave him 24 hours, he didn’t pretend to be happy or loving or anything other than the miserable person he actually was, and he was upfront with Typhoon about his feelings for both him and Khabkluen. And Khabkluen had just made it abundantly clear that his ex was a bigger priority to him.

I will say, every character in this show takes rejection well. If someone says they’re not interested, they accept that answer unless they’re explicitly given reason to hope for otherwise. No stalking or harassment to be found.

I really didn’t want to keep watching after episode 6 but I powered through. The HEA came too easy after all that manufactured angst. I didn’t enjoy the HEA after all the bullshit, especially the abundant noncon.

The finale set up for the second series in the same universe, featuring a guy that’s very hung up on his ex-girlfriend who just got married. He still has her as his phone wallpaper. Needless to say, I won’t be watching.

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I was a bit hesitant about this show because of the love triangle aspect. I can sometimes tolerate love triangles if they’re one sided and the lead doesn’t reciprocate, but I don’t usually do well if the lead is into someone else. The love triangle aspect in this show wasn’t that bad. By ep 3, Zo realizes that what he feels while interacting with Nita doesn’t match what he feels while interacting with Joke. From that point on, Zo is only really focused on Joke. By ep 6, Zo realizes that what he felt for Nita was admiration, not romantic feelings. There are no romantic moments with Nita and it never feels like Zo is betraying his feelings for Nita or that he’s still hung up on her.

Joke was a bit domineering and overbearing at times. In the first episode, he invades Zo’s personal space and gets up in his face for no real reason. When Zo is drunk, Joke manhandles him and doesn’t let him leave — trying to “take care” of him, but doesn’t give him a choice in the matter. It’s not caring for someone if that person doesn’t get a say or choice in the matter. There are times where Joke grabs Zo to keep him from leaving when Zo is telling him to let go. There were points where Joke would invite himself along when Zo was trying to go somewhere alone, or insist on giving Zo a ride, or refuse to leave Zo alone when he’s clearly trying to avoid Joke, or even show up to his family’s home uninvited after Zo told him he didn’t want him to come along…all portrayed as romantic, but again, it’s not romantic when Zo doesn’t get a choice. There was a point where they were discussing a story in which Aphrodite’s lover got killed and she was too late to save him, and Joke says that if it were him, he never would have left his lover alone for him to have been in danger in the first place, and Zo thinks its very romantic, but that kind of reflects his attitude as a whole. He’s always there, whether you want him there or not.

There was one scene where Joke was insisting that Zo eat something that he didn’t want to eat because he wanted Zo to try new things. Zo’s friend blows up on him for being pushy, and I so appreciate Zo calling him out and telling him that he needs to respect boundaries even if he means well.

The consent was good as a whole though, despite Joke’s overbearing-ness. Joke tells Zo he can wait until he’s ready many times. He reassures him that he can stay the night and that he won’t make a move, that he cares about his physical safety. He tells Zo to take it slow and that there’s no rush when Zo is about to kiss him but is still unsure of his feelings, and Zo takes the opportunity to backoff. When Joke asks to cuddle Zo, Zo turns over in silence, and Joke double checks that silence means “yes” before holding him. When Joke wants to kiss Zo, Zo says “not here” since they’re in public. Joke says there’s no one around and Zo agrees, but looks uncomfortable, so Joke only kisses him on the nose and backs off.

I didn’t feel like Zo adequately showed that he was as into Joke as Joke was into him, or properly reciprocated Joke’s level of commitment, care, and affection. Even after they got together, Zo often dodged and didn’t reciprocate verbal affection like “I miss you” and “I love you”. He often rejected physical affection like hugs and kisses. Joke was always, always there for Zo, and was always going out of his way to do small things to care for Zo. I don’t feel like Zo really reciprocated that daily-small-ways-of-caring part of things. When Joke is getting stalked, he’s still the one protecting Zo from being caught in the cross fire, not the other way around. In the finale, Joke is having a hard time with his family, but Zo isn’t aware because he’s dealing with his own family issues. But Joke is always aware when something is wrong with Zo, regardless of whether Zo voices it or not. When Zo is dealing with his family issues, he tells Joke that he needs to focus on his family and that their relationship is a distraction. It was always Joke pursuing and Zo pushing him away, Joke making grand gestures and Zo accepting them, Joke asking for physical affection and Zo granting it, and I wanted more reciprocity. Joke always took the lead, and I wanted Zo to take on that role sometimes too.

As far as the whole “hidden agenda” aspect of the shows go, I don’t think Joke truly justified getting involved with Zo with ulterior motives. Even when Joke makes his final apology that Zo accepts, he was saying things like “don’t you feel sorry for me”. He never really acknowledged that what he did was wrong, and said that he did what he did because he loved Zo. He just says that wouldn’t lie again, and Zo accepted that, but it didn’t seem like he thought what he did was wrong. Pat’s (Zo’s friend who colluded with Joke) apology was much better in my opinion because he explicitly acknowledged that was he did was wrong and apologized for it. Joke should have acknowledged that what he did was wrong and why.

Other small things: When Joke is tutoring Zo on pursuing Nita, he tells him to change is posture, change his clothes, change his eating habits, etc. But then he tells him not to take her on a rooftop date because it’d be changing himself. If anything, the opposite is true. Doing a one off activity that your partner enjoys but you don’t is much less “changing yourself” than everything Joke suggested Zo do. When Zo and Joke make up after Joke’s hidden agenda secret comes out, Zo punishes Joke by saying there would be no kissing for a month, when it’s really toxic to use physical affection as a form of reward or punishment. Also, the last few episodes were just focused on family drama surrounding a desire for validation, and were pretty boring.

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