Reviews

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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Pretty disappointing, overall.

The show was really, really slow. Even watching on 2x speed, there was a lot of standing around in silence during conversations. On 1x speed, it literally felt like it was in slow motion some times. A whole lot of nothing happened in most episodes, and the whole plot is based on a trivial high school misunderstanding, and I think it could have been boiled down into four 30 minute episodes. As it was, it was just boring.

Also, the acting from whoever plays Achi was pretty bad. He always had this same wide smile on his face, even when it didn’t fit the mood. Ji would be upset or angry and Achi would just be standing there with that dumbass grin on his face. He was so tone deaf too, like smiling and telling Ji to eat and think later when Ji is upset about a patient with cancer, considering that his mom died of cancer. The acting was just really one-dimensional and not convincing, overall. I didn’t buy that Achi was in love with or even attracted to Ji whatsoever.

There was a lot of consent / boundary issues on Achi’s part. He non-consensually kisses Ji in episode 2 and rightfully gets punched in the face for it. Ji tells him to leave him alone and that he doesn’t want to see him again, so Achi decides to show up at his house, coerce his way in, and then proceeds to refuse to leave for the entire day AND night. During which period he make further physical moves on Ji, such as dropping a face mask on his face and picking it up with his mouth (Ji pushes him off and is upset about this), and touching his face in his sleep. He was constantly showing up uninvited and unannounced and refusing to leave. Achi could have appealed to Ji by being kind, being friendly, just using open communication, but instead he kept violating his boundaries and sexually harassing him. Even during the high school flashback scenes, there was a scene where he stalked Ji on his date with Pear.

There were two scenes that I think had good consent. One was when Achi kisses Ji in the present in bed. When Ji stops him, Achi respects it and doesn’t try again. The second was the high school flashback NC scene. They’re watching an erotic movie, and Ji tells Achi to turn it off. Achi respects it and does. Achi puts his hand on Ji’s and when Ji doesn’t move away, Achi asks Ji if he wants to try it. Ji says no and Achi removes his hand and backs away, until Ji himself grabs Achi and initiates things. When they’re getting undressed, Achi looks to Ji and waits for a nod of approval before removing his shorts.

I didn’t understand why Achi having a girlfriend was at all necessary. I couldn’t understand the timeline of their relationship either. When Achi meets Ji in Chiang Mai, he says he has a girlfriend and her shoe is in his car. But he non-consensually kisses Ji minutes later. And the girlfriend says in an interview that they’re broken up the next day. So did he break up with her after kissing Ji or were they already broken up? If they were already broken up, then why did he lie? And if they weren’t broken up, why was he still with her, when he came to Chiang Mai with the explicit intent of chasing after Ji again? And speaking of, what changed after 10 years that he suddenly decided to go after Ji again? And Achi never tells Ji that he and his girlfriend broke up, so is Ji going along this whole time thinking that Achi is cheating on his girlfriend, and he’s just okay with that? The girlfriend added nothing to the plot and just made me uncomfortable with the whole emotional and potentially physical cheating that was going on.

There were other inconsistencies as well. In the high school flashback scenes, Ji says he likes Pear, but then he immediately tells Achi that he has a pretty face, eyes, nose, and mouth (in a clearly non-platonic way). He then goes on the pursue Pear and continues to talk about liking her. But then when Achi finds Pear “cheating” on Ji, Ji says they were never together and were just friends. And then he and Achi have sex. So what?? Did he like her, did he not like her, what was their relationship and at what point did his feelings change?

And in the finale, they show that Achi was aware that he hurt Ji and he was aware that the reason Ji was hurt was because he disappeared without a word right after they had sex. So why in the beginning, when he met Ji in Chiang Mai, was he acting like he didn’t know what was wrong and why Ji was acting cold towards him?

I felt that Achi, Ji’s friend, and Ji’s brother all scheming together to reunite Ji and Achi behind Ji’s back was really messed up too, considering that the friend and brother knew how much Achi hurt Ji. They never should have disregarded his feelings and wishes and prioritized Achi’s instead.

The side couple with Achi’s brother and the random farmer guy was also really pointless. They weren’t shown enough to really develop their relationship, what was shown was boring and not convincingly romantic, and it felt disjointed from the rest of the show.

Also, a side note that could be written off as a cultural difference or extremely problematic depending on your perspective: I believe Ji's family's butchering business sells dog meat. It was translated as "pork" in the subtitles, but it was clear based on his mom asking how they could keep a dog as a pet when they sell "pork" at the shop.

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Rated 9 up until the final episode. The story is emotional and desperate and beautiful, but the ending is shit. They have feelings for each other, but Dong Hui leaves for Seoul despite originally planning to go to a local college because he has feelings for Ho Tae and is scared due to internalized homophobia. They never admit their feelings for each other. They’re apart for years. The ending sees Dong Hui returning, and they see each other again. We don’t see them speak, so who knows if they become friends or more this time around. Why would anything be different this time around if they were too afraid to admit their feelings the first time around? Disappointing.

Boundary crossing: Dong Hui asks Ho Tae to move aside but he blocks him in instead. Dong Hui grabs Ho Tae to prevent him from walking away.

Consent issues: Ho Tae asks Dong Hui for a kiss. He pins his wrists down and doesn’t allow him to move. Dong Hui does not respond with a yes or no. Ho Tae moves in for a kiss and it starts consensually. Dong Hui breaks the kiss, Ho Tae goes in for more, and Dong Hui has to forcibly push him off to get him to stop.

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Rated 9 up until the final episode. The story is emotional and desperate and beautiful, but the ending is shit. They have feelings for each other, but Dong Hui leaves for Seoul despite originally planning to go to a local college because he has feelings for Ho Tae and is scared due to internalized homophobia. They never admit their feelings for each other. They’re apart for years. The ending sees Dong Hui returning, and they see each other again. We don’t see them speak, so who knows if they become friends or more this time around. Why would anything be different this time around if they were too afraid to admit their feelings the first time around? Disappointing.

Boundary crossing: Dong Hui asks Ho Tae to move aside but he blocks him in instead. Dong Hui grabs Ho Tae to prevent him from walking away.

Consent issues: Ho Tae asks Dong Hui for a kiss. He pins his wrists down and doesn’t allow him to move. Dong Hui does not respond with a yes or no. Ho Tae moves in for a kiss and it starts consensually. Dong Hui breaks the kiss, Ho Tae goes in for more, and Dong Hui has to forcibly push him off to get him to stop.

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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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disappointment

I remember i have high expectation of this drama in March 2025 due the cast (Shen Haonan, Wang Ziyi, Yue Yuting-three of them are well-known names)

The chemistry between Shen Haonan-Yue Yuting is non-exist. Even Wang Ziyi antic couldn't save this drama from disaster. The plot is about childhood friends who met again on the plane and ML& SML are rival since their childhood.

The plot are dragging, no sweet moment, only misunderstand and lack of communication. Snoozefest and change the other drama for releasing boredom in this drama.

Shen Haonan got himself drunk and choosing this script only to get more weakness of his acting portofolio.
I understand why Yue Yuting always cast as seductress FL and never got this kind of role beside of that because she cannot break her acting stigma (all of her drama is same to me).

Not worth of the watch, watch their other respective drama instead.

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Amazing KBL. Truly one of the rarest

Korean BLs are scarce really. They are rather conservative and very rare to find.

This one in particular, has a beautiful setting. The leads' chemistry is amazing and the story is very engaging.

It's has the cliche plot with a few twists but what keeps the drama going is the leads' chemistry.
The kiss scenes, skinship, etc are truly palpable.

The second half became a little flat but nonetheless the character development was beautiful and everything was wrapped up.
All in all, one of the beautiful Kbls i have seen. the chemistry is amazing!

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I liked the main couple. The side couples, not so much.

The main couple was great in that they were equals. They both took care of each other, they both pursued each other, they both took the lead. Neither shied away from or rejected affection for no reason. They were very cute together and I liked that the show ended with them engaged, and that we got to see a glimpse into their everyday HEA life.

There were a couple boundary-crossing scenes, and some sexual harassment, but no actual non-con / dub-con between the main couple. There were a few scenes where Xun An would get really close to Bai Lang while he was sleeping, maybe trying to kiss him? He backed off once when Bai Lang opened his eyes, and once when he turned his face. There was a lot of Xun An grabbing and touching Bai Lang, often to prevent him from walking away, even after Bai Lang repeatedly removed his hands and told him to stop touching him.

I wasn’t bothered by the patient-doctor relationship at first because Xun An was professional and their relationship was only being developed outside of the office. But at some point, he starts hitting on Bai Lang while he’s in the dentist chair, invading his personal space and getting up in his face, dismissing the nurse and working on him alone, all while Bai Lang had not yet signaled any interest on his part. It was textbook sexual harassment, objectively.

There were a few things I didn’t really like about their relationship, as well. When Bai Lang tells Xun An that he likes him too after seeing him with his ex, I understand Xun An’s concern that Bai Lang is only reacting as a panic response to the ex. I get why he doesn’t believe that Bai Lang is sincere in his words. And I get his whole, “you push me away but call me back when you want me” thing. But he’s pretty much already decided to forgive Bai Lang and that he still wants him, because he goes to Bai Lang’s sister for her blessing the same night. Meanwhile he has Bai Lang chase after him. I didn’t really like that he was essentially playing mind games - he was acting upset when he wasn’t actually because he wanted Bai Lang to chase after him like he chased after Bai Lang.

Also, the whole ex situation really annoyed me. There’s ex-drama from episodes 6-8. There were so many flashbacks of the relationship and romantic moments with the ex, including a kiss scene. We didn’t need to see all that. Xun An is friendly to the ex, still remembers his favorite coffee, and Bai Lang gifting him meal at the beginning of the series was enough to trigger a flashback. It’s been 7 years, they were never officially together, the ex got married and had a kid, and they haven’t spoken since, but Xun An has never dated anyone since him. All that gave the ex too much weight and importance. That being said, Xun An definitively rejects the ex and pursues Bai Lang without any hesitation, so I had more of a problem with the show’s depiction of the ex relationship and not the character’s actions. But also, the ex kept popping up, even after everyone got closure and moved on in episode 8. He literally hugged Xun An on purpose so Bai Lang would see, and he had a weird pissing contest with Bai Lang about who knew Xun An better at the market even after Xun An definitively rejected him. But despite that, he ends up marrying Bai Lang’s sister. Like wtf? You’re going to have the ex marry into the family and be around forever?

And they randomly threw in an abuse situation in the last two episodes. Xun An’s dad is abusive and beats Xun An after finding out about his relationship with Bai Lang, and Xun An basically ghosted Bai Lang for 3 weeks as a result. The whole situation annoyed me. First of all, everything was brushed under the rug. Not a single character acknowledged the abuse, instead treating it like it was a normal thing that Xun An had to endure in order to gain his father’s approval. They act like familial approval is so important, when sometimes your family can be garbage and their approval isn’t necessary or worth it. Also, Xun An never truthfully explains why he went missing or apologizes to Bai Lang - he finds out from Xun An’s mother. Bai Lang tells Xun An never to keep things from him again and that they should shoulder the burden together going forward, but it never felt like Xun An truly committed or agreed to that statement.

The side couples: I hated them. All of them.

The Alex / RJ pairing was gross, I’m sorry. They literally look like parent / child, or young uncle / child, at the very least. RJ looks and acts like a teenager and Alex looks and acts like a grown man. There’s an age difference in appearance, behavior, and attitude, and there’s no way a relationship like that can ever exist without an inherent power dynamic. Alex thinks of and treats RJ as a child for the vast majority of the show. It’s like if an 18 year old high school senior hits on their teacher — yes, they’re technically an adult, but there’s a power dynamic (boss / employee + age difference) and even if they’re the one’s initiating, it’s your responsibility as the adult to shut down any sort of inappropriate relationship. So the fact that Alex started to see RJ in a different light all of a sudden was really gross to me. Everything between them was nonconsensual anyways (RJ kisses Alex non-consensually twice, and sexually harasses him twice by pinning him up against the wall and getting in his face while he was sleeping). They don’t definitively end up together, but it’s hinted that there’s something there. I’m glad for it, because it was gross enough already that I fast-forwarded through the majority of their scenes.

The Bai Lang’s sister / Xun An’s ex pairing was stupid too, because I wanted the ex to just go away and instead he married into the family. There was another random couple, a delivery guy and another dentist at Xun An’s office, and they served no purpose and would have been better off cut from the show altogether.

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Short, enjoyable watch. Watched the re-edited 6 episode version.

Sweet romance. No consent issues, boundary-crossing, or stalking/harassment.

They don’t get together until the very end of the final episode and they plan to keep it a secret. I’d be invested in a longer show where they deal with the public fall out. Also, they keep talking about Doha not getting along with his idol group members, but they never explain why and in the final episode they just say they made up with no further explanation. So not sure what the point of even including that conflict was.

Very chaste, which is probably to be expected. One lip press where one character is wide-eyed in shock (but I would consider it most likely consensual). One post-credits kiss with a tiny bit of mouth movement.

The problem was, you couldn’t convince me that these guys have any romantic feelings for each other whatsoever. They were very friend-coded in their facial expressions, body language, and tone. Doha was the one pursuing Jaeyeon, who was meant to be unsure about his feelings, but he played into that so well that even by the end I felt like he wasn’t really that into Doha. The post-credits scene where Doha tells Jaeyeon to call him and says he’s doesn’t want to be the one always calling first didn’t help with that. I think it would have been way more enjoyable if Jaeyeon was really into Doha the whole time too and there was a whole forbidden romance yearning / longing thing going on, but that wasn’t at all present.

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Love in the air, fast and furious style

It's too early to write a full-on review for this drama as it is still on-going, yet it's becoming one of the best dramas of 2025 for me.

The story is a little cliché, but it's very well written. It's not cringe-worthy at all and has no loopholes whatsoever.

The leads are so cute together and have amazing chemistry. Romance is palpable from the beginning, and the CP delivers an amazing job. if you're a romance lover, this will make your blood sugar rise LOL

It is filmed in various locations, namely in Thailand, which makes the setting a bit different from most Cdramas and very refreshing to watch.

I dare say it's one of the best Cdrama productions of this year, especially if you are in dire need of a romantic drama.

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Too short to properly tell the story. Didn’t really explain how they met online, or how and why Wild Dog approached Flying Dagger. They fell in love so fast that it felt like it was just skipped over. When Flying Dagger found out Wild Dog’s identity, Wild Dog said he’d explain everything but they didn’t show that part. I wanted to hear the explanation because I didn’t understand the grand scheme or motivation. And the forgiveness was too quick as well, since we didn’t see that part. The ending was too quick. No proper wrap up to showcase their HEA. The villain was left alive so what’s to stop him from coming back? I felt each part of the plot was underdeveloped.

People talked a lot about the NC scenes, and while it’s certainly more explicit than your standard Korean BL, it’s nothing crazy. Shirtless, in bed, kisses with no tongue, torso up, cut away or fade to black for the actual sex part of things.

No consent or boundary issues between the leads though, which is a plus.

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