What the hell happened to Aye?

I wanna start this review by saying that I enjoyed The Eclipse. The writing wasn't great (especially nearing the end), but I absolutely fell in love with the characters of Akk and Aye. First and Khaotung are - in my opinion - some of GMMTV's best actors. They have fantastic chemistry and I really enjoyed the progression of their love story. Which is why The Eclipse is very high on the list of my favorite BLs, despite the issues in writing. So I was eagerly awaiting the release of Our Skyy 2, just to see Akk and Aye back together. And what we got was... well... Not really the same Aye that I came to love in The Eclipse??

I'm still slightly confused as to what went wrong exactly. It feels like these two episodes were written by someone who thought Akk and Aye were cute together, but didn't understand the character of Aye at all. It feels like they watched The Eclipse and thought 'Well, Aye is a bit of a troublemaker who follows his own rules instead of what others tell him to do, so clearly that makes him a self-centered idiot!' And that was obviously not the point of his character at all! In Our Skyy 2, Ayan is portrayed as someone who only thinks about himself and doesn't really consider anyone else's feelings. So you're trying to tell me that Ayan, the guy who continuously made sure Akk was voicing his feelings and was there to listen to him all the time, the guy who wanted to meet Thua's mom, just so he could make sure Thua told her about his issues with his stepfather, the guy who was so concerned about other people not being able to be themselves and voice their opinions at their school... You're telling me that this Ayan is now supposed to be self-centered??? Just... how???

A glaring issue in that regard is obviously Aye pretending to have forgotten about Akk's birthday. I'm okay with the general idea of Aye planning to surprise Akk, and thus pretending not to remember his birthday. BUT I'm not okay with him pushing through with this plan, despite seeing that Akk is clearly feeling very sad and hurt about this. I feel like the Aye we got to know in The Eclipse would've given up on his surprise plan as soon as he saw that Akk was sincerely hurt. He wouldn't have kept going for weeks, knowing that Akk was suffering. So for me, that just completely ruined part of his character. The surprise idea is cute, but who would insist on doing it even after seeing their loved one suffer? It made no sense to me and felt like such a silly conflict. Also, the fact that Akk's friends supposedly knew about the plan all along was very stupid in my opinion. If my friend told me he was sad because his boyfriend was being self-centered to a point where he doesn't even remember that my birthday is coming up, and I was aware of the fact that his boyfriend was just planning on surprising him, I would go to said boyfriend and be like "Maybe reconsider your plan. Clearly, you're just upsetting him with this idea." But hey, maybe that's just me and most other people prioritise a surprise over someone's happiness. Aye could've still surprised Akk with the song, even if he hadn't pretended to have forgotten his birthday entirely.

But that's not even the worst part in my opinion. The worst part - by far - was their scene by the water, after playing the guitar. Akk was trying to tell Aye that he was feeling unhappy and unheard, and what does Aye do? He shuts him up by basically saying "Shhh, you know I can't resist you when you're angry" and the kisses him. Why oh why???? The Aye I know and love wouldn't just shut his boyfriend up! He would encourage him to talk about his feelings, like he always has done in The Eclipse. I already dislike the "You're cute when you're mad" trope in general, but particularly with Aye it just felt so wrong, going against the core of his character, which was partially wanting other people to stick up for themselves. Akk previously had such a hard time, voicing his feelings. Aye always encouraged him to do so. And you're telling me that now, as Akk is finally able to talk about his emotions, Aye is just going to shut him up?? Great.

Those are the main issues of these two episodes in my opinion. There were other issues too, such as Kan and Thua supposedly also having a conflict, but that never actually being shown in any way. But that was minute in comparison to the character annihilation of Ayan.

All that being said, I was still able to somewhat enjoy the episodes, because First and Khao still have amazing chemistry and the acting is still great. This is why the rating is still relatively high, despite my issues. So if you're a fan of those two, I'd still recommend watching. But I recommend you just watch it as a stand-alone piece, and not a continuation of The Eclipse. Maybe this is a ViceVersa cross-over, and we're in a different universe, where Ayan is a prick. Who knows, judging by how they're gonna turn My School President into a role-reversal thing, they don't shy away from doing very odd things in Our Skyy 2.

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A boss, a babe, and a lot of bad writing

I really wanted to like this, and in certain moments I did. But only if I turned my brain off enough in order to enjoy the fluff. This is gonna be a long one, so strap yourselves in.

To start this off, let’s talk about Force and Book. When I first saw them in Enchanté, I liked them as a pairing, and I still do. But I think that’s only because I’ve seen plenty of behind the scenes clips of them, and thusly know that they love working together, and enjoy each other’s company. They’ve been great friends for a really long time, then got cast in a BL together, which is a very heartwarming story. If I didn’t know all that, I probably wouldn’t enjoy them together as much as I do. Objectively speaking, I don’t think they have much romantic chemistry. They do have chemistry, don’t get me wrong. But whenever I see them together, it mostly feels like two best friends - which granted, they are, but you shouldn’t be able to tell that while watching the show. It becomes especially apparent when physical intimacy is involved. They’re solid with hugs, but anything that goes beyond hugging just feels slightly off. I don’t feel any sexual tension between them, which makes scenes of that sort very awkward to watch. It feels more like someone dared them to make out in a game of truth or dare, and they are awkwardly being peer-pressured into it.
When it comes to their acting ability in general, I don’t think they’re the greatest actors, but I think they suit the roles of Gun and Cher really well. Since the show doesn’t ask for many moments of intense emotion from them, they’re doing a pretty decent job. The acting gets rough during supposedly sad and moving scenes. Clearly, they just need a bit more practice. And I feel like maybe it would be good to try pairing them with different acting partners in the future. I feel like there might be more romantic chemistry there, and they could thusly unfold their potential better. They’d probably be great at playing brothers who love to annoy each other tough. And by that I mean playing actual brothers, not step-brothers who get romantically involved or something like that (Yes, I’m looking at you HIStory 4 Close to You).

The acting or the lack of romantic chemistry, however, isn’t my main issue. In regular, light-hearted scenes with a bit of humour, they’re doing well enough to make me smile at their oftentimes cute interactions. My main issue with the series is the writing. And it started to show from the very beginning.

Gun is supposed to be this tough, cold, unapproachable guy who is feared by his employees. That in itself isn’t the problem. The problem is that the Gun which characters tell us about does NOT exist. We’re being told one thing, but shown a completely different thing. Gun took an instant liking to Cher, opened up to him incredibly fast, and Cher basically had him wrapped around his finger by episode two. This completely clashes with the image of the stern, unapproachable, antisocial boss we were sold. Judging by what we were told, Gun should’ve taken a long time to warm up to Cher. He should’ve treated him very roughly at the start. But instead, he basically turned into a love drunk puppy whenever Cher was around. At no time did I believe in the image of Gun that was sold to us. If you wanted me to believe that he was this hard-to-please, bitter boss, you would’ve had to show me that for more than maybe one or two scenes. And now you may say "Well, he had a reason to open up to Cher so easily! After all, he’s been listening to his ASMR videos for a while!“ While that is true, it is no excuse to me. After all, it’s not like he really knew Cher from his videos, he only knew his voice. I do believe that this may be a factor, why he could’ve taken a quicker liking to Cher. But quicker doesn’t mean basically melting whenever Cher’s around from like day two. Or even in the last episode, Cher said that Gun apparently doesn’t say what’s on his mind, when that’s entirely untrue from what we’ve seen. The thing is, all this could’ve been easily avoided. Just don’t have characters talk about how scary and hard to approach the boss is. Have him be a regular boss. Then it would’ve been way more believable that he’d take a liking to Cher that quickly. If you don’t want to show a period of time where he’s being cold towards Cher in the beginning, don’t write it into your story. Simple as that. Then again "regular boss easily falls in love with his new intern“ doesn’t sound like quite as intriguing of a story.

The next issue, in my opinion, is the way this show writes conflict. We have a few different conflicts, such as Cher taking the blame for that one employee who gave the evidence to the boss of that other company, or the whole "I’m just an intern, you’re a company owner“ conflict. Both of those were handled very poorly. For example, when Cher takes the blame for his co-worker in the first scenario, Gun (who doesn’t know Cher is innocent yet) is obviously very upset. They end up having a fight in Cher’s condo during which Cher suddenly bursts out saying "My life has been a big mess ever since I met you! It’s freaking exhausting! We should’ve never met!“ This made no sense to me at all. It was never really shown that meeting Gun really messed with Cher’s life at all. Sure, he had to face his own feelings, but what else happened? Gun was being nothing but welcoming and nice to him up to that point, so this came so out of the blue. It seemed like the writers just wanted to have some dramatic lines in there, so they threw in that dialogue, even if it made no sense given the context.

The whole intern dating the boss conflict was handled poorly too. First, I have to give credit where credit is due though. I usually really dislike boss-employee (especially intern) relationships, because of the imbalance in the power dynamic. And I still think it’s problematic, but in this show, it didn’t really irk me all that much. That’s because despite Cher being the intern, it never felt like there was a power imbalance in their relationship. Sure, Cher is more child-like and immature than Gun, but he has a lot of moments in which he’s serious. So I never felt like this was something to be concerned about. Nor did Gun ever use his position as the boss, to take out his mood on Cher in the office after a fight or something (for example by making him do silly tasks or such). So I was positively surprised by that.
However, the conflict that came from the whole boss-intern-dynamic could’ve so easily been avoided. Cher was only working at the office for a very limited amount of time. By the time the two got really close, he had like a month or two left, I think. First of all, Gun should’ve just waited to make any romantic move on Cher until his internship was over. Just because that’s what’s objectively the right thing to do. But even if he didn’t, at least when it very obviously became an issue for Cher, they should’ve just paused their relationship. If it is such a big deal for Cher that people are talking, then why not just wait to actually be together until your internship is over? You only had like a month to go. Couldn’t you have kept it in your pants for that long?? I just don’t get it. Since this conflict could’ve been so easily avoided or solved, it just felt silly to me.

Then we have the conflict of Gun’s mother not wanting Cher to be with Gun. And this is the part of the show that made me really furious, because it turned the character of Cher into an inconsiderate asshole. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Cher altogether, simply because he’s pretty annoying in my opinion. But he had his moments. I was fine with him, until this conflict turned him into an absolute idiot with no regard for Gun’s feelings. So, the issue at hand is that Gun’s mother tells Cher that she doesn’t think he’s worthy of being with her son. That’s an interesting conflict! If you were in that position, what would you do? Talk to your significant other about what their mother told you? Tell them that you feel unworthy without mentioning their mother? Tell them that you need a bit of time to become someone you’re proud of, to then be the best version of you in your relationship? Well, not our boy Cher! Instead, he leaves a note on the pillow, saying that they aren’t suitable to be together after all, at least for now, and to please not come looking for him. At this point, I was screaming at my computer screen because WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, CHER???????? Gun has at multiple times voiced his fear of losing his happiness, aka Cher. Cher kept telling him that he needn’t fear, because he’d always stay with him. Even when Cher already knew that he was going to leave, he still told Gun that. Clearly, Gun was very insecure about this, and had a fear of abandonment that he was very open about with Cher. So you’d assume that Cher wouldn’t just leave him like a fucking asshole. I understand that Cher was in a difficult position. And I’m not saying he should’ve stayed with Gun if he didn’t feel comfortable (yet). But what he should’ve done is be considerate, and tell Gun that he has to do certain things before they can be together. That he doesn’t have to worry, because he’ll be back. That maybe in the meantime, they can just be friends or something. But nope, he just left a note and walked right out. It is justified later by Cher saying, that Gun wouldn't have let him go if he told him the truth. But I don't buy it.
This whole thing actually would’ve been a super intriguing plot to explore! Having Gun revert to his old grumpy and closed-off self (which we didn’t see much of, as mentioned before, but you get what I mean) would’ve been very interesting. Seeing Cher struggle to keep away from Gun as he tries to find out what he needs to become, in order to feel worthy of being with Gun. If this had happened half-way through the series, and was then explored, it would’ve made for an interesting plot line. But of course that didn’t happen. This happened in episode 11, leaving no room for exploration. The conflict basically didn’t even last a whole episode, because by the end of it, thanks to the power of montage and time-skip, Cher was back at Gun’s office, asking him to be his boyfriend. Sigh.
I would rate this series much higher, if Gun had just been like "I’m definitely not getting back together with you“ and slammed the door in Cher’s face. Which would’ve been the logical thing for him to do. He let Cher in (which apparently was hard for him, because of his fear of people leaving, which wasn’t portrayed properly but oh well), just for him to hurt him like this. It would make sense for him to revert back into his shell, not wanting to let anyone close ever again. But of course this is episode 12, so we need to resolve this quickly and get to a happy end. And thusly, Gun immediately takes Cher back, proving once again that Cher has him wrapped around his finger and that there’s nothing of a tough, hard to warm up to boss anywhere in sight. Of course Gun's mom is now suddenly on board with Cher too. I'm not saying she couldn't have changed her mind, but I just don't think winning an e-sports competition would really impress this woman.

I think part of the problem is, that the writers weren’t interested in exploring conflict in a meaningful way. They wanted to make a cute, light-hearted show, but figured they needed conflict of some kind, to keep it interesting. I honestly would’ve preferred if they just fed us fluff for 12 episodes straight (or well, gay), instead of shoehorning in these stupid conflicts and then not doing anything with them. Or even better, they should’ve turned this into 8 (or at most 10) episodes, because it felt very repetitive and it was just dragging by the end.

There were more issues, that I’ll not dive into as much, because this review is already way too long. But some of those issues are:
- Why the hell was there one random scene of Jack and his mom, and then we never got a scene from Jack’s perspective again? That should’ve just been cut and told to us through dialogue.
- The whole storyline of Tian having been sexually abused by her stepfather had no point being there. It wasn’t explored at all, but just served as some shocking twist that wasn’t needed. If you’re going to throw in such a serious issue, do it properly or not at all.
- Similarly, I struggled with the inclusion of Jack suffering from depression. I’m all for including mental illnesses in BLs, even if they aren’t at the forefront of the story. It’s important to do so, even. But the way they went about it in this show felt off to me. It didn’t feel like a sincere portrayal, but rather like someone in the writer’s room was like "Imagine how much praise we’ll get if we include some sort of mental illness!“, so they threw this in to fill some woke quota, rather than being genuinely interested in depicting it in a sincere way. Maybe that’s just my subjective feeling though, I can’t quite put into words why I’m feeling iffy about it in this case specifically.
- Also, the whole Thoop storyline just came to an abrupt and unexplained end. What happened to his drug case? What happened to the step-father? It felt like it resolved itself magically because well, this is episode 12, and everyone needs a happy ending now! Similarly, we never got an end to the whole storyline with Gun's former friend, Time. That plot thread just vanished into thin air.
- The last episode was filled with excessive cringe. I love some amount of cringe and a lot of fluff, but this was A LOT to handle. When Jack spit his drink in Cher’s face, saying he’s choking on his public love declarations, I heavily related. He’s now officially my favorite character in this mess.

I’m aware that my review sounds rather negative. But there definitely were really cute moments in this show that I was able to enjoy. So despite getting angry at the writing, I still found myself smiling quite a lot. Still, I cannot rate this any higher than a 5 due to the mentioned issues. I feel like we need to hold BLs to a higher standard if we want to get more out of them than just mindless entertainment on a Sunday afternoon, when you got nothing better to do. The show is cute, but if you pay attention to the writing, it’ll lose its charm pretty quickly. If you like Force and Book, you’ll probably enjoy this despite all the glaring issues. If you aren’t a fan of them, I’d recommend skipping this entirely. Or at least just fast-forwarding through it. If you’re interested in office romances, you’ll probably find a better one, after all there’s plenty of those out there.

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Promising, but sadly lacking in plenty of ways

Not gonna lie, this is a weird one. Mainly because what I liked about it most, was also what I liked about it least. And that might make no sense, but let me explain…

This show definitely isn’t your typical BL. It’s much less filled with all the cliches and tropes, which was quite refreshing. Actually, it's what I enjoyed most about it. No sponge baths, no accidental tripping and falling into a kiss, no treating a little cut like an injury equivalent of someone in need of heart surgery. Having seen so many BLs serving us the same old scenes, just slightly varied, really is beginning to get boring, so I appreciated that this show wasn’t leaning into it as heavily as most other BLs. However, there was one big issue. The point of all these cliche scenes is to create cute and meaningful moments for the characters to connect, and to make the viewers feel all smiley and giddy about. So if you don’t add any of those cliche BL scenes, it seems rather obvious that you need to come up with original scenes that serve the same purpose. You need to somehow create swoon-worthy, cute moments that make us root for the characters as a couple. However, this show didn’t really do that? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a BL with as few cute moments as this one, which led to me not really care about the romance at all. They had plenty of scenes together, don’t get me wrong. But only very few of them actually served the purpose of them having an adorable, wholesome moment. Or deeply connecting on an emotional level.

This can maybe be excused with the fact that this is a series about two grown men, not high schoolers. So it does feel natural that you wouldn’t get as many moments that make you feel giddy and fluffy, because aww look at these two kids in love! However, if you have almost none of these moments, it just leaves the audience asking themselves "Are they actually in love?“ You could take many of these cliche scenes and alter them to fit a more adult narrative, and make them appear more mature. But in my opinion, they didn’t really do that. Mostly, it just felt like two best friends going about their lives, and every now and again giving each other a sweet look. Then suddenly, apparently their love is mutual and they kiss. It just wasn’t enough to get me invested in them as a couple.

It didn’t help that the leads didn’t really have much romantic chemistry in the first place. That, paired with a drought of cute moments, was, in my opinion, the show’s biggest downfall. Even their kiss scene was disappointing. You’d expect quite the passion if one of the two people involved has been pining over the other guy for well over ten years. But nope, no passion, no spark, no nothing. In fact, they spent more time on showing us reaction shots of side-characters, rather than showing us the actual kiss. I assume that’s because even the director saw that there was no chemistry between them. And after their kiss, they didn’t even let the characters have a few scenes of happiness, and being cute together. Instead, the next scene after the kiss is Phu’s grandmother dying, so that’s that for the honeymoon phase, I guess.

I’m sad to say all of that, because I really wanted to like this show. I’m always happy to hear when a BL is being released that isn’t centered around the lives of high school or college students. We’ve seen so many of those already, so anything different is refreshing. However, as much as I was trying to enjoy this, I ended up not really liking it. It wasn’t incredibly bad. It didn’t have as many plot holes as other BLs, the characters were mostly consistent, and it wasn’t romanticising toxic behaviors. It was just very boring. Despite this being only 10 episodes, instead of the usual 12, this series drags a lot. Nothing really interesting ever happens in it. The revelation that Phu abandoned Nan because he was secretly in love with him, was predictable from episode one. All in all, it was very predictable, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but with a show that already doesn’t have a lot going on, it certainly doesn’t help. By episode 4, I started fast-forwarding through it. I think the show would’ve greatly benefitted from being even shorter. 6 episodes would’ve been enough.

Another thing that irked me was the whole set-up. We’ve seen this plenty of times before: Pretty Boy A is secretly in love with Pretty Boy B. They get drunk one night, and kiss. In a fit of gay panic, Pretty Boy A does the totally sensical thing of vanishing into thin air - leaving Pretty Boy B a sad mess. In this case, Phu was the one to leave Nan behind, after them having been best friends since childhood. He didn’t respond to Nan’s messages, and they didn’t see each other for 10 years. Of course, when they coincidentally meet again, Nan is not furiously upset with Phu. Because that totally wouldn't be a logical reaction at all to your best friend abandoning you with only a post-it note left behind. Nope, instead Nan is super happy to see Phu and immediately wants to rekindle their friendship. Eventually, the pent up anger does come out, which was nice to see. But I couldn’t help but imagine how much more interesting this whole thing would’ve been, if they started off with Nan being extremely pissed at Phu. Seeing Phu try to win back Nan’s trust would’ve made for a much more appealing story than them instantly going back to being best friends. If you haven’t seen or talked to a person for 10 years, you’ll probably have grown apart quite a bit, so this really didn’t feel realistic.

The story had potential. If it had been executed in a better way, it might have actually been enjoyable. As I said, it would’ve been more appealing if Nan stayed angry at Phu for a while. Similarly, it would’ve been a lot better if the story didn’t start with a summary of their childhood and college days. It should’ve started in the present day with Phu and Nan meeting, and Nan being so upset that he refuses to even talk to Phu. The audience isn’t stupid. We would’ve understood that these two have some sort of history. It would’ve been much more intriguing to figure out the pieces this way. I think the revelation of Phu having had feelings for Nan for so long would’ve hit much more that way too. Not that it would’ve been very surprising either way, because this is a BL after all, but you get what I mean.

Another thing that bothered me, and this might be a bit random, but… Can we stop normalising people breaking into their love interest’s condo? Such a scene happened, and was played for laughs. I understand that Nan only sneaked into Phu’s place to check on his cat (Which he just left with Phu, without any instructions??), but still. He could’ve checked on the cat and then left again. But nope, he snooped through Phu’s belongings, such as opening boxes etc. And Phu was not mad about this at all? I love my best friend to the moon and back, but if she went into my apartment without my permission and looked through my stuff, I’d at least sit her down for a serious conversation.

The characters weren’t really likeable to me. The only one I actually enjoyed was Party, Nan’s jealous best friend. At first, I was annoyed that we’d be doing this trope again, but it was done in a pretty decent way. Party was never portrayed as a villain, but as someone really likeable and mature. Other than that, I didn’t care about anyone. I probably could’ve liked Phu if it weren’t for him having abandoned his best friend without a word. His grandmother was decent, but I didn’t feel emotionally connected to her, so when she died, I didn’t even feel slightly sad.

Another issue was the humour. It didn’t land at all. Only one scene got a chuckle out of me. And them trying to make fun of the overweight child was in very poor taste.

The acting was fine. Not noteworthily good or bad. In emotional scenes, the actor portraying Nan was actually quite good with his delivery. The actor portraying Phu on the other hand was lacking a lot in those scenes. I didn’t really buy his emotions which also didn’t help getting invested in the whole thing.

Now for a few things that I actually enjoyed:
- In flashbacks, we saw that during their college days, Phu was the one taking care of Nan. When they reunited 10 years later, Phu immediately fell back into that role, and went to clean up Nan’s entire place. They could’ve done more with this, but that was actually a scene I liked. It would’ve been awesome if they went with the storyline of Nan being super upset and cold with Phu at first. Then they could’ve had a dramatic line like "I’ve taken care of myself for the past 10 years, so there’s no need for you to do this now!“
- The relationship between Phu and his grandma was very wholesome and cute.
- That one scene where Nan comforts Phu who’s having a nightmare. If there were more moments like this, I might have actually rooted for them. This was by far the cutest moment in the entire show. Like one drop of water in a drought.
- The birthday fish instead of birthday cake was actually funny. That was the only moment I chuckled at.
- As I said, it doesn’t feel as trope-y as most other BLs, which is refreshing. If only the execution was better, this could’ve actually been very easy to like.
- Party.

I’m not actually sure whom I’d recommend this to. I feel like it’s just not what most BL viewers want out of their BLs. Usually, viewers either want a lot of cuteness and fluff, which this show had very little of, or they want a great storyline, which this show also didn’t have. Ideally, there's both fluff and a solid storyline. This one had neither. It was dull and boring. So I guess I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, really. It wasn’t offensively bad, but I would’ve preferred it if it had been, because at least then it might have fallen into the so-bad-it’s-funny category. But this was just 10 episodes of boredom with no substance, and without much cuteness. So if you skip this one, you’re definitely not missing out on much. And that is my promise to you.

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This show is like a cat, and I'm allergic

I really didn’t have high hopes for this project from the get-go. Mixing Thai with Korean BL sounds like a decent idea on paper, but the execution turned out to be incredibly clumsy. Peach Of Time did it first - it felt awkward then, and it feels awkward now. I’m not saying this concept can’t be done. Because Of You actually pulled the mixing of languages off quite well. But that’s because some of the characters in the show were actually multilingual, so it made the entire thing a whole lot more believable because they effortlessly switched between languages, depending on who they were talking to. In this show, however, Uno somehow understands Korean perfectly, but he cannot speak the langue at all. How in the world would you ever get to that point? Listening and speaking skills develop hand in hand. Of course, it is quite common to have an easier time understanding a language than actually speaking it. But I simply don’t see any way in which someone would understand everything as well as Uno does (down to words like 'euthanasia‘ which you won’t find in basic vocabulary lessons unless you attend a very odd language course) without being able to make at least simple every-day conversation. The same goes for Uno’s manager who understands Thai but doesn’t speak it, and his assistant assumably too, because he never speaks to Uno in Thai but understands him without any struggle. It makes no sense and took me out of the show completely. For everyone who isn’t magically able to understand Thai/Korean, the instant translation earpiece was a very cheap way out. I suppose I gotta praise them for at least trying to address the language barrier in some way, it just was a little bit too convenient for my liking. Especially regarding the TV show they were filming. The audience obviously does not have a fancy insta-translator, and when we saw the manager watching the show, there were never any subs. So, how are the Korean viewers supposed to get anything of what Uno was saying?

But anyhow, the language nonsense was the least of the show’s problems.

The even bigger issue is that the world of this show feels completely empty. You know those stories where the places actually come to live and you feel the vibe of the coffee shop, office, house, or whatever through the screen, or even through pages of a book? Well, this was the opposite of that. It never feels like you’re watching people going about their lives, moving naturally around the world they live in. It feels like you’re watching actors on a set. A set that refused to cast any extras. The main place of the show is a dog cafe. But somehow, we see a grand total of ONE dog at the entire cafe, and we never get to see a single customer who isn’t part of the main cast. The same goes for the vet clinic, although, there we actually get to see one other client (I believe), which didn’t add much realism, but at least it was something. It was incredibly strange to watch and ruined the immersion.

But the most glaring issue, by far, is the romance.

You see, the two love interests don’t actually interact (apart from a brief encounter) until half way through the show. I absolutely don’t mind if you take a while to establish the characters on their own first, before you introduce the romance. If well done, that in itself would not be an issue. The issue is that in this show, those first episodes felt incredibly wasted. It didn’t really feel like I was getting to know the characters well. Somehow we spent 6 episodes introducing them, and I still couldn’t connect to either of them. At no point did I feel like I actually know these characters. Uno just felt like a caricature of an aloof, stand-off-ish celebrity. I have no idea how he even got famous in the first place, because that generally requires charisma, and Uno has none of that. Dae Byeol loves animals. That’s all I could take away from his character. And that he struggles financially, maybe. Both of them felt like empty shells who weren’t appealing to watch at all. Much like with the set feeling just like that, a set, the characters also felt just like characters rather than actual people.

When the two main leads finally do get to interact, the romance feels as empty as the characters do. There was no romantic chemistry there whatsoever, and the build-up is clunky as hell. This is yet another show that feels like it should’ve been a bromance, and on the day of filming, someone decided to add some romance into the mix. So, they came up with very few moments that were supposed to be cute, but they come so out of the blue and feel so awkward that I went 'Wtf is going on?‘ Instead of 'Awww!‘ which is definitely not the reaction you want when watching a romance series. It’s not even that they established a friendship that felt believable. They just went from not really liking each other to loving each other without putting in any effort of making the two actually bond for more than a total of five minutes. It was completely wasted, and I was honestly shipping Dae Byeol with the vet and Uno with his assistant more than I was rooting for the two of them. Dae Byeol had more chemistry with the damn dog than he did with Uno.

This series might go down as the show with the most awkward hug scene in BL history. It was actually painful to watch. Uno hurt his foot while they were out looking for their dog. They sit down and Uno goes on an incredibly forced monologue about how his dog trauma came to be (their conversations in general feel clunky and forced, but this one was the worst instance). Then, Dae Byeol proceeds to wrap his arm around him in the most unnatural way anyone has ever hugged anyone ever. It felt like he was forced to hug that one relative he doesn’t like, because his parents told him to be polite, not like he was getting close to someone he apparently has feelings for. It was supposed to be cute, but I had to pause the show because I was laughing so hard at how bad it was. The scene of him applying ointment for Uno wasn’t much better, but it wasn’t quite as horrendous.

Speaking of Uno’s trauma with dogs… He got over that way too quickly. How nice would it have been if the show actually depicted him slowly overcoming his fear with the help of Dae Byeol? But we cannot have nice things, apparently, so instead, he basically healed himself by the power of nothing. If getting over trauma/fears was that easy, it would leave therapists everywhere jobless.

The ending feels unearned and plot lines get resolved way too quickly and without any meaningful resolution. They're just wrapped up because it's episode 12, and we need a happy end now.

In terms of acting, the side characters were actually doing really well and were a lot more likeable than the main characters. Especially Uno’s assistant and manager were both hilarious and nailing their roles, so that was honestly the best part about this whole thing. Mew is a very charismatic person, usually, but somehow, he failed to add any charisma to Uno which made watching him incredibly boring.

If you’re debating whether you should watch this, I suggest you don’t. There really isn’t anything here to get attached to or fawn over. It's genuinely one of the most unenjoyable BLs I've ever watched. It's bad, but not even funny-bad, just plain bad. If you’re looking for a show with cute animals in it, you won’t find it here, and you’re honestly better off just watching dog or cat videos on Youtube. At least those are cute and not as awkward as whatever the hell this was.

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Fourth and Gemini can save even the stupidest of ideas

When I saw the teaser for the Our Skyy episodes of My School President, I almost cried. Yes, that might have been a big over-reaction, but let me explain.

I absolutely adore My School President. It is one of my favorite BLs ever. It’s not perfect at all, but it has a very special place in my heart. And that is mainly because of Fourth and Gemini. They were amazing in the show, had fantastic chemistry and are just so cute that you cannot help but smile at whatever they do. So yes, I’m very emotionally attached to both Gemini and Fourth as well as Tinn and Gun. I spent hours, imagining what the Our Skyy episodes would be about. Maybe a time skip to them in college? Maybe they’re preparing for another music contest? Maybe the band is getting more successful and Tinn is feeling insecure about all of Gun’s fans? Those are only a few ideas I had. And then I saw the teaser, and I wanted to scream. Making this into a role reversal storyline was, in my opinion, a really stupid thing to do. We got attached to the characters of Tinn and Gun, and were eager to see a continuation of their story. But what we got is the same story, apparently set in a parallel universe, where the roles are reversed. What a let-down. And despite my urge to cry and scream at my wishes not being fulfilled, I was excited for the episodes to air. Because I already knew I would be smiling like an idiot as I watch Gemini and Fourth work their magic yet again.

I was right.

I still don’t like the concept of this role reversal. Not even slightly. It’s not interesting, it doesn’t add anything meaningful to the original story or the characters. It feels like a fanfic someone wrote, because they wanted it to be GunTinn instead of TinnGun. It’s dumb and useless and I freaking loved every second of it. And that is one hundred percent because of Fourth and Gemini. It felt really weird seeing them in the opposite role, but they still nailed it. They brought their natural cuteness, chemistry and comedy to these two episodes, and turned a stupid concept into a super enjoyable spin-off. Would I have preferred a meaningful continuation of the original story? Absolutely. Am I going to rewatch these two episodes 100 times? Absolutely.

If you liked My School President, you’re probably going to like this, even if at first you think you might not. I liked how Tiw and Por were given more screen time here. They’re really cute together. The whole cast is doing as great of a job as they did in the original series, making this a very enjoyable experience despite the silly concept. It also makes you appreciate how well they cast the actors in their original roles, because this definitely feels off in all the right ways. None of these guys are perfect actors yet (some a bit weaker than others), but for this kind of series it’s definitely more than good enough. The music is still great too. And on top of all this, these two episodes were refreshingly self-aware. It felt almost like a parody of the original show (and other BLs/tropes) in certain moments, and that only added to my enjoyment. Gun talking about how maybe in a different universe, he was more courageous, was a bit too on the nose for me, but I still appreciated the humour of it all. It hurt a little how some of TinnGun’s iconic lines were given to other couples/characters, but at the same time, I enjoyed them doing that. The dance sequence was too long and felt incredibly awkward due to the choreography. It would've felt much more sincere had they just sticked to regular slow-dancing.

I would rate this a 10 if I didn’t hate the idea behind it so much. Not an objective 10, but a very subjective 10, because I can’t stop smiling at Fourth and Gemini. They’re absolute pros at cuteness overload. However, I can’t rate this a 10, not only because I disliked the concept, but also because within the two episodes, certain things didn’t make a lot of narrative sense. For example, the whole conflict between Tinn and Gun in episode two, felt extremely stupid, considering nothing severe had actually happened between them. Gun being unable to tell Tinn he likes him didn’t warrant such a reaction in my opinion. Then again, they only had two episodes and needed to push the story forward somehow, so I’ll excuse this at least to a certain degree.

If you’re looking for a more objective review than that, maybe read some others, because I’m heavily biased when it comes to these two.

All of this being said, I want to pose one question: What the hell was going on in that writer’s room for Our Skyy 2?
Either they were drunk, high, or purposefully trying to make this series as fanfic-y as possible. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, I love fanfiction! It’s just that they chose to execute most of it like a badly written fanfic. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bad Buddy episodes were about Pat and Pran flying to Mars, where they get sucked into a wormhole that sends them to yet another parallel universe, where everything is gender-swapped and the BL turns into a GL. And maybe in the episodes about A Tale of Thousand Stars, Tian is revealed to be the long lost prince of a magical mountain realm of elves, and he needs to claim his position as royalty with Phupha acting as his bodyguard. And Gun and Cher are probably gonna accidentally swap bodies while sneezing at the same time, thus making the boss the babe and the babe the boss. Anything is possible at this point.

EDIT: I saw the teaser for the A Boss And A Babe episodes, and I wasn’t far off!

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Workplace harassment is not cute. Do not let the fluffiness fool you.

It's difficult to rate this one. If you look at it from far away, the show is pretty cute. But if you look at it from close up, there's a pretty problematic message there.

I understand the appeal: Lee Jun has been hurt by love in the past and thusly, completely closed himself off to feeling any romantic emotions. Ha Ram, the new employee at the company, falls in love with him at first sight, and is eager to change Lee Jun's mind about love. It sounds sweet when you put it that way, and they definitely pushed a sweet narrative with plenty of cute moments. The issue however is, that sexual harassment in the workplace is not cute. Ha Ram is pretty aggressive in his pursuit of getting Lee Jun to fall for him, even if Lee Jun turns him down plenty of times, and tells him to stop his behaviour. If this happened in real life, it wouldn't be cute or swoon-worthy at all, and it wouldn't be comedic either, like the show often portrayed it to be. It would be an absolutely horrible situation to be in, and action would need to be taken. But because this is a BL, the show just looks right past that and romanticises the harassment. We've seen this happen in so many BLs before, and it's about time that we stop just accepting this as something that is cute or normal. It's disgusting behaviour, and even trying to hide it in-between adorable scenes, cute boys and comedy does not make it okay.

The story could've been a heartfelt tale of regaining hope if they had handled it differently. Had Ha Ram and Lee Jun started off as friends, and then gradually fallen in love simultaneously, this could've been extremely adorable. They had all the ingredients to make this into something really great: The acting was really solid, the two main leads had plenty of chemistry, the side-characters were likeable (aside from the villainous ex, of course), and they know how to create comedic as well as cute moments. Everything was there, they just needed to create a story surrounding it that doesn't push a toxic narrative. Because the message of this show ends up being "Just harass your co-worker for long enough, and they will eventually fall for you as well!" which is obviously extremely messed up.

There's something I really did like about the show though. Right now, there's a boom of office romances. They're kinda replacing campus BLs at the moment. I don't really take issue with office romances if there isn't an inappropriate power dynamic at play. But what I do generally dislike about office romances is that the characters still feel like college (or even high school) students most of the time. It's like they had all these ideas for campus BLs, but people got tired of those, so they just put the characters they had come up with into an office setting, without altering the characters to behave like actual adults. With Love Mate, I was positively surprised about how the characters actually felt like adults, especially Lee Jun. He was hardened by life, behaved maturely, and kissing as well as sex weren't played up to be a huge deal. I really enjoyed that, and I hope we'll see more office romances that take into this direction. Hopefully with less problematic messages though.

The best thing about the show was Lee Jun's female co-worker. I have a massive crush on her. She's so kind, pretty, and cute. This has nothing to do with my review of the show, but I just needed to get that out of my system.

I cannot in good faith rate this any higher than a 2 since it promotes such a problematic message. I do want to give credit to the acting, the chemistry and the comedy though. With a less problematic execution, this could've easily been a 7 or 8.
Would I recommend this to people? Given the toxic message, not really. But I do know that many viewers look past problematic behaviour in BLs, just to enjoy the sweetness of two cute guys falling in love. So if you're one of those people, you're probably gonna like this. If you want BLs to stop romanticising toxicity, then maybe don't support this show in any way. If you want a cute office romance that is way less problematic, watch Our Dating Sim. Both shows were produced by the same studio, so they have very similar vibes.

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This is just Cher’s role-play fantasy come to life, and you cannot convince me otherwise

I definitely didn't have high hopes for this one, considering everything else the Our Skyy 2 writers have done so far. But to my surprise, I think this is my favorite part of Our Skyy 2 so far. That comes very unexpected, considering how I didn't like A Boss And A Babe all that much. But I'm pleased to say that these were two really enjoyable episodes.

The story opens with a scene of Cher being the boss, and Gun being the babe, or well, the intern. Immediately, two thoughts came to my mind: Either they’re pulling another parallel universe bullshit, or this is Cher and Gun role-playing. I was pretty much waiting for Cher to rip off Gun’s clothes, and then the scene cutting to actual Cher having a daydream. That didn’t happen though, and I was both relieved and disappointed at the same time. I’m glad it didn’t turn into another parallel universe storyline, like they did with My School President. But honestly, I would’ve laughed my ass off if they had just gone down the role-play pipeline. You could see that Cher was definitely enjoying himself, bossing around Gun for the second episode. They should've just committed to it. Especially with the end, were both of them agreed to give 5 orders to each other. Instead of Cher's cheesy last order of Gun loving him forever, he should've just been like "I order you to do whatever I tell you to tonight." The episode was screaming for that to happen, and you cannot convince me otherwise. Then again, I stick by what I said in my review of the original series, about Book and Force not having any sexual tension between them. So it would've probably felt awkward if that had actually happened. But still, it would've been funny.

Overall, the story was lighthearted, entertaining and cute. Gun and Cher actually make a really good pair in these two episodes. If you forget about all the stupid conflicts of the original series, they seem pretty perfect for each other. Sure, everything was overly simplified and they didn't have time to dive into the storyline very deeply. But it was fun and pretty damn wholesome. They didn't pull any plot lines of characters losing all their brain cells like the Vice Versa episodes, they didn't pull a character annihilation like the Eclipse episodes did with Aye, and thank god, they didn't pull another parallel universe out of their asses like the My School President episodes. This was easy to enjoy and had plenty of comedic moments. They definitely leaned more into the comedy than throwing just pure cringe at us (cough Star In My Mind episodes cough cough), which I was very fond of. Considering on how cringey of a note A Boss and A Babe ended, I was fearful I wouldn't be able to stomach this. But to my surprise, it had just the right amount of cuteness mixed in with the silly storyline. I did see my life flash before my eyes though, when Aoi suggested, Cher should call Gun by an endearing nickname, like 'daddy'. I'm so thankful Cher didn't follow that advice, or I don't think I could've watched this without being in permanent, cringe-induced pain.

I also want to point out that Book did a really great job in this. I've always liked him as Cher. But him acting as Cher acting like the boss was phenomenal. He still portrayed the original character so well, even while pretending to be someone else.
Force was still great in the role of the boss, too. Actually, I really enjoyed Gun in these two episodes. He showed much more of the behaviour that I would've liked to see in the original series - being stern, cold and scary. It would've been great if this was the Gun we had been met with in A Boss And A Babe, but sadly, that didn't happen.

All in all, I really enjoyed watching this. It wasn't anything impeccable or extremely creative. But it fit the vibe of the original show, and it was an easy watch. I'd probably even watch this again someday, if I need a laugh. It does feel like a bit of a fever dream in certain moments, but it's definitely the right amount of silliness for these characters. Nice job.

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Pat and Pran as Tian and Phupha's uncertified relationship counsellors

I'm writing this review when not all episodes have been aired yet. But after the two episodes that are out, I already have thoughts that I want to share.

I should start this off by saying that I have a big love for Bad Buddy, while I'm pretty indifferent about A Tale of Thousand Stars. It's objectively a good show with solid acting and chemistry, I just never really took that much of a liking to the characters, unlike with the boys from Bad Buddy. As a result of this, I was looking forward to the Bad Buddy episodes of Our Skyy 2 much more than the A Tale of Thousand Stars episodes. And I was pretty confused when it was revealed that they'd be combining the two.

I'm not generally opposed to mixing the two shows together for these special episodes. They came up with a plot combining the two which makes sense. I actually thought, it blended together really well, and I enjoyed seeing all these actors together. I also quite enjoyed the dynamics between Pat and Phupha as well as Pran and Tian. I think that Ohm and Nanon would've fit right in as actors in the original A Tale of Thousand Stars series. They would've made a compelling side couple if you ask me.

That being said, I would've still preferred if they kept the two shows separate. Or the mix would've needed to be more even. At the moment, this very much feels like the Phupha and Tian show, while Pat and Pran are just there to help them solve their relationship issues. Or at least they're trying. As a fan of Bad Buddy, that is pretty disappointing. I know that we got one whole episode that was focused only on Pat and Pran, but that just didn't feel fulfilling enough for me to now be okay with them taking the backseat in what is supposed to be their own story.

Pat and Pran's relationship still feels the same as it did in the original series for the most part, which is nice. At least it did while they were still on campus. There's a lot of playfulness, teasing, competitiveness, but also a lot of care and mutual support. However, if you ask me, there's a severe lack of sweet moments between the two. Part of what I loved so much about Bad Buddy is how they managed to mix this very playful vibe with so many cute and genuinely sweet moments. We don't get to see much of that in Our Skyy 2.
I know that they're in their "we're pretending to be broken up" era (Don't ask me how their friends actually believe them, they're being so obvious). But all the more sense it would make for Pat and Pran to be all over each other once they get to the forest. There, they don't have to hide their love. So it would only be logical for them to barely be able to keep their hands and lips off each other. But that doesn't happen at all. In contrary, when Pat kisses Pran, Pran pushes him away. I hate how that's a thing in so many BLs, because they oftentimes treat being kissed like this huge sin that one of the characters in the relationship is super opposed to. Pat and Pran never used to be like that in the original series, which I loved. They loved giving each other little pecks on the cheeks or on the lips, and somehow now, it just feels a bit off for Pran to react that way. Besides, them basically role-playing as Tian and Phupha in some moments just felt strange to me.

Also on a very different note... Did anyone else sense some romantic tension between Pran and Tian? Or is that just me? I honestly ship it. I don't ship Pat and Phupha, but the scene where they wake up shirtless next to each other, was pretty funny. Not only because of them drunkenly mistaking each other as their boyfriends. But because apparently still wearing pants is solid proof that you weren't doing anything inappropriate with each other. As if you couldn't just put your pants back on, or simply just have made out without getting undressed.

The acting is - much like in the original shows - still really solid in this. The story is very simple and easy to follow so far. However, it feels unfair to compare it with the other episodes of Our Skyy 2, because this is stretched across 4 rather than only 2 episodes. For that being the case, it definitely isn't anything riveting that I'd wanna rewatch.

So far, I'm having an okay time watching this. It definitely lacks the magic the original Bad Buddy series had. And Phupha is really unlikable in this. I remember him being pretty stern in the original Tale of Thousand Stars, but it didn't irk me as much back then. But in these episodes, he just comes across like he's having a bad day... every day of the week.

Anyway, I'll add to this / edit this once all the episodes are out. For now, I'll go with a 5.5 rating.

Edit: I did in fact not come back to edit this, because I couldn't be bothered to watch the other episodes, which is very telling in itself.

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Pat and Pran as Tian and Phupha's uncertified relationship counsellors

I'm writing this review when not all episodes have been aired yet. But after the two episodes that are out, I already have thoughts that I want to share.

I should start this off by saying that I have a big love for Bad Buddy, while I'm pretty indifferent about A Tale of Thousand Stars. It's objectively a good show with solid acting and chemistry, I just never really took that much of a liking to the characters, unlike with the boys from Bad Buddy. As a result of this, I was looking forward to the Bad Buddy episodes of Our Skyy 2 much more than the A Tale of Thousand Stars episodes. And I was pretty confused when it was revealed that they'd be combining the two.

I'm not generally opposed to mixing the two shows together for these special episodes. They came up with a plot combining the two which makes sense. I actually thought, it blended together really well, and I enjoyed seeing all these actors together. I also quite enjoyed the dynamics between Pat and Phupha as well as Pran and Tian. I think that Ohm and Nanon would've fit right in as actors in the original A Tale of Thousand Stars series. They would've made a compelling side couple if you ask me.

That being said, I would've still preferred if they kept the two shows separate. Or the mix would've needed to be more even. At the moment, this very much feels like the Phupha and Tian show, while Pat and Pran are just there to help them solve their relationship issues. Or at least they're trying. As a fan of Bad Buddy, that is pretty disappointing. I know that we got one whole episode that was focused only on Pat and Pran, but that just didn't feel fulfilling enough for me to now be okay with them taking the backseat in what is supposed to be their own story.

Pat and Pran's relationship still feels the same as it did in the original series for the most part, which is nice. At least it did while they were still on campus. There's a lot of playfulness, teasing, competitiveness, but also a lot of care and mutual support. However, if you ask me, there's a severe lack of sweet moments between the two. Part of what I loved so much about Bad Buddy is how they managed to mix this very playful vibe with so many cute and genuinely sweet moments. We don't get to see much of that in Our Skyy 2.
I know that they're in their "we're pretending to be broken up" era (Don't ask me how their friends actually believe them, they're being so obvious). But all the more sense it would make for Pat and Pran to be all over each other once they get to the forest. There, they don't have to hide their love. So it would only be logical for them to barely be able to keep their hands and lips off each other. But that doesn't happen at all. In contrary, when Pat kisses Pran, Pran pushes him away. I hate how that's a thing in so many BLs, because they oftentimes treat being kissed like this huge sin that one of the characters in the relationship is super opposed to. Pat and Pran never used to be like that in the original series, which I loved. They loved giving each other little pecks on the cheeks or on the lips, and somehow now, it just feels a bit off for Pran to react that way. Besides, them basically role-playing as Tian and Phupha in some moments just felt strange to me.

Also on a very different note... Did anyone else sense some romantic tension between Pran and Tian? Or is that just me? I honestly ship it. I don't ship Pat and Phupha, but the scene where they wake up shirtless next to each other, was pretty funny. Not only because of them drunkenly mistaking each other as their boyfriends. But because apparently still wearing pants is solid proof that you weren't doing anything inappropriate with each other. As if you couldn't just put your pants back on, or simply just have made out without getting undressed.

The acting is - much like in the original shows - still really solid in this. The story is very simple and easy to follow so far. However, it feels unfair to compare it with the other episodes of Our Skyy 2, because this is stretched across 4 rather than only 2 episodes. For that being the case, it definitely isn't anything riveting that I'd wanna rewatch.

So far, I'm having an okay time watching this. It definitely lacks the magic the original Bad Buddy series had. And Phupha is really unlikable in this. I remember him being pretty stern in the original Tale of Thousand Stars, but it didn't irk me as much back then. But in these episodes, he just comes across like he's having a bad day... every day of the week.

Anyway, I'll add to this / edit this once all the episodes are out. For now, I'll go with a 5.5 rating.

Edit: I did in fact not come back to edit this, because I couldn't be bothered to watch the other episodes, which is very telling in itself.

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I’d like to travel to the past, to keep them from making this show

Okay, that title may have been a bit harsh. It’s not that bad, at least not the first half of it. The second half is absolute garbage, but let me elaborate.

The first thing that irked me about this show was how they dealt with the whole time traveling thing. I don’t know how you’d react if you suddenly traveled over 20 years into the future, but I sure as hell would freak out. I think that would be a very warranted response. However, Kiew barely even reacted when this happened to him. He was seemingly more freaked out about the existence of iPhones than the actual time travel part itself. The people he told also reacted extremely calmly, and believed him pretty much instantly. This wasn’t a huge flaw, but I just found it silly. For the fact that everything else in this show feels very cartoony, they could’ve definitely gone with a more over the top reaction in my opinion. But this was one of the smaller offences.

Like in many recent BLs, the much bigger issue was, sadly, again the chemistry between the two main characters, or rather the lack thereof. Cooper is great as Kiew. He’s very charming and adds a natural charisma to the character, which makes it easy to like him. He’s not really a fully fleshed out character (none of them really are), but he’s enjoyable to watch nonetheless. The one I take issue with is Marc, in the role of Bamee. For most of the time he’s on screen, he looks constipated or like he’s in permanent pain. Granted, this expression suits the character in some scenes, since he’s not really supposed to be bubbly or a happy go lucky kinda guy. The problem is that even in scenes that are supposed to show the two characters falling in love, or Bamee being at least somewhat happy, he still looks like he’s constipated. As does he in scenes, where he’s supposed to be angry. Marc really struggles getting the needed emotions across, leaving Bamee to look about as intimidating as a cupcake, even when he’s supposed to be furious. I don’t know if this is an issue within his acting itself, or if there was simply poor directing. But I saw him in My Gear And Your Gown, and I vaguely remember having had similar thoughts. So maybe he just needs a little more practice (or a lot).
I think the lack of romantic chemistry between Kiew and Bamee resulted from this subpar acting. Kiew was able to portray at least some sort of chemistry towards Bamee, but sadly, that wasn’t enough. I think if Cooper was paired with another acting partner, I could’ve enjoyed this much more than I did. But sadly, that wasn’t the case. I actually liked the bond Kiew and Bamee formed over time, I just didn’t feel the romance at all. They radiated big sibling energy to me. So I think the show would’ve actually been better if this was a tale about a platonic friendship, rather than a romance.

I usually suffer from side-couple-syndrome. So I was hoping that maybe they would knock it out of the park, and make up for what was lacking between the main couple. Sadly, this also didn’t happen. They had no solid build up, and while they had more chemistry than the main couple, there also wasn’t a lot of it. On top of that, the only thing they did, was talk about Kiew and Bamee, which felt strange. Especially given the fact that Plawan used to have a crush on Bamee, and also kinda sorta on Kiew, I think. (Don’t blame me for not being sure, even Plawan himself didn’t know what the writers were trying to do with his vague feelings towards the two main leads.)

One thing I did massively enjoy though, was the whole dynamic in their friend group. They had a very sweet and supportive bond, which was very nice to see. I also liked how much time we actually got to spend with the squad as a whole. Again, I think this show should’ve just been about their friendship, rather than adding in these lacklustre romances.

This show is filled to the absolute brim with cliches and tropes. There’s so many in there, you lose count. If you made a bingo card with all the BL tropes and cliches, you’d definitely get bingo at least twice! There’s the painful trope of mistaking the love interest’s brother as their boyfriend. There’s a scene of the main couple getting soaked by the rain, and then Kiew drying Bamee’s hair. There’s an injury that happens when the couple is cooking together. And of course, because this is a BL, poor poor Bamee was then unable to do anything by himself for like a week. He got burned on one hand, but apparently he forgot that he had a whole other functioning hand, because Kiew needed to feed him for days. And obviously, he needed to help him wash his hair too. At this point I wonder how these BL boys would live, if they didn’t have a boyfriend to take care of them. If one gets a minor injury, they would just die, because they cannot seem to figure out that it only takes one hand to eat with a spoon. Anyway! You also have the accidental falling into a kiss scene with the side couple. For good measure, throw in a scene of one love interest wiping the other down with a towel. Oh, and don’t forget drunken kissing that one of the characters doesn’t remember the next day. Add a spoon (or bucket) full of jealousy into the mix, and you got yourself a recipe for the most standard BL ever. One would think a story about time travel has more to offer than that, but sadly, it didn’t.

If you’re into science, I recommend you don’t watch this, because you might get a heart attack at their stupid plan of sending Kiew back to the past by literally zapping him with lightning. I’m not kidding. They attempted to generate as much electrical power as a lightning strike, and zap Kiew with it, hoping that would get him back to the past. I mean, sure! But he would’ve arrived there like a roasted chicken. Also, the subtitles kept talking about the electric power of thunder. I hope that was just a mistranslation, and they were actually talking about lightning. Or they really weren’t aware that thunder is only a sound, while it’s the lightning strike that holds the electricity. I don't know much about science, but I know at least that.

The show started to drag by episode 6. But it was a decent show up until then. Nothing mindblowingly good or bad. I would’ve probably rated this a solid 6 or 6.5 at this point, because it was entertaining enough and not offensively bad. But then episode 9 happened, and I was so close to just dropping this completely. If it weren’t for Cooper carrying the entire thing, I would’ve just given up.

You see, in episode 9 an incredibly forced, dumb and out of place amnesia plot line happens. I generally dislike that trope, especially since it’s never really done in a realistic manner. But this one was just especially poorly done. Because the plot needed him to, Bamee conveniently remembered everything aside from Kiew himself. That was the first dumb thing, but I was willing to look past that for the most part. But the way they handled it all was just horrible. Bamee’s step-mother, brother and friends all tried to pressure him into remembering Kiew. This went so far, that the step-mother actually made Bamee live with Kiew, despite not remembering anything about him. Imagine you’re suffering from amnesia, and your mother makes you move in with someone who is a total stranger to you, against your will. That’s horrible. Plawan was equally as bad, suggesting Kiew forces himself onto Bamee, thinking that maybe if they were intimate with each other, that would bring back his memories. It all was in such poor taste. Bamee acted like an asshole with his partial amnesia. That wasn’t really a problem, because that can actually happen. But when he regained his memory of Kiew, and kept pretending not to remember, I almost lost it. He played not only Kiew, but also Soda whom he had given hopes to. It was very messed up if you ask me. Obviously he only did it to keep Kiew from going back to the past, but it was still an asshole move.

This whole amnesia storyline felt so out of place. It’s like the time traveling plot came to a complete halt while this was happening. It felt like the writers had two ideas for two different series - one about time travel, the other about amnesia - and then they were forced to somehow morph it into one show. Which resulted in one big mess that sucked the life force out of me. It had one positive though! The scene where Franc (the former villain of the show) was pretending to date Kiew, in order to get Bamee to confess that he has regained his memory, had me laughing out loud. Franc and Kiew had more chemistry than Kiew and Bamee, if you ask me. They should’ve just ended up together, honestly. That would’ve been a brilliant plot twist and I would’ve definitely rated the show much higher if they had pulled that off. The other parts of the Franc storyline were problematic at best. Baiwan eventually falling for Franc, who had harassed her for a really long time (to the point where she needed to get a fake boyfriend and her friends needed to protect her), was pushing a really problematic message.

In my opinion, they should’ve cut the entire amnesia bullshit, and made this into a solid 6 to 8 episodes of time travel silliness. Because it was so dragged out, there was never a real sense of urgency about Kiew getting back to the past, even if we knew his mother’s and Bamee’s dad’s lives depended on it. It felt like even Kiew himself temporarily forgot that he was supposed to travel back. Altogether, you shouldn’t think about the whole time travel plot too much anyway, because hardly anything is explained.

The ending of the show was extremely weird. I feared that this would happen, but hoped it wouldn’t. But it did. If you saw it, you know what I’m talking about. If you didn’t, I’ll spare you the weird implications the end of it all had.

On top of all that, the background music was horrible. It sounded like elevator music, or the jingles you hear when you’re put on hold while calling a company. Once you hear it, you cannot unhear it, and it gets extremely annoying.

If I had dropped this after half of the show, I would’ve rated this a lot higher than I do now, after finishing the whole thing. Cooper was definitely the one carrying the show with his natural charm. He deserved a better script than this. If you’re a fan of Cooper, you’ll probably get some enjoyment out of this show. If you’re not, I wouldn’t recommend watching this. Or you might also wish you could travel back in time, just to undo your decision of wasting time on this.

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Absolutely adorable

If you're looking for a show with a lot of sweet, fluffy moments, then this is for you! The storyline is nothing mind-blowing by far, but the great acting, the amazing chemistry and the overall adorableness absolutely make up for it.

I think the biggest "issue" (if you can even call it that) of the show is the set-up itself: 7 years ago, when the two main characters were still in high school, Lee Wan confessed his feelings to Ki Tae. He attempted to kiss him, and Ki Tae backed away. This caused Lee Wan to run away and cut all ties with Ki Tae for 7 years. I'm not kidding. One failed kissing attempt was enough for this boy to be like 'lol, I'm out of here' and never return. Even if Ki Tae tried to contact him right after it happened, and even if Ki Tae's response wasn't actually that bad. After all, he didn't punch him in the face or even push him away. He was just clearly stunned. Bu Lee Wan really took it to heart, and cut all ties. Which is quite ridiculous in my opinion. So I suggest simply not thinking about this set-up too much.

If you look past this, the show is very easy to enjoy. Seeing Lee Wan and Ki Tae reunite and the old feelings re-igniting is absolutely precious. Some things don't make 100% sense, such as Lee Wan not really responding at all when Ki Tae (in the present day) confesses his feelings to him. That - and a few other things - are a bit odd, but you don't really think about it for long, because the cuteness of it all will distract you rather quickly.

I would've appreciated more exploration of Ki Tae's fear of Lee Wan abandoning him again, but I understand that doing more than they did was simply not possible within the very limited time. Unlike with other KBLs, I feel like this story was actually well paced and fit well into only 8 episodes. It didn't drag or feel bloated.

This is a show that I'll probably rewatch over and over again, whenever I'm in the mood for some light-hearted fluff. I think the chemistry between the main leads is some of the best I've seen in any KBL. There's no awkward pressing-our-lips-together-like-two-dead-fish kisses with these two, which was nice, considering both had been waiting for this kiss for 7 years. 10/10 would recommend this to anyone. If you're looking for a lot of complexity and deep exploration of emotions, you won't find it here. But if you just want to aww over two cute guys falling in love again, then this one's for you!

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I would've needed a shoulder to cry on if this was executed better

I went into this show with pretty low expectations. Knowing that the leads are members of a K-pop group had me really worried about both their acting abilities as well as how far they'd be willing to go to showcase physical intimacy. And I have to say that I was positively surprised!

In my opinion, Jae Han and Ye Chan were really solid in the roles of Da Yeol and Tae Hyun. I thought they both fit the roles they were playing really well, especially Ye Chan as Tae Hyun. His winking, the cheeky smiles and the puppy eyes fit the role so well and really brought a lot of charisma to the character. They aren't the best actors in the world, but they were good enough to carry their roles, and with a bit more practice, they could become really great, I think. I enjoyed watching them both and they had solid chemistry. This may not come as a surprise, given the fact that they've been part of the same k-pop group for a while now, but it really could've gone either way. It could've felt awkward since they're close friends in real life, but it didn't. I mean, it did sometimes, but that was because the characters were supposed to be kinda awkward around each other sometimes.

If you're looking for romantic kiss scenes and a lot of physical intimacy, you're not gonna find it in this show. I assume that is because the actors, as mentioned, are part of the same group, so maybe they just didn't want to kiss. Or - and more likely - their company wouldn't let them, since sadly there's still a lot of homophobia in the industry. Knowing this, it didn't really bother me that we didn't get a kiss. But I know that it would bother some people, so I figured I'd mention it.

As for the story, I really liked it up to a certain point. And even after that, the story wasn't the issue, but the execution. Tae Hyun feeling like he's responsible for his adoptive mother's (and unborn sibling's) death is a very interesting concept. Especially exploring his fear of abandonment that resulted from being given up for adoption in the first place and from the accident, as well as the idea that he brings bad things to the people he loves, sound very intriguing on paper. The issue is that the story never really did much with them. Instead, they chose to go with a time-skip at the exact moment when things would've gotten interesting. Da Yeol confessing his feelings to Tae Hyun, and Tae Hyun's fears getting the best of him, thus pushing Da Yeol away was really solid in my opinion. Tae Hyun then realizing that he actually does like Da Yeol too, but Da Yeol being too hurt to be with him would've made for an interesting conflict. In my opinion, this should've happened half-way through the series. Then, the second half should've explored the conflict. It should've shown how Tae Hyun gets over his fear of abandonment and open himself up to the idea of loving and being loved again. It should've shown Da Yeol being severely hurt and finding it hard to open up to Tae Hyun again. It should've spent several episodes on the characters growing as individuals to then slowly find their way back to each other, and finally being ready to be together. Sadly, none of that happened. Right after the conflict happened, the show chose to skip ahead in time, showing the characters get back together, but sadly not showing any of their character development in the process. It was very frustrating since this show actually had characters that had actual traits and fears, and didn't just exist to be in love with each other. But they didn't really do much with them in the end, which was a let-down. If executed properly, I would've probably shed tears as these two characters are dealing with their issues. But my eyes remained dry.

Because the ending was handled so poorly, I don't think I'd ever re-watch the show. It's simply not satisfying, and the start isn't incredible enough to warrant sitting through the disappointing ending. Only rewatching the first part of the show wouldn't be satisfying either, since you'd stop watching at the point of a break up (not that they really were together before that anyway). I would recommend giving this a watch, because it had a lot of potential. But you're most likely not gonna take away a lot from it. Unless you're an OMEGA X fan, of course, then you're probably gonna really enjoy seeing Jae Han and Ye Chan on the screen together. Even if you aren't an OMEGA X fan, you might find yourself liking the actors. That happened to me, at least. All in all, it had a lot of great potential, but sadly potential alone doesn't make for a satisfying watching experience.

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I was happy and merry when it finally ended

This surely was… something. At this point, I’m used to many KBLs feeling somewhat insta-lovey. The much shorter format in comparison to Thai BLs (for example) kinda has that side effect. And despite me being understanding of that, this one just felt too insta-lovey for me, even for KBL standard. I was not invested in the relationship of the main characters at all, because there was no build up. They met, talked like twice or three times, and suddenly both were apparently madly in love. I say 'apparently’, because the romantic chemistry between the actors was lacking a lot in my opinion, so that didn’t really help with buying the love part. I wasn’t awwing or smiling at any of their cute moments, because I simply didn’t care about their relationship. And that’s pretty bad for a show that is centred around the romance. When they kissed I was confused, because there was nothing really leading up to it. Both main characters are grown men, so I get that a kiss isn’t as heavily built up to as in a high school romance, where it’s the characters’ first kiss. But at least give me something that makes it feel earned.

Here’s three examples for what I mean with "too insta-lovey“ for anyone who hasn’t watched the show, and is considering investing their time (Do yourself a favour and just don’t):
1 - The two main characters meet for the first time at a wedding, where one of them is the singer and the other the pianist. The pianist doesn’t actually work for the company, he just served as a replacement for the usual pianist. A woman that works there (don’t remember her name, there’s too many side-characters for such a short series) asks him to join their company, which the pianist declines, since he’s already the CEO at a café. Suddenly, the other main character shows up. Piano man is so in awe of the singer’s handsome face, that he’s just like "Never mind, actually, I do wanna join the company!“ This grown man just made a decision about a job, based on the handsomeness of his colleague, no consideration of what this would mean for his apparently already tight schedule with a popular café to handle. I sure hope he doesn’t do this every time he meets a handsome person, or he’s switching jobs on a weekly basis.
2 - That same evening, they have dinner with their co-workers. Piano man and handsome singer exchange a few sentences, then handsome singer gets drunk and piano man is helping him get home. The next day, piano man repeatedly texts handsome singer, asking him if he’s okay and saying that he’s worried. Sure, he might just be a naturally empathetic person. But any non-BL-lead would just let it be at that, if the other person doesn’t respond. But when handsome singer doesn’t respond, piano man actually goes to the academy where he works as a vocal coach. They met ONCE and this dude is already borderline stalking him. My mind was yelling 'Run while you still can!‘ Piano man kept having such tendencies throughout the whole show, showing up at handsome singer’s house when he didn’t respond to him. Which seemed to happen frequently. It just felt pretty iffy to me. If someone acts like this after you spent a couple of hours together, I don’t want to know how they’ll act once you’re actually dating…
3 - After having met ONCE, piano man was telling two friends about handsome singer. They said that they hardly recognized him, because he was apparently so head over heels AFTER HAVING KNOWN THIS GUY FOR ONLY ONE NIGHT!!!! Piano man said he also doesn’t recognize himself. On top of that, he was for some reason convinced that handsome singer had his walls up high, and that he was gonna climb over them and win his heart. I don’t mind characters not giving up easily. But the issue is that piano man had no way of even knowing that handsome singer had his walls up. He does, but piano man doesn’t know anything about him at this point. So how does he assume handsome singer has his walls up, and not that maybe he simply has no interest in getting to know him? Your guess is as good as mine.

I could excuse some of these behaviours if this were a show about two high school students. Teens tend to make rash decisions and fall in love much faster, thinking a crush equals true love. But we’re talking about two adult men, who I assume are at least in their late twenties, more likely even in their early thirties. I understand that you can be attracted to someone on first sight, but this wasn’t just attraction, it was love that apparently can develop within seconds if you live in a BL, because who needs shared experiences and a genuine emotional connection, right?

I also took a big issue with the villain of the show, which is (like in many BLs) handsome singer’s ex boyfriend. (At least I think they were dating, but it’s never quite clear. Blame the writing for that, not me.) I did actually like their history. Handsome singer wanting to debut as an idol and having a relationship with the CEO (again, not sure if back then he was the CEO or just an employee, proving how great the writing in this is once again) actually makes for an interesting concept to explore. The problem is that their past was more interesting than the present day relationship of handsome singer, and that’s not great. Besides that, the villain felt like a caricature. He was so overtly evil that it was almost laughable. And also, he was an idiot. He acted like an asshole in front of handsome singer, trying to blackmail him and pretty much stalking and terrorising him. I thought that clearly, this was just about him being evil and having fun toying with handsome singer. Apparently however, all this was an attempt at winning back the love of handsome singer. Wow. Great plan, buddy. I know you’re a disgusting person, but if you try to win someone back, maybe try not to be disgusting in front of them? It made no sense. Also, the villain then just disappeared into thin air, giving no resolution to this storyline.

At this point, I would’ve probably rated the series a 4. It was bad and uninteresting, but not offensively so. But then they did a goddamn time-skip and that dropped my rating to a 2. You see, piano man came to save handsome singer from the hands of his evil ex. Handsome man then was being a douchebag towards piano man, telling him to leave him alone. This isn’t a problem in itself. Clearly, handsome singer had been severely hurt in the past, and was dealing with a lot of issues internally. Actually, this was the only point in the show where I got at least a little invested. I was curious about how handsome singer would overcome his demons, in order to be with piano man. And how piano man would handle the rejection. Of course, we got to see none of that, because they skipped ahead one year in time. I dislike time jumps in general, but this one was just horrible. It felt like such a cheap way of escaping resolving the conflict they had set up. Instead of meaningful character development, they let time heal it all. To me, this jus proves how the writers of this show weren’t capable of handling anything.

So, we skip ahead one year, and time magically fixed every issue. Handsome singer miraculously has overcome his severe panic disorder, because he was so eager to eventually sing in front of piano man without sunglasses on. Because that’s totally how mental illness works, yep. Not only that, but he also finally got to debut as a singer, and of course, his debut song was one huge success that climbed up on the charts like it’s nothing. Because that’s totally how the music industry works, yep. (I mean, it could’ve happened, but it feels extremely unlikely.) Of course, after all this time and being rejected in a really hurtful way, piano man immediately runs to handsome singer when he sees that he’s holding a concert. And of course he takes him back like nothing happened, and like they actually had established a meaningful relationship between the two of them. That one kiss they had must’ve been really good to warrant such behaviour, damn.

Also, how many times are we gonna do the jealous best friend who has a secret crush on the main character trope in KBLs? It’s getting really old at this point. That being said, the best friend character was actually the only character I was rooting for. Not that he had a properly developed personality or anything. He only existed as a shoulder for handsome singer to cry on, and as his emotional trashcan. However, he was caring and put handsome singer’s feelings above his own, which made him the most likeable character in this entire thing. The bar was very low. I actually thought they should’ve ended up together instead, since they at least had some sort of emotional connection. Instead, this storyline too led nowhere and we never got any resolution for the best friend character. So I'll just assume handsome singer will forget all about him in the heat of his new relationship, because he totally feels like the kind of person to do that. I hope the best friend finds someone better who's actually interested in his feelings too, rather than only using him to cry about his own.

The music in the show was pretty good. One of the main characters is a singer after all, so you’d hope so. But I noticed something weird about the background music. While oftentimes it was nice and fitting, sometimes it felt like a very odd and out of place. At least two times, there was a background music playing that sounded kinda like it was supposed to be in a western movie (western as in a cowboy movie, not the western film industry). I was so confused. But maybe that’s just me not getting a reference or something.

As for the positives… There were some moments of decent comedy. Such as when handsome singer blew his nose on a bunch of napkins and then drunkenly handed them to piano man. That got a chuckle out of me. The acting was solid. Not mind-blowing, but solid performances. Their montage of cute moments at the end was nice, it’s just that I didn’t care about their relationship at all, so even that didn’t get a smile out of me. Honestly, the best thing about this show was when it was finally over.

This has got to be one of the worst KBLs I’ve seen, and I’ve seen many. I cannot recommend this to anyone. If it weren’t so short, I would’ve dropped this half-way through, and I’m definitely never rewatching it. If you’re looking for a KBL about the music industry and a singer, I recommend Wish You: Your Melody From My Heart instead. Not that that one’s perfect, but it’s much better executed and a lot cuter, with actual chemistry.

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One for the guilty pleasure list

I am very conflicted because a huge part of me didn't want to enjoy this. However, did I end up getting excited and counting down the minutes every week? Yes, I did.

Let me start by saying that I don't get the draw in BL for all these brothers falling in love types of stories. I know they never technically cross the line of incest, but if you need to add 'technically' before a word like 'incest', it's definitely too close to that line for my comfort. Which is why I was pretty certain I wouldn't be enjoying this series at all. So, what happened?

Good acting, phenomenal chemistry, and emotional storytelling happened, I suppose. This is one of the best acted shows I've seen. Chris is outstanding in the role of Qian. While he's portraying a pretty stoic character, he doesn't fall into the same issue of coming across comical or uncharismatic that most other actors fall into. He plays the role with nuance and behind his eyes, the emotion is always clear to see. Truly a wonderful job and other actors refusing to move any facial muscles when portraying similar characters should take note. Kurt was great as Yuan as well, and the two had impeccable chemistry. The acting of the side characters was all great too. There wasn't one weak link in this, at least not as far as I noticed. I wish other shows put that much emphasis on acting and chemistry, instead of just hitting us over the head with the same couples who struggle to get emotion across or have the chemistry of two dead fish kissing.

The storytelling was mostly well done too. There were some hiccups, like the gang storyline coming back for no reason other than a bit of drama. But all in all, it had deep emotions, actual characters instead of just stereotypes, and interesting dynamics. So it was easy to look past the imperfections.

The editing however... Boy oh boy. Whoever edited this thing really did the acting and the emotional beats dirty. Chris and Kurt are perfectly capable of carrying an emotional scene. There is no need to stuff in as many flashbacks as you can. It doesn't add emotion, it just takes away from it. The worst editing mistake was adding flashbacks of Yuan as A CHILD during their sex scene. Like please... I do not want to see the face of a child between scenes of them kissing and taking each others clothes off. Who's idea was that???? They honestly need to go to jail. This was supposed to be the emotional climax of the story. Yuan has literally been pining over Qian for soooo many years, and Qian has been trying to restrain himself for a long time. Now, they finally let go of everything and just give in to each other. It's beautiful, it's raw, it's emotion-- BOOM, HAVE A FLASHBACK TO YUAN AS A CHILD!! It was jarring. The scene of them waking up together in bed the next morning, cuddling and kissing, actually felt more emotional than the whole kissing scene did. Because it was just them with their great acting and great chemistry, not interrupted by weird scene cuts, flashbacks, or the overuse of the (admittedly beautiful) OST.

The childhood flashbacks between kissing and touching are part of an even bigger problem for me. I don't actually know how far apart in age the characters are supposed to be, but the way the story portrayed it, it seems like quite a bit of an age gap to me. On top of that, Qian basically raised Yuan. Sure, they didn't know each other since birth. But Qian took a parental role in Yuan's life from a childhood age. Which made my alarms go off because if someone told me this story, I'd definitely feel like there's a grooming issue. I know that Yuan fell for Qian without Qian having any intention of making that happen. But still, there's just something about the age difference and the raising him that doesn't sit right with me. I took a bigger issue with that than the actual "and they were brothers!" thing. Which is a whole other thing to unpack, but I don't really feel like doing that. Because the more I think about it all, the more it makes me feel iffy. If this were an actual real life situation, I'd definitely be very concerned about it. Luckily, it's just fiction though, so I can push down those thoughts with all the positives mentioned above. But it still makes me feel sort of weird about liking the whole thing as much as I did...

Like I said, it's a guilty pleasure. I'm aware of the issues, and I think if you are too, there's nothing wrong with enjoying this. As long as we view things critically and understand that in real life, things might need to be handled differently, it's perfectly fine to aww at this story. It had character and raw emotion and was so well acted. So, would I recommend this to anyone? I'd say give it a try, and if you feel too uncomfortable, just toss it aside. But I do think it's worth a chance, even if you - like me - suspect this isn't your cup of tea. If you turn off the critical side of your brain, you might just end up enjoying this as much as I did.

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The BLification of a non-BL story

This is a difficult one to rate. As a short story about the hardships of life, this is an easy 8. It has great acting and is filled with emotions. As a BL though, it's basically a 2.

Let me explain...

Had someone told me to watch this without me knowing it was a BL, I would have never suspected the two characters being in love. Their kiss came so out of the blue, I thought it was a dream sequence for a moment. If you ask me, this story would've worked a lot better if it were about brotherly love (not the borderline incest kind BLs seem to be obsessed with). It was emotional, and the two guys reuniting after a long time and becoming the warmth and color in each other's lives once more would've been very cute and touching. There was no need to force a romance into a space where there wasn't any place for it.

It's not that the actors didn't have the potential for romantic chemistry. They easily could've had some, but it's just that the story wasn't written for it. It feels like someone wrote this without any romance in it, and on the day of filming, one guy on set was like "BLs are popular. Let's make this a BL!" So, the director was like, "Alright. At the end of this scene, just kiss." So, the actors did what they were told, but both were confused about what the hell is going on.

I don't have much more to say. It was a sad little story with a glimmer of hope in the form of human connection. That connection should've just been two guys who once were forced into being step brothers and became the love and light in each other's lives, then drifted apart, and at the worst time, they reunite and choose to be brothers once more, even if their parents are no longer together. It doesn't solve all their issues, but it gives them a reason to keep going. The story didn't need anything more than that.

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