Summertime Episode 4

When friendship is no name

This episode stopped feeling like a BL drama and began feeling like I was reliving my own high school years. My best friend was the school president…the confident one who protected the nerdy me from bullies and taught me how to smoke, drink, and cut classes. He was so protective that whenever he wasn’t around, my world felt empty. Then, during summer vacation before our senior year, that friendship crossed an invisible line and we became lovers. Watching Eun ho and Do-l hyeon brought back the intensity, confusion, and tenderness of that summer.Perhaps that is why Do hyeon’s refusal to put a name to his feelings affected me so deeply. Eun ho is not merely the boy he loves. He is his best friend, his family, his refuge, and the person around whom his entire world has been built. How do you label someone who has already become everything? The quiet classroom moments…Eun ho sleeping on his shoulder, hands finding each other, and a gentle kiss on the head…that really felt even more intimate than a confession. Yi hyeon is also doing exactly what a third wheel should do, forcing Do hyeon’s hidden jealousy and possessiveness into the open. He is not creating feelings that weren’t there…he is exposing feelings that have been buried for years. Even Eun ho’s resistance feels less like rejection and more like fear. He knows that once they cross that boundary, they may never be able to return to the safety of being friends The scene with the fingers was more provocative than an actual NC scene. The love was always there, the question is how does it show itself beyond the constraints of friendship. The drama that ensues when the line is crossed…

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