Absolute Value of Romance

one of the best kdrama i've seen ever

If you have doubts, because of all of the bad talk around the show this is for you:
WATCH IT!!

The story is fast-moving, however, not lacking on anything. The plot is something we needed in kdramas yet never got to see until now. It's not a toxic or unappropriate teacher-student relationship, but the drama shows a beautiful bond between them two and the process of a class uniting slowly to a family.

The casting couldn't have been more perfect. They all played their roles perfectly and it was fun to see how different eui-ju sees the world differently from the others as she sees what she imagines.

Additionally the acting and the script are really thought through. Every word they say, every expression they make: You are not overanalzing or delusional in the KDrama. It's all on purpose.

The OST has no skips too, which isn't usual for me. Real Fantasy by VIOLA, Sweet & Sour by SAYMYNAME, etc. It all fits eui ju and AVOR.

Overall, I don't want to spoiler you so go watch it now. It won't take long to watch it through and you can trust my words if I say that you will miss it even when you didn't finish it yet.

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A quick and fun watch!

With 16 x 35 min episodes, this drama would be a great binge!

The plot is interesting and fun too, filled with a lot of relatable characters, all dealing with their own, unique set of emotions and struggles.

I also think depicting the topic of BL web novels is quite progressive for Korea. They actually portrayed the intolerance towards LGBT+ in Korean society when the evil students described Eui-Ju as creepy for making up such stories, and the representatives of the school showed their Homophobic colors during the disciplinary meeting as well. At first I found it a bit disappointing that nobody adressed their blatant homophobia, but then again, it would probably be very unrealistic since Koreans in today’s society would never dare adress it either, whether they agree or disagree. So I think the drama was actually more realistic than most of us had thought.

I also liked the question of identity theft for a fictional work and the gray zone of whether or not that is ok. In the end I think it is okay to base book characters on real people bcs art imitates life. But I can also see how and why some people would be against it.

Other than that, I liked that the drama didn’t end up with a teacher-student relationship or else I would have given it 0 points.
The childhood connection was kinda weird tho! imagine having that with your math teacher!!! Wtf? 😂😂😂
Also, her goodbye at the end was a bit cringey too. Sounded almost like she was his girlfriend 😅

Other than that it was a really cute drama!

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There is no student/teacher romance

There was no romance at all. There were some one-sided crushes, sure, but it never went further than a confession. A strangely cute confession at that. How else do you confess to your genius math teacher other than with an equation? Anyways, I was glad that they didn't have our main characters get together. They were cute together, but Student/teacher relationships are romanticized way too much. I tend to avoid this trope like I do cheating and terminal illness, but I decided to give it a try because all the clips I've watched made me genuinely interested, and I'm glad I did because it was actually good.

Specking of illness, I found Eui Ju's hospital scene a little too funny. My step-dad has had major blockage twice, and they have considered surgery to fix it, so I know that it's painful and very serious, but somehow them getting stressed out because they were expecting it to be something life-or-death and then they are told it was constipation was so amusing. All of the stress that Ga Woo Su was dealing with while they were helping her also added to it because you could see that by that point our boy was just done. He was mentally exhausted and needed a nap.

I also found it funny how Ga Woo Su was upset about not being the main character in Eui Ju's book. You'd think her writing him in a BL would be the problem, but nope! The man knew he deserved to be the main character.

The only other part that I found funny was No Da Ju being upset that his character was too petty, and that he wasn't petty at all. This was really his only highlight because he was too big of an asshole for me to like much at all. Him using Eui Ju to try and film Ga Woo Su when he has camera-related trauma and his excuse being that "so much time has passed" really rubbed me the wrong way, and I didn't like him at all after that.

I hate the principal as well, but we're kind of meant to. I mean, the old crone drugs her nephew, tries to hide a student like they are a blight on the school, & used Dong Ju's job to threaten Ga Woo Su to be on camera. There was very little to like about the lady.

Dong Ju kicks ass. I've never seen that arm-twisting move before, & I had to watch it 3 times because I enjoyed it maybe a little too much.

I did space out during the "novel mental fantasy" bits because, while I enjoy writing, I found these parts boring, and they didn't add anything to the story. While I'm on the book, I may as well talk about the drama it created. First off, Ha Su was petty, but honestly, it was a very teenage thing to do, so it didn't bother me. Do I support her view? No, but I'm not going to condemn her either. I also thought the punishment was too light. Suspended for 5 days? They should have added something on top of that. Something to do with her grades, or after-school work, something. It just felt like she got off too lightly because the principal was seeing dollar signs. But the one thing that bothered me the most was them saying that you can't base characters off real people without permission. You 100% can. I know many authors (not personally) that have based a character in their published books that were based off someone in their lives. The problem was Eui Ju's characters were her teachers down to the looks, personality, and dialogue. All she did was set the scenario and twist the dialogue to fit a BL. At that point, it's not a novel; it's fanfiction. One that also shouldn't have been published. Fanfiction can be published; I have no problem with that, but normally fanfiction is based off something already fictional, so it's weird.

I really liked all the acting, but I want to talk a little about Kim Hyang Gi (Eui Ju). First of all, all her crying scenes were great, but I was really impressed with how much emotion she conveyed with just her voice. I knew what she was feeling from her voice alone; I didn't need to see her expression. Yes, it's acting, and that is an important part of the job, but I could hear the genuine hurt, nervousness, exasperation, and anxiety fill her voice, and all of it felt real. It didn't sound like acting at all, and I think it's the main reason I got invested in the story when I almost exclusively watch BL.

OST gets a 7.5 for the song & dance at the end because it was cute and I actually liked the song.

They left the ending very open so they could make a second season if they wanted to. Would I watch a second season? I'm not really sure. I am really glad that I watched this series, but I'm really unsure where they can take the plot and what drama they could create other than giving Eui Ju a rival, since we really don't know how Ga Woo Su feels. It depends, but I'm not saying no. Unless cheating is involved, then it's a big NO.

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it makes me miss high school:"

I loved it! I really enjoyed watching it. It's light, funny, and brought back memories of my high school days. I love how the series portrayed friendship; when I watch K-dramas about school, they mostly show bullying events—while that might be relatable to what actually happens there—for me, it's a bit uncomfortable to watch. This series has a few moments of bickering and arguments, though—which makes sense, I mean, they're teenagers—but it didn't show any extreme acts of bullying.

As for the romance part, I think it's in a bit of a grey area because it involves minors. If I had watched it back then, like during my own high school days, I might have thought it was cute and would have rooted for them. But now that my frontal lobe is fully developed, it's not really something you should call "cute." However, since they don't end up together, we never truly know what the male lead's real feelings were, and there are no intimate moments, I can say this series gets a pass.

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