Falhon Cyril

On “Lily Alice”: MDL told us directly that it is a shared ghost name used by different writers, so I don’t think it makes sense to accuse “Lily Alice” personally of homophobia. And I actually think the Korean source matters a lot here. MDL News is not really an independent press outlet rewriting stories from scratch; these ghost writers mainly shorten, translate or relay what the Asian press is reporting while keeping the original framing. Their role is to inform MDL users about those reports, not to rebuild an actor’s biography or correct every omission in the source. So if the original Korean article skipped Ji Woong’s BL roles, MDL reproducing that omission makes sense. The broader question about how MDL treats BL/LGBTQ+ content is still worth discussing, but I don’t think this particular article proves anything about the writer behind the Lily Alice name.

Yes, I agree there are two main couples. My point isn’t that BenTa are secondary characters, only that I’m not convinced they are Connor/Kom. Yi has confirmed he is a main character and that Max is his partner, so MaxYi are clearly one of the two central couples. I still lean MaxYi = Connor/Kom because of the stranger-to-lovers, physical and English/Thai dynamic, while BenTa fits Talay/Jason’s long shared history better.

I said it before, I don’t think promo placement proves who plays Connor and Kom. Yi has confirmed Max is his partner and that he plays a main character, so MaxYi clearly aren’t a minor couple. I still lean MaxYi = Connor/Kom because that relationship starts between strangers, is very physical, and has the foreign/local English-Thai dynamic. BenTa makes more sense to me as Talay/Jason because they share a long history and both speak Thai naturally. The BTS also pushed me further that way: MaxYi worked heavily on physical intimacy, while BenTa’s scenes felt more focused on an established emotional relationship. Hopefully they reveal the character names soon.

I don’t think the order of the pictures or who stands slightly more forward in one promotional shot is enough to tell us which couple has the original Connor/Kom storyline. All four are officially listed as leads, and Yi has now personally confirmed two things: that Max is his partner and that he himself is playing a main character. So MaxYi clearly aren’t being treated as a minor side couple. What makes me lean toward MaxYi as Connor/Kom is actually the story itself. Connor and Kom meet as strangers and their relationship starts with a very physical attraction while they are still learning about each other. Yi is Chinese-Canadian, speaks English and is still learning Thai, while Max is Thai. That fits the foreign/local, English/Thai dynamic of Connor and Kom extremely well. They are also both very athletic, which fits how physically driven that relationship initially is.

Talay and Jason are different: they have known each other since childhood, Jason has loved Talay for years and returns while dealing with an arranged marriage. Benjamin and Tata both speak Thai naturally, so to me they fit much better as the couple with an established Thai history.

And the first BTS makes me lean even more that way. Max and Yi were specifically doing intimacy and physical-comfort exercises together, while Ben and Tata’s workshop seemed much more focused on an already existing relationship and emotional reactions. So yes, BenTa’s picture may have been posted first and they may be placed more forward in some promo photos, but I don’t think that proves they are Connor and Kom. Right now my guess is still MaxYi = Connor/Kom and BenTa = Talay/Jason. Hopefully they just say the character names soon so we can stop doing detective work 😂

I agree with part of what you are saying, because asking AI “is this true?” and getting “yes” is absolutely not proof. AI can make mistakes, misunderstand sources and sometimes confidently give you complete nonsense. That is precisely why I keep insisting on links. If AI tells me Yonhap reported something, I want the Yonhap article. If it tells me a court decided something, I want the court record or reliable reporting about that decision. I don't expect anyone to believe something because ChatGPT said so, including me.

Where I disagree is saying AI has no mechanism to research or check data. That really depends on what AI you are using and what access you give it. Some can search current sources, compare articles, find primary documents and cross-check contradictory reporting. That doesn't make the AI itself a source. It makes it a research tool. Google isn't proof either; the documents you find through Google are. And there is another problem I think is even more important here. Something can be factually correct and still be biased. I can give AI ten genuine facts supporting Kim Soo-hyun, leave out five genuine facts that don't support him, then ask “is everything I wrote true?” It might correctly answer yes. But I still wrote a biased article because I decided what information went into it. The opposite obviously works too. That's why “is this true?” isn't enough. You also have to ask what was left out, what contradicts it, whether the sources are reliable and whether everyone involved is being judged by the same standard.

So I think we actually agree on the important part: AI saying something is true doesn't make it true. The human using it is still responsible for checking the result. That's also why I prefer putting the original sources directly in my comments. You don't have to trust me. Open the links, translate them if necessary, check what they actually say, and then make your own conclusion.

I answered about that, plus Yi said he plays the lead with Max in his video channel.

I’m increasingly convinced that MaxYi are Connor and Kom, with BenTa as Talay and Jason. Yi has now confirmed himself that Max is his partner and that he plays a main character, so I really doubt MaxYi are just the secondary couple. Max’s return to BL after the MaxTul era is already generating a lot of attention, and commercially it would make much more sense to build the main romance around that return.

The story itself also fits. Connor and Kom meet as strangers and their relationship begins with very strong physical attraction. Yi is Chinese-Canadian, speaks English but only limited Thai and is currently learning more, while Connor is the foreign character entering Thailand. Max is Thai and would naturally fit the local side of that cross-cultural relationship. They are also both extremely fit and athletic in real life, which fits a couple whose attraction is supposed to be very physical from the beginning.

BenTa makes more sense to me as Talay and Jason for the opposite reason. Those two already have a long history together: Jason has loved Talay since childhood and returns while hiding an arranged marriage. Both Benjamin and Tata speak Thai, so a relationship built around years of familiarity and unresolved feelings would naturally work much better between them than with Yi, who is still learning the language. Benjamin is also Thai-British and Tata is Thai, so they can handle the Thai-heavy side of the story naturally.

Nothing has officially connected the four character names to the actors yet, so I’m still calling this a theory rather than fact. But with Yi confirming Max as his partner and himself as a main character, the language setup, the different types of romance and Max’s BL return, MaxYi as Connor–Kom and BenTa as Talay–Jason currently makes the most sense to me. The first BTS episode is tomorrow, so we may finally get the confirmation then.

Not Yours — When Love Begins as a Debt

Baobei has spent much of his life carrying responsibilities that should never have belonged to him. He sells flowers while helping support his family, but an already precarious existence collapses when his mother is accused of stealing an expensive diamond ring belonging to the mother of Junying, a wealthy young company president. With the accusation creating a debt his family cannot repay, Baobei is forced to remain at Junying’s side as compensation for something he did not personally do. Junying has money, authority and a past that has taught him to protect himself through distance and control; Baobei has pride, obligations and very little freedom to decide how their relationship begins. What initially connects them is therefore neither attraction nor choice, but an imbalance of power that neither can simply pretend does not exist.

Their hostility slowly becomes attachment, but “Not Yours” is built around the difference between keeping someone close and actually being chosen by him. Junying begins to see beyond the debt that brought Baobei into his life, while Baobei discovers a man more vulnerable than the cold executive he first encountered. Yet affection cannot automatically make their relationship equal. Baobei was placed beside Junying because circumstances left him with almost no alternative, and Junying must eventually understand that protecting him does not give him ownership over him. For Baobei, the greater question is whether the moment will come when staying is no longer something he owes, but something he genuinely wants.

Their relationship is complicated further by Junying’s older brother Aya, whose ambitions place the family’s internal conflicts, wealth and power at the centre of a much darker struggle. The official television synopsis expands the story into betrayal, manipulation, kidnapping and an attempt to uncover the truth behind what has happened, turning what initially appears to be a wealthy-man/poor-man romance into a broader family drama where love itself can be exploited as leverage. Running beside it is a second relationship between Jiang Weibang, Baobei’s loyal best friend, and Milan, a young artist. Their constant clashes provide a lighter contrast to Junying and Baobei’s more oppressive beginning, but the production presents both couples through the same idea of mutual rescue: four men whose relationships force them to reconsider the lives and roles that seemed to have already been decided for them.

This is also a much freer adaptation of BamBam’s “Not Yours เมื่อผมไม่ใช่” than the title might initially suggest. In the rewritten edition of the novel, Baobei becomes P’Eng’s kept boy after his father leaves behind a five-million-baht debt. P’Eng takes him in, supports him and agrees that their arrangement will end once Baobei graduates. The debt is eventually forgiven, but by then Baobei has fallen in love with him, only to believe that P’Eng has found someone new: a cute celebrity whom Baobei awkwardly happens to admire himself. Once their original arrangement ends, Baobei becomes an ordinary employee in P’Eng’s company and tries to move forward, while P’Eng insists that Baobei was actually the one who abandoned him and begins pursuing him again. The drama keeps the source material’s most interesting foundation — debt, dependency, unequal status and the uncertainty of whether feelings remain once obligation is removed — while replacing much of the surrounding plot. The father’s financial debt becomes the mother’s alleged theft, Baobei becomes a flower seller, Junying receives a much larger family conspiracy, and Milan and Jiang Weibang are developed into a second central romance.

The adaptation itself reflects the increasingly international direction of Asian BL production. “Not Yours” is a Thai-Chinese co-production between Xingyi Pictures and Aplan International Group, directed by Shawn Zhou, Jane Kitt Bottasri and Toon Rungrapee Kingkaew, with Longs credited for the screenplay. Shogun Paramee Thesdaroon plays Baobei opposite Ross Chen as Junying, while Xuan Hao plays Milan and Jerry Loong plays Jiang Weibang. Rather than disguising that mixed production identity, the release strategy embraces it: the series premieres on September 26, 2026, with a Thai-language television version airing every Saturday at 10:30 p.m. on MCOT 9HD, followed at 11:30 p.m. by the full Chinese-language version on Viu, GagaOOLala, Heavenly and Rakuten TV. For viewers in metropolitan France, that places the streaming release at 6:30 p.m. while France remains on summer time, moving to 5:30 p.m. after the October daylight-saving change.

A ten-episode run is currently listed consistently across several drama databases, which would give the series a weekly schedule running from September 26 through November 28, with episodes expected on September 26, October 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31, followed by November 7, 14, 21 and 28. Unlike the premiere date and Saturday broadcast schedule, however, the total of ten episodes has still not been explicitly stated by MCOT or the official series account, so it is better treated as highly likely rather than officially confirmed. The runtime has likewise not yet been formally announced. That distinction matters after several recent BL listings have circulated incorrect episode totals before the streaming platforms published their final schedules.

There are reasons to be interested in the production team, although its track record is not uniformly reassuring. Aplan International Group previously participated in “Cutie Pie,” which remains one of the more internationally visible Thai BLs of its generation and currently sits around 7.5/10 on IMDb from roughly 3,600 ratings. More recently, Aplan was one of the international partners behind “Payback,” alongside Korean, Japanese and Thai companies; that adaptation finished 2026 with strong specialist audience scores, including 83.8/100 on DramaBL and 8.9/10 on Feyno. Those successes cannot be credited to Aplan alone, particularly because both productions involved substantial partners, but they show that the company has experience working on BL projects intended for a wider international market rather than only small domestic productions. Xingyi Pictures is more difficult to judge because it does not yet have a sufficiently established BL catalogue to provide a meaningful quality history.

The directing side is similarly mixed. Jane Kitt Bottasri has worked in BL for years, including “SOTUS S,” “Oxygen,” “Nitiman” and “The Luminous Solution.” Their audience ratings range from a comparatively strong 7.8/10 for “SOTUS S” to 6.4 for “Oxygen,” 6.6 for “Nitiman” and only 5.8 for “The Luminous Solution” on IMDb, so his name alone is not a guarantee of quality. Toon Rungrapee Kingkaew brings another interesting connection: her production work includes “4MINUTES” and “Payback,” two considerably more ambitious Thai BL productions, with “4MINUTES” in particular maintaining strong international reception. This leaves “Not Yours” in an unusual position: there is enough experience behind it to expect more than a disposable low-budget adaptation, but also enough inconsistency that the execution of its expanded storyline will matter more than the reputation of any single company or director.

The most promising part may ultimately be the way the television adaptation has chosen to reinterpret its title. “Not Yours” begins with a relationship in which money and family circumstances make it appear possible for one man to claim another, but its central conflict is really about dismantling that idea. Baobei may owe a debt, Junying may possess the power to keep him nearby, and both may eventually fall in love, but none of those things are equivalent to freely choosing one another. If the series manages to explore that difference without romanticising the imbalance that creates it, while successfully balancing its family intrigue and second couple, “Not Yours” could be worth watching precisely because it has turned a relatively simple debt romance into a story about whether love can become genuine only after possession ends.

SAEP on the Beach — MAME’s Love Sand Reworked Into a Four-Lead International Romance
Thai title: แซ่บ on the Beach
Adapted from: Love Sand / หาดร้อน ซ่อนรัก by MAME

Synopsis

“SAEP on the Beach” adapts MAME’s “Love Sand,” but the television version is developing into something considerably larger than a direct retelling of Connor and Khom’s original romance. In the novel, Khom is a nineteen-year-old living on Koh Phangan who agrees to replace his injured friend Mahasamut as a tour guide for three days and two nights. His client is Connor Warrington, a wealthy Canadian visitor with blond hair, green eyes and the confidence of a man accustomed to getting what he wants. Khom is already recovering from an earlier heartbreak and understands why becoming involved with someone who will disappear after a few days is dangerous, while Connor initially approaches their attraction as something temporary. Their relationship becomes physical quickly, but what should have ended with the trip instead unsettles both of them: Khom risks a heart that has already been damaged once, while Connor discovers that the young Thai man he expected to leave behind may be the first person capable of making the habitual player reconsider what he actually wants from love.

The television adaptation keeps that cross-cultural attraction while substantially rebuilding the circumstances around it. Current production material describes Connor as a British pearl broker who arrives on a southern Thai island hoping to complete an important business deal, while Khom is currently romanised as Kom. Kom still becomes his guide after replacing an injured friend, but the adaptation gives his previous heartbreak a much more concrete place in the story through Talay, the guarded owner of a pearl farm whom Kom has been trying to forget. Talay refuses Connor’s proposal and instead challenges him to find the legendary Melo Pearl, tying Connor’s commercial ambitions directly into Kom’s emotional past. Jason completes the central quartet: an influencer concealing an arranged marriage who returns to confess feelings for Talay that began in childhood. Instead of simply stretching Connor and Khom’s three-day encounter across ten episodes, the television series is therefore constructing two interconnected romances in which new attraction, old feelings, business and different ideas of possession continually collide.

That structure is important because the two relationships appear deliberately designed as opposites. Connor and Kom meet as strangers, with language and cultural differences between them and an attraction that is physical almost immediately. Talay and Jason, by contrast, already share years of history: Jason’s feelings reach back to childhood, and his return forces him to confront both Talay and the marriage awaiting him elsewhere. The casting appears to reflect that contrast. Yi Fang Gao has personally confirmed that Max Nattapol Diloknawarit is his partner in the series and has also confirmed that he himself plays a main character, while Benjamin Brasier and Tata Krittapat Sawangjit are presented together as the other couple. That makes MaxYi increasingly likely to be the principal pairing rather than a smaller secondary romance, particularly given the attention surrounding Max’s return to BL after the MaxTul era.

The strongest current interpretation is therefore Yi as Connor and Max as Kom, with Benjamin and Tata taking Talay and Jason, although Dream Dimension has not yet formally attached the four character names to the actors. The language setup makes that distribution particularly logical. Yi is Chinese-Canadian, speaks English fluently and has openly acknowledged that his Thai remains limited; he is currently spending time in Thailand improving it ahead of what will be his first major long-form scripted BL role. Connor is the foreigner entering an unfamiliar Thai environment, so Yi would naturally fit the English-speaking side of that relationship. Max is Thai and would provide the local counterpart, even if casting him as Kom would mean substantially ageing the nineteen-year-old Khom from the novel. The adaptation is already changing enough of the original story that this would hardly be its most radical alteration. Max and Yi are also both strongly associated with fitness and athletic physiques, which suits a romance that begins through immediate physical attraction before emotional intimacy develops. Benjamin and Tata, meanwhile, both speak Thai naturally, which fits a Talay–Jason relationship built on childhood familiarity, shared history and unresolved feelings rather than two strangers learning how to communicate.

Max’s possible position at the centre of the adaptation also makes commercial sense. He remains the most internationally recognisable BL actor in the cast, having built the MaxTul pairing through “Together With Me,” its sequel and “Manner of Death.” Since that era ended, he has not established another comparable BL partnership, which makes his return inherently significant for viewers who followed Thai BL through that period. Pairing him with Yi, a Chinese-Canadian newcomer entering his first major BL drama, creates both familiarity and novelty: Max brings an established audience and experience with male-male romantic roles, while Yi gives the production the international profile it is explicitly seeking. If MaxYi are indeed Connor and Kom, Dream Dimension is not simply asking Max to support a younger couple from the sidelines; it is placing his return at the centre of the source novel’s original romance. Benjamin and Tata would still carry an important second storyline, particularly because Talay connects all four characters through Kom’s former feelings, Connor’s pearl deal and Jason’s return.

Khom himself also carries much more history than viewers discovering him through this adaptation may realise. MAME first introduced him years earlier in the “TharnType” universe as Type’s childhood friend from his hometown. Khom is gay, and Type’s early homophobia directly hurts him; only after falling in love with Tharn forces Type to confront his own prejudice does he eventually return and apologise. MAME later explained that Khom remained in her mind because she felt she had put the character through enough and wanted to give him his own happiness, which eventually became “Love Sand.” The novel is officially part of the “TharnType Story” series, while its connection to “Love Sea” is equally direct: Mahasamut is the friend whose broken leg originally causes Khom to meet Connor, and he later becomes the protagonist of “Love Sea” opposite Tongrak. Khom even appears again in Episode 6 of the 2024 “Love Sea” television series, played by Pentor Jeerapat Pimanprom after having previously been portrayed by Kaprao Pongkorn Wongkrittiyarat in “TharnType.” The different actors make the connection easy to miss, but “TharnType,” “Love Sand” and “Love Sea” genuinely belong to the same fictional universe.

The adaptation may nevertheless change how directly “SAEP on the Beach” leads into “Love Sea.” Earlier speculation suggested that Mahasamut and Tongrak might become the second television couple, effectively turning the series into a bridge between both novels. The newer synopsis instead gives Talay and Jason a complete romantic story of their own, while Mahasamut is no longer named and appears only indirectly through the reference to Kom replacing an injured friend. He may still exist in the adaptation because his accident is fundamental to how Connor and Kom meet, but the second central romance now appears to belong to Talay and Jason. That makes “SAEP” less of a straightforward prequel to “Love Sea” and more of a reinterpretation of MAME’s wider universe.

Language is one of the project’s defining features rather than a marketing detail added afterward. Director Lit Phadung Samajarn has explained that “SAEP on the Beach” is being developed as a multilingual production using English and Thai, with English functioning as a principal language and cultural difference becoming part of the actual relationships. Benjamin is Thai-British and fluent in both languages, Tata speaks English, and Yi’s Chinese-Canadian background gives the cast another genuinely international perspective rather than simply asking Thai actors to perform foreign identities. The production has also discussed Spanish and potentially other dubbed versions, showing that international distribution is being considered from development rather than after completion. Yi’s current Thai study therefore makes sense even if his character ultimately speaks mainly English: a long Thai production still requires him to understand direction, rehearsals, scene partners and enough of the language for whatever bilingual interaction the script demands.

The source material gives Lit considerably more to work with than a thin premise stretched into a full season. The Thai edition of “Love Sand” was published in April 2019, runs to 466 pages and approximately 119,000 words, and currently holds 4.92/5 from 115 ratings on MEB. It is therefore a substantial and well-liked novel rather than a forgotten side story being revived only because MAME’s name remains commercially useful. The adaptation’s challenge is almost the opposite: preserving enough of Connor and Khom’s original intimacy while introducing Talay, Jason, the pearl business and a much larger four-lead structure without allowing the expansion to overwhelm the emotional simplicity at the centre of the book.

The production currently has ten episodes confirmed through Dream Dimension’s industry presentation. Lit has said the series is expected to air in 2027, but an exact premiere date, runtime, weekly schedule, broadcaster and international streaming platform have not yet been announced. Dream Dimension is still presenting the project to potential co-production partners, investors and distributors, so the final scale of the series may depend partly on which companies eventually join it. Some development and promotional footage has already been shot, and the first behind-the-scenes episode is due to be released imminently, which may finally reveal the character assignments that the production has so far deliberately kept hidden.

There is nevertheless a reassuring creative record behind the project. Lit directed “SOTUS,” which currently holds about 7.8/10 on IMDb from roughly 2,500 ratings, and the 2022 version of “Love Mechanics,” which stands at 8.0/10 from around 2,200 viewers, with its finale rated particularly strongly. He also directed the GL “Mate,” currently around 7.4/10 from close to one thousand ratings. “Love Mechanics” is perhaps the most relevant comparison: Lit already demonstrated that he could take an established romance, expand it into a ten-episode production and retain enough chemistry and emotional tension to satisfy an existing fandom. With “SAEP on the Beach,” the challenge is larger because he is simultaneously expanding the source, introducing another major couple and designing the production for a multilingual international market.

“SAEP on the Beach” is therefore becoming much more than another attractive beach BL. It brings back a character whose history reaches to “TharnType,” adapts the novel that later connects into “Love Sea,” introduces an entirely new second romance, places Max Nattapol’s long-awaited BL return beside Yi Gao’s first major scripted role, and builds the project around cultural and linguistic difference from the beginning. If the series can make both relationships feel necessary while preserving the intense attraction and emotional vulnerability that defined Connor and Khom’s original story, it has the potential to turn one of MAME’s older novels into one of the more distinctive international Thai BL projects currently in development.

Synopsis

More than a year has passed since Hiro Suzuki and Natsuo Washizawa finally put aside the misunderstanding that had followed them since high school and admitted that what existed between them was real. Their relationship no longer begins with revenge, hidden intentions or uncertainty over who loved whom first. They are together now, and for once, Hiro is allowing himself to enjoy it. That comfortable routine changes after an unexpected problem at Hiro's home leaves him temporarily unable to stay there. The obvious solution is also the one that brings their relationship into completely new territory: Hiro moves into Natsuo's home, and the two begin living together. For Natsuo, sharing a home with Hiro seems almost ideal. He has never been particularly restrained when it comes to showing how much he loves him, and living together means that the person he wants beside him is finally there every day. Hiro is inevitably dragged along at Natsuo's pace, but beneath his usual complaints, he begins to realise how easily this new domestic life is becoming something he does not want to lose. Living together, however, is different from dating.

The small parts of a relationship that can remain hidden when two people return to separate homes suddenly become impossible to avoid. Their habits, insecurities and expectations now exist in the same space, and the happiness of waking up beside each other is accompanied by a more difficult question: what kind of future are they actually building?

Season 1 was largely about Hiro learning that the boy he remembered as one of the worst parts of his adolescence had never seen him the way he believed. Season 2 moves beyond that misunderstanding. Hiro already knows that Natsuo loves him, while Natsuo no longer has to convince Hiro that his feelings are genuine. Their problem is no longer whether they should become a couple, but what happens when love starts influencing the choices they make about the rest of their lives. Both men begin questioning what they genuinely want for themselves. Work, their surroundings and new people entering their lives gradually disturb the comfortable rhythm they have created, forcing them to think about ambitions and decisions that cannot simply be solved by loving each other more. TOKYO MX describes them as reaching a crossroads in life and having to decide what their own form of happiness should look like.

That makes this sequel quite different from simply creating another romantic obstacle to separate them. Hiro and Natsuo have already spent enough time misunderstanding their past. What they now need to discover is whether they can move forward without losing either the relationship they fought for or the individual lives they still want to build. The Proper Way to Write Love Season 2 therefore follows the part of romance BLs often leave unexplored: after the confession, after the reconciliation and after the happy ending. Hiro and Natsuo already know that they love each other. Now they have to learn how to live with that love—and decide what they want it to become.

Source material
This is important because Season 2 is not a straightforward adaptation of a second manga volume.
Ogeretsu Tanaka's original The Proper Way to Write Love was a short work, and much of the main Hiro/Natsuo storyline was already used for Season 1. Season 2 is instead an original continuation supervised by Ogeretsu Tanaka, retaining the manga's characters and world while incorporating material from original spin-off stories. TOKYO MX has not yet identified exactly which spin-off material is being used. That author supervision is reassuring because the sequel is not simply a television writer inventing a second season after the source story has ended.

Airing information
Episodes: 6
Premiere: October 29, 2026
Broadcast: Every Thursday, 9:25–9:54 p.m. JST on TOKYO MX1
Episode slot: 29 minutes
Projected finale: December 3, 2026
International streaming: Not officially announced yet. Season 1 was internationally distributed by GagaOOLala, but I would not assume Season 2 is returning there until GagaOOLala or TOKYO MX confirms it.

Same here 😅 I’m definitely watching for Kodai Fujimoto, but also for Ayuta Fukuda because I’m currently watching him in Your Sky: Love After the Rain. And I’m especially happy to see Hideyoshi Kan again—I really loved him in Season 1 and also in Although I Love You, and You?, even though I personally didn’t enjoy his pairing with Jun Nishiyama there. So Season 2 already has several reasons for me to come back.

It did have a complete ending, but only for the first part of their story. Season 1 adapted the first novel and ended with Hioki and Watarai finally becoming an official couple. The author later wrote a second novel following them into their third and final year of high school, and Season 2 is adapting that. They’re already together this time, so the story shifts to what comes after the confession: being separated into different classes, Watarai’s jealousy getting even worse, his ex-girlfriend appearing, entrance exams, graduation, and the question of what happens to them after high school. So it’s not really reopening an unfinished ending; it’s continuing a relationship that had already reached a satisfying first conclusion.

No international platform has yet been officially announced for Season 2. Season 1 eventually appeared on Viki, but I would not assume Season 2 will automatically follow until Viki or another distributor announces it.

Synopsis

Asahi Hioki's second year of high school changed almost everything. A school trip that began with him awkwardly joining a group of boys he barely knew ended with those same boys becoming his closest friends—and with Tsukasa Watarai, the most popular boy at school, becoming his first boyfriend. Now in their third and final year, Hioki and Watarai are no longer trying to understand whether their feelings are mutual. They are already together, and their relationship is going well. The difficulty is learning what being together actually means once everyday life starts getting in the way.

The five friends have been separated into different classes. Hioki is in Class 2, Haruki Nakazato and Hayato Hotta are together in Class 3, while Watarai and Naoya Morizaki are placed in Class 5. For Watarai, who would happily spend every hour of every day beside Hioki, this is practically unacceptable. His affection has certainly not become quieter since they started dating; if anything, becoming Hioki's boyfriend has given his jealousy even more room to grow. Their first major challenge arrives during an overnight study camp. Watarai expects something resembling the school trip that originally brought them together, only to discover that their different classes have completely separate schedules. Unable to keep an eye on Hioki, he becomes increasingly protective and jealous, warning him that he is far too trusting and apparently far too unaware of how attractive he is to other people. Eventually Watarai reaches the perfectly reasonable conclusion, at least in his own mind, that Hioki should simply stop talking to everyone else. For Hioki, this is also his first real relationship. He loves Watarai, but he is still learning how to respond to a boyfriend whose affection can be both reassuring and overwhelmingly intense. What once felt unbelievable—being chosen by the most popular boy in school—has become his normal life, and that means dealing not only with Watarai's devotion but with the insecurities and misunderstandings that appear once a relationship moves beyond the excitement of falling in love.

One of those complications comes from Juju, Watarai's former girlfriend. Her appearance forces Hioki to confront a part of Watarai's romantic past that he has never really had to think about before. For the first time, their relationship faces a genuine romantic test, while Watarai seems considerably less interested in looking backward than in making sure Hioki understands exactly how serious he is about their future. The second novel makes this one of the central developments of their final year. But Season 2 is not built entirely around jealousy. Hioki, Watarai, Morizaki, Nakazato and Hotta are approaching the end of high school together. The year brings the study camp, sports festival, university entrance examinations and eventually graduation. What began as an accidental group formed for a school trip has become something none of them wants to lose. For Hioki and Watarai in particular, graduation gives their relationship a different weight. Their first season was about discovering love; the second is about discovering whether that love can grow with them. Watarai has never lacked certainty about whom he wants. Hioki's challenge is learning to believe in that certainty while also finding his own confidence inside their relationship.

School Trip: Joined a Group I'm Not Close To 2 therefore follows the couple beyond the confession and into the more complicated part that comes afterward. They have already chosen each other. Now they have one final year to navigate jealousy, separation, first-love insecurities and the uncertainty of life after school—while Watarai continues making it very clear that, as far as he is concerned, Hioki is not going anywhere. The author's own description confirms that this season is specifically about what happens after Watarai and Hioki become a couple and after they enter their third year, rather than resetting their romance or manufacturing another slow burn.

Airing information
Premiere: October 17, 2026 ABC TV or Sunday, October 18 at 1:00 a.m. JST.
Airing: Every Sunday.
Episode runtime: Approximately 30-minute television slot, with Season 1 episodes running around 23 minutes without commercials.
International platform: No international platform has yet been officially announced for Season 2. Season 1 eventually appeared on Viki, but I would not assume Season 2 will automatically follow until Viki or another distributor announces it.
Episode count: Not officially announced yet. However, 10 episodes is currently the most reasonable expectation. Season 1 had exactly 10 episodes,

A small clarification because several different legal developments are now being mixed together. Kim Soo-hyun was not “acquitted by a court,” because there was no criminal trial against him. On July 29, police decided not to forward the Child Welfare Act and false-accusation cases because the evidence was insufficient. On September 3, prosecutors returned the records without requesting supplementary or renewed investigation, so the police decision remained in place.
Sources: https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20260729127851004 and https://www.starnewskorea.com/star/2026/09/07/2026090713381243390
Kim Se-ui’s situation is separate. He has been indicted, but he has not been convicted, and his lawyers are entitled to challenge the prosecution’s case. Their statements that the allegations against Kim Soo-hyun are true remain defence claims, not findings by the court. Likewise, evidence mentioned by lawyers does not automatically become authenticated merely because it was discussed in a hearing. On September 11, the Seoul Central District Court rejected Kim Se-ui’s request for a citizen-participation trial, so the case will proceed through the ordinary criminal procedure. https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20260911137951004

One small correction to summaries circulating online: the phrase about having the case decided “solely on evidence and legal principles” came from Kim Soo-hyun’s lawyer while opposing a jury trial. It was not reported as the judges’ own wording explaining their decision. That may sound minor, but this is exactly why original links matter. A summary can be broadly correct while still changing who said what, and once that version is copied repeatedly it can start looking like an established court statement.

ALSO: AI is useful, but it should help us think more carefully, not replace the responsibility to think.

I am not against people using AI to research, translate or organize information either. The problem is not AI; the problem is assuming that an answer is neutral simply because an AI confirms that the individual facts are true. An article can contain only true statements and still present a distorted picture if important facts were excluded, if one side received much more scrutiny than the other, or if the prompt itself already decided what conclusion the AI should reach. For example, asking AI to “write an article proving Kim Soo-hyun is innocent” and asking it to “write a neutral, updated account of the case, including evidence and arguments from every side” can produce very different articles even when both contain factually correct information. The same applies when checking an article. Asking “Is everything here true?” may only verify the statements that were included. It may not ask what important information was left out. That is why human responsibility exists at both ends. The person creating the article chooses the prompt, sources and framing, but the reader using AI to verify it also needs to ask the right question. We should not only ask whether something is factually correct; we should also ask whether material context is missing, whether the framing is fair, and whether the same evidentiary standard was applied to everyone involved, including Kim Soo-hyun, Kim Se-ui, Kim Sae-ron and her family.

Two short prompts are enough for that:
- To write: “Give me a neutral, fully updated, source-based account of the Kim Soo-hyun case. Separate facts, allegations, legal findings and disputed claims; include material evidence for every side; flag uncertainty and omissions; use primary/major Korean sources; no predetermined conclusion.”
- To check: “Audit this text for factual accuracy AND bias by omission. Verify sources, legal status and chronology; identify missing material facts, selective framing, unequal standards or misleading implications even if every individual statement is technically true.”

I am also currently writing a book about AI, particularly about how people use it through the lens of their own convictions, so this question of prompts, confirmation and bias is something I have been examining closely.

AND:
One practical thing I would also suggest for long discussions: if you are writing a very long reply to another person, rather than a main standalone comment, put it under the spoiler function when possible. It saves everyone else from scrolling through a long exchange that may not concern them while still leaving the full answer available to anyone who actually wants to read it. I used to do this myself after people complained that my replies were too long, and I also tend to hide older comments the same way. People genuinely interested in checking the facts can still open them; people who are not interested were probably going to skip them anyway. I would not do this for a main comment, because that is meant for everyone, only for long replies inside an ongoing exchange.

Another thing that matters for all of us is correcting the original post when later information changes or clarifies something important. Adding updates somewhere in the comments is useful, but it does not really correct the original version, because most readers will never go through dozens of replies looking for them. If a direct comment contains something outdated, overstated or later shown to need clarification, I think the direct comment itself should be edited, with a short note explaining what changed and why or deleted to write a new, updated one. The comments can preserve the discussion and provide additional details, but they should not become a scattered substitute for keeping the main information accurate. Otherwise someone arriving weeks later may read the original claim, never see the correction buried below, and unknowingly repeat information that the author already knows is incomplete.

Yes, and the timeline makes the second project particularly interesting. Nest Management announced back on July 28 that Ji Woong was balancing ZB1 with his “acting projects” and that previously confirmed acting schedules would force him to miss some group activities. He then missed the SBS Gayo Daejeon Summer on August 9 because of that schedule. But when "Siren" was announced on September 4, Korean reports said he was still preparing to begin filming it. So "Siren" cannot really explain acting work that was already disrupting his ZB1 schedule in July and August. That makes another, still-unannounced acting project a very reasonable conclusion, especially since Nest itself used the plural “acting projects.”

The only thing we still don’t have is an official title, cast or production announcement for that other project. So I’d say the project itself is strongly indicated, while the details remain secret for now. And yes, you’re also right about "Siren": it isn’t simply short-form. It is being developed as a multi-format project across film, mid-form/drama and short-form versions. I’m actually much more curious now about what he was already filming before "Siren" was even announced. 👀

Good news: it isn’t actually just short-form. Siren is being developed as a multi-format project, with a film version as well as mid-form and short-form adaptations. Korean reporting even describes it as Ji Woong’s first film project, with the shorter versions coming from the same production.

So this looks much more substantial than a typical short-form drama. He is one of the leads, playing Do Yoon, a third-generation chaebol studying at the police academy, opposite an ace detective from an ordinary background. The rest of the main cast has not been officially announced yet, but the project is being directed by Oh Ki Hwan, who also directed The Defects.

So I wouldn’t be disappointed yet 😄 This could actually be a pretty significant acting comeback for him.

I looked into this more carefully, and I think your point is stronger than I initially realised. There is at least historical evidence behind what you are saying. In 2022, users were already protesting MDL’s article policy and specifically reported that an older version of the Article Guidelines listed “Yaoi/BL” among topics that were not allowed. According to that contemporary complaint, the rule was later modified after criticism, while users continued to report difficulty getting LGBTQ/BL-focused articles accepted. I cannot independently reconstruct the old internal guideline today or prove that the same rule still exists in 2026, so I would not present every allegation as established fact. But this clearly wasn’t something people invented this week because of Kim Ji Woong. And I think your distinction about Trending is important. BL dramas appearing in Trending, ratings, lists or games proves that MDL has a very large BL audience; it does not necessarily tell us how the editorial side of the website treats BL. If those sections are primarily generated by what users watch, rate and create, then they are evidence of the audience’s interests, not necessarily of MDL’s editorial priorities.

GagaOOLala is also a fair example to raise. It is one of the most important international streaming services specifically devoted to LGBTQ+ Asian content, yet even in 2026 MDL users are still publicly complaining that GagaOOLala is not displayed among the streaming providers in the app. I cannot personally verify the exact “six years” timeline, but the underlying complaint certainly still exists. That actually makes the Kim Ji Woong article more interesting. I still would not call “Lily Alice” homophobic, especially since Lily Alice is a shared/ghost byline rather than one identifiable writer. And the Korean source itself also omitted much of Ji Woong’s BL career. But if MDL has a longer history of treating BL differently at the editorial level, then people are justified in asking whether the omission fits an existing pattern rather than viewing it as an isolated mistake. So I think the fair criticism is not “this one writer hates gay people.” It is: why does a website whose own users consume enormous amounts of BL still seem so reluctant to give BL the same editorial visibility as heterosexual dramas? That is a much more interesting question, and one MDL itself should be able to answer.

@Joana @TiaSaavy I noticed the omission too, especially because "Roommates of Poongduck 304" is one of Ji Woong’s best-known and highest-rated leading roles. Mentioning a special appearance while skipping both "Kissable Lips" and "Poongduck 304" obviously makes the article feel strangely incomplete. But I wouldn’t ask whether “Lily Alice” is homophobic. Lily Alice is essentially a ghost/shared name used for different writers on MDL, so we cannot even attribute these articles to one identifiable person with one set of opinions. More importantly, when you look at the Korean reporting behind this announcement, the same selective presentation of Ji Woong’s career already appears there.

I think the more interesting question is why his BL career has gradually disappeared from the way his professional history is presented. Before "Boys Planet", Ji Woong had an established BL audience, had starred twice opposite Yoon Seo Bin, and "Poongduck 304" was successful enough to reach No. 1 on Watcha’s overall TOP 10. Then he became part of ZEROBASEONE and entered a completely different idol-management environment. The public Ji Woong–Seo Bin pairing stopped being promoted, he stopped taking BL roles despite having an existing audience for them, and official or media biographies increasingly highlighted other acting credits instead.

There are understandable commercial reasons why an idol agency might do that, particularly with a multinational group connected to markets such as China, where BL-related promotion is heavily restricted, and with Seo Bin also carrying an old "Produce X 101"/JYP controversy. That doesn’t prove some secret written ban, but entertainment strategy doesn’t normally come with a public memo explaining every decision either. So yes, I absolutely think "Kissable Lips" and especially "Roommates of Poongduck 304" should have been mentioned. They are real and important parts of Ji Woong’s career, and BL fans were part of the audience supporting him before ZB1. I just think the omission tells us more about how his career has been repositioned over the years than it does about the supposed personal beliefs of “Lily Alice.”

Kim Ji Woong returning to a leading role is already good news, but "Siren" is a more interesting project than the initial reports make it sound. On September 4, Nest Management confirmed that Kim Ji Woong had been cast as a lead in "Siren", currently a working title. He will play Do Yoon, a third-generation chaebol who is attending the police academy. The story pairs him with an ace police officer from an ordinary background, with the two becoming investigative partners. That makes this essentially a buddy crime/investigation story built around the contrast between two men who enter policing from very different social positions. The second lead has not yet been officially announced. In fact, the Korean reports say that the production is still completing its principal casting before filming begins, so any additional names circulating at this stage should be treated cautiously unless the production company or the actors' agencies confirm them. There is also no confirmed release date or distribution platform yet.

One point that has already caused some confusion is the description of "Siren" as "short-form." It is not simply a short-form drama. The project is being designed from the beginning as a multi-format production, covering film, mid-form and short-form versions. Dispatch described it even more specifically: the project is being prepared as a film, with the material later re-edited into mid-form and short-form versions. If that production plan remains unchanged, "Siren" would also mark Kim Ji Woong's first film role. That format is not as unusual as it initially sounds. Take One Studio, the company producing "Siren", has been openly developing a strategy in which one intellectual property can exist in several formats instead of being made only as a traditional television drama. The studio has said that it now plans projects from the development stage so they can expand across short-form, mid-form and film. Its 2026 slate includes conventional dramas, webtoon adaptations, short-form productions and projects intended to cross between those categories. There is already a useful example. Take One Studio worked on "Wind Up", starring NCT's Jeno and Jaemin, as part of its short-form strategy. "Wind Up: The Movie" was subsequently released in South Korean cinemas on July 2, 2026 as an 87-minute film. So when the company describes "Siren" as multi-format, this is not just promotional language invented for one project; it fits a production model Take One is actively building.

The director is also worth mentioning. Oh Ki Hwan has worked across film and television rather than being principally a short-form director. His filmography includes "Last Present", "The Art of Seduction", "Someone Behind You", "Fashion King" and the Korean-Chinese production "A Wedding Invitation". More recently he directed "The Defects". The Korean Film Council describes him as a filmmaker who has repeatedly moved between genres, from melodrama and romantic comedy to horror and adaptations. That makes "Siren" a fairly significant step in Ji Woong's acting career. It is not simply a cameo squeezed between idol schedules. The original JTBC report specifically notes that he is expected to carry substantial screen time as one of the leads. And this is where I think his earlier acting career deserves a more complete description than the one appearing in several recent reports.

Kim Ji Woong began acting before ZEROBASEONE and did considerably more than "The Sweet Blood". In 2022, he starred opposite Yoon Seo Bin in the BL drama "Kissable Lips". The two were then deliberately reunited as the leads of another BL, "Roommates of Poongduck 304", because their previous chemistry had attracted attention. Contemporary Korean reporting openly described both actors as the stars of the earlier BL when announcing their reunion. "Roommates of Poongduck 304" was not some obscure credit either. When it arrived on Watcha later in 2022, it reached No. 1 on the platform's overall TOP 10 according to contemporary Korean entertainment coverage. Ji Woong and Yoon Seo Bin also recorded the drama's OST together. So I completely understand why people noticed something strange when an acting biography mentioned a later special appearance while skipping two projects in which he had actually been a leading actor. But I think it is important to identify where that omission originates before accusing the writer of this particular article of deliberately hiding BL.

The Korean JTBC report on which much of the international coverage was based makes essentially the same omission. It mentions "The Sweet Blood", then moves to Ji Woong concentrating on ZEROBASEONE and his later special appearance in "Surely Tomorrow", without discussing "Kissable Lips" or "Roommates of Poongduck 304". Other Korean coverage is inconsistent rather than uniformly anti-BL. Dispatch, for example, did explicitly mention "Kissable Lips" when reporting on "Siren", although it still did not mention "Roommates of Poongduck 304". That makes me much more cautious about concluding that one MDL writer personally decided that BL should disappear. What we may be seeing instead is the way Ji Woong's career has gradually been repackaged since he became a mainstream K-pop idol. That transition was enormous. Before "Boys Planet", Ji Woong was an actor with a particularly strong BL audience and an established screen pairing with Yoon Seo Bin. After "Boys Planet", he became a member of one of the biggest fifth-generation K-pop debuts. ZEROBASEONE's original project period produced six consecutive million-selling albums, and after the original nine-member arrangement ended, Ji Woong, Sung Han Bin, Seok Matthew, Kim Tae Rae and Park Gun Wook chose to continue ZEROBASEONE as a five-member group. By May 2026, the group's cumulative album sales had passed 10 million. That is not the career trajectory of a group that simply "wasn't successful." The original lineup ending also should not be confused with an unexpected disbandment. ZEROBASEONE was created through "Boys Planet" as a temporary project group with a defined contract period. The unusual development was actually that five members chose to continue under the ZEROBASEONE name afterward. The BL question becomes more complicated when that idol transition is taken into account.

Ji Woong did not enter "Boys Planet' hiding the fact that he had acted in BL. Fans were discussing those roles openly during the programme, and they were already part of the international audience supporting him. But once he became part of a multinational idol project, the commercial environment changed. An idol agency is managing not only acting opportunities but endorsements, fandoms, television exposure and access to multiple Asian markets. China is relevant to that environment because its entertainment regulators have taken an unusually restrictive position toward BL-derived content, idol fandom culture and male celebrity presentation. China's National Radio and Television Administration issued rules in 2021 requiring broadcasters to reject what it described as undesirable celebrity behaviour and "abnormal" aesthetics, while subsequent enforcement and industry policy heavily restricted danmei/dangai productions adapted from male-male romances.

ZEROBASEONE also originally included two Chinese nationals, Zhang Hao and Ricky, while four members of the original nine — Zhang Hao, Ricky, Kim Gyuvin and Han Yujin — came from Yuehua, a Chinese entertainment company. That does not prove that Yuehua or WakeOne ever issued an instruction forbidding Ji Woong from discussing BL, and I would not present such an internal order as fact without evidence. But it would be unrealistic to pretend that agencies managing an international idol group do not consider the regulatory and commercial requirements of major markets when deciding how their artists are positioned. The same distinction should be made regarding Yoon Seo Bin. Ji Woong and Seo Bin were once openly marketed together because their pairing was useful to their BL projects. They starred together twice, sang together and accumulated a dedicated audience around the pairing. After Ji Woong became a ZEROBASEONE member, that public pairing effectively stopped being promoted.

There were several practical reasons why an idol management company might prefer that. A strongly established BL ship can become difficult to reconcile with the broader parasocial marketing of a K-pop idol. Seo Bin also carried his own previous controversy from *Produce X 101* and his departure from JYP. None of that proves that Ji Woong privately ended a friendship with him, and fans should be careful not to confuse the disappearance of a public entertainment pairing with knowledge about two people's private relationship. But it does help explain why Ji Woong's pre-ZEROBASEONE career may now be presented selectively. That does not mean his BL work should be erased. In fact, the opposite is true. "Kissable Lips" and especially "Roommates of Poongduck 304" are important parts of the reason actor Kim Ji Woong entered "Boys Planet" with an existing international fanbase. Whatever strategic decisions were later made around his idol image, those performances remain part of his filmography and part of the audience that supported him through the transition. So I think both sides of the discussion can be separated quite easily. It is fair to criticize an acting biography that mentions a cameo while omitting two lead roles. Those BL dramas were significant work, and "Roommates of Poongduck 304" was commercially successful enough that pretending it was irrelevant makes little sense. But that omission alone does not establish that the writer of this particular MDL article is homophobic, especially when the Korean source reporting already presented Ji Woong's career in almost exactly the same selective way.

The more interesting story is what is happening now. After spending several years primarily identified internationally as Kim Ji Woong of ZEROBASEONE, "Siren" gives him an opportunity to return to a substantial leading role without abandoning his idol career. It places him in a buddy-investigation project directed by an experienced filmmaker, produced by a studio experimenting seriously with new distribution formats, and potentially gives him his first theatrical film lead. And for people who first discovered him through BL, there is no contradiction in supporting that next chapter while still remembering how he got here. Actor Kim Ji Woong did not begin with "Siren", and his acting history did not pause between "The Sweet Blood" and a television cameo. "Kissable Lips" and "Roommates of Poongduck 304" belong in that history too. As of September 11, the major question surrounding "Siren" is now who will be cast opposite him as the ace police officer. If that second role is as central to the buddy structure as the synopsis suggests, that casting may tell us much more about the scale and tone of the project than the very short announcement has revealed so far.