More Than Just the Nerdy Love Interest
About Youth is such a gentle, sweet little series about first love, and I think what made it work so well for me was how much more there was to Xu Qi Zhang than the usual “nerdy love interest” role.
He could so easily have been written as the shy, passive boy who gets swept up by the popular guy and exists mostly for the romance. Instead, Xu Qi Zhang has his own interests, his music, his responsibilities and his own little world. He's someone who has had to grow up early, but that doesn't take away his ability to find joy in things.
And somehow, he's the one who teaches Ye Guang what living actually means.
I really loved that dynamic. Ye Guang may be the one who seems to have everything, but Xu Qi Zhang is the one who understands how meaningful the small things can be. Their relationship feels soft and sincere, and I especially liked that neither of them has to become a completely different person for the romance to work.
The series isn't perfect — Ye Guang's parents frustrated me quite a bit — but the tenderness and atmosphere won me over.
He could so easily have been written as the shy, passive boy who gets swept up by the popular guy and exists mostly for the romance. Instead, Xu Qi Zhang has his own interests, his music, his responsibilities and his own little world. He's someone who has had to grow up early, but that doesn't take away his ability to find joy in things.
And somehow, he's the one who teaches Ye Guang what living actually means.
I really loved that dynamic. Ye Guang may be the one who seems to have everything, but Xu Qi Zhang is the one who understands how meaningful the small things can be. Their relationship feels soft and sincere, and I especially liked that neither of them has to become a completely different person for the romance to work.
The series isn't perfect — Ye Guang's parents frustrated me quite a bit — but the tenderness and atmosphere won me over.
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