Zii3

Lacks Focus & Skill

Tries to be too many things and fails at pretty much everything. This movie came off as a juvenile attempt at "indie art". It is INCREDIBLY BORING. I read that the director was inspired by Japanese pink films, as well as a few other things. This does seem like it fits that genre, it's just poorly done.

The only thing that kept me curious and watching was the character Playboy, acted by Steven Isarapong Furher (who is actually pretty good despite the crappy script). It's the first time I've seen a very masochistic character ALSO be such a dominant personality. I find that duality fascinating and wish that had been the focus of this film and explored further.

The directing, pacing, plot, script, cinematography, and music are all terrible. But I was able to finish it with some fast-forwarding and without feeling totally scarred by it so I'll rate it a 1.5.

When a character replies to another there is a pause the average of 3-5 seconds (sometimes longer!). It's ridiculously slow. Maybe the director really wanted the actors to fully feel the lines before speaking them but it completely dissipates any tension the incredibly vague and stupid plot tries to build up.

There's not a lot of background music/noise. When there is, it starts and stops abruptly and feels out of place. It always detracts instead of inhances. The simplistic drum beat during sex is awkward and distracting. The rap about rape is completely out of left field, bizarre, and disturbing. There's no cohesion.

If you want something extreme with a hopeful ending watch Dangerous Drugs of Sex instead (a 2020 Japanese film). That is very well done.

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Hollow

There wasn't enough of an emotional connection (with any character or between any of them) to make up for all the disturbing and shock-value scenes (sexually and non-sexually). Gruesome in parts. It's not philosophical or psychologically interesting either.
I wish I hadn't given it a try.

The "bond" between the student and teacher is thin and forced. Their motivations, especially regarding each other, are weak and shallow. They had very little chemistry. The "romance" is flat and actually had me rolling my eyes a couple times.

The acting was okay but no one was charismatic.

Out of the many sexual scenes, the 2 that weren't disturbing weren't good either. They felt blocked-out and not natural at all. Rather awkward and perfunctory.

To me there was nothing redeeming or in any way enjoyable about this story.

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While watching my rating went from 7.5 to a 3

While watching, my thoughts on what I might rate this show went from a 4 to a 7.5 the slid down and ended at a 3.

Acting was strong by all. They really did a good job despite the drek they were given. Dialogue was very simple but at least had a flow to it. The weaknesses lay in the storytelling and reliance on ridiculous plot devices to keep it going. Also, the further the story got, the more distasteful some of the topics and relationship dynamics became. By Ep 10 I was pretty fed up with the writers, by Ep 12 wished it was over already. Only continued for King and Ram (one of the secondary couples) and THEIR story is why I'm giving the overall story rating a 3 instead of a 2. If seperated from the rest, I would rate their scenes a 9/10. One basic kiss per couple. PG for intimacy, PG-13 for themes.

King and Ram was the only healthy relationship, and had a very sweet progression. The only ones whose actions matched their words; were consistently thoughtful, sweet, and supportive of each other. Until Ep 14 when the writers suddenly wrote them out of character (I felt) to be dramatic and force romantic confession. These writers are so lazy and unimaginative.

Ep 1 & 2 were silly when setting up the story between the two leads (Bohn & Duen) & I fast-forwarded bits. But Ep 3-6 had me invested in them and the side couples, especially King and Ram, and I didn't fast-forward. There were multiple genuinely funny comedic moments that had me laughing out loud. I was feeling really positive about this show, but that started to slide in Ep 7 and things just got worse from there.

GENERAL SPOILERS BELOW:
I liked Mek but his best friend and unrequited love Boss was whiny and annoying. Wanted Mek to have a happy end but at the same time didn't care about Boss. Frong starts with completely unexplained/inexplicable deep animosity for Thara. In Ep 9 started to enjoy their interactions but their start felt like just a plot contrivance without any thought behind it.

Ep 7 started fast-forwarding small bits again. Ep 8 was ridiculous; the hot/cold dynamic between Bohn and Duen was getting really repetitive and the "plot" devices sprung up to keep that going were getting more and more stupid and annoying. Ep 9 and the relationship between the lead couple is so juvenile, immature, thoughtless, rather mean, and all for completely STUPID reasons. First it was over-reactive Jealousy, then who is the "wife" and who is the "husband" because of comments made by others. It's getting really hard to keep caring about them. I mean, they are supposedly into each other but are each offended, almost disgusted, at the thought of being "the bottom"? And all the friends feed into this and make fun of them about being the bottom? WTF???

The BL obsessed and delusional sister is so awful. It's one constant cringe whenever she's in a scene. Also every background female and their friends loudly shipping whatever guys were hanging out in front of them was rude and toxic. Normalizing that behavior, when it's none of their business and can impact people's real lives negatively, is psychologically unhealthy.

Ep 11, seriously, who is THAT scared to be kissed by their boyfriend of multiple weeks? (Bohn & Duen). The actors are doing what they can with what they are given, it's just the script making them do inane and ridiculous things.

Ep 12-14 fast-forwarded most of it. King and Ram are the only ones I kept watching.

After showing some promise of an enjoyable show at the beginning, I was really disappointed, frustrated, and annoyed with what the writers did with it. Very juvenile.

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Best Friends And No Stong Emotions.

Endearing and brought a smile to my face, but it was also... full of nothing. The characters didn't portray or evoke any deep emotions. I often like the Japanese slice-of-life approach to storytelling but it felt especially empty in this one. And it's only four 20min episodes. The kids are written like actual highschoolers and fill their days with semi nonsensical talking tangents and not doing much.

The message that is spelled out for the viewer, mainly in a voice-over at the end, is cherish what you love in the present even if you're afraid it may go away someday.

The thing is, it feels like best friends cherishing each other and not more, despite the little kisses. I think it would have been more satisfying if left at close friendship but because the screenplay tries to *say* they love each other as more, *without showing* that in their interactions, there's obviously something missing.

The characters themselves say that nothing at all has changed since they both confirmed their feelings for each other. I think it's because they have a best-friend-soulmate connection instead of a romantic one; that's how it comes across anyway. And that is also a very special connection and worth cherishing. I wish the screenplay had focused on that message instead of forcing it to be a "romance", which negatively impacted my satisfaction and rating.

General Spoilers below.

There's barely any plot but the couple of threads there are, are left hanging at the end (does Sakura actually play in the school show? how does he sort out his next steps with or without music? who is the creepy kid knocking into people and does it keep happening?).

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Awkward Script And Tedious Overall.

Review for both Part 1 (19min) and Part 2 (17min). Found on YouTube (Nov 2023 in the USA).

Very poor writing and mediocre acting. Both parts felt tedious even though they were so short.

The interactions between the two leads are written very simply and are kind of cute but mostly boring. The 2nd lead is pretty wooden and I didn't feel much chemistry or magnetism between them.

The girl character is more a creepy fujoshi than a friend. The second season has a contrived love triangle. The way the new rival interacts with the the guy who can't figure out his feelings is so bizarre and laughably unrealistic.

The music (especially in part 1) and audio quality were good for a low-budget production. Cinematography was basic.

Felt like a waste of time to me.

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Feels faked. Like writer&director looked up kinks on Wikipedia & actors are poorly playing pretend.

Dropped after Ep7. I can't force myself to keep watching, not even for the sake of keeping my review current. General spoilers only.

Not mentally or emotionally engaging or satisfying as either porn-with-plot OR porn-without-plot. It's mostly quick cuts to and away from 10-60 sec vignettes of "action" with not much to string them together. Akin to scrolling through porn search results; it's mini previews of scenes I might be interested in watching more of without actually getting to see them. Many of the snippets are at the point of highest shock value and then they are over or the story jumps away. There's rarely any build of anticipation or sexual tension and the BDSM scenes get more campy as the series goes on, especially when gear is involved.

The story also has a tendency to cut away right after the pinnacle of non-sexual, emotional confrontations, which comes across as lazy writing not putting in the effort to comple scenes. It's also frusterating because it keeps the audience at a distance from character's experiences leaving huge gaps between scenes/events, which makes it hard to connect with and invest in the characters emotionally.

I was looking forward to a grittier BL story with intrigue that explored sex and kinks more freely but this is so far disappointing. The characters are written 2-dimensionally (simple & shallow) and acted flatly, and the sex/kinks often feel forced/fake. Like the series is trying to sell a showy shell of a vaneer without a fundamental understanding of the dynamics that would drive the more extreme types of desires and scenes in real life. Like BOTH the writer and director looked up kinks on Wikipedia and the actors are poorly playing dress-up; interactions are poorly faked simulations that no one seems to enjoy convincingly.

I can't believe it's the Only Friends screenwriter (which had it's weaknesses but was overall enjoyably chaotic while the characters were understandable and many were easy to empathize with and root for). The quality of storytelling in this is so disjointed and weak. There are too many characters that don't get introduced or followed properly and the mess of thin plotlines are shallow and often confusing.

I continued to watch in the hopes that it would get better, since I thought the screenwriter was capable of it. Ep 4 actually made me laugh out loud twice at how bad it was with poor and overly dramatic writing, acting, and music.

Ep 7/14 update: This episode showed a couple improvements after the holiday hiatus but it had a different feel to it, which I think would be even more noticeable if someone was binge-watching. It was weird how 'in love' many of the characters became suddenly.

There was still confusion about what exactly was going on in some scenes, the way multiple relationships are progressing don't quite make sense, multiple character choices are illogical, and Zouey still feels like a different character than how he was presented at the start of the series. He seems to have somehow moved past the physical/sexual/psychological eccentricities that originally made him so different and interesting.

What I thought was improved: Power dynamics were the focus in the various types of relationships. The themes of the episode and their execution were more clear. There was a better rhythm to scenes because the editing didn't interrupt and bounce back and forth in the middle of scenes as much. The editing between scenes was less choppy, the interactions between characters were more focused, and the music was well suited to each scene. This allowed some tension to build over the course of the episode leading to a more intense cliffhanger.

I watched the Uncut version on GagaOOlala in the USA.

General Spoilers for Ep 1-3 below.

There's some tension/anticipation built with Zouey and Teena but then Ep3 breaks it. Zouey uncharacteristically feels "in the mood" (to go all the way no less) and they start a slow exploration then SNAP, the camera briefly switches to the middle of a sex scene with a different pair! and SNAP, we're back to Zouey and Teena and they are about to try 'the main event'. And it quickly doesn't go well.

Wait. First, you deliberately don't show us the interesting part of seducing a body with pleasure (especially Zouey because we're not even clear in what way he does/doesn't experience pleasure or arousal) then second, tell us a sex worker doesn't know how to adequately prepare someone for bottoming?!?!? Really?

How in the world did they even get that far- what was Zouey's reaction to anything leading up to that point? That's what made that scene/relationship interesting and they didn't bother to write it in. *Facepalm. And where was the Japanese overvoice that was present before? (And why weren't subtitles included for that by the way?) It feels like Zouey and Teena were written out of character just so their plotline dilemma could line up with one of Zouey's friends for this episode.

I somewhat appreciated that safe words were a topic in Ep 3, but it was very rudimentary in its explanations and kind of put blame on Zouey for not remembering to use a safe word instead of "wait/no" for his first time. The discussion by the group of friends compells me to add:
FYI you can incorporate "What's your color?" or "Say your color" to check in with your partner using the traffic light system (green = go, yellow = slow down or reduce, red = stop). Prompting a response in this way is especially helpful when trying something new or with those that have a hard time thinking and/or verbalizing while exploring (like those in subspace).

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Unlikable boss becomes... loving boyfriend eventually? Not convinced.

(I rate vertical dramas on their own sliding scale. General spoilers only.) Meh for me. In the first 2 hrs the ML was only nice to the FL 5 times! He was demanding, unreasonable, ambiguous, and snippy with her the rest of the time. The last 40min slowly got more sweet but not enough for the FL's falling in love with him to make sense to me. Twice he told her that she should lose weight (she's already very thin). Especially hurtful since she was heavier in highschool and lost 20 lbs for her crush only for him to pick someone else over her; and the ML overhears this in office gossip and still says it. 🤢

The ML's "pursuit" of the FL, if you can call it that because he doesn't do it well or thoughtfully, is awkward because of the boss-subordinate dynamic and because she has a boyfriend and he has a family-arranged fiance. Instead of being nice to her, the ML is grumpy and petulant in his jealousy. There are multiple moments where he pushes boundaries and she even brings up that things would count as sexual harassment. He forces a kiss on her as well. But at least he immediately apologized for it (many in vertical dramas do not).

The only reason I made it through was because I like the two lead actors. Chemistry was okay but not great, and felt more lacking from the FL side. They had a couple good kisses later on, but I didn't feel a magnetic pull between them/their characters. I did like the FL's family and how her parents supported and rallied behind her.

Some slightly annoying side characters but they don't get too much screentime.

This left me feeling apathetic, but not annoyed, so I rated it a 5.

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Awesome sisterhood-focused revenge on misogynistic manipulator!

(I rate vertical dramas on their own sliding scale. General spoilers only.) This was so good. I don't often watch verticals that don't have romance as a main plot, but once I started this I couldn't put it down.

The FL wants to take revenge on her husband of 10 years (for herself and their daughter), but to do it in a legal way. She is grounded, clever, and determined. She also forms strong bonds with multiple women and has a mentor vibe. The actress fit the role perfectly, I felt, and very quickly had me rooting for her.

There is a little bit of screentime for a green flag man who falls for the FL, which is nice to see for her. But her happiness and success is never dependent on him, which is also great for her, especially after everything she gave up for her marriage.

There are a couple of interesting twists and it's fun how all of the main characters end up intersecting. Not sure what else to say without giving too much away...

It was thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying throughout the entire show. I highly recommend!

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Very Satisfying Gender Bender Romance Balances Sillyness Of Screenplay

The bromance to romance between the lead couple gave me basically everything I want and hope for in a gender-bender relationship. It was so very satisfying in that regard that I'm rating this higher than I technically would otherwise. I've listed the main points of why I found the romance so satisfying under the "general spoilers" section further down in this review. Overall there's mutual respect and trust, giving support and working together as equals, great chemistry, romantic and sexual tension, a ton of skinship, some passionate kisses, flirting, and sweet words delivered in a heart-felt way. The set-up of the friendship is super fast and unrealistic, but then the progression of their relationship flows well and Yanuo is in male form for most of it.

There were things with the screenplay and direction that would usually annoy the heck out of me yet the production somehow kept things fun. The main romance is the focus throughout and the connection between the lead characters was believable and touching enough to balance out the other shenanigans in the show.

There was melodrama and many unrealistic and silly situations that the show leaned into (didn't take itself too seriously) so the cheesy, ridiculous, and low-budget-feeling moments had me laughing out loud along with it instead of feeling outright disdain. It did require a lot of suspension of disbelief, but the show's approach was consistent so I found myself mostly able to roll with it. Things in plot, settings, and characters come and go purely based on what's needed at the time. For example, except for one scene at the beginning the leads never practice their martial arts, yet when they need to fight they are always in top form. And the head of the triad doesn't seem to have much power or any access to bodyguards or underlings for protection. Those kinds of things.

The side couples were not interesting to me so I fast-forwarded all those parts. However, I did like the ML's Mother's story, she was a loveable character.

Ep 19 is a special episode. It recaps the lead's long romantic story, has an exaggerated yet still hot rough and playful heavy make-out scene, and some behind the scenes footage.

Why I found the bromance to romance so satisfying:

General Spoilers Below.

- The actress playing Yanuo actually has, not just the face, but the body and physicality to believably have been raised as a male who practices martial arts. She is tall, has broad shoulders, some stockiness to her arms, and large strong hands. She looks more like a grown man (with slightly softer features) than the 'cute boy' look that many other gender benders rely on.

- There's lots of time (many episodes) with the ML falling for Yanuo as a person who happens to be in male form, and many moments of both romantic and sexual tension.

- Zi Feng experiences and works through the confusion of his growing feelings and attraction, reaches acceptance, and makes the decision to act on his love *before he learns Yanuo's secret. There's no disgust or gay panic.

- When the Zi Feng overhears Yanuo's secret, he respects it, trusts there's a reason for it, and waits for Yanou to tell him.

- Once Zi Feng knows the secret, his approach towards wooing Yanou becomes more direct. There's a lot of time with them becoming romantic and quite a few passionate kissing scenes while Yanuo is still in male form (not knowing that Zi Feng has learned the truth).

- Zi Feng's family can tell his bond with Yanuo starts looking more like lovers than bros and ultimately show signs of acceptance through their actions *before the last episode.


While I was watching, I wanted to know the exact point that Zi Feng learned Yanuo's secret so I looked it up. If you're like me and want to know, the basic info is below; episode numbers are given but no other details.

... ... ...

SPECIFIC SPOILER BELOW.

In Ep 18 the audience and FL learn when the ML found out she was female (he overhears it in the eleventh episode).

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An okay watch for a Suzuki Jin or Noona-romance fan.

Suzuki Jin is what got me through this. He is a good actor and charasmatic enough to keep me watching and to make me want a good ending for his character even if the screenplay is written simplistically.

While the screenplay does bring up various concerns one might have with an age gap romance, and social and familial navigation, it doesn't explore them well or deeply. It's not very insightful or thoughtful. A couple things come up repeatedly though they feel only partially discussed (like they're being used as a writing crutch), while others are resolved with unrealistic ease. There's way too much going on with the plot and side people so there's no time to explore things with more meaning. Character psychology and development stays simplistic as a result.

The set up is insanely fast. There wasn't adequate time for me to get invested in the characters before they started doing things that strained their likability. The first Ep of 20 min has Mayuki confess to Shino and them starting a relationship of sorts and growing some feelings, then it's all angsty struggles from then on. Shino's character was bland and I couldn't get invested in her.

There is a good amount of sweetness, skinship, and hugs, and a couple of kisses. The hottest scene is in the first episode (shows a bit of the lead up to the two main characters sleeping together).

Some suspension of disbelief is required for various things throughout the story.
General Spoiler below.
(Ex: who would start living with the person they are in love with and *immediately* leave their home in that state of disarray every day? Especially when it's a usually thoughtful character who is still trying to secure the other person's affection! That really came across as a forced plot point because the writer needed it to happen early on to prompt the "kid" arguments.)

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Start At Ep 7 For A Better Continuation From Season 1!

Ep 1 had so much emotional abuse by a ridiculously devolved Minato to Shin that I couldn't enjoy it. I skipped to Ep 7 per another reviewer's suggestion and was so glad I did! The emotional abuse starts to fade out then and it felt like a better, much more sensical continuation of Shin and Minato's relationship from Season 1. I highly suggest starting at Ep 7 if you want to be able to like Minato and be happy with the ending.

Minato continues his extremely slow character development, but it does happen. The acting is, again, supurb by all (especially Sho as Shin), and the secondary couple's progression is sweet and fun to watch too.

I rated Season 1 an 8/10 and I would rate Season 2 *Ep 7-12* at an 8/10 as a satisfying conclusion to the character and relationship arcs. I'm removing 1 star for Ep 1-6 because of the regressively poor characterizations and the unwatchable toxicity that was unnecessary and detrimental to the story's development.

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Silly and more fun if not taken seriously. *Not a romantic story! The twist at the end was unexpected and somewhat humorous; it felt like a lot of build up for one big joke though. 29min. I was expecting a little more depth (with characters and emotions) in this longer short film since it's produced by Strongberry and they can do so much with 10 to 20 minutes. If you don't expect that, you may enjoy this more.

The comedic style didn't really work for me (didn't make me laugh) but it was consistantly applied throughout by the actors and director. There was a lot shown for the sex scene, but it’s also done in a comedic vein and I didn't find the way it was approached very enticing.

Edited: The Hangul that shows up by each person at the end are not speech bubbles (as I originally thought) but the names of the character / actor.

I won't rewatch.

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Beautiful, Real, Powerful, Hopeful.

General spoiler only at bottom of review.
The way the story was written and told resonated deeply with real life. I had long lingering feels after the series ended. It made me nostalgic of the ups and downs of college, first love, and the hope of youth. Cried hard twice (one sad one positive). Some heavy themes (and a character actually getting help from regular therapy, which I so appreciated). Loved the main characters and their (true) friends.

Positive messages. Deeply touching. Riveted the entire time, didn't fast-forward through anything. Pacing and tension consistently well-crafted.

Chemistry between the leads was like magnets. Skinship and kisses were natural and full of feelings. Beautiful intimacy.

Beautiful cinematography and use of light. Artistically captured the feel of the ocean (didn't just look pretty).

Music, natural sounds, and silence were well utilized and timed. Really enhanced scenes. Some of the songs chosen were memorable and the orchestral piece at the end with the credits was perfect.

Note to self: Because this touched me deeply and resonated with some difficult personal past experiences, I may find it too emotional to rewatch frequently.

GENERAL SPOILER ON THE ENDING:
It is a happy and hopeful ending.

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Watch Once For Ja, First, & Bosston.

Once again, the enjoyment of watching Ja & First act, especially with each other, is the main reason to watch their show. A 9/10 for their acting. The script for their two characters (but not the rest!!!) is more naturalistic than Don't Say No, but there are weaknesses in the plot/writing that they, again, do an admirable job of compensating for through their acting.

It was fun, impressive, and satisfying to see Ja (Punn) & First (Ashi) play such different characters than they have before. And their nc-17 scenes have gotten even steamier while still retaining an incredible amount of sweetness. A special blend! And those two do both sweetness/happiness and angst/sadness so well. Even when the writers forcibly contrive/prolong angst for the characters, Ja's and First's acting tugs hard at my heartstrings. Really hard. But because it gets resolved, it hurts just right ;)

Bosston as the secondary character Mueang was awesome too! Totally fell in love with the way he portrayed his character. Otherwise, the writers really did his character a disservice. His "love story" got almost no dialogue; it was mostly an excuse for nc-17 scenes. It felt so weird. Everytime the scene jumped to a "love" scene between Mueang & his Doctor, it felt like a separate movie had been randomly spliced in for a minute before jumping back to the main story. The actor who plays the doctor is greatly lacking in his ability to express emotions, let alone nuances, so he couldn't pull off making his character likeable, especially with the small amount of screen time and dialogue given to his character.

All the other secondary and tertiary characters (except Pun's mother), were written really poorly; over-the-top and/or shallow and/or annoying. I found myself rolling my eyes and fast-forwarding A LOT.

So if you like the actors Ja, First, and Bosston it may be worth one watch and just fast-forward through other scenes that you find dragging :)

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Wang YiRan's emotional acting is captivating! But the script makes the FL irredeemable to me.

(I rate vertical dramas on their own sliding scale.) Acting is great- ESPECIALLY by ML! Wow, he tugged hard on my heartstrings throughout the entire show. All the nuances of emotional pain mixed with hopless enduring love were so well expressed. I only made it through the because he got me so invested in his character that I wanted to see his well-deserved happy ending, even if the rest of the show and characters became super irritating to me. His acting is worth giving this show a try if you like long-standing angst, emotional MLs, and an eventual happy ending.

The son is adorable and natural, and the lead's highschool friend turned out to be their biggest support. Every other secondary character became unlikable. There are a few very sweet scenes in flashbacks and then some at the end. Good chemistry and a few kisses.

Shows that leave me feeling this annoyed with the screenplay and a main character get a 4/10. It is not terribly done however, so other viewers may still enjoy it.

General spoilers below.

The FL (the written character, not the actress) became more and more unlikable until she became irredeemable. The FL turned into an absolute b*tch in my mind because of the way she treated the ML (or I should say, repeatedly mistreated). After everything she did to the ML, and kept from him (many truths, including their son), and the way she keeps pulling away from him during the show, she never takes his feelings and point of view into account. She keeps making decisions without his input that crush him, yet she professes (to herself) that she loves him. And she NEVER APOLOGIZES!!! When they reconcile it is the ML apologizing for not being there to help her through her tough times when he never knew about them because she didn't tell him!!! She crushed him instead and made him go through emotional hell over and over. Why is HE apologizing and not HER?!?????

And reenacting your soul crushing fake-cheating-breakup from 7 years ago has got to be MEANEST way to try to fix the ML's temporary amnesia. Way to make him live through that 3 times, yeesh. (The original time, then experiencing it in person during amnesia, then reliving it in mind when the original memories come back.) So cruel.

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