This is a frustrating mess of chaos.

I really wanted to love this. When i first saw it the thing that had me interested was that there was a confession in ep1. After the confession the thing that i loved was that there was no drama around liking a guy. Both ML are confident and comfortable liking guys. No drama there.
I liked the fact that Rak stood up for himself. He dumped his bf and never went back. He cut of his friend. He told Dino he was taken and that he shouldnt flirt with him. He generally sticks to what he says.
(I recently rewatched some of it and i realized that while a lot of people say that Rak is annoying because of his innocent child like behavior i noticed thats not really his character. Rak is not a naive innocent ML. He is not a virgin who doesnt know how sex works or relationships. His character is supposed to resemble a rabbit. Cute and kind but hes not supposed to be child like.
Something i liked was that when Dino tries to go further in their relationship Rak says hes not ready and Dino doesnt throw a tantrum about it. He respects Raks decision to say no. However when Rak is ready for sex he is the one to initiate sex. He undresses Dino showing he wanted sex and was ready. Rak is even comfortable with admitting that he wanted Dino earlier as well. He isnt supposed to be child like. Hes supposed to look cute and weak but he isnt naive. The actor just didnt know how to show any other emotion.)
I really dont see Dino as toxic. He was falls in love at first sight, acts heartbroken when its said that his crush is taken but he doesnt cross any lines. He doesnt try to force Rak to dump his bf or try to convince him to cheat or that hes a better choice. He just goes and drinks and moans to his friends. Later he doesnt try to force Rak to kiss him or get him drunk and try to sleep with him. I was inpressed when Rak during a moment of vulnerability tells Dino he'd date him after almost getting raped by his loser ex. Dino turned him down coz he knew that Rak wasn't ready. He could have taken advantage and didn’t.
Dino is also very jealous and possessive but he never takes out his anger on Rak. Whenever he is jealous he always talks to Rak.
Rak is also very honest with Dino. He doesnt hide it when someone flirts with him or bothers him. He doesnt lie to him so that they can create drama around this guy bothering him. They show how communication in a relationship should work because Dino always believes Rak.
I honestly believe that this show handles jealousy and possessiveness in relationships in a good way. You have a ML who is jealous and possessive but never to the point that it creates drama in the relationship. You have both leads talking through their issues and again when Rak is being flirted with he is very direct about not wanting this guy around him and telling him that he is taken and this guy needs to leave him alone and respect his relationship.
And thats all the good things i have to say about the show because what is the rest of the plot? I have so many questions that are just never answered ... like why didnt Rak attend university with Dino from the start? Its phrased as this big secret and we never find out why.
What happened to Raks friend? His mental health was really bad, he needed help and we never see him deal with it. Dude had issues but its never really addressed.
In fact that whole thing about his best friend sleeping with his boyfriend was cut way too short and its shown as completely illogical. I feel like theres huge chunks of the story that we never saw. His friend seemed to think that Rak would forgive him. Why? What was the point of sleeping with Meek (?) And how long were they all friends? What exactly happened there? I actually went back to see if i missed an episode or something because it made so little sense.
What about Raks parents? Does he have siblings? Hobbies? Friends? We find out very little about him as a person.
Exactly what is Dino up to on campus? Is he part of a gang? Or mafia? Or is he just a thug?
Whose bar did they go to and why was it bad?
The general plot makes no sense and many times i feel like theres chunks of the story thay was cut out but i will rewatch only because i actually did enjoy the ML screen time. I found their relationship to be wholesome but everything else makes no sense.

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Disappointing

I feel like this story doesnt know what it wanted to be. There was almost no reason for the fantasy elements. Half of it seemed grounded in reality the whole business, stealing of jewellery etc. That was a good plot idea. The other half was fantasy that never really got explained. Just do one idea and stick with it.
I feel like i could have come up with a better reason why Lin kept fainting all the time. His past life or part of his spirit or soul or whatever they were trying to get at could have been the villain in the love story between the MC and his sister. He could have killed her by accident causing the MC to punish him and then he was reborn. In his new life, he could have fallen in love with the MC while his past life tries to warn him that he did this before and he didnt get the Happy Ending. In this life, the MC could have realized that he made a mistake and tried to make it up to him. There a fantasy love story. I still cant understand what the point of the fantasy elements in this story was.
I did enjoy the side couples.

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A good idea to explore in theory

The idea of a season 2 with Thanu and Wayu as the main couple could have been a good idea if the writing was better.
Lets be honest here.... the story was boring. Mark and Kit spent of the season separated because of the possibility of kit getting a scholarship... like why spend time apart? (Completely illogical) Enjoy every moment. It kinda goes against what they were saying with Wayu and Thanu....
See the thing is i really like several ideas that this pairing had... the idea of a second love.
Most romantic shows have this thing about the first love being your only love. Pha broke up with Wayu and it was heartbreaking to see him so sad but their relationship from what we can tell was pretty positive. It ended with a simple we should break up... no one cheated, no drama, no blackmail, just Pha leaving and Wayu while not understanding what went wrong eventually moving on. (A realistic breakup)
Thanu had someone he believed would have been his soulmate but he chose Wayu. Even when Pha came back Wayu made it clear to him that he had moved on. He felt guilty and wanted to take care of him but he didnt love him anymore. He had truly chosen Thanu..... but the excution of all of it failed miserably
There were so many missed opportunities here.
The only thing i liked was the message... life goes on... love goes on...
Those are powerful messages and while the set up for a moving story was there they failed to bring it to life

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Wasted potential

This feels like a whole lot of wasted potential.
The first 3 episodes were pretty solid. The idea of the writer going away to complete a novel was a good idea. He has good reasons to fear love and slowly falls in love with the island boy....
So why did they end up in the city? Once Mut goes to the city all his personality traits magically disappear and hes nothing more than a live in babysitter.
The actor that plays Rak is basically playing the same character as he did previously in his other BL. Sky/Rak are both messed up and their lover spends all their time trying to fix them.
We also never get a reason why Mut is in love with Rak. Rak spends most of the 2 weeks being awful to him and then he leaves his home with nothing but the clothes on his back to be this mans live in sex doll. It makes no sense why he is so devoted to Rak.
I actually really liked the idea behind Raks trauma and would have liked to see it being explored in a different show. His mother marrying a man she basically paid and suffered mentally. His sister being abandoned. His father being nothing more than a loser who uses people and is incredibly selfish. I even liked the moment when Rak looked at his dad and realized how pathetic he was.
I enjoyed the moments when he was tearing apart his cousin as well. It showed a lot about his behavior and the type of people he was around constantly. Like if this bitch was my cousin no wonder you dont let people close to you. It showed why he is the way he is instead of him just explaining it with sad music playing in the background.
Those were good ideas but it also seemed like they were trying to tell 2 stories at the same time.
The light hearted island love story and the darker story involving his family. Muts family is completely cut out of the story by this point.
I honestly think that if they comitted to one story we'd have a really good show. Either go with light hearted island love story and keep them on the island for majority of the story or tell the slightly darker story about a rich messed up family.
Also the GL side plot.... i hated it. I enjoyed Vie as Raks friend but shes a huge red flag. She treated the assistant like a slave and that girl was annoying with her overacting. When she wasnt screeching i liked her. She was kind and sweet and all she wanted to do was her job which Vie made almost impossible with her ridiculous requests. I wouldnt have dated her. She enjoyed causing that girl pain, confusing her, messing with her feelings and not being serious. I would never have believed her if she said she seriously liked me.

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Not as bad as people make it out to be

Before i say anything about this I should make it clear that i didnt watch the first and second seasons. Actually i dropped the first season, found out about the drama and skipped straight to the season 3.
Its not as terrible as everyone makes it seem. The story is very typical however the enemies to lovers troupe is seemingly well done.
Theres no abuse between the ML even though their "enemies". They both always respect each other and even their bickering sometimes made me smile. The relationship between the ML is very realistic even if the NC are a bit wooden.
Honestly Ive seen worse and this story if watched as a stand alone isnt all that bad. I watched all 12 eps in a single day without getting bored.

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