i never write reviews but this show was horrid enough to warrant it. im gonna split this review into a few parts, starting with the plot.

this plot is completely nonsensical, especially if u couldn’t be bothered to pay attention (like me). literally nothing in this universe makes sense at all. im not gonna go into every plot hole bc that would take all day, but the most offensive one to me is why would they even have an arranged marriage in the first place if same sex marriage is illegal? and why wasn’t this HUGE issue mentioned until the last two episodes? adding this in at the last minute honestly just feels like a gross attempt at being woke that fell flat on its face. and tbh a gay arranged marriage doesn’t really make much sense in the first place considering the fact that arranged marriages are mainly to produce heirs lol. watching this drama has convinced me that the screenwriters were simply writing as they went along with absolutely no plan whatsoever.

onto the characters. every single character was flat and bland and BORING (except for kuea’s college friends, they were carrying the show tbh). no one really grew at all, except for kuea i guess??? but his growth, no longer hiding his true nature from hia, was honestly bs. there was literally no reason for him to start faking his personality in front of hia in the first place since they grew up together lmao??? and it turned out that hia already knew the true him the whole time, so that whole ‘character arc’ just ended up being a complete waste of time. most of the characters, specifically the hia brothers, were able to get away with doing consistently awful things without ever facing any sort of consequences. truly frustrating to watch, and no amount of kissing scenes will make up for it lol. speaking of hia lian, i dont know why there is a recent trend of drama writers making the male lead as unbearable as physically possible, but hia lian seems to be one of the worst victims. he is manipulative, patronizing, untrustworthy, and honestly pretty predatory if u wanna go there (dating/marrying a 20 year old college student as a full grown adult is STRANGE idc). he does whatever he wants without caring how it affects others, including the man he claims to be madly in love with. and with that being said, lets move on to the last topic, the relationships.

i honestly have nothing to say about khondiao and hia yi and apparently neither did the script writers so im just gonna leave it at they had a strange dynamic and every time they were on screen together i was uncomfortable (giving ur bf a 9pm curfew??? really???). as for the main couple, i just dont buy it. i dont. their relationship developed so unnaturally by the end of the series i was surprised that hia WASNT secretly scheming something because i honestly could not believe they actually liked each other. like u really expect me to believe that hia randomly decided to be a complete asshole to the person he likes simply because he didn’t think he was worthy of dating him??? does that make any sense to u??? and kuea, who dealt with years of hia’s bs decides not to call off the engagement because hia started behaving for like what, a month? maybe that was enough for him but it definitely was not enough for me to support them as a couple. SORRY!

in conclusion, this drama is the physical embodiment of a headache don’t watch. i am so sorry perth had to be involved in this mess ily king ❤️