This review may contain spoilers
if you think you know what this BL is about - no you don't
Okay, first things first: This BL wasn't at all what I thought it would be. I don't really know what I was expecting, but it surely wasn't this. I expected a lighthearted and heartwarming BL about love, but what I got was... well... what was it? Do you know that gif of that guy holding a skateboard and he starts running and you expect him to use the skateboard, but he never does and he just keeps running... Yeah, that's how I feel about this show..
The story was both too long and not long enough. While the show felt like it was going on for too long, it also felt like there was too much happening and it needs more time. There were some elements that could've made something unique and good out of this, but they didn't use them at all and therefore, the show fell flat.
Yoona is getting stalked by someone and is scared of men (except Jiwoon 'cause he's cute or idk) and Hyewon is in love with her professor and that's why they don't wanna be paired up with boys and ask the professor to be paired up with girls instead. Because of that (and because there are just too many men in general) our two main characters Jiwoon and Roa have to be paired together. And the rest is history.
A perfect set-up to address some issues like the very heteronormative and amatonormativity view that a family is only considered a family when it consists of a man, a woman, and a child/children, same-sex marriage, etc. But this BL did nothing. They just said "well I guess you can pair up in same-sex groups but this class isn't for you students to fall in love anyway so it's fine"... like... thanks?? Also, what was the purpose of this class, then? All the students did was go on dates, spent some time together and money, and... that was it. There was literally no point in this class. I actually thought the concept was interesting but they did nothing with it.
Look at the cover. If you think that this show is about a group of four men taking part in this class and trying to navigate their way through it and find friendship and love, you are wrong. It is about four people, but these two boys that aren't the main characters don't really play any big part in it. They are just there, think of the Thai BL best friend group that isn't really contributing anything to the plot. Instead, it focuses mainly on Jiwoon, Roa, and Yoona (and Hyewon is there as well) who are more or less in a love triangle/corner. The guy with the short hair is only there to be the jealous best friend who has a crush on Roa. And the other guy... idk actually.
Halfway through the show, the stalker took a picture of Jiwoon feeding Roa and took it out of context, saying that "homosexuality was found in the love class" or some other bs and while it caused some trouble in paradise (and led up to a cute scene between the protagonists) other than that it wasn't brought up again. Who took this photo? Why are they homophobic? What was their goal with this picture? Is Jiwoon suffering from internalized homophobia/biphobia? How does that affect their relationship? Why can nobody in this love class just mind their own damn business? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Okay, I think it's time to address the elephant in the room. The stalker. In this BL, Yoona being stalked is used as a plot device so she could spend time with Jiwoon. Who is the stalker? Why is he doing this? How does he know her? How does he access all this information? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I was so convinced that it was the professor, I was 98.99% sure. It all pointed at him.
These are the things this show told us about the stalker:
- He knows where Yoona lives.
- He knows that Jiwoon is walking Yoona home.
- He knows that Jiwoon and Roa are doing this "dating thing" for class.
- He has a bit mark on his wrist from when he attacked Jiwoon and he bit him.
And the professor checked all the boxes.
- He knows Yoona in private (through her uncle or something), so of course it would be no surprise for him to know where she lives.
- He said to Jiwoon that he "heard" that he was 'taking care' of Yoona.
- He is literally the professor of this class, so he knows everything about Jiwoon's and Roa's "dating thing".
- He's the only one in class who didn't show his wrists and covered them all the time.
And oh boy, was I disappointed when it wasn't him. So, you probably ask yourself, who was it then? How did they find out who it was? Did they come up with a great plan? How did they get all the info about her? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It turns out that the stalker was just *some guy* that we don't even know the name of. We get one (1) scene where Yoona says casually: "I'm glad that they found the culprit." And that's it. We never hear from it ever again.
And if you think that at least we get some cute, romantic scene out of it. Not really, I mean sure, there are quite some cute moments, but there aren't nearly enough to outweigh the sheer frustration I was feeling after the whole stalker plot that went nowhere. Jiwoon mostly hangs out with Yoona and has a crush on her until he suddenly doesn't (???) and he is now in love with Roa... And they kiss in the very last scene after we get a classic "he rejected me and left and now I have to go find him" twist thrown in at the very end. In my frustration and attempt to make this at least a little more interesting, I told myself that maybe the prof was blackmailing him or something but no. And to put the cherry on top, the professor is now going out with a student (Yoona's friend Hyewon). :))
The story was both too long and not long enough. While the show felt like it was going on for too long, it also felt like there was too much happening and it needs more time. There were some elements that could've made something unique and good out of this, but they didn't use them at all and therefore, the show fell flat.
Yoona is getting stalked by someone and is scared of men (except Jiwoon 'cause he's cute or idk) and Hyewon is in love with her professor and that's why they don't wanna be paired up with boys and ask the professor to be paired up with girls instead. Because of that (and because there are just too many men in general) our two main characters Jiwoon and Roa have to be paired together. And the rest is history.
A perfect set-up to address some issues like the very heteronormative and amatonormativity view that a family is only considered a family when it consists of a man, a woman, and a child/children, same-sex marriage, etc. But this BL did nothing. They just said "well I guess you can pair up in same-sex groups but this class isn't for you students to fall in love anyway so it's fine"... like... thanks?? Also, what was the purpose of this class, then? All the students did was go on dates, spent some time together and money, and... that was it. There was literally no point in this class. I actually thought the concept was interesting but they did nothing with it.
Look at the cover. If you think that this show is about a group of four men taking part in this class and trying to navigate their way through it and find friendship and love, you are wrong. It is about four people, but these two boys that aren't the main characters don't really play any big part in it. They are just there, think of the Thai BL best friend group that isn't really contributing anything to the plot. Instead, it focuses mainly on Jiwoon, Roa, and Yoona (and Hyewon is there as well) who are more or less in a love triangle/corner. The guy with the short hair is only there to be the jealous best friend who has a crush on Roa. And the other guy... idk actually.
Halfway through the show, the stalker took a picture of Jiwoon feeding Roa and took it out of context, saying that "homosexuality was found in the love class" or some other bs and while it caused some trouble in paradise (and led up to a cute scene between the protagonists) other than that it wasn't brought up again. Who took this photo? Why are they homophobic? What was their goal with this picture? Is Jiwoon suffering from internalized homophobia/biphobia? How does that affect their relationship? Why can nobody in this love class just mind their own damn business? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Okay, I think it's time to address the elephant in the room. The stalker. In this BL, Yoona being stalked is used as a plot device so she could spend time with Jiwoon. Who is the stalker? Why is he doing this? How does he know her? How does he access all this information? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I was so convinced that it was the professor, I was 98.99% sure. It all pointed at him.
These are the things this show told us about the stalker:
- He knows where Yoona lives.
- He knows that Jiwoon is walking Yoona home.
- He knows that Jiwoon and Roa are doing this "dating thing" for class.
- He has a bit mark on his wrist from when he attacked Jiwoon and he bit him.
And the professor checked all the boxes.
- He knows Yoona in private (through her uncle or something), so of course it would be no surprise for him to know where she lives.
- He said to Jiwoon that he "heard" that he was 'taking care' of Yoona.
- He is literally the professor of this class, so he knows everything about Jiwoon's and Roa's "dating thing".
- He's the only one in class who didn't show his wrists and covered them all the time.
And oh boy, was I disappointed when it wasn't him. So, you probably ask yourself, who was it then? How did they find out who it was? Did they come up with a great plan? How did they get all the info about her? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It turns out that the stalker was just *some guy* that we don't even know the name of. We get one (1) scene where Yoona says casually: "I'm glad that they found the culprit." And that's it. We never hear from it ever again.
And if you think that at least we get some cute, romantic scene out of it. Not really, I mean sure, there are quite some cute moments, but there aren't nearly enough to outweigh the sheer frustration I was feeling after the whole stalker plot that went nowhere. Jiwoon mostly hangs out with Yoona and has a crush on her until he suddenly doesn't (???) and he is now in love with Roa... And they kiss in the very last scene after we get a classic "he rejected me and left and now I have to go find him" twist thrown in at the very end. In my frustration and attempt to make this at least a little more interesting, I told myself that maybe the prof was blackmailing him or something but no. And to put the cherry on top, the professor is now going out with a student (Yoona's friend Hyewon). :))
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