Confusion In My Mind

I don't have high standards when it comes to bl series really, I mostly watch them to relax and when I saw that Joong is in this (whom I have loved since 2moons2) I thought "Well, whatever if it's not good, I am gonna watch it!"
Did I regret it? No. It was cute. Worth noting that I stayed up all night to watch this so maybe my half-asleep brain wasn't in a very critical mode either, but I found myself smiling at some of the cute scenes and I was invested in the plot, I at least didn't find it as boring as some of the other recent bls.

Or maybe I liked it because it has a nostalgic feel to it. I might've only made this association because of Joong, but it reminded me of 2moons2.
It wasn't a very original plot but that's not a problem for me usually. However. Oh, however.

The bl industry is changing. Series are getting a bit more socially-aware, better at lgbt representation and discussing how should a HEALTHY relationship look like.
This series... doesn't even try. And that wouldn't be a problem, but when we now have series like e.g. Bad Buddy, getting into watching something like this leaves you feeling like something is missing, or maybe it's not even that. It's just bad writing.

The characters were fine. Just fine.
Khluen was the most interesting, he was this typical cold guy but I still found his logic interesting and I kinda get why he did what he did. There were points when he annoyed me too because some of his actions were either dumb or uncharacteristical of him though. for example, and this made me really pissed:
Everyone thought that he and Gia were dating and he didn't tell Nuea that they aren't? Why?
Why, my boy, are you making your life more complicated than it needs to be?
"It doesn't matter what people think", he said, but this doesn't make any sense. People? Sure. Don't care about them. But Nuea? Who is your actual love interest? You're literally making yourself unavailable when you aren't.

Nuea was just boring. Like I legit can't say one more thing about him except his crush on Khluen. And yet eeeeveryone suddenly wanted to date him. Why? He had the vibe of those zero personality y/n self-inserts. (can I blame them though? Who wouldn't want to self-insert into dating Joong? haha, ok, i'm joking, please give your protagonists some real characteristics)

Not much about the others. Fah was nice, I love him.
Phoon was just annoying at some point. Poor man got second lead-ed so hard, he was just there to make Khluen jealous. I mean, at some point he says that he LOVES Nuea. LOVES him. The man whom he knew for what? Weeks? And spent actual one on one time with him like twice, and Nuea was having none of it? lol.
And then he didn't even show much emotion when Nuea chose Khluen. I guess he looked a bit disappointed. If I squint my eyes really hard, yeah, I can see a bit of sadness there, I guess.

Not much about the plot either. It was fine, I actually loved the scenes where it was only Khluen and Nuea, and them with Khluen's mom was adorable. The last few episodes, however, were a mess.
First of all, the scene at Khluen's apartment. He FINALLY explained to Nuea that he wasn't dating Gia. Yes! So that plot point is over, right? ....right?
No. Because Nuea still gets jealous and asks Khluen to CHOOSE between them. That was horribly childish. Oh, but then Khluen gets a phone call and leaves without explanation. I mean, I get that it was an emergency, but he could've literally told this to Nuea too: that Gia was in an emergency. Like a serious one. A mature person would've understood it. But then again, was Nuea mature?

THAT FREAKING PHONE in general, by the way. Every time the directors didn't know how to continue a scene where there was tension, his phone rang. Once it's ok. Twice it's... fine. But all the time? It's just annoying and lazy.
Oh, yeah, and there is a noncon kiss in it that absolutely had no relevance to the plot, was just awkward and cringe, and not something that most bl fans enjoy being romanticized anymore...

Overall it was still enjoyable. Wacky, frustrating, cringe, but I had a surprisingly good time watching it. Joong's little warm smiles made me melt. The acting wasn't bad really, they did what they could as mostly rookies and with a bad script so I guess that's one thing not to dislike.
There is still one episode left but I don't think it could change anything.

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award worthy... if there is an award for the most immature main character

i'm gonna start with the good. (it won't be too long.)
it's an overall interesting concept for a story and if you like the childhood friends to lovers trope, you might enjoy this one, because it does has some fluffy moments and up until the last episodes you can actually root for them to get together. i loved the mutual pining too, i am a sucker for that.
although it is expected from 2022 bls, the quality is good, the actors look cute, i loved the outfits and the music is... well, boring, but isn't bad. typical bl music, nothing really special.

now the bad.
oh, there is a lot of bad.

what started as a good and interesting story became monotonous and frustrating really fast. it kind of reminded me of those reverse harem anime series, just... worse. the characters had the potential to be very well-written and interesting, but for some reason every one of them with the maybe-exception of Saifa annoyed the hell out of me.

and why is that?

well, it wasn't even really the characters. it was the fact that Theo's search for his 'Enchante' seemed really pointless. We all knew he was gonna end up with Akk, of course, but that wouldn't have been a problem if they at least made Theo slightly more empathetic towards the men who he knew only pretended to be Enchante. I mean, I would have been pretty curious to find out their motives in his place.
and even after we did get to know what said motives were, there were no problems solved. maybe for Saifa, but Wayo for example deserved a better ending. hell, deserved an ending in general because he got one not very satisfying scene and that was all.

the acting was... well, it was acting. it was obliviously acting. I don't think it was bad, but not good either. sometimes they said the lines as if they were reading them, and the scenes were Book and Force had to actually act as a couple were at time painful to watch. Force was... ok, I guess, just the usual bl acting, but I think Akk's character was more consistent in general and maybe a bit easier to understand what he was expected to do as that character.
Book's acting was a bit worse in my opinion. He either seemed emotionless or way too emotional. had the feel of watching a high school play. But then again, can I blame him? Theo was a horrible character to act as:

Theo is the worst protagonist I've seen in a long time. His only personality traits were having lived in France for a while and being selfish. Lol. and one of these isn't qualified as an actual personality trait.
First of all, the Enchante thing was the stupidest idea I've ever heard. honestly, what was he expecting? and then he went with it for a quite a long while despite seeing how much chaos it caused. ok, he didn't care about the others, but to deceive Akk so badly just because he was a coward to confess to him left a bitter taste in my mouth.
and then that bitterness increased by a 100:
towards the last episodes, it was revealed that Akk knew something that he didn't tell Theo and Theo got very mad at him for it.
but was it justified? not at all. Akk had nothing to do with said thing, he was only a witness to it, and if he'd told Theo, from what we've seen from him, Theo would have probably gotten even more mad at him. Akk, as always, wanted the best for him by not saying anything, because it really, I mean really wasn't his business to tell. but Theo ignored it.
Listen, I get that he was upset, I know that it is a very tragic event, but a twenty-something man to be this immature about it... if he was in high school I'd say it's understandable but as an adult college student... I mean, wow. Something that would've been touching and should've made the viewers sad only made me cringe and want to shake some sense into Theo.

Akk was a lovely character. It might be because I find Force very attractive in general but I freaking loved him. Honestly though, he deserved better. He was so nice and helpful and kind just to get nothing from it back. I don't like love triangles, in fact I hate them with a burning passion, but by the end of the series I was borderline wishing that there was another man he could fall in love with instead and dump Theo. no seriously, I need a ripoff where he leaves Theo and finds a guy who actually deserves him.

with that said.... I actually enjoyed it. I mean, yeah, it wasn't great, but it was still entertaining in a way. I can't even explain why I liked it, but I did, at least enough to finish it. it was probably the fact that I have a big fat crush on Akk (and Force), and seems like that was enough for me. If he was played by someone else, I probably wouldn't have finished it, but oh well, looks like an attractive actor is a good way to win me over. if you don't find him really hot though, I don't know if it's worth watching or not. maybe if you're obsessed with the friends to lovers trope and feel like you need to consume every bl based on it or else you can't live your life fully.

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