It might be because I'm not a fan of angst or perhaps because I don't understand love, but despite thinking a lot about it, I still couldn't grasp why it should've been okay to disregard so many things and why most people's actions had no consequences. There were also some good and reasonable parts of the storyline (mentioned in the positive section), but I had a lot of issues with toxic and problematic actions being romanticised.
BUT hear me out first as I'm going to explain what exactly I didn't like and also add some positive points, all elaborated in detail.

Some general complaints:
- I really do not agree with using the "wife" comments and don't understand why the screenwriters kept them in as most BLs don't include the usage of this word when referring to males anymore. This kind of comparison of same-sex couples to opposite-sex ones shouldn't be normalised.

- Femme gays being treated as comedic relief. I've seen how hated the main leads with this type of personality are in BLs so reducing them to a laughing stock and suddenly having no one complain is basically giving out the message of "being gay is okay as long as you remain masculine". This is a leftover problematic trope from the old age BLs and I really wish it was excluded.

- The excessive use of alcohol didn't bother me for a long time, but then I realised these friend groups really do nothing other than studying, meeting up to drink or making food as an offering twice a year. I really don't think these portrayals of friend groups being unable to have fun without alcohol should be normalised in media. I've seen it happen in real life and it actually creates quite a toxic environment where everyone seems stressed and unhappy while sober. To be fair the groups in drama actually did give off that feel, but I still think they should've at least occasionally swapped a bar for a restaurant.


Now the actual issues concerning Vee and Mark:
- Non-con scene with no repercussions, the most obvious problem. I honestly wouldn't have minded if it was brushed off after Mark tried to argument that they were both drunk and should just forget about it. However, Vee still kept pushing it and brought up the sex in a joking manner twice after Mark disregarded it. So Vee clearly hadn't shown any regret over it which is what I see the biggest issue with.
Then I hate how in ep 7 they started treating it as a good memory when forced intimacy really shouldn't just become a laughing matter over time.
And lastly in ep 8 Vee suddenly swore that "he'd never exploit anyone" when Mark asked if he did something to him while drunk. After reading that I was very confused by how much that non-con scene got brushed off.

- Vee's possessiveness of Mark at the start. I completely understand why Vee wanted him to stop approaching Bar after he got a boyfriend, but it seemed strange how Vee kept pressuring Mark to completely get over his feelings as if Mark could magically make himself fall out of love in one day.
And then later there was a situation when Vee was experiencing an almost identical problem of attempting to force himself to fall out of love with Ploy yet found out it was indeed not as simple. However, by that point the whole segment from earlier seemed to once again be forgotten as Vee hadn't shown any signs of regret about how he treated Mark when he went through this experience.

- Vee doesn't know what "no" means and Mark had a breakdown after Vee listened to him for the first time in 2 episodes. Even if Mark might've had secretly enjoyed Vee's pestering (though he had no reason to), he did keep trying to fend him off very aggressively and Vee should not have kept doing everything Mark kept telling him to not do. After they'd started getting close, it still didn't seem like Mark wanted Vee to approach him at all so it felt quite random for him to suddenly get depressed when Vee finally promised to let him be after he asked.
This case is giving me the impression of romanticised toxicity, where harassment is shown as something cute and acceptable just because "the viewers know they're a future couple".

- That kiss scene at the end of episode 3. Even if they did have mutual subconscious romantic feelings for each other, at that point Vee needed someone to comfort him about his cheating girlfriend and ruined relationship, not make advances at him. And the worst thing is that it got completely brushed off without ever being addressed again - Vee didn't get angry at Mark for using his emotional weakness at the moment, but also somehow didn't take the kiss as an indirect confession.
The story made it seem like Vee's constant pestering was what got Mark to fall in love so hard he was willing to go through all that heartbreak without wanting to move on from Vee. Up to that point they'd only had a few positive interactions and Mark still very much seemed to be bothered by Vee so that kiss felt to be very forcibly included as a way to keep the viewers' retention.

- Vee's quick willingness to move on. Even in the scenario that Vee had fallen out of love with Ploy a long time ago, he was still clinging to their life together and even willing to go back to her. I didn't understand how it was possible for him to immediately move on and continue flirting with his other love interest without there being those toxic parts showcasing how Vee only saw Mark as a replacement of and distraction from Ploy.

- Senior friend group shipping Mark with Vee and then Nuea without ever checking Mark's boundaries. Especially with Nuea, they kept pushing the two of them together when Mark seemed to be visibly uncomfortable.
And then someone deliberately taking a picture of a sleeping Mark on Nuea's shoulder and uploading it on facebook. That scene couldn't have been skipped since it was used as an opportunity to make Vee jealous, but it sure could've been re-written as someone posting a picture of the entire bus interior and unknowingly including Nuea with Mark in the process.
I find shipping to be another one of the problematic tropes; posting a picture of two random people together is an invasion of privacy and a friend group non-consentually shipping two members shouldn't be normalised since in reality it makes people uncomfortable.

- Before getting together in ep 10, they only had big-scale situational problems where they argued, separated, became sad about it and then reconciled. I was missing a portrayal of long-lasting minor issues which should've arisen from the nature of their unspecified relationship status. I guess the only thing that comes to mind are the instances of Mark trying to deny Vee's advances while demanding they resolve all the loose ends first before getting physical. But does that really count when in the end Vee always had his way anyways?
The exact thing I was expecting came up at the very end when Mark started doubting whether Vee really was serious about him and still showed a lack of trust. However, I really wish this had come up sooner. Before Ploy and Vee officially broke up, here should've been a segment with Vee and Mark living together while experiencing all the doubts about their future and sometimes making each other uncomfortable because of all their complicated emotions. At that point their entire relationship was based on one person falling for someone who kept hurting him and other using him as a replacement and distraction from his previous relationship. It screams the definition of toxic, but there just wasn't a spec of toxicity shown during any of their interactions. Instead they were only able to either quickly resolve their conflict or take a break, neither of which is actually unhealthy.

- Nuea is doing very similar things to Mark as Vee did in the first few episodes - forcibly clinging to him, not taking no as an answer, making advances on him while drunk - and he's recognised as an antagonist for it when Vee's actions were portrayed as justified just because he's the romantic interest and we all know he's going to end up with Mark anyways.

- Yeewan's random evil arc. This girl saw that Mark was becoming interested in Vee and suddenly decided that she needed to meddle in their relationship to prevent them from dating. Even worse, her idea of splitting them up was by forcing Mark to interact with Nuea without ever asking who Mark liked. Then she made a half-asses apology, proceeded to instantly try to meddle some more and was completely forgiven without facing no repercussions what-so-ever.
Also in ep 9 when she used Mark as an excuse to encourage Vee to get himself beaten up more. She had no place positioning herself in that situation and I hate how it wasn't portrayed as a bad thing.

- Vee pestering Mark again after the break-up. I get his sudden resolve to explain himself, thinking that everything would be magically right again if Mark knew that he wasn't the one who kissed Ploy. But by the point when Mark brought a fake boyfriend, Vee should've taken the hint and left him be after all, not continue bothering him further. Even if Mark did still like him, it didn't necessarily mean that he wanted to get back together.
Just like the first time, it's giving me the impression of romanticised toxicity since it once again shows that if your partner breaks up with you, you just need to continuously annoy them instead of giving them some space.
- Also continuing off that, there was the part when Vee only became willing to give up chasing after Mark when receiving the "proof" of Mark dating someone else. It seems like this drama doesn't quite understand the concept of needing a break after a failed relationship before getting into another one. Furthermore, Mark is being treated like a toy at a playground over which possession there are multiple kids arguing and this whole idea of him always needing to choose a partner seems to be quite romanticised as well.

- The whole idea that as long as Mark is single, it's okay to constantly hit on him despite him having a different love interest. It happened with Nuea, then Vee when he refused to believe in Mark's fake boyfriend and lastly with the boxer guy. It's horrible to justify the refusal to back down with "you aren't dating so I can do it" and the fact it has happened thrice shows the drama's disregard of how uncomfortable this experience is in real life. And I dislike how in Nuea and Krat's case this whole thing was used as a plot device to show how protective Vee is and paint him as the good guy for defending Mark from them.

- Up until ep 8 I was going to praise this for how alcohol wasn't being used as a plot device to cause a fast progression in the relationship despite how many drunken scenes there were. So many BLs only count on alcohol to create or fix a relationship as if sober communication didn't exist. And here it unfortunately ended up being used as the sole reason for why Vee and Mark reconciled after the big argument. It's a real shame as I was strongly hoping that Mark would end up chasing after Vee and confessing how he still can't forget him (or just anything else that didn't involve alcohol, I guess).



Now onto some likes of mine:
- Vee's hesitations when deciding between two loves. I really liked the depiction of his deep devotion to Ploy, he gave her a second chance truly believing she'd not betray him again instead of casting her aside just because she was the side character and viewers were supposed to dislike her anyways. It made him seem very human to cling onto the past and not want to lose Ploy after spending so much time with her instead of choosing to move on.

- Vee's jealousy made a complete sense considering the plot. He hadn't properly got over being cheated on so it was to be expected he'd be worried about the same issue happening again. However, I really wish Bar and Kan's heteronormative conflict wasn't projected onto Mark and Vee's issue when they had laid the perfect foundation to blame Vee's jealousy on his past relationship.
What I enjoyed more was how in ep 9 after the reconciling Vee's jealously had intensified which had shown just how scared Vee was of Mark ever leaving him again, still combined with the scars from his previous relationship.

- Mark's conflict between the heart and brain. Even though he knew he still loved Vee and was okay with being his second choice, Mark wasn't immediately keen on rushing back to him and actually put some thought into whether he was fine with being hurt further. Particularly the instances when Mark kept shouting at Vee to leave him alone despite knowing he didn't want him to do so.

- The trust issues shown in ep 7. I thought it was great that the story had shown how the uncertainties surrounding their relationship reflected on their trust of each other. Mark was still expecting Vee to just leave him behind so he didn't give Vee the benefit of the doubt when seeing him kissing Ploy.

- Mark actually growing a backbone. I have not cheered at anything more than when Mark told Vee to get out of his life lmao. After watching Mark constantly being pushed around, it was so satisfying to see him speak up for himself for once, even if that backbone quickly disappeared later.

- The break after the misunderstanding about Vee kissing Ploy was very much needed. Even though I wish their reconciling was done differently, I still think it was important for them to have the time off and truly affirm their feelings for each other before deciding to finally start dating officially.

- Mark not forgiving Vee and actually making him work for that apology. Vee's sports anime character arc might have been too excessive, but at least it served to show how much he was willing to fight for Mark (literally) which in turn proved to Mark that he can put some of his trust back into their relationship.

- The topic of difference between the upper and middle class. It's not often we get a Thai BL character who isn't a rich guy with 3 cars and a huge house to his name so it was great to see the exploration of Vee's living environment. I especially liked how there were frequent non-chalant mentions of it, such as him not being able to buy expensive gifts, living in a neighbourhood with frequent robberies or owning a car which felt out of place in the rich district.
- Especially at the end when they'd ran out of plot points to bring up, I'm glad that they'd chosen to keep pointing out these differences of classes as the topic, even despite the big plotholes that arc had lmao.

- The portrayal of parents' acceptance. Even though I generally do like it when parents are shown as fully open-minded about same-sex relationships, it is nice to see the progressive acceptance of a homophobe every once in a while.


And lastly the general facts again:
- Even though no amazing acting can save a mediocre plot, the two main leads did add a lot to the drama. Even though I wasn't able to become immersed in the story, there were moments when I could still feel the emotion of the characters, such as in ep 8 when Mark shouted at Vee at the door of his apartment or at the very end during their romantic moments. Despite me not particularly rooting for Vee and Mark to remain as a couple, at the end the actors convinced me to be happy for them. I could really feel the chemistry of the characters during the sweet moments they had throughout the drama.

- Loved all the songs from the OST and the fact they kept changing the one in the opening sequence with each story progression.


Overall I really hope this wasn't too biased and I was able to bring at least some objectiveness to it. If anyone has read this whole thing and would like to disagree with some of my points then please do! I'd love to know what I've missed or misunderstood since I'm sure there are some things considering the overall high score of this drama.