BLISS RATING: ★★★★★
“Feelings that came back are feelings that never left.” – Unknown
This BL series is undoubtedly as close to perfection as you will likely get with this year’s plethora of BL series. This is one of the finest BLs I have seen in a long time and one of the best for this year. This is a simple and basic story that they told through a fresh perspective and in such a creative way that you will be infatuated with it from its beginning to its end. They made that easy.
Lee Wan (Lee Jong Hyuk) and Ki Tae (Lee Seung Gyu) are high school friends. They have a very close bond between them, and this series has a creative way of showing us that bond throughout the series. At the end of each episode, they show snippets of their lives in high school, so we get a better understanding of their closeness and their bond to one another. It was obvious that they were falling in love with each other but perhaps unable to express that with any kind of effectiveness then.
However, on their last day of school with Wan needing to move away, wanted to take the risk to let Ki Tae how he feels about him. So, when he tells him that he likes him, he leans over and kisses him. Shocked by its suddenness, Ki Tae is taken aback and reacts with shock. There is Wan, confessing his unrequired love for Ki Tae now feeling rejected, humiliated and embarrassed, runs off apologetically saying sorry and drops from sight. However, Ki Tae was not given the opportunity to respond and could only react. While he tried to find Wan, it was to no avail. Contact and connection had been lost. At a great cost.
Fast forward 7 years, Wan is asked to come in for an interview as his webtoon illustrations on his blogsite have gotten noticed. After that incident, Wan usually responded to tense situations by becoming nervous with his flight response kicking in rather quickly. And his inclination is to do the same here. However, he does not do so.
He meets with the CEO of a gaming start-up company named RE: TRY, a portent of things to come. CEO Tae-oh (Jung Jin Woo) is everyone’s ideal boss. (I would have worked for him without reservation). He tells him that the project manager for this dating sim they are working on will be joining him in the interview named ‘Eddy’.
When Eddy walks in, it is none other than his high school crush Ki Tee. Wan immediately recognizes him yet Ki Tae seems to not be aware of who Wan is. However, all along Eddy has been following Wan and has manipulated circumstances to get him an interview. As we find out, Ki Tae has been searching for Wen for years and he loves Wen but was never given the opportunity to say that to him in high school or afterwards.
From the very beginning, this story is so cute, adorable, and builds on the sexual tension in both. You can see that Wen wants to run but does not. And Ki Tae is wanting to develop something with Wen but knows what the risks are if he pushes too hard or comes off as insincere. It is just a wonderful story of re-solidifying what these two felt for each other when they were younger but are unable to accept.
Each must face the fears that lead them to where they are now. All along, however, they try to hide the relationship from their coworkers. And the unique way this series tied in the past with the present was imaginative and creative. We see them in a better light as adults and understand their actions when they were younger, which was an ironic twist. It was a stroke of genius to show these two as they redevelop their relationship was based upon the foundation that already existed from when they were younger. They just could not see it. This romance story built off that foundation to create a complete house of love.
There are no artificialities to this story. It moves fetchingly forward, softly, and fixed on the almost forgone conclusion that they will be together – after all, as Wen states he ‘will choose love instead of running away.”
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? This series flows so nicely and with efficaciousness that you just might find yourself perhaps experiencing the same thing they are – love. You can feel it come through the screen to you. It is not passionate, lustful, or erotic. But it is so much more intense than that. It feels as if they are catching up with where they left off in high school. The two actors portrayed that deeper attraction to each other more than physical with such intensity that I believed they were really in love with each other. They both came across as loving each other for 7 years without ever having done so. That was remarkable to see and more importantly to feel. And when Ki Tae finally kissed him, it was beyond magical. That was so enchanting that I found myself crying at its beauty and impact on me. It felt so sincere, right, and beyond memorable. It is the kiss that would have been if he had had the opportunity to give it. Ki Tae murmurs that neither one of them ran and softly asks, sounding more like a statement, if he wants to try again. That really is a totally magical and memorable moment. Just beautifully done. I have never cried seeing a first kiss until now. Kudos to Lee Jong Hyuk and Lee Seung Gyu for making these characters sentient, believing they are deeply in love, and have always been in love, and that their lives are beginning anew again. There is no better legacy for a BL series than this.
However, this is a drawback to this series, and it is a major one for me. While I understand Wen’s reaction to what he perceived from Ki Tae as rejection, His major future actions were to some degree dictated by this incident. It defined him. And he struggled and allowed his flight response to control his actions. We got to see that. But we must remember that for Ki Tae it was different but no less debilitating. He too suffered. Perhaps not as obvious as Wen but he surely did. He never quite got over perhaps the bumbling response to Wen’s attempt to convey his love. He was unable to literally date anyone since then and he constantly lived perhaps with guilt over that. And he is also now constantly haunted by the fear, both rational and irrational, that Wen will leave him again.
The terror he felt when he thought he lost Wen was brilliantly done and I wept at its impact. But I pondered its impact and realized that Ki Tae, despite the outward togetherness he displays, is wounded and would, if Wen were to leave, completely fall apart. That is a terrible fear to live under and both need some time to heal from all of that. My point to this long rambling is that I do wish some time would have been spent on seeing Ki Tae in more depth and not just snippets.
I would like to have had deeper portraits of these two and would have appreciated a deeper delve into who both were and how that longing for each other during those years really did impact them. It would have elevated this series from a great series to a masterpiece. They had the time. In this case, these episodes were too short and did not do justice to who these individuals were.
Nonetheless, this is a series that will no doubt be in my Top 10 for 2023 and is a major contender for the Number 1 spot.
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