BLISS RATING: ★★★
“When a shy person smiles, it’s like the sun coming out.” – Anita Diament
Tactically, this series is a bit incongruous simply because the story is not unabridged. To be honest, I ended up disliking it. Not because it was poorly acted. I eschewed it because it had no point, and it aimlessly wondered around trying to find one. It simply could not. I just did not get the why of the story. The whole story felt undeveloped.
Han Ji Won (Yeom Min Hyeok) is a former Olympic medalist who returns to college. Abnormally, almost pathologically, shy and withdrawn, he tries to blend in without being noticed. The harder he tries, the more he seems to stand out. Hiding under a cap and keeping his head down, he is still recognized because of his national status. The exact reasons why he ‘retired’ from gymnastics is unclear, but it is stated to be some sort of injury. However, it later comes out that he might have been abused perhaps by his parents, specifically his mother, for being a failure, and thus it finally took a toll on his ability to function both physically and mentally. Or was it by the hands of his previous coach who was relentless in the training? Or possibly it was a combination of the two. While it is not quite clear who, it is certainly strongly implied that someone abused him, and the abuse was significant and intense.
A chance encounter meeting with a superstar college basketball player, Kwong Jeong Wu (Choi Jae Hyeok) changes everything for Ji Won. While thought of as a playboy, he seems to drop all interests in females and becomes keenly attentive to Ji Won. Despite his overwhelming shyness, Ji Won becomes intrigued by Jeong Wu. The two begin to dance around forming a quasi-relationship. Certainly, Jeong Wu is more assertive and persistent in pursuing Ji Won. Of course, Ji Won, as usual, hides behind his shyness as a shield to avoid interactions and uses that to effectively fumble his way through developing a stronger connection with Jeong Wu because, in a sense, it is an endearing quality. However, when a situation gets too much for him to handle, his ‘go-to’ strategy is to play the shyness card, which he has aptly perfected.
Everything about this series seemed off. Nothing appeared to be thoroughly augmented. Not the characters nor the story itself. While I might have believed Ji Won’s shyness in the beginning, I never could fully grasp or wrap my head around why he had such a pathological withdrawal and fear of people. That WAS the kingpin to understanding the premise of the plot. One needs to understand his actions and the basis for them. Because, as their relationship solidifies a bit later, Ji Won curtly and rather cruelly rejected Jeong Wu fixed exclusively only on his understandings and feelings; not on appreciating either their budding relationship or Jeong Wu’s individual feelings. In other words, he was selfish. I know we cannot get too deep into the psychological depths of a character, but to understand the story, we must have some understanding of the characters. In this case, all of it was so superficial or only on the surface.
The attitudes with Jeong Wu were not much clearer. Supposedly straight, he suddenly with no real affirmation that perhaps he was not, falls head-over-heals in love with Ji Won. Again, that transition is just a bit hard to accept and adapt so cavalierly. It is not that he cannot or should not, but there is no nexus as to how he got there. It is no wonder that maybe Ji Won would have thought that perhaps Jeong Wu was not being sincere in his feelings for him and at most, this was just a ‘fling’.
The whole setup got just a bit tropey for me to honestly accept. While I understand the reticence in wanting to make their relationship public, for Ji Won to be so meek about it was beyond the pale. He has some serious issues to discuss with a therapist to get over his heightened anxiety level about dealing with people. And this overly shy timid tone to dealing with everything in his life simply got old and smacked of avoidance rather than of actual fear. He seemed so sheltered and/or protected that he was unable and therefore unwilling to learn to function in the world. He needed a teacher. It was fortunate that he found a good one in Jeong Wu. Jeong Wu gave him a reality check that he sorely needed, if he ever was going to grow.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? I think the real stars of this series are the two college best friends of Jeong Wu who then become friends of Ji Won. Choi Rakyeong as Byeon Seungjin and Kwak Geonhee as Yang Eunoh. Both are on the basketball team with Jeong Wu. What makes these two fascinating is from the beginning we could sense the sexual tension between the two. It was obvious, yet not overt. They were inseparable. Their constant bantering, arguing, and teasing one another could lead to no other conclusion but to think that these two had feelings for one another. And these feelings were a long time in developing. Choi Rakyeong and Kwak Geonhee both showed great acts of subtilty in actions not to tip their hand in showing or displaying that they liked each other. So much of their conduct was nuanced, skirting just past anything serious, making them amusing and entertaining to watch. Then at the end, while we got a little more than hints, it still did not spill over into anything overt. These two need a whole series for themselves so we can watch them nurture this budding attachment. They were so enchanting to watch, and they brought depth to each of their characters. Kudos to both.
For me, the rest of the script was stale and overused. It is unoriginal. To be sure, the actors made it entertaining, but personally it all seemed like acting. I never thought of them as coming even close to representing real people. They acted their parts well. Did I believe they had a relationship or a budding romance? Not for one minute. Sure, Yeom Min Hyeok’s boyish charm and smokey eyes are endearing and quite hypnotic but simply were not enough to convince me he was in love with Jeong Wu. On the other hand, the rugged handsomeness but soft gentleness of the personality that Choi Jae Hyeok displayed as Jeong Wu certainly put on the charm, but the continuous flat effect of his demeanor of his personality candidly could not convince me he was somehow madly in love with Ji Won. The pairing for me just did not work and their physical presence as a couple seemed and felt awkward.
This is a good story that was overdone. It showed very little understanding of their relationship and even less understanding of them as individuals. Then there is this sudden burst of personalities from both at the end of the series that just felt like it was too contrived. I wish we had seen more of who Ji Won was and why he was so shy. Or at the very least, a better explanation of why, rather than cryptic hints peppered throughout the series. And I wish we saw what that spark was from Jeong Wu that made him want Ji Won. I also wish he had gotten a bit angrier or at the very least more animated with Ji Won for his artificial reasons for wanting to break up with him. That deserved a much greater emotional response from Jeong Wu. As an extra added bonus, it would have been nice if the direction would have added something, anything, that would have made these two feel/act like they were humans; not robots. I just wanted to feel something from this series. I simply never got that.
I found nothing outstanding about this series. I could have easily skipped it as it had little effect on me. While well-acted, and we are certainly entertained by the supporting cast, it just did not do much for me. Watch it if you want. It is “okay’.
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