I wanted to give this one less but I’m giving a 7.5 for the side couple, because they alone made it worth watching.

Cast:
I loved the choices for the actors of the side couple. They both did extremely well portraying their characters and had one of the best chemistries I have seen in a while.
The main actors were both okay, but they were lacking a bit in expressions a lot of the time, their whole story just felt a little dull. This could also be due to their character descriptions though.

Plot:
The main couple developed quite quickly which can be great, here it was a little too rushed in my opinion. There was no “getting to know each other” or “developing feelings” stage they just both jumped head first into it. Especially their lack of real conversation made that a little weird and for me hard to connect to their couple.
I theoretically liked their story, I watched all of their scenes, but it got very draggy in some parts. They did play through basically every standard BL plot component there is, which generally doesn’t have to be bad, if done right. Here it did feel a little too copied on some parts. Their characters in themselves without their couple were also quite lacking.. there wasn’t really too much (interesting) about them except for their love for each other. In general: I didn’t dislike them and their story, but to me they were not enough to make up a good series.

Now everything that was lacking for me with the main couple, I found with the side couple (as so often in series that have a mediocre main couple). Phu and Kao were literally my light throughout this series. Their relationship and feelings for each other were well developed, nicely paced, and unbelievably heartwarming. I also liked both characters as characters instead of just a couple. If I ever do rewatch this series I will most likely only watch their scenes. I do also sincerely hope this gets a second season so I can see more of them.

There was another side couple that just felt unnecessary and weird in it’s entirety. It was probably necessary to show that part of the story, because of the further development in the novels, at least that’s the only way I can explain to myself why they were part of this series. However, for that cause they could have cut the whole thing a lot shorter.

An overall feeling I got from this, that kind of bugged me, was that it was extremely obvious that this was adapted from a novel. There are things that work in writing, because you can see into the people’s minds and feelings. You can be a little over the top and unrealistic without it feeling too weird. If you put that onto a screen however, you have to make sure that the story makes sense being watched instead of read.

Soundtrack:
I didn’t like this one too much, not because of the music itself but because of the timing. There were some scenes that had extremely dramatic music playing in the background that did not fit the mood of the scene at all etc.

All in all, I would recommend watching this one for the side couple. Even if you decide to skip through all other scenes.