My god I don’t think I have ever been more ashamed and embarrassed than I was whilst watching this show for taking the story synopsis and trailer for such immense face-value. I initially thought this show would just be your average, cutesy, puppy-love-type bl (in other words, nothing special lmao), but god it was so much more. I came for Cha Woongki, and left with tears.

Although, my initial assumption of what this show would be wasn’t completely incorrect; it was quite a light show for the most part. The immense puppy-love was there as well, though mostly portrayed in only Yeo Woon’s character. However, this show did have its dark and sensitive topics: Suicide, abuse, abandonment, etc., but to my surprise, the way they handled these topics was outstanding, beautiful even. I won’t go into detail, since I want to keep this review pretty much spoiler free, but I will say that this story probably handled all those dark, sensitive topics, better than most of the stories I’ve seen that contained the same subject matter. Thought, despite the amount of sensitive subject matter, the show still managed to find a good balance between that and the light-hearted scenes, and that is also something that I find beautiful about this show.

The characters were fantastic, and the acting for each character was even better. I’d like to especially mention the acting of the two main leads. Their acting was good to the point where you can almost hear everything the character is thinking and feeling by just looking at their eyes, and that amount of skill that the lead actors showed is something that I find extremely admirable. The characters were also quite complex/multi-faceted, which is part of what made them so entertaining to watch. I will say though that, unfortunately, the side characters were a bit underdeveloped. The story never went into depth with any of the side characters, and we only saw what Tae Myung and Yeo Woon saw. It’s pretty much as if their characters really only served as plot devices. Though, I wouldn't blame the writing, but rather the duration of the series. However, I’d like to treat the underdevelopment of the side characters as a sacrifice for how well developed the two main leads were, because how could a writer possibly have the side characters be as developed as the two leads and the plot given the time constraint.

The cinematography and editing is, with no doubt, one of the best I’ve seen in a piece of media so far. It sounds like an exaggeration, and it could be since I’m too busy geeking out right now to think about all the great cinematography I’ve seen before, but it’s still nonetheless phenomenal lol. Something about the cinematography is so satisfying to watch; the creative camera work, the beautiful coloring that alters depending on the mood of the scene, and the editing to make the show seem more game-like, all just came together so perfectly. The music was pretty good as well, maybe minus a couple songs according to my taste since I’m not a huge fan of just plain pop songs, but that outro song in episode 6 is so good I like shazamed it but nothing popped up so I don’t think it’s released yet, but they better release it soon man I need to add it to my playlist.

Anyways, this show has given me complete hope in bls for 2024. Last year, more specifically the second half, was quite rocky for bls guys I’m not gonna lie. With a show like this, though, I think 2024 has this in the bag with bl for sure. Remember, 2+0+2+4 = Ate (I hate that I can’t put emojis in reviews, this sucks).