Juwon is an adorable, loveable overthinker and I love how flustered and bothered he got every time because of anything related to Jeong-min, but my gosh, was it frustrating to see him make the same mistake in miscommunication every. Fucking. Time. Right until the end, too... High clear, my ass, both need to understand when it's time to take action instead of just leaving space for each other constantly lol. (His best friend has the most common sense out of all the characters here and for that, I like him the most tbh. Also, not the BL with him and Doo-yun teased at the very end, I KNEW IT. I shipped Seong-hyn and Do-yoon from the start and my intuition was right, hehe.)
Now, the concept is cute since we have a pair of two polar opposites, which creates for a lot of tension - the overthinking, overly expressive type and the calm, collected, introverted type, clashing in lots of fun, cute, awkward, but also embarrassing moments. It had a lot of potential to make them learn from each other and grow. However, I don't like how the story never showed any growth in them or their dynamic, especially in their surface level communication (they felt like fuck buddies who like each other, not like a super fresh couple who want to grow a deeper connection and truly get to know each other). Not in them learning from the same mistakes like how Jeong-min needed to open up more and speak what's on his mind more as to not put Juwon in overthinking overdrive (culminating in the part of the story that truly threw me off and made him very unlikeable - fucking the non consenting, sleeping Juwon just cause he couldn't even properly open up about his jealousy...) or Juwon not taking any action because of excessive overthinking, leading to more misunderstandings making him even more flustered and overthinking, creating a vicious cycle of avoidance. That's why reading this felt frustrating at times, and like we have static, one dimensional characters at play who don't even attempt to learn. Juwon fails times and times again, not because he tries, but because he does the same thing - overthink, avoid, repeat. Jeong-min stays silent in crucial moments, and only ever speaks up when shit has hit the fan and Juwon can't take the initiative cause of overthinking. That same pattern throughout the whole story felt too repetitive. Because of that, their backstory as to how Jeong-min fell for Juwon far back while watching him during qualifiers didn't hit that hard. It didn't feel super genuine. It was as a nice addition to everything, but that's about it.
Jeong-min is supposed to be very poker faced, sure, but I wish he'd unravel a bit more before Juwon as at times, he felt absent. He has his subtle or, at times even not so subtle ways of showing interest, like a cat having its own language you have to take time to decipher (dog × cat dynamic), but in crucial moments, he felt a bit too stoic, unbothered by the misunderstandings or avoidance from Juwon, and stone faced. It didn't help that the story barely showed his inner monologue or workings - I think if it did, he would feel more fleshed out. I appreciated the times when he wasn't as calm faced towards the end, though. Still, his character is tainted by what he did to Juwon while he was sleeping, and he never properly addressed that or apologized, which is super scummy and cowardly of him. For a character who's supposed to be so blunt and brave while calm and collected, he didn't seem like it in how he handled that situation. Still, it was cute to see how he appreciated Juwon and accepted his chaotic, well meaning nature, and saw him as motivation to continue competitive sports.
Juwon is still my beautiful princes (loved the moment where he jumped in Jeong-min's arms or when he was carried by him while passed out drunk), I love how human and real he feels in his insecurities, overthinking, and how he tries his best even if he fails again, and again... And again lol. He's earnest and passionate, so he felt more alive as a character for sure. His friend Seong-hyun did a loooot of the lifting for him in his personal development and giving him more of a push in the right direction, but I wish I'd seen more initiative in him trying to clear up misunderstandings heads on. I do appreciate that the story does depict a realistic dynamic (and issues) of just crushing on someone and getting to know them in that dating stage, it felt accurate. The worries, the butterflies, the fears of not coming off as clingy. But I wanted to see Juwon become braver and slowly overcome that. It's no wonder it was hard for him since Jeong-min, let's be honest, isn't the most reassuring, emotionally open type, so I understand to an extent why Juwon faced a challenge of navigating his emotions on his own. The dynamic with his sister felt super realistic to me as an only child - that's what I imagine a younger sister would be like to an older brother.
And now, my favorite character - Seong-hyun. I honestly want to read more about him. He seems so cool and like he knows shit. I want to know why Do-yoon is so bitter, I want to see them both unravel each other. I'm so sat for their story and I hope we get to read it someday.
Juwon is an adorable, loveable overthinker and I love how flustered and bothered he got every time because of anything related to Jeong-min, but my gosh, was it frustrating to see him make the same mistake in miscommunication every. Fucking. Time. Right until the end, too... High clear, my ass, both need to understand when it's time to take action instead of just leaving space for each other constantly lol. (His best friend has the most common sense out of all the characters here and for that, I like him the most tbh. Also, not the BL with him and Doo-yun teased at the very end, I KNEW IT. I shipped Seong-hyn and Do-yoon from the start and my intuition was right, hehe.)
Now, the concept is cute since we have a pair of two polar opposites, which creates for a lot of tension - the overthinking, overly expressive type and the calm, collected, introverted type, clashing in lots of fun, cute, awkward, but also embarrassing moments. It had a lot of potential to make them learn from each other and grow. However, I don't like how the story never showed any growth in them or their dynamic, especially in their surface level communication (they felt like fuck buddies who like each other, not like a super fresh couple who want to grow a deeper connection and truly get to know each other). Not in them learning from the same mistakes like how Jeong-min needed to open up more and speak what's on his mind more as to not put Juwon in overthinking overdrive (culminating in the part of the story that truly threw me off and made him very unlikeable - fucking the non consenting, sleeping Juwon just cause he couldn't even properly open up about his jealousy...) or Juwon not taking any action because of excessive overthinking, leading to more misunderstandings making him even more flustered and overthinking, creating a vicious cycle of avoidance. That's why reading this felt frustrating at times, and like we have static, one dimensional characters at play who don't even attempt to learn. Juwon fails times and times again, not because he tries, but because he does the same thing - overthink, avoid, repeat. Jeong-min stays silent in crucial moments, and only ever speaks up when shit has hit the fan and Juwon can't take the initiative cause of overthinking. That same pattern throughout the whole story felt too repetitive. Because of that, their backstory as to how Jeong-min fell for Juwon far back while watching him during qualifiers didn't hit that hard. It didn't feel super genuine. It was as a nice addition to everything, but that's about it.
Jeong-min is supposed to be very poker faced, sure, but I wish he'd unravel a bit more before Juwon as at times, he felt absent. He has his subtle or, at times even not so subtle ways of showing interest, like a cat having its own language you have to take time to decipher (dog × cat dynamic), but in crucial moments, he felt a bit too stoic, unbothered by the misunderstandings or avoidance from Juwon, and stone faced. It didn't help that the story barely showed his inner monologue or workings - I think if it did, he would feel more fleshed out. I appreciated the times when he wasn't as calm faced towards the end, though. Still, his character is tainted by what he did to Juwon while he was sleeping, and he never properly addressed that or apologized, which is super scummy and cowardly of him. For a character who's supposed to be so blunt and brave while calm and collected, he didn't seem like it in how he handled that situation. Still, it was cute to see how he appreciated Juwon and accepted his chaotic, well meaning nature, and saw him as motivation to continue competitive sports.
Juwon is still my beautiful princes (loved the moment where he jumped in Jeong-min's arms or when he was carried by him while passed out drunk), I love how human and real he feels in his insecurities, overthinking, and how he tries his best even if he fails again, and again... And again lol. He's earnest and passionate, so he felt more alive as a character for sure. His friend Seong-hyun did a loooot of the lifting for him in his personal development and giving him more of a push in the right direction, but I wish I'd seen more initiative in him trying to clear up misunderstandings heads on. I do appreciate that the story does depict a realistic dynamic (and issues) of just crushing on someone and getting to know them in that dating stage, it felt accurate. The worries, the butterflies, the fears of not coming off as clingy. But I wanted to see Juwon become braver and slowly overcome that. It's no wonder it was hard for him since Jeong-min, let's be honest, isn't the most reassuring, emotionally open type, so I understand to an extent why Juwon faced a challenge of navigating his emotions on his own. The dynamic with his sister felt super realistic to me as an only child - that's what I imagine a younger sister would be like to an older brother.
And now, my favorite character - Seong-hyun. I honestly want to read more about him. He seems so cool and like he knows shit. I want to know why Do-yoon is so bitter, I want to see them both unravel each other. I'm so sat for their story and I hope we get to read it someday.