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Jiwon Is Traumatized

This show has done everything to show us that this character is traumatized without changing the overall tone of this sweet, romantic show. This show is first and foremost a romance, and it really isn’t meant to be a dark, super angsty, gritty drama about the negative psychological impacts of being a national child athlete in the public eye and retiring after an injury. Personally, I think they do a good job of keeping the tone firmly in sweet romance territory while also showing us that Ji Won’s behavior has been heavily impacted by his experience with the media and netizens.

Jiwon’s Wardrobe Choices

Right from the start, this man is Covered Up. And even with all the hoodies and the hats he still keeps his head down, eyes glued to the ground. This is clearly someone who is afraid to be seen or recognized.

Him dressing and acting this way actually made sense to me, until we met Seung Jin.

The Nation’s Grandson

Aside from being part of the comedic relief and also one of my fav characters in this show, Seung Jin also serves as character exposition for Jiwon. He is meant to show us that Jiwon is actually quite beloved and has many adoring fans. Fans who, like Seung Jin, say lovely things about him, watch all of his competition footage, and buy him coffee trucks on his birthday. Seung Jin also says that his entire family loves Jiwon. This tells us that he’s definitely not the odd one out for being Jiwon’s fan.

So, why would someone who is generally quite beloved be so afraid of the public?

The Social Media of It All

Social media has been a constant presence in this show from the beginning, and one of the first things Jiwon tells us in his opening monologue was how ruthless people online were about his retirement.

When he first steps foot on campus people immediately start snapping pictures of him, posting about him online, whispering about him, starting all kinds of discourse, and Jiwon is clearly aware of the stir he’s causing just by simply existing.

I do think the show is doing it’s best to communicate how both the constant violation of Jiwon’s privacy and his previous experiences with online hate have made him into the cautious, hesitant, and anxious person he is when we meet him. The trauma he’s endured from being so young and so exposed is clearly also affecting his relationship with Jeongwoo to the point where he’s too traumatized to consider the situation rationally.

Jeongwoo’s Coming Out

I think Jiwon being present while Jeongwoo came out to his friends is very intentional. Because both Seung Jin and Eun Oh react extremely well. They take like one second to process, say something super quick as reassurance, and then immediately keep the conversation flowing asking things like “well then who’s the guy that you like?” Very very ideal and personally I loved it, but we must remember that Jiwon was also there the entire time watching the whole thing unfold.

We as audience members who watched it happen probably feel more comfortable about these two friends now. They’re clearly very laid-back and accepting, so we can make a pretty safe assumption that they’d take the fact that Jiwon and Jeongwoo are dating super well.

Jeongwoo has every reason to believe after this coming out that his friends would be accepting and kind about his relationship with Jiwon.

Jiwon, on the other hand, does not seem to feel assured by either Jeongwoo’s words or his first-hand experience seeing how accepting Seung Jin and Eun Oh are.

Can We Keep This A Secret?

The scene with the buddies in the apartment solidified my Jiwon Is Traumatized Theory once and for all because his knee-jerk reaction wasn’t just to deny that Jeongwoo likes Jiwon, but to also completely shove Jeongwoo back into the closet altogether 😵‍💫😭 He was so afraid of the implications of people knowing that they’re dating that he made up an entire story about Jeongwoo dating a woman. Even with Jeongwoo’s reassurance that his friends are discrete and that they should be safe to tell, even after we’ve seen those same friends react so well to Jeongwoo coming out, Jiwon is still too scared for anyone to know.

The Cultural Implications

I’ve talked with @nabi-unveiled about how some of my translation notes are on hold because I really can’t tell how strong homophobia is in the world of this show. In actual real-life modern-day 2025 South Korea, homophobia is alive and well, and lgbtq+ anti-discrimination protections are pretty much non existent. From Jeongwoo’s attitude, to his friends’ reactions, I honestly can’t tell is being gay is a bad thing in this world. We’ll have to wait and see what happens in regards to the dating rumors in the upcoming episodes.

Jiwon’s trauma aside, if this show is meant to be true to life in contemporary SK then Jiwon’s fear of being out and in a public gay relationship with another well-known athlete is, in my opinion, completely justified and very realistic. I honestly just can’t really tell quite yet.

To Conclude

I’ve seen some discourse abt Jiwon as a character, but any trauma he might have around his public perception and over-exposure really hasn’t been touched on as much. Personally, I’m choosing to view all of his decisions through this lens since it just makes everything he does make more sense to me.

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in an act of self-love I decided to take it easy this weekend and rewatch Our Dating Sim for the nth time and this is still my favorite scene:

Jin Seok: *absolutely sloshed on Tuesday Night* so where the hell has Wan been all this time? I thought maybe one day he'd pop out of nowhere with a kid or something

Gi Tae: *almost chokes on his beer* you thought my gay ass boyfriend would be doing what now

love that of all the nonsense coming out of Jin Seok in this scene, that's the line what made Gi Tae do a double-take lmao

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ANDOR 2.09 "Welcome To The Rebellion"

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DIEGO LUNA & GENEVIEVE O'REILLY ANDOR | S02E09 “Welcome to the Rebellion”

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Earlier, when you bravely said you would convince Attorney Tae Su-mi in front of Ms. Han, I made up my mind to be brave and say this. What is it you want to say? 

EXTRAORDINARY ATTORNEY WOO (2022)

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Heesu in Class 2: Maybe It’s Time to Stop Calling Myself a BL Viewer

After finishing Heesu in Class 2, it’s been surprising to feel like I’m in the minority for enjoying it. We’ve seen a great deal of concerted posting from fans of the webtoon about how this show betrayed its source material with its adaptation changes. Over the last few weeks, I’ve read the original webtoon to gather my own thoughts. After reading through @my-rose-tinted-glasses post on why this project didn’t work for her, I decided to sit with it for a while. I then came across this tweet from Dr. Thomas Baudinette:

I respect Dr. Baudinette’s academic interest in the genre and the useful insider insight he brings to the table. However, I will say plainly that I think this is a grossly disingenuous take, grounded in the idea that stories about queer romance take precedence over other queer stories. Additionally, it deeply misreads the adaptation choices and insinuates that a queer show that includes heterosexuality in it is somehow betraying the BL audience. There’s a lot to unpack here, but I will say plainly that I will go back to just being a queer cinephile who dabbles in BL instead of advocating for BL if this is who we are.

I am a queer person here for stories about queer truth. BL is a romance genre. While I respect BL viewers who are here to get their feelings from swoony moments, I cannot abide the presumption that a story that is inherently about the coming out experience somehow let its source material down for maintaining that connection. Every year we get into a big fight about what is or isn’t BL (see: 180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us, Love in the Big City, What Did You Eat Yesterday?, etc.), often arguing that BL is a branding term used to get romance viewers to show up and support queer works. I think it’s fine enough to argue that Heesu in Class 2 isn’t a BL because it uses Korean drama frameworks (@lurkingshan) for its story instead of sandblasting you in the face with pop music as two boys stare at each other, but I think there’s real value in what the show is doing for mainstream viewers.

I’ve avoided discussing the webtoon too much in my commentary, but now that I have read it I will say firmly that this would have sucked as a TV show. We know that about 40-50% of the shows we get each year are based on their source material. The webtoon is adorable and well-intentioned. It’s also a very simple narrative in which we are primarily in Heesu’s point of view, and any time we leave his point of view it’s to see only what other people are thinking about him. In my opinion, simpler narratives like the Heesu webtoon work best as films and not as dramas. 

We recently went through this with Living With Him, in which a really short manga got stretched to eight episodes and had to add contrivances to the middle to pad out the time that eventually hurt the core narrative. Thai BL is rife with secondary, tertiary, and quaternary couples to pad out time to meet the long run time demands of the airing schedule. When you’re adapting a fairly simple story, you either have to add depth or bloat. Oftentimes we get both. In the case of Heesu, it’s clear that they were only adapting the first season of the webtoon, and so they added depth.

The constant refrain from detractors of this webtoon is that it deprioritized the queer characters and their narrative in favor of straight narratives. I wholeheartedly disagree. Every single straight story in this show (and the gay ones) are meant to add context to the queer struggles Hee Su and Seung Won face, from Ji Yu and Chan Young to all three of his sisters.

Ji Yu’s music arc hearkens to the queer fear of being public with yourself and facing judgment and scrutiny. Chan Young’s tennis arc features real parental abandonment consequences that many a queer person fears. Hee Sin exemplifies how easy it is to fall for people and also deal with the constant rejection of most people not being into you (because they’re straight). Hee Jae exemplifies how toxic a relationship with your best friend can be when the romantic feelings aren’t fully reciprocal. Hee Yeong shows us what it means to be brave and face your friend after you’ve let them down romantically. Ho Sik highlights how easy it is for straight people to express and pursue their romances, and then be public with them. None of these plots exist in a vacuum; they’re meant to add context to the tension between Hee Su and Seung Won.

On the queer front, the show expanded on the initial lesbian advice plotline as a way for Hee Su to open the discussion about queerness with his siblings. The look shared between the sisters, their careful responses, and the way they treat him in the final episode after Hee Su comes out to Hee Sin shows that they talked to each other. Hee Sin clearly pulled on her prior knowledge when she insisted to Hee Su that she still loves him. Hee Jae, the grumpiest sister, was especially direct about praising Hee Su when he offered to help them take Hee Yeong to the airport. Hee Yeong told him plainly that he must remember that she is always on his side and will support him. Seung Won’s mom acknowledged that her own coming out affected him, and let him decide how open to be about his family.

The coming out sequence with Hee Sin was so powerful. He made it clear that this isn’t a gay-for-you situation. He said plainly that his crushes are on guys, and will probably always be on guys. Hee Sin’s response took me back to this incredible scene from The Fosters, in which Lena’s dad apologizes to her for saying “I still love you.” He rejects it as something horrible, in which you confirm to your kid that you could possibly stop loving them. He says he wishes he had instead said, “Thank you for telling me something so important about yourself, and I can’t wait to meet the person you want to share your life with.” 

I’m also annoyed about the insistence that the straights were given priority in this narrative in which everyone gets about the same level of on-screen intimacy. This is a show that managed to avoid getting an R rating, which means that it’ll be accessible to a much wider range of viewers without needing additional parental controls. The straights getting time means that when the gays throw the ease at which they pursued romance back in their faces, it’s actually grounded in events that transpired in the narrative. I will also say that I did NOT like the way Jiyu and Chanyoung meddled with Heesu in the webtoon, and thought conspiring with Seung Won was not kind to Heesu. I like that the drama instead uses their stories to support the queer themes as Ji Yu directly supports Seung Won.

I’d also like to say that all the Chan Young commentary troubles me. Hee Su has been in love with this boy for ten years. I actually think the show needs to spend time fleshing him out into a real person for the audience to understand why Hee Su likes him so much. He’s charming and friendly. He’s kind and thoughtful. He wants to help the people he cares about. He also trusts Hee Su implicitly. 

I do not blame him for being overwhelmed and surprised when Hee Su suddenly confessed to him, and I think there is real value in him botching that moment. So many viewers who might not have spent a lot of time thinking about how they would handle queer people coming out to them will benefit from seeing Chan Young flub that moment. What’s more important is that he did eventually talk to Hee Su and begin to repair the break in their friendship. It isn’t about being right every single time; it’s about always doing the work required to make things right. 

Finally, I really loved that Hee Su got to be mad at Seung Won for confusing him all this time. It was fun to see Hee Su, who I think was way out of line for always interfering in Chan Young’s life, face the reality that he had also been subject to that kind of behavior. This worked so well for me because we understood that what Seung Won liked so much about Hee Su was how warm and open he was. I will have more to say in the future about how many shows we’ve already had this year reject one-sided pining as inherently pure.

In the end, it’s just a really dissonant experience for me to see such a kind show getting such an energetic negative response. Like anyone else who’s watched over 300 BLs since 2016, I like seeing cute boys kiss each other and make face as much as anyone else. However, if we’re unable to appreciate using a webtoon with clear ideas about the difficulty of coming out when you’re in love with a friend in a format that far more viewers are used to, I don’t think I can rock with this anymore. I can’t even find myself associated with the kinds of people who would have called Degrassi homophobic because it wasn’t exclusively gay. 

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Lessons from Heesu in Class 2 finale

One of the things I've really loved about Heesu in Class 2 is that the show has always made its characters speak their thoughts to each other. Clear communication is usually not a forte of teenagers, but the way it is done in the show feels realistic, while also modelling good conflict resolution for the teens.  Chanyoung just fleeing the room after hearing Heesu's confession was hurtful to Heesu in the moment but completely understandable from Chanyoung's perspective because he was completely taken aback by the confession and needed time to process it. And when he did, he called Heesu into *his* safe place, the tennis court, and smacked Heesu a little for putting him on the spot like that. Once Chanyoung had exhausted his anger and frustration, he expressed his regret for not reacting better in the moment, which released the tension and gave way to them falling into their normal rapport of teasing each other. 

And as the scene progresses, we learn that Chanyoung not only took the time to process Heesu's past feelings for him and how he feels about it, he then thought about and figured out the reason for Heesu's emotional turmoil beyond the information Heesu had given him in that room. He realized that Heesu must’ve confessed to him not because he wanted to pursue him romantically, but because he is interested in somebody else and was seeking closure on his past crush on his best friend. He surprises Heesu by asking him if he likes Seungwon, and when he learns that Heesu has not told Seungwon yet, he pushes him to confess to Seungwon, much like how Jiyu was pushing Seungwon to do the same in the previous episodes.

I really loved how the show took the time to flesh out these characters, making them multidimensional and complex. Chanyoung’s subpar reaction to his friend coming out to him does not make him selfish, it makes him human. And expecting Chanyoung to tone down his extremely valid emotions to make himself palatable to his friend in a moment of discomfort between them would be hypocritical, especially when that expectation is framed as well-intentioned towards a queer character.

And the show’s commitment to modelling good communication was also reflected in Seungwon’s confession to Heesu. Over the course of the show, the carrot juice box went from something that made Heesu curious about his secret admirer, to an object that was in the middle of an effort to forcibly out him to his classmates and friends. Seungwon initiating his confession with that juice box recontextualized all of his actions throughout their friendship to Heesu, and he was rightfully angry at Seungwon for letting the ruse go on for so long. Heesu was mad at the disingenuity and the meddling of it all: Seungwon secretly liking him from Day 1 of their friendship means that he has always had more information about things happening to Heesu than Heesu himself. It is humiliating to know that every interaction you’ve had with a person you’ve considered a friend had hidden motivations.

But Heesu also understands why Seungwon did it; it is the same reason why it took him so long to confess to Chanyoung. Seungwon telling Heesu that he’s really sorry for lying but he did it because he likes him too is not lacking in explanation because we know that Heesu would understand exactly what he means, because he did the same thing with Chanyoung. Both of them meddled in their crushes’ lives in hopes that they would magically fall in love with them because the thought of confessing to them directly and getting rejected romantically as a queer teen was too scary and painful. When they finally embrace each other, we could see that tension drain from both Heesu and Seungwon, as they feel the other accept and understand them, despite their past actions and choices.

I am very happy that we got a show where the characters were allowed to be flawed and human, while also having them treat each other with kindness and understanding. I think Heesu in Class 2 did an excellent job of balancing the realities of being queer while also instilling hope that kind and meaningful community and relationships can be built, even in the fucked-up, non-bl-bubble world where homophobia exists.

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The universe is vast and mysterious. This small dot that we live in is insignificant compared to endless space. We, who live in it, are mere cosmic dust. Such insignificant tiny beings like us manage to find each other amidst countless specks of dust. How great of a miracle is that? So perhaps.... we being cosmic dust… have nothing else to do but love.

Heesu in Class 2 (2025) dir. Park Kyung Min

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Rambling thoughts on Heesu in Class 2

I apologize in advances I’m typing this on a cellphone in the freezing cold. There will be typo.

My god. What an amazing queer coming of age story. I have not read the original material and I do not plan on doing so.

I loved that each character had some background and was flawed. It felt real and human. Heesu’s overthinking. The sisters making the same mistakes in their own relationships. Seung Won’s palpable loneliness. Chan Young’s feelings of inadequacy due to at home pressures. Ji Yu trying accepting the rumors about herself.

The friendships. Let’s get into the friendships. I saw so many people criticizing Heesu’s and Chan Young’s friendship and that was my favorite part of the whole show. Heesu lost himself in their friendship many years ago. Didn’t realize he did because Chan Young was safe. Chan Young never felt the need to ask Heesu about his likes and his secrets. I do not believe Chan Young is selfish or self centered. He simply believed Heesu would bear of the parts of himself just like he previously did. It wasn’t until their dynamic changed that either full realized that they weren’t on equal footing. I love that each time that they fault it wasn’t some big dramatic makeup. They acknowledged their mistakes in their own way (Chan Young even said next time you have big news tell me on the court) and then they laughed.

My best friends and I have fought in the same way. We acknowledged the hurt and the make up doesn’t have to be this overly dramatic thing. No one on this show or in real life is perfect. No one is the perfect friend. We all mess up and we are all capable of understanding that harm wasn’t intended even if things hurt at times.

Seung Won my baby duckling. Showing us that even if you have queer elders coming out can still be hard. Because it can still be unsafe outside of your bubble. Ji Yu showing us that even allies will sometimes ignore the blaring truth that to be queer is to experience that your love is different. That it will be accepted differently and that it can have consequences when that are different in het or even het appearing relationships.

Heesu…. My little bunny. Showing what it means to grieve your first love. To embrace a part of you that you never thought you would tell the world. To have the ones you love the most react in different ways to you presenting your whole self. Still embrace yourself and still have to shield yourself from the rest of the world.

The pacing. I loved it. I loved we didn’t end up with a big kiss. Just to soft boys embracing the beginnings of love. I loved the secret hand holding. The reality that they couldn’t be as open as their het friends. It felt like a lived experience. It felt hopeful.

I even noticed the colors( @respectthepetty I think I noticed a yellow/orange oddity, a blue boy, a purple princess, and I think a green guy but I could be wrong on that last one). It gave us the kdrama feel that I enjoy. I loved the connection to space. I loved the soundtrack. It hit all the right spots for me. All queer dramas should be 45 minutes per episode

I also noticed people really hate the reality in queer media. When characters are nuanced and are flawed they seem to be read as “too much”. Too much of a villain. Too much of a victim. Never just human. I wasn’t surprised that the show was criticized, but I was surprised about how the show was criticized. Queer baiting in a queer show? An 18 year old who ran away from home running away from a confession? High schoolers being high schoolers?

Everyone doesn’t like everything and I also enjoy reading critiques. I love seeing the things that I am missing or simply missing because it’s not on my radar, but this was interesting to watch in real time. Kind of reminds me of the last episode of Miseinen. I saw criticism of how it didn’t feel real. But like Miseinen, Heesu in Class 2 felt close to real life/ real lived queer experience.

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Boyfriends. Finally 😭😭😭

Bonus:

I know there will come a time that they wouldn't care what other people think, but at least for now, they are happy 😭😭😭

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Heesu in Class 2: A Lovely Queer Kdrama

This wonderful little show has come to an end, and I want to talk a bit about why I enjoyed it so very much, because it has been one of my absolute favorites of the year. Let's break it down!

Before I jump in, let me address the elephant in the room: this series is loosely based on a manhwa of the same title--and I do mean it when I say "loosely"--which has been the source of much consternation among manhwa fans who were hoping it would be closer to its source material. It's not, and it's not trying to be. The show took a fairly simple BL manhwa and gave it the full kdrama treatment, building out the world around Heesu and altering much of the story as a result. The show is entirely its own thing, and I am reading and judging it based only on what it set out to achieve with its narrative, not on how it compares to the manhwa.

The Narrative Structure

The most crucial thing to understand about this show from a narrative perspective is that despite being labeled as a kbl, it's really structured like a kdrama. Most kbls are two to four hours total and laser focused on the romance, with little time spent on other characters or the wider world. And that's understandable given the constraints they are typically under on both time and budget. Heesu is different. With 10 50-minute episodes, its officially the longest kbl ever made, if still shortish for a mainstream kdrama (those are usually 12-16 hours). And the creators took advantage of that extra time to make what is basically a kdrama/kbl hybrid that largely mimics structures and tropes from mainstream kdrama.

Specifically, the show deploys a really classic kdrama romance trope that I refer to as the love rhombus, where four characters get into messy lines of attraction that start out mostly one-sided and mismatched before eventually settling into two pairs by the end of the story. It also includes heavy emphasis on friendship and family relationships, and uses all its side characters to parallel and mirror the main story. If you watch kdramas regularly (as I do), you've seen this structure in lots of shows and have a good sense of how the story is going to play out. If you don't, and come to this show expecting it to behave like a typical kbl, you may end up confused. This show cares about a lot more than the main romance.

The Lead

Heesu is our lead, and I find him to be such an endearing character. He feels like an actual teenager in the way he's a huge mess of contradictions. Sweet and kind, but also frequently selfish and short-sighted. Generous and committed to helping others, but also kinda mean and quick to jump to wrong conclusions if someone gets on his bad side. He is the core driver of the narrative, as ultimately this is his queer coming of age story. When we begin the show, he is hiding himself from all of his loved ones, nursing an obviously doomed crush on his best friend, and badly misreading many of the people around him because he's so caught up in his own struggles.

The Friendships

There are multiple important friendships in this show, but the rift between Heesu and Chanyoung is at the heart of the story. They are longtime best friends who have started to become distant from each other as Heesu pulled back and began hiding himself upon realizing he has romantic feelings for his friend. Heesu's feelings, and the fear he has about Chanyoung finding out about them, has come between them and started to weaken the trust they have in each other, and Chanyoung begun pulling back in response. We follow as Heesu meddles in Chanyoung's relationships and struggles with whether and how to tell Chanyoung how he feels, and Chanyoung in turn tries to get Heesu to tell him what is going on with him. They are also joined by their mutual friend Hosik, a delightful character who brings so much fun to every scene he's in and has his own little love story.

The other important friendship, and one of my favorite relationships in the show, is between Seungwon and Jiyu, another pair of longtime best friends. Seungwon ends up dragging Jiyu into his mess when he pretends to like her as a cover for asking Heesu for help, and ends up coming out to her to explain himself. I love their friendship and the way Jiyu balances calling him on his lies with covering for him with others until he works up the courage to come clean. She's a real one.

The Families

I also love that this drama gives us a sense of Heesu, Seungwon, and Chanyoung's home lives. Heesu lives with his three older sisters, and his close relationships with them, and the way they've clearly influenced him to be more in tune with his emotions, is delightful. Seungwon, in contrast, has a much more solitary home life. His parents are divorced and his mom now has a female partner and travels frequently for work, so he's often alone. Chanyoung struggles with his father, who compares him unfavorably to his older brother and threatens to disown him for following his passions. These family relationships give the boys more shading and help us understand their motivations and the choices they make, and also set up some important parallels in the narrative, with Chanyoung's struggle with his father mirroring Heesu's fears about coming out. And in the end we get to see Heesu slowly work toward coming out to his sisters and Seungwon talk to his mom about her same sex relationship and how it affects him, both of which I found so lovely and rewarding.

The Romances

Like all love rhombus kdramas, this show has two primary pairs, with Heesu and Seungwon's queer romance at the center of the story and Chanyoung and Jiyu's romance serving as a thematic foil. Seungwon is pining after Heesu the entire time but hiding it, while Heesu is working through his feelings for Chanyoung and getting increasingly confused as his feelings for the two boys begin to shift. Jiyu and Chanyoung connect and get together fairly early on in the show as Heesu and Seungwon struggle much longer to get on the same page and sort out the various untruths they've told each other. And that is entirely the point! The queer characters in this story have a lot more obstacles to overcome and a lot of legitimate fears about revealing themselves; for them it's not as easy as just confessing and moving on if it doesn't work out. I loved the contrast of these two romances and also found both couples so easy to root for, especially given how generous they all were to each other as they sorted out their mess.

The Themes

This show is entirely rooted in the queer experience, with Heesu using his love of space and astronomy to draw thematic ties to his experience of life as a gay teenager in a non-bubble world. The astronomy metaphors the show deploys work so well to make the story feel coherent and connected, not to mention inspire the gorgeous visuals used to highlight these themes. This story is all about Heesu's journey to tell his loved ones his truth, to sort out what he wants from the people around him, and to find the courage to reach for his own happiness. All of the side characters are beautifully fleshed out into real and whole people, and their stories all mirror Heesu's own struggles and inform his emotional landscape. In the end, we get to watch Heesu mature, fall in love, sort his relationships, and achieve comfort and happiness with who he is. It's a great ride, and I highly recommend it for anyone who cares about queer stories.

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Heesu In Class 2 Ep9: What an Episode of Television

I'm still breathing through my emotions after watching the latest episode of Heesu. If you haven't watched yet, tomorrow is the finale and I highly recommend catching up so that you can sit with the emotional overwhelm of this ep before we get the last episode!

I have been loving how this show understands queerness and how queerness especially while closeted can be overwhelming, and the ways in which the show has used the heterosexual storylines in the side characters to highlight, underscore, and uplift the emotions that come with the closet.

@neuroticbookworm wrote beautifully about the build of emotions this episode, and @lurkingshan perfectly described how much the visual metaphor of the climactic scene affected me and @happypotato48 did a beautiful job putting the metaphor into words. @dramadramallama captured my feelings about the way the show said to camera that a gay crush has additional concerns that make confessing so much harder, and @bengiyo wrote an excellent analysis of how the heterosexual stories have been in service to the main story.

I'm going to build on some of the things not already mentioned, so read these posts too!

Everything in this show is so carefully calibrated to work together to tell this story, and it is breathtaking. I'm still thinking about the way Heesu tested the waters with his siblings by mentioning the lesbian who asked him for advice at school and how he was so relieved that SeungWon has lesbian moms from several episodes ago because at the least there is one person who he knows won't hate him just because of his queerness. That was such a good foundation for the way we get fully immersed in Heesu's struggle with the closet in this episode and why he's having such a difficult time telling his friends what's going on with him. And as Ben mentioned in his post, Chan Young and Ji Yu are also out here illustrating some of the things Heesu is worried about, with their struggles with parental rejection and peer ostracization/attention.

In addition, one of the smaller storylines this episode was Ho Sik confessing because he was encouraged to, and being rejected. I love this happening now because it's another illustration of how much easier it is for heterosexuals to confess. Ho Sik was unsure he was going to be accepted, but he was not afraid of the whole school hating him, of his friends rejecting him, of his life being upended because of the confession. He gets to just be sad and move on (with someone waiting in the wings).

Heesu's sister's stories and the way they relate to the queer experience struck me as well this episode. The reveal that Hee Jong bailed on her ex the way Yeong bailed on Gyu Ho (sorry for the Love in the Big City spoilers but if you haven't seen that show yet you just gotta go do that before you do anything else anyway) was a battering ram to my solar plexus. Her siblings have thought that he abandoned her, but it was the other way around. And she did it because she was scared. The fact that she's gathered her pride and her courage and will be joining him after all even without expectation of their romance reigniting is beautiful to me, and such a good example for her younger sibling that being afraid and holding yourself back hurts the people you love who you inevitably are holding yourself back from. And the message that even if you've hurt one another, and your relationship ends, it doesn't necessarily mean that you can't go back to being friends is a good one. It's not always true, but it's something Heesu needed to hear while gathering his own courage to confess to Chan Young, not because he wants a romantic relationship anymore but because he values their friendship.

Chan Young and Heesu's friendship has see-sawed across the series, as first Chan young and then Heesu's secrets got in the way. They are parallel stories and by showing us Chan Young isolating from Heesu first (around tennis), we understand the emotions behind why he' so upset when Heesu does the same thing to him (we saw Heesu upset at Chan Young when he wouldn't tell him about tennis for this very reason--so that there's precedent for Heesu's secret being such a big deal to Chan Young now). Chan Young revealed to his dad that he was going to go for tennis and he turned to his friend, because he knew Heesu would have his back even though he hadn't shared his worries or plans about tennis with him before. But coming out is different. Chan Young tried to turn on the light in Heesu's bedroom to get him to spill what's bothering him, but Heesu could not tell him even in the dark while they were in his bedroom. He needed the neutral location of the classroom, and I'm unwell about how scared Heesu is that Chan Young is going to hate him, that he didn't feel safe telling him at his house, or was worried it would force Chan Young to leave if it made him not feel safe there. The way our presence is sometimes such a threat that we have to worry about that makes me physically ill.

That being said, Chan Young being so upset that the best friend who is currently saving his life (maybe dramatic, but as someone who also left home to stay with a friend when things were too much, it feels this way) doesn't trust him with something is valid. Everyone has the right to come out in their own time when they're ready, and should not be forced or rushed. And, at the same time, when we don't tell someone such a fundamental truth about ourselves, it isolates them from us and does not allow them to fully know us. Both of these things are true, and the tension between them is why the closet is so miserable. I loved Chan Young calling this out explicitly this episode: Heesu does not trust him with who he is, and that hurts; just like it hurt Heesu when Chan Young wasn't sharing his concerns about tennis and his family with him. Both of these two have struggled being vulnerable with one another, and these conversations are necessary for their friendship to deepen. Heesu making the decision to not just come out to Chan Young but to confess that he had a crush is him laying all of his cards down, and is excruciatingly vulnerable of him. I'm so proud of Heesu that he was able to get to this place, and Chan Young for opening up first and being such a good friend that Heesu felt safe enough to trust him with this.

Finally, shout out to Ji Yu for being my voice in this show lol she has been such a good friend through this whole series and the way she keeps pushing Seungwon to tell Heesu the truth while supporting him in his lies has been peak best friend behaviour. I love that Seungwon has not had the same pressure of the full closet this whole time and how the fact that his secret-keeping is narratively held differently than Heesu's secret keeping was so deftly done. Heesu is in this black hole and the only way out is through, and Seungwon is both terrified of him leaving it and desperate for him to do it. I love that the show calls out that Heesu's unresolved crush on Chan Young is holding both of them back, and that Seungwon has committed to confessing and made it as clear as he can without confessing that he has feelings for Heesu (and he's been extra careful to clarify that he does not have feelings for Ji Yu), so that Heesu is not left uncertain or emotionally toyed with.

This show has been excellent slow build television, grappling with how queerness complicates one-sided love, how the closet is soul-destroying and so isolating, how our first love does not have to be our best love, and how being honest about what we want and having courage and support to go after it is the route to happiness. I'm so excited for tomorrow's finale.

[everything-on-a-bl-bagel]

Heesu in Class 2 Understands How to Reach a Climax

I'm so amped by Heesu in Class 2 Episode 9. We've been dealing with viewer tension for weeks on whether the show is even good, whether it betrays its source material with its changes, whether the expansions detract from the core narrative, and more. After reading the manwha to understand the criticisms, I am here to say plainly that all the extra hetero plotlines in the show were essential and absolutely paid off in this episode. We have been saying for weeks that the secrets our gay boys are holding have been hurting themselves and those they care about. This episode delved directly into not only the pain these secrets case, but also the emotional work required to process them and move forward.

Ji Yu Works So Well Because She Leads By Example

With Seung Won, his continued hesitancy with Hee Su has led to his own pouty spiral because he thinks Hee Su is going to confess to Chan Young instead. He is rightfully mad at Ji Yu when he pushes back on her insistence that he confess with the almost-insurmountable struggle to put yourself out there and admit your queerness. Ji Yu is also right when she says there's no way else but forward. Unrequited love that goes unspoken is fundamentally nonproductive and only leads to bitterness (something Something's Not Right is showing well right now).

With Ji Yu, she continues to lead by example for these boys. Rather than simply scold Seung Won with her insistence that he confess to Hee Su, she also makes the brave choice to make her Summer persona public. She puts on a brave front with Chan Young about how the next phase of her audition will be public, but she still admits that it was terrifying. I love the show giving the straight audience members a way to connect to the fear of publicity that closeted folks fear by giving Ji Yu something important that she was nervous to share publicly. The show undergirds the importance of having people in your corner with her newfound relationship with Chan Young because he's able to give her needed emotional support, which she does in turn.

The Tennis Plotline Is Meant to Parallel The Fear of Being Rejected By Your Family

Similarly to Ji Yu, Chan Young has to face something that comes with real personal stakes with his family. I've resisted counter-posting about the tennis criticism about the importance and role of sports narratives in drams, but now is the time. Many people have played sports, and Chan Young's sports plotline gives the uninitiated drama viewers a chance to compare his experience with wanting something (tennis) that his parents are actively punishing him for pursuing with Hee Su's fears of rejection with Chan Young.

The show times his public fight with Hee Su perfectly, because Chan Young has been staying with Hee Su for days, and has asked him directly about what's going on. Chan Young is literally not able to feel safe or happy living at home if he pursues his love of tennis, and he's staying with his best friend in the meantime. When Hee Su also rightfully pushes back on Chan Young that admitting his crush isn't an easy thing, Chan Young is also correct that it wasn't easy for him either but that he trusted Hee Su with it because Hee Su is important to him.

It's fundamentally about trust. Chan Young trusts Hee Su implicitly, and he's hurt that Hee Su doesn't trust him, too. When Chan Young took a big risk to continue to pursue tennis, he found safety and shelter at Hee Su's home. It's clear that Hee Su's sisters love Chan Young, because he fights with them like a bratty little brother. He loves his friend. His friend is clearly struggling with something. He's hurt and confused that Hee Su won't tell him important things when he entrusts all of his weaknesses with Hee Su.

This show also understands that drama viewers who love sports stories won't accept unreasonable outcomes. Chan Young has not been conditioning for months. There's no way he can compete at a high level in singles right now, but he showed heart and determination in his loss. He's skilled enough to perform well in doubles, and he's committed himself to another year of training. That is the appropriate resolution to his sports narrative, which is properly capped by his brother coming to support him.

Chan Young has held his own resentment about feeling secondary to his brother, and yet we learned today that the brother also gave up his love for tennis to pursue the medical career his parents wanted for him. He looked back at his little brother being brave enough to say no, and he gave his brother his full support. With only three scenes across the entire show they managed to sell an entire arc.

Hee Su's Sisters Show That Our Families Will Also Be the Ones to Help Us

This show doubles down on its commitment to showing how withholding important feelings from your loved ones hurts both parties by then turning to Hee Jeong, who reveals that she's going to go back to studying to join her ex abroad in the program she bailed. I loved her telling this important thing to her siblings in the morning and then having a morning walk with Hee Su, because she unintentionally gives him the perspective he needed to move forward.

For all the commentary we've gotten about the additional time Ji Yu and Chan Young have gotten in this show, there's been little complaining about how much time has been given to the sisters' romances. In this episode, Hee Jae is struggling with her on-and-off boyfriend through what seems to be a lack of vulnerability and sincerity in their relationship. However, Hee Jeong reminds Hee Su that regardless of her romance with her ex, he's still her best friend, and she must honor that friendship if it still means anything to her. What an excellent way to set up that forthcoming confession.

This Drama Corrected Lies in the Right Order

I've read the manwha, and I did not like the order of operations when we reached the climax. I absolutely love that Seung Won corrects the misunderstanding on his attraction to Ji Yu before he and Hee Su say the important things to each other tomorrow, and I am absolutely ecstatic that Hee Su told Chan Young that he had a crush on him.

I did NOT like the manwha having Hee Su tell Chan Young that he had a crush on Seung Won as his way of coming clean. I understand the choice because the reader knows that Chan Young already knows about Hee Su, but it is important for Hee Su to confess to Chan Young first because he needs to honor their friendship. Chan Young needs answers that Hee Su has actively refused to give. I am still floating because of that ending scene.

Most importantly, I like that Seung Won is still sitting in his tension that Hee Su would still try with Chan Young. Not only does he have to worry about his own potential rejection if Hee Su hasn't moved on, he also has to worry about how this would hurt his friend Ji Yu. However, Seung Won did the right thing in such a quick moment that it's significance is each to miss: he told Hee Su and everyone else gathered) that he doesn't like Ji Yu; he's just her only friend. When these two confess tomorrow, Hee Su won't be doing it from a place of misunderstanding who Seung Won likes.

This Has Been an Excellent Love Rhombus

I have absolutely loved watching this show. Ahn Ji Ho has put on a great performance as Lee Hee Su, and I really love that this drama team took the bones of Heesu in Class 2 and turned it into a kdrama. We can discuss into oblivion whether they should have turned a BL webtoon into a gay kdrama, but damn did they make a good gay drama out of this.

I beef constantly with BL being unwilling to face the queer truths that the rest of us live with when it comes to being honest about who we are. The original webtoon did not exist in the bubble, and I have the utmost respect for the adaptation team in not showing it into the bubble. This show said loudly and plainly TWICE today that it isn't easy for queer people to make the choice to come out, and contrasted that with their loved ones all making bold, difficult choices to put themselves out there as well.

This is probably going to be show of the year for me. I'll see you all tomorrow for the finale.

[everything-on-a-bl-bagel]

I think the het couple in Heesu is fine (though I much preferred how the manhwa dealt with Heesu's feelings of isolation and the issue of being gay in a world where most are not without having a het couple). Honestly my biggest issue with them is how much time their sideplots take up when we could be spending that time developing Seungwon and Heesu's relationship. I just don't feel like for them being the main couple, they've really gotten the development and time spent together that they deserve. Again I could be biased since I'm coming from the perspective of having read the source material, which the show has deviated from at almost every step. But I just find it really hard to care about Jiyu's singing or Chanyoung's tennis issues. Especially when it feels like Heesu and Seungwon don't really have the same level of care put into their stories outside the other characters. Like I much would've preferred the time spent with Chanyoung's tennis issues to be spent seeing more about Seungwon and his Moms. Or just Seungwon and Heesu getting to be together. I feel like since the show invented the Jiyu/Chanyoung relationship and gave them much bigger roles than they had in the source material, they overcompensated in giving them all this sideplot that wasn't really necessary to the show and adds almost nothing of substance to it, while then cutting out or cutting short a lot of important developments between Seungwon and Heesu.

Hey anon. I'll be honest, I disagree with just about everything you've said here. I know it can be hard to be objective when you're coming in with a preconceived idea of what a story will be--whether that's due to an attachment to the source material or to BL genre conventions--and to get something completely different. But as a longtime kdrama viewer and someone who is decidedly not attached to the manhwa, I recognized what this show was doing from the start and I think it's done it all quite brilliantly. FWIW, I think this show is an example of a fantastic adaptation that adds a lot of depth and nuance to fairly simple source material, and I much prefer this version of the story.

Chanyoung and Jiyu get to be real and whole people in this story, not just props to serve the main ship. One of my longstanding issues with BL (and many het romcoms) is the way the other characters are often only there in service of the romance. They don't care about anything but pushing the main ship toward each other, and they are usually used just as comic relief or as the stand in for the viewers. That trope has its place, but I always like it when every character in a story is an actual person with motivations and conflicts of their own. Heesu has achieved that beautifully. Jiyu is one of my favorite characters this year, and that's not something you often get to say about women in BL. The friendship between Chanyoung and Heesu is such an important part of the story, and I also love that the show is unpacking the ways in which Heesu, and many forlorn piners before him, can lose sight of the good relationships they already have in their pursuit of the thing they think they want. Everything that happens with Chanyoung and Jiyu's romance supports the main narrative of Heesu's growth, he and Seungwon's relationship development, and the themes about how queerness makes things different for them. It's exactly what a good side couple is supposed to do in a story.

I also super disagree with the notion that Heesu and Seungwon are underdeveloped or haven't had enough screen time. First of all, when you consider that Heesu is almost triple the length of the average KBL, Heesu and Seungwon are getting more screen time than most KBL couples do, even if they are not the focus of literally every scene. They've been getting closer every episode and we've spent quite a lot of time with them separately and together. They are both working through their hang ups and fears, and the story is taking its time to let that play out organically rather than forcing it to go fast for the sake of delivering more romance tropes (another thing I often dislike in the genre). This is crucial not only so their development feels real and believable, but also because the queer couple having more obstacles to get on the same page is a huge part of the point. We have had the pleasure of watching Heesu slowly fall for Seungwon without even realizing it was happening, and now arrive at awareness but still have mess to wade through because Seungwon has been too afraid to tell the truth. It has been a fantastic love story from where I'm sitting, and I'm looking forward to the conclusion.

It has made me sad and pretty frustrated to see the vitriol many BL watchers have aimed at this show. If we want queer stories to reach more people, we can't reject anything that deviates even slightly from the BL formula. It's remarkable that Heesu in Class 2 exists, that it was given proper funding to develop a whole ass queer kdrama with great writing and acting and strong themes and great production values, and that it has executed its story at such a high quality level. I hope those of us who appreciate it for what it is are enough to counteract the hate being directed its way, because it would be a shame if it becomes the only show of its kind thanks to the backlash.

[everything-on-a-bl-bagel]

Heesu in class 2 Ep. 8

Did I not say I was looking forward to Heesu focusing his energy onto Seong Won? Love it. But he's kind of obsessive about everything so he can't stop thinking about Seong Won liking Ji Yu. Pro and cons of being that emotional. The good the emotions are high but so are the bad.

I haven't said it previously but I love Heesu's house. The entrance/livingroom/kitchen area are great.

Yesss to Ji Yu scolding Heesu. Deserved. Also yess I want them to be friends.

It's interesting because I'm feeling anxious about Seong Won confession instead of excitement. There is a sense of something will go wrong instead of relief. Same for Chan young and Heesu that there needs to be conversation otherwise things will bubble over.

And then the ending. Good for Heesu. Though I would equate the asteroid destroying everything would be him confessing to Seong Won so slightly confused by the metaphor. I knew that Seong Won pretending to be carrot was not the right move. He needs to be honest and direct instead of the subterfuge he has been engaging in.

Can't wait for the last two episodes :)))

[everything-on-a-bl-bagel]

Heesu in Class 2 Adaptations 2.0: I LOVED the argument in Episode 7!

I am once again going to say how grateful I am for the way the writers of Heesu in Class 2 have taken the original content in the manhwa and really just ran with it in a number of different directions. This show is taking, in my opinion, some pretty huge risks in the changes they are making to the story and as with any adaptations venture, obviously that can be a struggle to accept and I am immensely aided by reading the manhwa after watching the first couple episodes of Heesu in Class 2. But I so deeply believe the risks they are taking are paying off when it comes to adding depth and complexity to the storytelling. 

Adding more screen time for Chanyoung and Jiyu to the show when they were far more background in the manhwa is something that I am actually finding incredibly important to the story that is unfolding on the screen. I am not often interested in heterosexual side couples in shows but making the change from Jiyu and Chanyoung being co-conspirators in a plot to get Heesu and Seong Won together to instead having them become a couple is something that I think has been an important shift, allowing Jiyu and Chanyoung as a couple to act as a narrative parallel to Heesu and Seong Won demonstrating both the ways in which being heterosexual can make certain aspects of the dating process easier. You have a lot less to lose in a confession when you are operating under the assumption that the other party is straight when you are also straight than you do when you are operating under the assumption that the other person is straight and you are queer. 

gifs by @jimmysea

We have already seen Heesu be threatened to be outed by a vindictive ex of Chanyoung, as much as this show has been primarily kind and adorable, this is not a show that exists outside of the dangers of homophobia and Heesu and his utter hesitancy to confess to Chanyoung after years of having a crush on him is a great indicator of the underlying anxiety of just how dramatically their relationship might change if he were to come out and admit his gay love for Chanyoung. 

I appreciated so much in episode 7 how patient Jiyu was being with Heesu despite how shitty he was treating her because she knows exactly why he is acting that way. Heesu is mad at Jiyu for dating Chanyoung, his best friend, because he feels like Seong Won a person that he has increasingly deep romantic feelings for is being slighted by the person he thinks he has a crush on. But she isn’t going to out Heesu to Seong Won and she isn’t going to out Seong Won to Heesu because that is also an objectively shitty thing to do. 

And that results in an actual argument!! 

I will trade every part of the manhwa simply to have gotten that fight between Jiyu, Heesu, Chanyoung, and Seong Won. This is not something that existed in the original manhwa and I am so glad that the writing team actually took a minute to explore how deeply Seong Won and Heesu’s hesitancies to confess have caused very real pain to the people in their lives they care the most about. The way the anger and frustration different characters felt caused them to reveal truthful information in an attempt to hurt other people, or to even simply just get a behavior to stop for the love of GOD only for it to land on completely neutral emotional threads for the person the comments were directed to and ended up ricocheting and hurting someone else in the group who is missing a specific piece of context was fucking brilliant. 

gif by @hughungrybear

Because Seong Won refuses to confess to Heesu, Seong Won is hurting Jiyu because Jiyu is keeping her relationship with Chanyoung secret for him. But, in being tolerant of Seong Won’s absolute ridiculousness she is hurting Chanyoung, her boyfriend because she is forcing them to be a secret and she can’t tell him why. Thank FUCK Jiyu called Seong Young out for this in Episode 7.

Because Seong Won refuses to confess to Heesu, Heesu still thinks that he has a crush on Jiyu and is hurt on Seong Won’s behalf and is hurting Jiyu because he’s mad at her for hurting Seong Won’s feelings. And sure, I understand that Seong Won is hesitant to do so because he knows that Heesu has a crush on Chanyoung and that he is likely to get rejected, and Heesu’s negative reaction to finding out about the relationship can 100% be misinterpreted by Seong Won as Heesu sulking about his own crush on Chanyoung being foiled by his relationship with Jiyu. 

Instead, Heesu realizes his feelings for Chanyoung have changed and that he has developed a crush on Seong Won. But Heesu refuses to confess to Seong Won. Instead, he wants to do something without Seong Won’s help to, idk, prove something so he tries to start the astronomy club. Thus Heesu hurts Seong Won because Seong Won does not know that Heesu has a crush on him and therefore does not understand why Heesu is pushing back so often against him joining the astronomy club. Seong Won cares about Heesu and wants to make sure that he can do what he is passionate about and he has been told pretty clearly that he is not invited to the astronomy club so he asks Jiyu to sign up because she is a part of STEM. Thus Seong Won hurts Heesu because he does not understand the motivation behind Seong Won’s actions. And Heesu hurts Jiyu because he thinks she is using Seong Won’s crush on her to get him to do things for her. Which is isn’t but Heesu has no way of knowing that because Seong Won WON’T FUCKING CONFESS. 

[WHAT A GREAT FUCKING QUESTION, HEESU] gif by @taeminie

Heesu’s anger at Jiyu for what he assumes is her poor treatment of a friend hurts Chanyoung because Heesu is being mean to his girlfriend. Heesu hurts Chanyoung because both Heesu and Chanyoung think that Seong Won has a crush on Jiyu and Chanyoung is right that it is not Jiyu’s fault that Seong Won has a crush on her and that Heesu should not be taking this out on Jiyu. Seong Won is hurting Chanyoung because his refusal to tell the truth means that Chanyoung thinks that he has a crush on Jiyu, and Jiyu knows that is not the case and is very good friends with Seong Won and so continues to hang out with him and Chanyoung just has to sit there and tolerate what could very likely become a “this man is trying to steal my girlfriend” situation. And he is clearly uncomfortable with Jiyu and Seong Won spending time alone together but they still continue to do so and so Jiyu is hurting Chanyoung. 

And Chanyoung because he doesn’t know the truth, hurts Heesu in an attempt to hurt Seong Won by BEING THE ONE TO ACTUALLY JUST SAY THE GODDAMN THING. In this case, that he and Jiyu are an item. Which causes a fracture in the relationship between Heesu and Chanyoung. 

And after all of this, Seong Won is left standing alone in the classroom which is where he is going to end up forever if he DOESN’T FUCKING CONFESS. 

gif by @jimmysea

This whole argument is like…two minutes of the show and it is an entirely invented for the show and I loved it SO much. This whole situation is messy and has been from the beginning and while certain pieces of it, like Heesu slowly realizing that he actually isn’t romantically interested in Chanyoung anymore carry over from the manhwa but the manhwa takes any level of mess and just wraps it up in a clean little bow. 

I even love the way the show has been using Heesu’s sisters to show him what needs to happen. His one sister is miserable so often because every week she is falling in love with a different guy and confessing and getting rejected. And that fucking sucks, but not once has it deterred her from continuing to confess. Like even in the face of constant rejection she continues to be brave and continues to be honest and continues to be active in announcing her feelings. And it seems like she maybe will be successful in actually having someone reciprocate her feelings finally. Heesu’s other sister had to be talked in to working to get her man back after he broke up with her. She and Heesu share that passivity after all, Heesu is the epitome of “gives advice but can’t follow it.” He pushes Seong Won time and time again to play an active role in his romantic pursuit of Jiyu. He tells him to take her on a date, he makes them sit next to each other, and yet in his own life he is so incredibly passive because he has been harboring an extremely unproductive crush for years. That’s a hard pattern to break. 

I even loved that addition of the Carrot, that Seong Won was able to confess to her and that she was like “I know this is stupid coming from me [a person who was passively trying to share my affection for someone and refused to actually confront my feelings or confess to him and who backed off because I knew I would be rejected] but you NEED TO CONFESS TO HIM.” 

gif by @wanderlust-in-my-soul

I have many more thoughts about these two episodes but this post is already getting long so suffice it to say that I am really impressed that while I am getting frustrated with the boys for continuously refusing to confess or be confessed to (LOOKING AT YOU HEESU FOR SAYING YOU AREN’T GOING TO GO MEET CARROT BECAUSE YOU LIKE SOMEONE ELSE. BUT LIKE BOY, AT LEAST GO AND BE KIND ENOUGH TO REJECT CARROT IF YOU DON’T RECIPROCATE FEELINGS INSTEAD OF GHOSTING THEM) (LOOKING AT YOU SEONG WON WHO IS ABOUT TO GET GHOSTED BY THE BOY YOU LIKE BECAUSE YOU KEEP HIDING BEHIND BULLSHIT INSTEAD OF JUST BEING FUCKING HONEST) the reasons that are stopping them are continuously believable and I think they are making choices that make sense based on how they grew up, who their role models for love are, and the fact that they are both queer people navigating a heterosexual world who have a lot more to lose in a confession than any of the other characters in the show do. 

Cannot wait for these two idiot losers to finally figure out how to use their words next week!

[woah, we're halfway there! woah livin' on a prayer] gif by @wanderlust-in-my-soul

[everything-on-a-bl-bagel]

My favorite thing about this show is that it genuinely cares about every single relationship, not just the romances. The friendships matter, new and old. The families have a real presence in the story. Even the minor side characters get to have their moments in the spotlight to make themselves clear and come to good terms with the people around them.

I’m not surprised that some of BL fandom have been confused by this show, because Heesu in Class 2 is not a BL. It’s the first high quality queer romance kdrama. And that’s a big deal! I’m so thrilled this got made and finally found its way onto our screens.