This was a very interesting lakorn to watch. I pretty much binged-watch the first 10 eps over a span of three days and continued to watch the rest in real time. This was highly anticipated, as it starred Yaya and Mario who've never been the OTP up till now (both were in the Rising Sun series, but paired with different people). Now that I've finished, I'll give you my thoughts below: 

1. Story
For the most part, this was a coherent, engaging story with decent pacing. The middle episodes felt filler-ish and there was a noticeable decrease in quality of the last few episodes. But for the most part it was good. I felt like this was a slap/kiss lakorn dressed in modern clothing; while there was a good production and was no nightmare 2nd FL or r*pe, the core still felt like a typical slap/kiss with an angry male lead, soft female lead and all the misunderstandings. I pretty much felt like its "true colors" (if a drama could be a person) manifested in those last episodes with the fast pacing and plot twists. This inconsistency in pacing did annoy me, and I wish it stayed on the more contemplative tone that they set in the beginning. 

2. Leads
It's no surprise that Mario and Yaya killed it as Kla and Khim, and I felt like they're the reasons why I enjoyed watching so much. Both such complex, broken souls that have been through so much tragedy and heartbreak. I loved both characters. I really liked Kla as the rough but kind-hearted mechanic, and it was sad to see him change into a bitter, angry person due to everything he went through. Both him, Khim and I miss the old him, but completely understand that if he didn't change, then he wouldn't survive. Excellent character development. I just wish I could say the same for Khim; she still supports her father despite him ruining her life and how he continuously disregards her worth. I wish she realized that he'd never change and cut him off from her life; that she didn't need his love to know she was valuable and that her own strength was enough. Unfortunately she's too influenced by her dad and I think they could've done a lot more with her character. I think if anyone else but Yaya played her, I wouldn't have liked her as much. Yaya was able to make Khim be lovable and a victim of her dad rather than a doormat.

b) I have a complaint I want to make about Khim and her dad's relationship; a of of people talk about the incestuous relations Asia has towards Kla. But I also felt Khim's dad was borderline incestuous with Khim, in how he was obsessed to have the most important person to Khim be him. It was gross. I'm also sick of seeing these shitty fathers do shitty things to the main leads and gettin away with it in the end. This has been a long time issue I've had with Thai lakorns and to some degree I get it, but the straight up manipulation, abuse and cruelty Khim's dad put on her nearly ruined her life. It sucks even more that Khim realizes this, but still chooses her father in the end. Why can't we have our leads leave these shitty parental figures? Khim's father doesn't even apologize for what he did. I'm at least glad they did no redemption arc for him.

3. Secondary Cast
This is the first time where I've felt the secondary cast was useful to the plot but were very, very unlikable. Pretty much everyone (except Kla's dad and Claire) failed the leads and played a heavy role in the trauma they went through. While I expected the rich father to be extremely shitty, I didn't expect the "best friend" characters to be shit as well. Lita and Khem are two of the worst friends anyone can have, and are so selfish; they were the reasons Khim and Kla separated. Especially Lita, she was shady from the first ep but when she decided to lie about the letter switch-up for years and watch Khim be tortured about Kla, she was dead as a character to me and I couldn't care less. I was disgusted that they gave her a love-line with Thanchai, who I thought deserved way better. She got off way too lightly with her lies and the fact that she wasn't sorry about it, and Khim still kept her around makes my blood boil to an unhealthy degree.

I also want to mention that the way characters reacted to the lies and deceit was weird and the only one who reacted normally was Claire. She was my surprise co-MVP along with Kla's dad. If anyone wants to know how to properly deal with being betrayed, you should take a leaf out of Claire's book.

4. Romance
What really made this romance work for me was the strong foundation they built before the time-skip that made everything after so enjoyable to watch. In many ways, this reminded me of Game Rai Game Ruk (Yaya is the lead there too lol) where the leads were deeply in love before jealous forces tore them apart, and lead to a psychological game where both were very mad at each other. This was a more complex, better produced version of that. Yaya and Mario have amazing chemistry together, and their love and angst towards eo was palpable and poignant. They really made me see how two people can love eo, but not trust eo, and their relationship was tested over and over through various obstacles. I almost thought they couldn't make it but the fact that they did made it satisfying to watch.

5. Overall
This was addictive and I had a good time watching. Tbh, Yaya and Mario pretty much carried the show with their character portrayals and chemistry. The music was on point and suited the lakorn well. I just wish there were more refinements in the storytelling and character development. I'd probably re-watch the pre-time skip episodes and some select scenes but not the whole thing. Would recommend watching.