Near perfect in its simplicity

After reading some of the reviews, I think the whole issue of "not taking no for an answer" doesn't apply as much within a typical BL context. People have become overly sensitive to the idea of workplace sexual harassment. That's not what this is.

One of the common tropes that this BL follows is for a cute guy, in this case, Jeong Ha Ram, to unabashedly pursue an emotionally shut-offed love interest, Seo Lee Joon, not letting their insecurities stop him from slowly but surely helping the other to overcome their insecurities. I didn't really get the impression Jeong overstepped his bounds with Seo. He understood how Seo had cut himself off from the world from the onset. Someone had to pierce Seo's bubble. Seo was going on three years of continuously having one-off meetups with guys, never once giving them a chance, as illustrated from the very opening scene.

Jeong mainly pursued Seo by teasing him and giving him small gifts, which is very typical in the BL genre. Also, the BL followed the standard arc of Jeong confessing to Seo, Seo reluctantly agreeing, then the inevitable third act break up, where Seo lets insecurities get the best of him, and Jeong gently reassuring, rather than pressuring, letting Seo come to the conclusion they are meant to be together and that he no longer needs to let his fears get the best of him. How can you not say that's a positive, love-affirming message?

I think too often on MyDramaList, people judge these BLs without taking into account how Korean and other Pacific Asian societal norms differ from Western ones, repeatedly applying misplaced Western "woke" values. Unless the BL conforms precisely to their expectations of the standard boy-girl love norms, these BLs are inevitably dinged, often unfairly, for violating Western sensibilities. Part of the charm of BLs is that they skip past a lot of the ho-humming you see in your typical straight K-drama romance, where the leads spend forever dancing around their mutual attraction.

In the case of Love Mate, in the short time it has, it follows a delightful romance between Seo and Jeong and their journey, keeping their bonding sweet and simple without getting lost in unnecessary plot elements. The two have remarkable, unforced chemistry where the lead actors use non-verbal expressions and body language to convey their feelings.

I give this BL a slightly higher score than it might deserve in response to all the unfair negative reviews. Honestly, if you let them dissuade you from enjoying this cute romance simply based on the misplaced argument that it is nonstop sexual harassment, which it isn't, you'll miss out on enjoyable two hours.

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The ending explained and likely, why they didn't kiss on the lips...

I, too, was initially confused by this lack of a lip-to-lip kiss, which is present in virtually every other BL. I kept waiting and waiting for one, but it never happened, which struck me as very odd.

And then it dawned on me that this must have likely been made during the height of the CoVID pandemic, which is why they didn't kiss, probably. I remember reading on some other shows, even in the US, which took CoVID less seriously than South Korea, that at the time, writers of shows were trying to figure out how to do a romance without a kissing scene.

Or perhaps, it is as others suggested that they weren't quite in a relationship, which wasn't made clear as it could. They looked like there were in the process of getting into one. Still, given the one's fear of commitment, it wasn't going to happen until he was absolutely certain he wouldn't be abandoned, so for him, a kiss on the lips was taking that very last step, which he wasn't quite ready to make on their first vacation of away together. So when the other kissed him on the ear when he was sleeping, it was like him saying that he could wait. So in that way, the writers had them taking their commitment to each other seriously.

When they were on the bed at the end, they spent most of their time learning more about each other, which also goes to indicate that they were still building the foundation of that last step. The pajamas were the commitment-phobes protection trying to take the relationship one step at a time rather than rushing into it. I don't believe for one minute it is because the writers themselves were homophobic. But rather, they followed what the characters would actually do, rather than forcing the two to kiss, just to kiss.

So then the question becomes, why didn't they take that last step before the show ended? Why go for an open ending where the viewer has to assume they would? I blame that more on South Korean BLs not being very long in general. I've read the webtoon on when the show is based, and yes, they kiss there, and even at the very end, hint at having sex, but this only happens once they are living together. However, even though that webtoon is only 30 episodes, it still covers more territory than this show could in the 3.5 hours. They went for quality over quantity focusing on scenes and letting them develop rather than trying to cover everything from the webtoon to the point the two were living together.

These two had a complicated relationship, and I think the writers did a good job conveying that, for them, a kiss was more than just a normal kiss. It was a deeper commitment. I believe if they had more episodes, they could have explored the second half of their relationship rather than relegating it to a single episode that flew by.

So I think given the likely restrictions of CoVID, even preventing the classic accidental kiss you sometimes see in BL, and the character's motivations, it's not unreasonable we didn't get the ending kiss we hoped.

Given that, I rate the series as a 10/10 since it's better than most other BLs of comparable length for South Korea. Though it's not on the level of "Semantic Error" or "The Eighth Sense," which both blow away almost any other BL stories, this is still quite good. It definitely is within the top ten of all South Korean BLs. I don't compare it to either Japanese or Thailand BLs since those have different feels and are often longer, especially Thai BL that can go on for 12 episodes, over an hour long each.

If these BLs could be broadcast on regular TV as they are in Thailand, then we could have much longer BLs from South Korea, and we wouldn't have to be stuck with relatively short ones for the amount of source material they are trying to cover when based on webtoons. This BL does better than most in hitting the essential scenes but not having enough time for quite enough to conclude their relationship, leaving a more open ending.

I also wish to say that I found a lot of the romantic lines between the two males lead much truer to life than most other BL. They kept their semi-antagonist dialog throughout, partially as a defense mechanism and partially due to their general inability to handle intense emotions, relying on humor instead.

So, in conclusion, I hope that others that read these reviews will understand that this BL is still very much worth watching. Don't let all the other negatives review, mainly due to people's issues with the ending, prevent you from watching this BL that gets a lot more right than wrong.

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