21 days, but you skip half of them

To start this off, I want to make clear I did not enjoy watching this drama. Should I rank it purely on my enjoyment, it would go somewhere near the 6 territory. The reason why it's ranked higher is because I can acknowledge the effort they put into delivering some messages. I appreciate the sentiment, even if the execution didn't impress me.

The plot summary makes it sound like the competition between X and Q is the main drive for the story. It isn't. Honestly, neither of them really cares about the challenge, which is actually fought on side fronts by Q's friends. As for what the real plot entails? It's hard to say for me. Should I be generous, I'd say it's a story about a boy discovering himself, a story about acceptance and first love. Should I be frank... it tries to. And maybe it succeeds for you. But no. Let's mention where it failed for me first, so we can end the main part with some positives.


What I disliked about the show :

1. It's presenting itself as a slice-of-life rom-com, especially at the start. But the humor is not my cup of tea. I found it very immature, similar to what older BLs like "Make it Right" and "'Cause You're My Boy" used to work with. I'm not a fan, but it's subjective to your taste.

2. The pacing of this show isn't good [for the main couple mostly]. First two episodes move at relatively slower pace compared to the last two. And while it creates a fairly well established set-up, it then leads to the main plot being rushed. The show has 4 episodes around 40 minutes each. That's enough time to properly pace a simple story. [Episode 3 started at the end of 3rd day, ended at night of day 17]

3. One of the reasons why pacing might be off is an inclusion of not one, but two side couples (male-female). It gets to a point when side characters have more screentime and relationship development than the main pairing.

4. It feels very preachy at times. The lessons it's trying to give are good ones, but they feel forcefully put in (based off little prior setup, or on setup that doesn't feel organic), repeated (it seemed like they tried to address the same problem multiple times, which isn't ideal with so little screentime), and long (they spent more time monologuing than actually showing something that would have moved the plot or added some flavor to it). I commend them for trying, but sometimes less is actually more. If you want to go that way, make sure you're putting enough effort in for it to hit the mark.

5. It sets up stuff without pulling it off. They go out of their way to create a specific situation, which is then fruitless or underwhelming.

6. The use of english language and foreign stereotypes in general.

7. Uneven set-up of the main characters, not supported or worked with.


Things I liked about the show:

1. More realistic portrayal of sexuality than in majority of BLs.

2. Second side couple was actually pretty well dealt with in my opinion (first time ever that I liked the male-female storyline more than the BL one in any story).

3. The actors are cute, obviously.

4. That one food scene in episode 4 was sweet.

5. The starting dynamic between main leads was entertaining.


Overall, I feel like I wasn't the target audience for this drama. Best case scenario, I still think the series has some major issues with pacing and set-ups, but it's apparently widely enjoyable for a lot of people. Should they have more time, or cut the side couples and Man's "arc", it could be a nice short story, akin to K-BLs and J-BLs. But they tried too much, with too little space, taking shortcuts that ruined it for me and focusing on stuff I didn' find important. So if you are looking for a drama that's light on basically anything but educational speeches, you might love this. Just don't expect a smooth development for the main couple. Below are some spoilers further elaborating on things that didn't work for me.


MAJOR SPOILERS UNTIL THE END - clarifications for "What I disliked about the show" part.

1. The comedy is very childish. Starting with the outright ridiculous situation of drying up pants in episode one, the way the audition ended, their big "hero" plan and the dialogue when they were playing videogames in episode 4. It wasn't even cringey stupid. It was a "why the hell should I believe anyone would ever find it normal" eye-rolling type of stupid. Combine that with the "based on a true story" part, and it's just big sigh from me.

2. There is little to no sign Q even likes X for the most part of the first two episodes. How do we go from there to that lovey-dovey bathtub scene (which was already ridiculous enough)? Cue the jealousy arc, the honeymoon arc, the coming out arc, the betray arc, the heartbreak arc, the second coming out arc, the the determination arc, and whatever the last ten minutes tried to do because I just can't interpret that in one word. We don't even know whether they talked at all while X was away (normal person would, but not BL leads. No indication given in the show).

3. This is a BL. That gives more screentime and believable progression to hetero-presenting side couples. You can argue it's for the sake of that "challenge" plot, but the challenge ended up useless either way. No one cared for it, and it was only there to create some ridiculous setup and a sense of urgency imo. Because really, he went on a school trip! He wasn't exiled to antarctica until he's 25 or anything! Neither of the two mains cared for the bet and they could have shown more of the main couple without it. It was just a quirk that got abandoned, because it was too ambitious to pull off for them in such a short time. That said, I liked what they did with the Frank-Mild storyline, for the most part. It was still kinda weird, but I enjoyed it more than the other side couple (which could have been just deleted and nothing would change), and even the main one (it progressed better in my opinion, had less drama and was more flavorful).

4. I like the idea behind those messages. But they really took up too much time and didn't feel well incorporated into the story. First case - Q's mother and her worries about Q's sexuality. There was no sign of Q even liking X when this started!! Zero. It was actually her and Man who pushed Q towards X. Why are you doing this so soon?! It made no sense. They also repeated basically the same stuff twice or thrice, which I was just over it.
Second case - the jealousy plot. I liked this more than the first one, but it felt forced in rather than naturally developed. Firstly, don't even try to tell me that it's completely natural when a 30+ man flirts with ~15 yo guy jokingly, touching him unnecessarily, giving him massage unprompted... just no. I thought they would lead it into "Man intentionally hitting on X, so Q gets jealous over time and recognizes his feelings." But they didn't. They made it look like it was nothing and it's purely Q that's to blame! Also, it was rushed. Q was perfectly fine with it (slightly annoyed at best), and then he just erupts during one scene into an ugly fit of jealousy (which, they could have excused themselves from those nasty comments about Man screwing X and X becoming Q's "aunt"). After that, Q gets talked down like he's a kid. Which, he did acted childish. But he's hardly the only one to blame.
The third case - Man and Q's mom persuading Q to go after X. This one would be mostly fine, if it weren't so long (the better part of last 10 minutes of the show), and if it lead anywhere (Q didn't catch X. He wasn't shown having any real regrets about it. They rushed the ending into HEA in the last seconds).
The last case - Man's own struggles and his relationship with his parents. I guess it was meant to provide contrast and parallels to Q and his mother's situation. But it was barely touched upon. The "resolution" scene felt cheap and too easy. I would have prefered if they left it out (at least the ending).

5. Again, the main premise is wasted. The bet is wasted, the urgency of 21 days is wasted. The side couple's big night (Q needed to get invited to) was wasted. Q mustering up the courage to follow X was wasted. Q's mother pushing X and Q to stay at their place so she can keep an eye on them just for her to leave almost immediately (planned leave, no emergency) was just stupid. The uncle's subplot with his farther could have been left out, since they showed nothing of it.

6. I could forgive them the comment about foreigners not being cute or polite. Even the english pronunciation, if it was just a normal talk. But they made such a big deal of how bad Q is in english (he was okay-ish) and how great X is in it (he was only slightly better than Q, if at all). They even made X the saviour of the bakery, someone who lived abroad for extended period of time (and "despite" that being a nice guy), who's great as a international representative of the school... it was too much. Thankfully he's putting subtitles on those educational videos, because they will be sorely needed.

7. The set-up you are hit with at the start is simple - Q is a loser than can't get anything, while X is perfect in everything. The whole challenge is portrayed as Q's final chance to win something for once, how to beat the perfect X in something. It might be more interesting if it was actually warranted, but we get no indication why (or how) Q is the loser, and X's supremacy is iffy at best. It's just something you have to accept without questioning it, because it's not supported by the story (it actually goes against it at times, see point 6 for example). It annoyed the hell out of me.

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