In high school Hiro is this loner kid, who was always into flowers and plants. HIs timid nature made him an easy target for being bullied which left him with bad memories of high school. All grown up now, he has transformed himself into a stylish, professional hairstylist. Then we have Natsuo. He was in same high school, who never bullied Hiro, but his constant chatter and clumsy behavior irritated Hiro, who wanted to be left alone. One day he invites Hiro at rooftop to confess his love but suddenly other classmates arrive and flustered Natsuo joined in and pretended that Hiro was the one who had invited him. Hiro felt betrayed and saw Natsuo as just another bully. Back in current time, Natsuo is now t his happy go lucky guy. Meeting again, years later, Natsuo does not recognize Hiro and asks him on a date after getting a hair cut from him. As revenge for the bullying, Hiro decides to date Natsuo, break his heart, and dump him. But as you would expect, over a period of time, Hiro also starts to fall for him, especially when Natsuo tells him that Hiro reminds him of his first love from high school. Eventually, when Natsuo finds out that Hiro is the same guy but he never told him the truth, he feels betrayed but eventually love wins and all is well.
As actors they both do a good job of portraying their individual traits. As the happy go lucky guy Natsuo definitely stands out. He feels like an innocent guy, someone who just wants to help out, but sadly who can also be taken advantage of (portrayed by one of the scenes where pone of his ex-friends try to squeeze some money out of him). In contrast, Hiro comes off as a self centered guy. Sure memories of school days are not pleasant but his character IMO is not very likable. Also his character development is not there. He agrees to dating in hopes to break Natsuo's heart and be able to take revenge , but he does absolutely nothing to put the plan in motion. On contrast Natsuo cooks meals for him, take shim out on dates and generally tries to please him. The series could've explored Hiro's trauma from bullying and Natsuo's efforts to make amends. Or it could've settled their high school conflict and focused on more mature themes. Instead, the writing is lacklustre. Also how did Natsuo not recognize Hiro was the same guy till very end? Sadly since the two actors do not share much chemistry, I wasn't much convinced with what I was seeing and was quite bored to be honest. The finale was a big disappointment where Hiro literally forces sex on Natsuo and I was like wtf!! Overall, it was much lower than the expectations I had from a Japanese BL. (4/10)
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