I feel like the review of this series requires a little bit of backstory. Not even a month ago while I was in New York for Comic Con, the algorithms that be kept throwing me an add for a K-pop group I’d never heard of called Omega X playing at the House of Blues in Cleveland. After the fifth time seeing it, I reached out to my new K-pop friend and she exclaimed her love for them, so naturally I bought a ticket before even listening to a song. She also told me that the leader and maknae had done a BL series together, so I was hooked.
After checking out a few songs and several chaotic videos of the group, I finally couldn’t wait any longer and buzzed through all seven episodes of A Shoulder to Cry On in less than one day. Was it full of kissing and touching – actually no kisses at all! But it was just so dang interesting to me to see these two guys in a group together acting out a cute, school-aged BL story. It was ultimately just sweet, and you could tell the fact that they’ve known each other lent itself to their chemistry. For me, this show is a great example that sexual tension is sometimes better than any super intimate act.
The leader of Omega X, Jaehan, plays Da Yeol, an archery student who becomes the prime target of popular class president Tae Hyun, played by Omega X’s maknae, YeChan, after getting caught almost kissing another student. Tae Hyun, though obvious in his quest to pester Da Yeol, is a bit of a mystery as far of the rest of his life goes. You can never quite tell where his passions lie, though his teasing initially meant for torment seem to quickly turn into affection. Da Yeol is a little more steadfast in his hate for Tae Hyun for making his life miserable, but he too finds himself drawn to Tae Hyun’s charms.
The two eventually and begrudgingly become friends, seen together in almost every instance. This causes drama amongst another classmate who is truly despicable (kudos to the actor!), and thus causes much of the tension between Tae Hyun and Da Yeol’s blossoming relationship. Even after learning some traumatic tales of Tae Hyun’s young life, Da Yeol can’t help but be there for him. In fact, it seems to make them grow closer. But teenagers being teenagers means that nothing is as straight forward as we want it to be, so these two don’t get their happily ever after until they had the chance to mature a bit.
For being K-pop idols, I was hella impressed with the acting from Jaehan and YeChan! They are just as good as any other BL actor I’ve watched in the past few years. And as I said before, their chemistry was fantastic. I have since watched a few behind the scenes videos to see if there was any lingering awkwardness between the two in between takes, but they looked like they were having so much fun! And in another interview I found they exclaimed that doing the series together was more comfortable that with a stranger and they felt that they have grown closer since doing the series together. I hope these two decide to do another project together in the future! Aside from the series, Omega X also made three songs for the series, so that was a sweet bonus! Please go check this one out!