In Secret Lover, Junxi and Hantuo have been friends since they were children. Now that they are near the end of their college careers, Hantuo decides he can no longer hide his feelings towards his best friend.
He reveals his feelings pretty early on in the series. His revelation comes to light after offering to help Junxi land his crush. When it seems like his crush might have feelings for Hantuo instead, it forces Hantuo to confess his longtime crush. Wondering why Hantuo has held onto this secret for so long, Hantuo admits what anyone would in this situation. That he was fearful of losing Junxi in his life entirely.
But we do learn at one point in the series that in order to keep Junxi free from relationships, Hantuo would swoop in, tell them Junxi isn’t interested and then briefly date them himself. All in an effort to gatekeep Junxi. A lot of people would be pretty mad about this, especially if they were still trying to figure out if they actually reciprocated the feelings their best friend had. But, Junxi is a good person and immediately forgives Hantuo.
In reality, it doesn’t take Junxi too long to decide that he’s also had some romantic feelings towards Hantuo for quite some time, but he is so nervous about people finding out that he asks Hantuo for them to keep their relationship a secret. Hantuo understands, to a degree. But seeing him shy away from telling the people closest to him makes him feel like he’s not good enough or embarrassed to be seen with him. A foolish thought for such a handsome guy, but I can see how that would become a thought after so long.
In the end, Junxi’s family accepts who he is without even batting an eye. They also both find success in their careers. It ultimately looks like they have a bright and happy future together. While I enjoyed this series, it wasn’t my favorite. Something that I both liked and disliked for different reason was that any conflict that came up at the end of one episode was completely resolved in the next. I think they could have drawn some of those out, but I also liked not having our main couple happy all the time.
With that, I do think they had some good chemistry, though sometimes the acting felt a bit stiff. I actually think they have better chemistry in real life based on some interviews and fan events I’ve seen. I don’t know if Taiwanese actors stay with BL partners like Thai ones do, but I’d like to see these two together in something else someday!