Korea has done it again. Semantic Error is another brief, but near perfect BL.
I’ve been so caught up with Thai BLs all this time, mainly because there are so, so many of them, that my eyes have barely strayed from the path to see what other countries are offering up. Well, after Our Dating Sim, Kieseki Dear to Me, My Beautiful Man, and now Semantic Error, I’ve really got to start giving them a fair amount of my time! I think what I like best about them is that they are short. Each episode is only about twenty minutes, give or take, and there’s only eight episodes usually. Would I welcome more? Or even multiple seasons? Absolutely! But I’m at least left satisfied with the end results.
Now, Semantic Error really doesn’t do anything new here. It’s an enemies to lovers tale, but gosh, the leads here were just so cute together. The enemy status begins when Jaeyoung learns that he won’t be graduating and studying abroad because junior Sangwoo has omitted his, and other freeloading member’s names off of a recent project. Jaeyoung is actually more calm than I would ever be in this situation, though in reality, I’d be Sangwoo. He sets out to redo his last semester making Sanwoo’s life a little unbearable. But first he has to find him. It’s wild to me that he didn’t even know what his group project leader looks like. They only meet by a chance of fate, as Sangwoo, a programmer, is looking for a designer for a videogame he wants to develop. It just so happens that Jaeyoung is the exact designer Sangwoo is looking for.
From there, Jaeyoung is like an annoying shadow. He finds out some of Sangwoo’s basic dislikes, like the color red, and enrolls in all of the same classes as Sangwoo. For his part, Sangwoo does a pretty good job of wholeheartedly ignoring Jaeyoung, but you can tell that’s not entirely true by how much his rigid, daily routines are being impacted. It seemed to me that Jaeyoung’s feelings turned from revenge to pining pretty quickly, though it was Sangwoo who panicked about it first. Actually, Jaeyoung never seemed flustered by his crushing at all. In fact, he was downright shameless at times. Of course, all of their tension was bound to melt away, leading to more shy interactions until eventually Sangwoo caves. Much to his dismay.
Sangwoo is so robotic and rigid that it’s a miracle Jaeyoung held out for him to come around. He must have had an inkling though and his persistence paid off. Like I said, these two were so dang good together! I was also shocked to learn that the actors playing them were/are K-Pop members! I didn’t think roles like this would be allowed for idols, but I’m sure glad they decided to do it. It’s unclear whether or not these two will work together in the future, but I know I would sure like to see more!