Meets Expectations, Enjoyable

I immensely enjoyed this drama on a fully subjective level, however there was way too much wrong with it on an objective level for me to give it a super high rating. Just know, it's a fun, cute watch.

Some of the best aspects:
- Great friendship dynamics; I love shows that don't have an excess of irrational interpersonal conflict and instead focus on relationships growing/changing/etc
- A romance focusing on a shared interest and passion for something (my favorite kind), combined with great on-screen chemistry. Good, funny bickering/ust that never strayed into meanness or rudeness
- Main lead female character with her own story/depth

Some of the biggest flaws:
- poorly dubbed: In a modern drama, dubbing generally is a con, but this is below-average dubbing, rarely allowing me to forget that it's dubbed, which leads into the next problem:
- a lack of emotion in acting. the disconnect between between actors' facial expressions and their emotions in the scene, the static way the scenes are blocked and filmed... it all ties in with the unnatural dubbing. It's like they filmed some scenes and filled the emotion in when dubbing. There are DEFINITELY cdramas that are worse at this, and it's an idol drama filled with idol actors, so it's not like I was expecting more, but it was still a flaw.
- I just don't think it's appropriate for Xu Kai to be in these teen-centered/youth-marketed dramas. The dynamic between the characters (domineering male lead/weak female lead) made me uncomfortable sometimes knowing Xu Kai's past.
-Moments of quite explicit xenophobia/anti-Korean sentiment. I expect nationalism from any narrative focusing on competitive sports or competitions, but there are definitely stereotypes being MADE by this show, and then it tries to throw in a line or two to make it "ok"

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