“I love you from the days I wasn’t there.”

We talk a lot about cinematography, acting, directing, and screenwriting when discussing dramas and films, delving into how each makes a project more substantial and relevant. We talk less often about pacing.

And yet, the pacing is precisely why the Korean BL Our Dating Sim, starring Lee Seung Gyu (Shin Ki Tae) and Lee Jong Hyuk (Lee Wan), has fast become a 2023 favorite of mine.

A story about unrequited love in which two best friends with long-time feelings for each other end up working at the same company, Our Dating Sim isn’t a grand story. It’s cute. It’s heart-fluttering. And it’s ‘squeal through your fingers’ feel-good.

There is low angst and lots of positive communication. Shin Ki Tae, in particular, does not leave things to chance. He finds a way to bring the man he loves into his company and immediately makes their relationship happen. There’s no beating around the bush.

And that’s what made this story stand out. It’s refreshingly paced.

One of the biggest problems the mini Korean BLs have had over the last couple of years is in pacing their 8-15 minute episodes. For such a diminutive time frame, they often attempt to do too much, to squeeze too much story into a space meant for clips or teasers. It’s one of the reasons I’ve advocated so hard for longer Korean BLs. Not because I need thirty-minute or hour-long episodes to feel happy about the shows I’m watching, but because time management in entertainment matters.

South Korea knows how to tell a story. The success of their Kdramas is indicative of this. But where their Kdramas excel, some of their BLs have faltered. All because of the utilization of time.

Recently, some Korean BLs have attempted to change this with longer episodes, a refreshing change that’s been bound to happen. But there’s still a place for mini-episode web dramas, and Our Dating Sim has proven this.

And while the pacing and concentrated focus is undoubtedly a big reason for this series’ impact, my favorite thing is the communication and romance between the two leads. They talk things out despite their complicated past and fears of abandonment and rejection. They emote their feelings. They express themselves.

And not only in words.

From Ki Tae’s plant hobby to Lee Wan’s sketches, there’s a piece of each other in what they do.

And that’s endearing.

Romance is a bestselling industry. People like to fall in love, or at least feel like they have. But we also write and do creative projects that stress the individual as much as romance. Maintaining who you are is essential even when part of a bigger whole.

Many instances exist when our dreams and passions can become obstacles in a relationship. Less often do you see a dream make a relationship stronger. Because dreams belong to an individual. And individual goals must be something a partner accepts into their lives when they fall for the person with those dreams.

But there are also cases when the people we love inspire our dreams.

Such is the case in Our Dating Sim, and I fell in love with that.

As a writer, I often get asked, “what made you want to be a writer?”

For me, it’s a person—my mother.

I was raised by a single mom who had to drop out of school. She made a lot of hard choices to put food on the table. We spent nights hungry. We spent many days just looking for a place to stay. But amid all the chaos poverty caused for us, there was also a bit of calm.

Every night, my mother would write in a journal. It was an old notebook that had seen better days. No matter how long the day was or how exhausted she seemed, she never went to sleep until she’d written on the pages, as if bleeding the day there also bled free her stress.

Watching her calmed me. Years after her death, I still have her journal, her scribbled words full of fear, sometimes self-loathing, and other times disjointed poems, ideas, hopes, and dreams dotted with tears.

Watching her put this on paper made me want to be a writer. I would watch her and think, “If it calms her so much to journal, maybe I, too, can find similar comfort and hope in words.”

I found my dream in a person.

In Our Dating Sim, Lee Wan found his dream in Ki Tae. I related to that.

Lee Wan ran from his feelings in fear and then hid those feelings in art. That art found Ki Tae and then later communicated to Ki Tae the years they’d lost together. It shows that dreams don’t always have to pull a relationship apart. They can also save it.

And even if the person (or the love) that inspired your dream is one day gone, there’s a part of that person that lingers inside of it. Dreams have a way of keeping people alive.

Our Dating Sim is a short drama, but it punches you hard in the heart.

I liked being punched by it.

For a drama that communicates its love in a well-paced, well-filmed way, check out Our Dating Sim now on Viki.

Rating- 4.5 out of 5