Trust, once lost, is hard to earn back. Especially when your confidence and sense of security have already been shaken by betrayal and shame.

That’s the emotional place Kishida Sui finds himself in when the Japanese BL Hold On, Harutora-kun begins.

Adapted from Amekiri’s manga series Chotto Matou yo, Harutora-kun, the drama stars Nakagawa Tsubasa as Kishida Sui and Sakuragi Masaya as Kurobe Harutora, two students brought together when they’re assigned to share a room in their school’s boys’ dormitory.

Sui is a second-year student who hides much more than his expressions behind the mask he wears. He smiles through teasing and keeps people at a careful distance, having learned that trusting someone with his feelings can come with consequences. Harutora, his first-year roommate, is almost his complete opposite. Open, straightforward, and incredibly easy to read, Harutora wears his emotions on his face and gradually begins finding his way past the walls Sui has built around himself.

Love is complicated enough, even in strong relationships, but throw in self-doubt and insecurity and it becomes much harder to navigate. That’s precisely the personal hell Sui finds himself in. After being shamed for being gay and learning to hide his feelings behind a mask and a fake smile, he has a difficult time recognizing when someone is being genuine.

In steps Harutora, a junior who has no trouble showing exactly how he feels.

It’s interesting how Hold On, Harutora-kun takes two people, one masked and one unmasked, and drops them into a love story where one is closed off while the other is almost completely open. Sui has learned to protect himself by hiding what he feels. Harutora doesn’t seem to know how to hide anything.

There’s a fine balance Sui and Harutora are going to have to manage, but there’s something beautiful about watching them navigate those differences.

Especially Sui.

He hurts me.

As someone who was bullied for being bisexual as a teenager, I relate to his pain. There’s something particularly difficult about watching a character question another person’s sincerity because experience has taught him that affection can turn into humiliation. It makes even the sweeter moments between Sui and Harutora feel a little bittersweet because Sui doesn’t yet know how to trust what he’s being given.

And I love that Harutora stays by his side, protecting and watching even when his own naivety causes him to misunderstand certain situations. He’s honest, innocent, and dependable in a way that feels calming rather than overbearing. He doesn’t have all the answers, but his feelings never seem calculated, which may be exactly what Sui needs.

The foundation has been laid, and I’m intrigued enough to want to see where these two go from here. More than anything, I want to see Sui reach a place where he doesn’t feel like he has to hide so much of himself to feel safe.

I do have one complaint about the series so far: the kisses.

I don’t need love scenes or steamy kisses for a romance to work, but I do wish the emotion expressed everywhere else on screen carried into the kisses themselves. Instead, the barely touching lips moments feel painfully awkward and disconnected from everything the actors communicate before them. At that point, I’d almost rather the series leave the kisses out completely and let the other moments of intimacy speak for themselves.

Still, there’s enough vulnerability between these characters to keep me invested. Harutora may be the one slowly reaching past Sui’s defenses, but Sui will ultimately have to decide when he’s ready to trust someone with the person behind the mask.

For a series that brings an open-hearted boy and a closed-off one together in a romance that promises to touch the heart, check out Hold On, Harutora-kun, now streaming on GagaOOLala.

Rating- 3.5 out of 5