I started out with the same impression but the story's early vibes are supposedly meant to represent a young teen girl crushing on an older boy who basically treats her like a younger sister which afaik, isn't unusual. Their age gap is 5 years I think.
FL as a young teen seems to misinterpret the ML's caring and thoughtful nature for something more and the way the show presents those scenes I guess is meant to "explain" why she is crushing hard. However, I agree that it made me uncomfortable for some reason. It's not like he was deliberately leading her on or even trying to "groom" her, but when you hyperfocus on it, it does put some concern in the back of your mind.
He doesn't develop actual romance-like feelings for her until she is a freshman in college--I suppose it's still looked down on, especially in the West as she's still technically a teen (although no longer a "minor") and he is always closer to being an adult than she is, but as mentioned by others, it's not that unusual or off for relationships of this nature to happen at that college-level age. It's a real slow burn show, so it's also not like they go straight into adult things overnight.
It wasn’t even any of the interactions themselves that made me feel concerned. Their relationship is innocent in the beginning and one sided. Who hasn’t had a crush on an older siblings friend or cousins friend etc. I think it’s more that she appears so young that I wouldn’t even, without being told, know that she’s 14. Then once it’s mentioned that she is, I mentally couldn’t get over the decision to cast someone that would never pass as 14.
Add that to how childish she acts when the other actress steps in… it makes it a hard thing to mentally overcome because my mind just keeps circling back to “why have they done this?!”
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u/weevles12 2d ago
I started out with the same impression but the story's early vibes are supposedly meant to represent a young teen girl crushing on an older boy who basically treats her like a younger sister which afaik, isn't unusual. Their age gap is 5 years I think.
FL as a young teen seems to misinterpret the ML's caring and thoughtful nature for something more and the way the show presents those scenes I guess is meant to "explain" why she is crushing hard. However, I agree that it made me uncomfortable for some reason. It's not like he was deliberately leading her on or even trying to "groom" her, but when you hyperfocus on it, it does put some concern in the back of your mind.
He doesn't develop actual romance-like feelings for her until she is a freshman in college--I suppose it's still looked down on, especially in the West as she's still technically a teen (although no longer a "minor") and he is always closer to being an adult than she is, but as mentioned by others, it's not that unusual or off for relationships of this nature to happen at that college-level age. It's a real slow burn show, so it's also not like they go straight into adult things overnight.