My Love Mix-Up! – Episode 7-8 – Recap and Review

When last we left our confused high schoolers, Kongthap and Atom finally went on a date — only to be seen by a school counselor. What now?

First, Atom is a panicking disaster

He blames Japan for everything. Kongthap admits to the counselor that they’re together and their mom’s bursting in, yelling at them. At this point, I suspect we’re in Atom’s imagination.

I’m correct. In reality, he’s expressing his fear to Kongthap who tries to reassure him. On cue, they’re called to the counselor’s office. Atom panics and makes up an unlikely story about why he and Kongthap were holding hands. However, the counselor only wanted to return the cat towel they left behind. He called them to the office for that?

Atom wants Kongthap to keep his distance to avoid suspicion.

Next, Atom makes things even worse

Atom ends up in Mudmee’s Home Economics club. He wants to make something for Kongthap for Valentine’s Day but somehow sets chocolate on fire?

The next day he has a pastry someone else made for Kongthap. Kongthap has Valentine’s off because he told the basketball team he’s interested in someone. He didn’t name Atom, but Atom thinks they’ll be discovered. Kongthap is unworried and Atom very worried.

Atom breaks up with Kongthap, pointing out they aren’t boyfriends anyway. The pastry tragically falls to the ground. 

Because Atom needs to learn a big lesson in this episode, he has a conversation with his counselor friend about his aptitude test. Atom wants to be an engineer for his mom, his counselor encourages him to be honest about what he wants and not think about others.

How is Mudmee doing?

On Valentine’s, Mudmee hides a chocolate cupcake she made for Half in his desk. Then she overhears him saying he’s not accepting gifts, retrieves it, and throws it away. She finds Half waiting for her, wanting his cupcake, and explains what happened.

Half knew she was making a cupcake for him, that’s why he said he wasn’t accepting gifts earlier, so he’d only get hers. He takes the crushed cupcake (thankfully protected in a box) and eats it.

Atom finally chills out, for a moment anyway

Atom helps sell pastries for the Home Economics club since he has nothing else to do. The basketball team comes by and Kongthap tells Atom he told everyone he was joking. Atom doesn’t need to worry anymore.

The counselor asks Atom if he’s dating Kongthap, which is none of his business. Atom says he forced Kongthap to date him. But the counselor is prying into his life so that he can support him. He gives Atom a lecture on love being love and different isn’t bad. Atom takes it to heart.

Atom and Kongthap find each other near a fake… Kinkaku-ji? In Thailand’s “Little Osaka”. Kongthap heard about “everything” from the nosy, overly-involved counselor. I don’t know what that would change. Whatever, Atom apologizes and Kongthap apologizes. Kongthap says when Atom isn’t around he feels like he’s missing something. He asks Atom to be his boyfriend and apologizes for keeping him waiting.

Together they join the basketball team. Atom announces their relationship, but the team already knows. 

So what next? Well, Atom is thinking about kissing

During lunch, Kongthap goes in for the mouth-wipe trope and Atom thinks he’s going to get a kiss. Now Atom is upset and Kongthap confused, which they should be used to by now. Atom tries to explain with a bewildering pantomime, it doesn’t work.

Thankfully Kongthap has a friend who knows what’s going on. His advice on kisses is that it’s not the when but the why. The friend can’t explain what he means because he has no experience either.

Kongthap tries to work up to kissing Atom but frustrates him. Honestly, Atom is a terror in this episode and the last. I wouldn’t want to kiss him either.

Eventually, they run a three-legged race together for a school event and this is their chance to be in sync. They do well when Atom has Kongthap take the lead which — interesting. Once the race is over Atom is back to throwing tantrums.

Mudmee is not doing great either

Half admires her power at volleyball and calls her the Hulk. She’s happy about this until some classmates convince her that this is bad. She follows their advice and acts helpless, leading to Half worrying that she’s being bullied or sick.

She continues this helpless act even when she and Half play badminton against another team. Then Half gets hit in the head with that weird badminton ball while protecting her. A furious Mudmee goes hard on the other team and they win. After, Half calls her the Hulk again and Mudmee feels like a failure.

Half clarifies that the Hulk is his favorite superhero and she’s just as awesome. Actually, she’s cuter. Mudmee agrees to be his Hulk. I’m tired of strong girls needlessly playing helpless for comedy, but the end was sweet.

Kongthap’s basketball friend lays truth on Atom

The friend tells Atom that Kongthap came to him for advice. He says that Kongthap is serious about Atom but has never been in a relationship and doesn’t know how to do things. He asks Atom not to be angry with Kongthap. Seriously.

Kongthap’s team isn’t doing well and he’s down. Atom offers to give Kongthap a wish if his team wins. With that promise and Atom cheering him on, Kongthap gets aggressive like he’s in The Rebound. When he goes to score the winning point he gets knocked out. 

He wakes up in the infirmary with Atom and thinks they lost. He tells Atom that he’s realized that he doesn’t want to wait, and he just wants to be with Atom. Awww. Atom tells him that he made the point and won! He gets his wish!

They kiss, first under the cat towel and then so we can see!

Atom and Kongthap are cute, so there’s that

I was hard on Atom in this recap. I think in the Japanese version it was clearer that Atom/Aoki, having put so much energy into confessing and expressing himself, had reached his limit. Kongthap/Ida’s overthinking was making him feel insecure and like he was the only one with feelings.

In this version, it feels like Atom wants Kongthap to read his mind and throws a tantrum when he doesn’t. I liked when Atom wanted Kongthap to take the lead in the race because I thought it was about their larger relationship dynamic, but alas I think it was more about wanting Kongthap to make a move for once. The truth is I’m not entirely sure what that was all about.

That said, I enjoyed these two episodes more than the last two. There was less production-made comedy and it was more about the two of them working their relationship out, if poorly at times. Atom was a mess but I think that’s very human. Kongthap was clueless but I think that’s very human. When they finally took steps towards each other, I found it charming.

Also, with episode 7 we finished what the Japanese drama covered. The whole kiss thing was new territory. Despite my disappointment at some aspects of the show, I’m still looking forward to seeing their relationship continue to grow.