Perfect 10 Liners 1×10 Review: Episode 10

As we move further into the second arc, it looks like things are starting to be a little more balanced. Arc and Arm had less screen time while still maintaining a presence. We got a glimpse of Pond and Sand. And the plot is plotting when it comes to Yotha and Gun.

This episode picks up very soon after last week’s episode left off. To put it mildly, Faifa is none too pleased that Gun lied about being able to sleep. Nonetheless, both brothers refuse to let Gun go back to his room, because then he won’t get any sleep. He ends up on the floor between their beds, with both of their comforters. Clearly these three missed the obvious solution, employed by the single brain cell trio of Arm, Po, and Sand.

However, when Gun returns to his room, he learns that Kong hasn’t really been getting any sleep because of the lights. He doesn’t want to put Kong out anymore – sleep is important! – so they try to come up with a way to resolve the issue. Naturally, the only way to solve the problem is to have Faifa and Gun switch rooms. Of course, Faifa neglects to inform Yotha that he’s about to get a new roommate, which goes over super well.

Yotha is – hmmm, how to put this… Yotha is definitely mysterious, like Gun suspected. He’s clearly introverted, and he doesn’t seem to have many friends. And while he and Faifa were rooming together, the fact that he didn’t even stay in the room when he was living with his own brother says a lot about their relationship. He’s always at Newton’s bar, even though we never get to see what he’s like there, and despite his contentious relationship with Warit.

(By the way, for someone who is supposedly never in the room, Yotha is in the room a lot.)

We learn a little bit more about Yotha this episode, courtesy of Gun’s new friends, Book and Franc. It seems that Yotha and Faifa have a bit of a reputation. I’m really curious as to how everyone knows this stuff about two brand-new students who don’t seem to be advertising this information themselves. But there are rumors about their family’s “shady” business, and Yotha is never seen with the same girl twice, which leads to Kong coming to the erroneous (and hilarious) conclusion that he must be a serial killer.

Meanwhile, Arm tells Gun that whatever Yotha’s behavior is like at the bar, it’s clearly not good. He allegedly gets in a lot of fights. Apparently, multiple people have warned Arc about it. And of course, we can’t forget that Yotha comes home with bruises, which prompts Gun to give him a sponge bath, because it wouldn’t be a BL without one.

And from Faifa, we learn more about their family situation. Basically, their parents divorced, and Faifa went to live with their mother while Newton and Yotha stayed with their dad. I’d love to know why, but it could be something as simple as Faifa just being closer to their mother. That does not explain, though, the fact that Faifa moved back in with their dad when their mother remarried. (Was that his decision? Was it the mother’s? What is the family dynamic like now?) Plus, Yotha implies to Gun that he largely raised himself. (Was their father absent? Or was he just busy? How much of a relationship did Newton have with his younger brothers?)

But, while Yotha is hiding things from Gun – like what he gets up to when he leaves, or why he is never in his own room – he seems to be comfortable enough with him to let his guard down. As I mentioned last week, his first instinct when confronted with Gun sleeping in his bed was to comfort him during his nightmare. When he’s sick later, he has no issues clinging to Gun and forcing him to sleep next to him. And he has absolutely no shame about wearing those pajamas where someone else can see.

Yotha, based on what we know of his upbringing and from what we’ve seen so far, doesn’t know how to handle someone like Gun. Gun is a people pleaser; he genuinely wants to be friends with Yotha because a) they’re roommates and b) he seems like the type to want to be friends with everyone. But also, Gun is a caretaker, and Yotha definitely seems to be someone who isn’t used to being taken care of.

These two are having moments before they even know that there are moments to be had. Yotha is already flirting, albeit poorly (like, giving Gun a legit questionnaire to fill out instead of just asking him), and Gun is already denying he has a crush. It’s hard to blame Gun for blue-screening around Yotha, though, because Yotha is doing things that just defy description. Does he need to drag Gun into bed with him when Gun sleeps a foot and a half away? Does he need to get that close when he tells Gun that he doesn’t have a partner?

(Also, it is absolutely possible to keep a tie tied and just loosen/tighten it every day. Yotha is choosing not to do that because he’s microdosing on the few minutes of human connection he gets when Gun ties it for him every morning.)

I do appreciate that Gun didn’t get all slack-jawed and stare when Yotha opened the door shirtless, or later when he was changing in front of him. But we had a slow-motion stare down when Gun was tying Yotha’s tie for him that first time. That says a lot about the nature of their relationship. As in, it isn’t so much about attraction as it is about intimacy. It’s the little gestures, like Gun bringing Yotha milk once he realized how much he liked it.

We have a little bit more balance with the characters in this episode. I said last week that I thought that there was too much Arc and Arm, even though I realize why it was like that. As an effectively transitional episode, it made sense that they would be around a lot, particularly with the thread of peer mentors/mentees. This week, Arm made a solo appearance, fulfilling his second year duties, and he and Arc had a very grown-up conversation about Arc’s upcoming internship. We also got a scene with Pond and Sand, which featured a much less grown-up conversation. (But Pond called Sand “darling” and I died, so it’s all good.)

Where we don’t yet have the balance is with this arc’s side couple, half of which is Warit (who does seem to be Yotha’s ex, though we still don’t know for sure). We haven’t met his love interest so far, and right now that plot seems very removed from everything going on. Warit doesn’t seem to be in university, so the only thing tying the side plot to the main one is Yotha and the bar. I expect we’ll see more of the bar later, but right now it’s just sort of…there.

Anyway, surely things will mesh a little better as we go. And honestly, Yotha and Gun seem to be moving a lot more quickly than Arc and Arm did, but we’ll have to see if they can get it together any faster.

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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