However, prevailing Korean attitudes constrained its potential to be widely viewed, even more so as the controversial themes targeted the teen demographic.

[1][2] The film revolves around the relationship between two high school students, Yoo Shi-eun (Lee Young-jin) and Min Hyo-shin (Park Ye-jin).

Unable to cope with the social pressures of having a lover of the same sex, Shi-Eun tries to distance herself from the increasingly dependent Hyo-shin.

The plot unfurls in a nonlinear fashion, often from the perspective of fellow student Soh Min-ah (Kim Min-sun).

Despite being tolerated throughout most of Korean history, Neo-Confucianism, which came into prominence during the Chosŏn dynasty, eliminated acceptance towards same-sex behavior and “effectively made homosexuality invisible, ghostly.” Despite the societal implication of queer people as inherently ghostly, the film does not treat its LGBT characters as the archetypal monsters, representative of societal taboos, as in the Western horror tradition.

[3] This normalized intimacy between schoolgirls makes the jump from the homosocial to the queer relationship of Hyo-shin and Shi-eun plausible to the audience.