Beatrice

I can see how Teerak falls into the cutesy boy bimbo archetype, but his characterization actually makes sense within the context of the story as the youngest of the three generation household with lots of love and affection that shelters him from hard decisions which is why he will say yes to others at his own expense and also keeps him a bit infantilized with his sister Babe who seems to be just a year or so older than him acting as his fourth parental figure. She does eventually learn to loosen up a big later on, but it would have been nice to have a moment where she finds that she can rely on her brother as well. It's fun seeing him share one brain cell with his three best friends at school and it's a bummer that this dynamic also disappears at the end when both Teerak and Lee who is also Muenfah's younger brother finds boyfriends. Type and Joy are left out of the story, I'm glad they're not also paired off though, it's always great to see male and female characters be platonic close friends and the friendship bond between the four was really nice to watch.

Teerak is naive to the point that he mistakes his heart pounding from being flustered around Muenfah as being ill, but being with Muenfah does make him learn to speak for himself. First with his ex-girlfriend who he agreed to date even though he had no feelings for. It ended with her being hurt anyways and ended the relationship when he obviously doesn't care for her in that way. They both talk it out and she's proud of him and tips him off that Oh was the one who sent her his way to talk to him in order to sabotage his relationship with Muenfah. Next is with Oh who got a whooping after he tried to sabotage Muenfah's food and drink establishment. It was really bad directing to only humanize Oh at the very end of the weird stalking and harassment storyline that was the impetus of the fake dating between Teerak and Muenfah and to show Muenfah has a temper despite being chill all the other times. The show should have shown the scene of Teerak saving Oh from walking into traffic earlier to really show that he did sincerely like Teerak and his tense relationship with his mom instead of him just being soap opera villain until he's suddenly not at the end. It doesn't take away from showing later that Muenfah also first noticed Teerak during Teerak's freshman orientation. It would have been a good connector.

Third is probably the biggest confrontation of Teerak's life, which is to confront his own father's disapproval of his gay relationship. This storyline is one that was probably handled the best out of all the ones in the show. Even otherwise very kind people can have entrenched biased outdated ideas that they can't let go of. Both Teerak's parents expected their son to eventually have a girlfriend and were both shocked to differing degrees to find out that he's dating a man. His mom has tears in her eyes, from guilt that her son was worried about her reaction and disappointment that he is taking a different path from the conventional one of heterosexuality, but ultimate chooses to support her son in finding his own happiness. His dad completely shuts down despite acknowledging that society is more accepting now, but wants his son to have that conventional straight path instead. It's beautiful seeing his much more open minded father and his understanding wife's conversations finally getting through to him that at the core what he wants his Teerak to find happiness. He's a grown up and he has to find his own way and they can be there for him if it doesn't work out. It's so sweet that he dresses up all nice and apologizes to Teerak who he drops off at college, telling him that that he accepts him for who he is. All these conversations is such important modeling for those that have so much cultural homophobia to unlearn and also hopefully catharsis for those who can find comfort from seeing a positive journey of loved ones finding their way to love, understanding, and support.

Fourth is Teerak experiencing and expressing his physical desire for Muenfah. I understand why there would be complaints about the NC scenes, but the portrayal of sex in this show are actually pretty restrained and actually are more focused on emotion and where on the character journey the characters are, which is surprising after the unwatchable unending cringe fest certain dramas from the same production company. Teerak finally being in a relationship is a new stage of adulthood unlocked for him, his family letting loose on their over protection over him and he finds new sides of himself with his partner and sex is definitely part of that journey for him. He finds his confidence in every experience with Muenfah and by the end of the show is almost doing dirty talk. Good for him.

Muenfah is a good introvert representation. He seems cool and assumed to be mean by others, but once you get to know him, he's dorky and warm. His family is quite rich, but he's down to earth and very independent, being able to cook for himself and others despite having a housekeeper compared to middle class and sheltered Teerak who holds a knife like he's about to murder the cabbage when not about to blindly pour sugar instead of salt into the spaghetti pot to Muenfah's horror. It's still pretty ridiculous that he's a full on co-business owner with his classmate and bestie Real while also being a full time university student and also playing sports and later dating as well. That's two full time jobs along with two full time extracurriculars. Doing all that and having time to sleep is so unrealistic. He and Lee have very loving and even more open minded parents who do the opposite of sheltering, giving their eldest child a wild amount of extra responsibility with not only running his own business while still a student, but also to take over his dad's overseas business meetings when he's injured. The rare moments when Muenfah is feeling sad and lost like when Teerak suddenly acts distant and sitting away from him after their kiss the night before and sobbing when he's rejected by Teerak's father, he looks every bit the young university kid he still is. He doesn't like sweets, but he'll eat it for Teerak who keeps making him eat it too. Teerak should have at least found what he actually likes to eat. He has the good sense to know that playing sports triggers his explosive aggression and quit playing competitively though it seems like he still plays for fun. All that anger seems to be an implication maybe all the responsibility he has gives him more stress than he himself realizes, but it's an untapped and unacknowledged idea.

The side romances were variable in quality to say the least. Babe and her boyfriend Dom were cute for the most part, part of the Teerak's supportive circle and classmates to Muenfah, but the incident of him buying a puppy for her birthday present was really gross. She was right to be mad that he didn't discuss it with her first because taking care of an animal is a big responsibility. The twist that makes it supposedly okay is that he asked her father for permission first. That feels even worse and icky that the men folk made the decisions for her. Then it's all okay. Lee's love interest Ghlai started appearing with Teerak friend group out of nowhere, first playing a board game and then just appearing around until finally Lee full on hit on Ghlai who was reading in a cute gazebo like cafe area. It was sweet of Glai to also comfort Teerak who happened to walk by his and Lee's meeting spot on campus all despondent because of his sadness from his father not accepting his sexuality, but he never interacted enough with the group to get past the feeling of being a random stranger to the story. There needed to be just one moment to introduce him properly as someone who caught Lee's eye. The friend to romance storyline of Real and Hia had promise all the way up to the wild moment of Real testing Hia by having Hia help apply sunscreen on him all the way up to putting some on his chest where his heart was beating hard and he also puts sunscreen over Hia's heart as well. That was an amazing way to confess to each other wordlessly, but then everything after that was just unorganized and dragged out. Hia was always the one super attached to Real, but he suddenly doesn't know how he feels. It was never established that he wasn't aware of what he was doing. The actors needed so much more direction that was given to them, but the director also didn't get more of a direction from the writing. It's just a whole mess that was just tiresome and there was no sense of romance by the time they finally just got together.