Beatrice

Stormy love

Rain is so childish and self absorbed with a bad attitude and all the more ridiculous when his best friend was gassing him up about his looks in a way that didn't make any sense until learning that outside of the show, the actor is actually half Korean. He's indeed really slow on the uptake as Payu as well as his own friends tell him, which makes him so initially frustrating to watch. Rain not understanding the signals could be chalked up to his inexperience, especially only just freshly discovering that he's also bisexual like Payu, but all his other actions are ridiculous and really as a result of his unable to accept his own attraction to Payu. Payu for his part is into this annoying freshman, because for some reason it's cute, but he also tries to mentor Rain as an architecture department alumni that just graduated the year before, which is lucky for Rain. Once their relationships kicks in, Rain shapes up a bit, even learning to care about someone other than himself and becomes more easier to watch. The rich people bathrooms with the large exposed windows is always weird, but a bath while it rains outside looks looks so cozy outside of the what the characters are doing. The nc scenes are daring comparatively to other shows, but surprisingly tasteful and mostly works because thes actors for Payu and Rain have no awkwardness about it. They have good commitment and team work to actually convey the character's connection and even character development through the intimacy. I do appreciate the other displays of affections are also straightforwardly presented without the annoying romance slow motion and music effects. Both the couples have some questionable moments at the start of the relationship with the older guy's actions, but compared to the other bl adaptations from the same author, this is has way more consent involved.

The story feels grinded to a halt when it suddenly shifts to the second couple as the main story. It's not that Sky's story isn't interesting, but the pacing takes a big hit to suddenly literally play the exact same scenes of Rain and Payu again for some reason along with the new Sky POV. The reveal of Sky's bad relationship past and then the misunderstanding is also dragged out for too long. Payu and Rain pretty much disappears from the story aside from occasionally showing up as a sounding board for Sky and Pai respectively, which is a shame because Payu is the most interesting character with a unique personality in the whole show and therefore his relationship with Rain is the most interesting. The second couple is not well acted enough to take on the amount of screen time that is demanded of them for their storyline as well. I did like that one scene of Sky lying through his teeth to hurt Pai enough that Pai has tears streaming down his face. Psychologically, Sky's story is pretty tragic, even his initial one night stand with Pai is partially because of his lack of self esteem from his trauma conflicting and overlapping with his desires combined with the flirting and the threat that Pai's request in exchange for leaving the illegal event is. The resolution doesn't feel really complete like any justice was to be had for Sky who was sexually and mentally assaulted and abused by his ex once again. I'm glad Sky got some kind of catharsis though.

It's such a disjointed feeling that the series just wrapped on on Sky and Pai like Payu and Rain was just tertiary characters the whole time rather than the main characters. It seems to be two different books adapted at the same time and the script definitely should have just intertwined them instead of telling them one at a time for better pacing. It feels like such a waste of Payu's character who has the potential for more story there was in the show.

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Crush theory

It's pretty impressive that the 4 ep series fits in modeling supportive parental and familial behavior towards their children who are gay within the story of youth ambition, romance, and platonic love.

X is deviously cunning, the way he's able to insinuate himself into his crush's life. The negging was really mean though and he's smart enough to have done without that. The meanness makes it more creepy than cute. Thank goodness he doesn't do anything else mean. The way that he's confused why Q wasn't answering his texts though without consideration that maybe it's because his first impression was so mean paradoxically somehow makes him more human with the vulnerability. Q though actually just forgot his phone and somehow enjoys spending time with X, maybe subconsciously sensing the romantic interest vibes though not picking up on it like his mom and uncle can immediately see. The scene where X is pointing to his own face to indicate Q has some cookie cream on his face, but Q mistakes it for a request for a cheek kiss is cute. There is no kiss on the lips though there is a second cut of the same bridge scene where they hug, but they also go in for the kiss that cuts away before it happens when Q thinks back on it.

It's so nice that the mom has her gay brother as a sounding board about accepting that her son is probably gay. Q's uncle has great advice, don't let other's feelings dictate your own is such a bar. His mom is both nervous about the potential problems her son might face and also extremely supportive for her son to get a boyfriend. The sibling relationship between Q's mom and brother is so lovely and have their own storyline regarding their father attitude towards the brother, which seems to be settled happily offscreen. It's such a nice surprise that Frank doesn't have a crush on Mind, which she understandably would mistake his affections for. It's so sweet that he really wants her to be an older sister to him after his own has passed on. Mook and Toy are cute, though it's not as clear what makes him different to Mook than all the other people who are fanboys and fangirls of her other than she just got to spend time with him for around 21 days the same as X's application of the theory with his crush before he goes to Japan.

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Epilogue date

It's a nice little button after the series, especially if there is slim chances of any further continuation to get to see Jom and Khun Yai have some fun times with the mysterious time slip magic granting Jom and Khun Yai one lovely day for Jom to show Khun Yai his world, which for good or ill involves Tiktok dances. Though Jom is not a rich heir like Khun Yai, Jom probably makes decent money as an architect had lives in a nice apartment and can easily replace any game controllers his boyfriends smashes and has spending money to give him too. One thing that's weird is that for some reason they aren't allowed to do a normal kiss scene, which we have seen from the main series that the actors are capable of doing and were instructed to not move for some reason, like it was a mandate for this special episode. It's especially conspicuous after the pointed recap of every single time they kissed from the main series. The episode concludes with Jom stepping out in the exact same outfit that he wears to overlook the renovations and meets a present day Khun Yai before being whisked to warrior Yai's time. I really hope the production finds a way to finish the story.

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Architecture nerds love

Rin stretches her pretty privilege and she is ethereally pretty, to the limit being a grade A jerk to everyone and especially to Aokbab who hasn't done anything wrong to merit the hostility from Rin from their first meeting when Rin came upon Aokbab who was at most guilty of talking an bakery employee's ear off about the dangers of the crumbling building. Rin is pure spikes until she spots Aokbab's drawings and realizes that Aokbab is the artist whose pictures made Rin fall in love with the person who drew them without ever having met until now. Aokbab is is not so soft herself and wouldn't have had to deal with Rin except her two older brothers are terrible at running their family business and she has save the business and the customer is a fan of Rin's design. Rin agrees to work with Aokbab, but has demands and conditions, which are actually all pretty sensible. She's entirely right it's a red flag to be "family", which is just code for a company demanding more than what you are contractually agreed to. Rin rightly sets down the rule that she's clocking out on time and will not do work things after work. The one delicious meal a week is a good morale boost. Once Rin starts dating her boss though, of course she does end up being family and doing more than she agreed to contractually.

I like the how Aokbab and Rin's relationship built on them spending time working together and getting to know each other and in particular with Rin helping Aokbab getting over the scars from her previous relationship with Mind. It was already weird that Mind was a university student tutor dating her high school tutee, hopefully their age difference wasn't more than a few years, but she also submitted her high school aged girlfriend's design as her own and didn't even explain to Aokbab, leading to Aokbab getting flagged for plagiarism for her dream university. Mind continues to have to gall to want to keep dating Aokbab 10 years later, saying they never broke up. That is so entitled and delusional. The flashbacks of their relationship shows them as so happy that it makes the betrayal all the more painful. When Mind finally explains herself all these years later, Aokbab tells her that if she had just explained back then, maybe Aokbab would have even agreed to giving the design to Mind, but Mind just fumbled everything, both Aokbab and her belief in her own potential. At least she finally tells the truth when the plagerism issue affects Aokbab's business once again.

The second couple of Tertis and Vee are cute too, it's nice they no longer have to work at competing companies and can work together at Jinta at the end. Aokbab's brother Chan is the only one who seems to meet a love interest outside of work as her other brother Pat seems smitten with a client. I am curious about Chan and his fellow seaside coffee enthusiast love interest Blue, it might be cute. Maybe there will be more of them in the surprise special episode coming out a month after the finale. I was wondering why there is no wedding and of course that will be the topic of the special.

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The haunting of a gentle passionate love

Jom has been haunted his whole life before he even started seeing visions of himself, haunted by the souls and karma that he becomes entangled with from his future past. Unlike the others who move through different lifetimes, Jom seems uniquely caught in the torrent of time within the same life, slipping through, though his gut feeling of familiarity may indicate perhaps a cycle of the same lifetime that's occurred more than once. Perhaps the time slip is triggered by some sort of magic that is tied to his life being endangered and the ancient warrior lifetime version of Yai appears to save him. Answers that won't be answered in this series with the end suggesting another story to fully explore the connection between Jom and warrior Yai and perhaps how even all the 1920s souls around Jom was connected to him from this earlier life time. It's fitting that his first real physical connection is the breath of life that the warrior Yai gives him when pulling him out of the water from 2023 into 1927/1928 into the past where he will meet the 20 year old Khun Yai. While Jom recognizes him as the man in the photos he's seen and the ghostly visions, Yai instantly feels in his heart being pulled towards Jom at first sight.

It's a shame that there's no possibility of Jom having more than one boyfriend because both Yai and James are respectful gentleman green flags from the 1920s that people in the 2020's should emulate. I love how both of them confessed to liking Jom while telling him that there's no pressure or expectations if he doesn't feel the same way. I do like that Jom got to have an intense and real love with Ohm before meeting Yai as well, though it ended poorly. It's interesting that Ohm probably felt indebted in a way to Jom from the past life and the appreciation carried through into a romantic love into the modern life, but Ohm's love and previously interrupted fate with Khaimuk, the reincarnated FongKhaew superseded it. It's still on Ohm for cheating on Jom for maybe the entire two years when he should have broken things off sooner. Both Yai and James even frequent the same secret lgbt friendly club that Yai takes Jom to. James is able to navigate the various social group including with the abusive Robert, which is how he's able to help Jom's group gain the information needed to put Robert and the devious Uncle Dech away.

Though Yai had grown up rich, he has zero haughty airs and is grounded and kind, especially towards his boyfriend. It's helpful that he has his own quote unquote little house that's still a mansion compared to the residences of mere mortals that's far off away from the others where he can live out his romantic life. The depiction of Jom and Yai's intimate moments is truly refreshingly sophisticated in how they express desire and sensuality. A lot if not most queer romance stories conflate maturity with being explicit, which turns into soulless , repetitive actions rather than conveying the feelings of the characters and the progression of their relationship. The olive oil skin care scenes of Jom applying it on Yai's back in tandem with the scene of Jom applying it on himself while thinking back to what happened with Jom technically has nothing explicit happening, but the yearning for each other is powerfully apparent.

Yai is always gently affectionate and respectful with Jom in both actions and words in their everyday life. Always taking care to check that Jom actually wants to do something. The actor for Yai portrayed the depths of love for Jom really well. There is one particular scene where Jom is delivering a heartbreaking monologue of acceptance that though they love each other, Yai has to go through the accepted heteronormative actions of getting engaged to a woman of his parent's choosing and Yai gingerly touches Jom's lips in a way that says how could such sad words be spoken through the lips of the man who is his heart. The actor for Jom is also good at maintaining that line between sweet and cutesy but not childish and also having intelligence.

I wish the show just verbalized if they weren't going to show what in the world Ming saw in their boat that made them flip over, it's so randomly lazy moment in an otherwise story that was made with care, when the character could just exclaim, "a spider!" or anything to facilitate Jom an Khun Yai physically connecting in the water when Yai dives to retrieve him. Ming is the MVP the reason Jom was able to survive long enough to meet Yai, saving this random man from the water and giving him a place to stay and a job intro until Jom is promoted to majerdomo and eventually boyfriend to Yai. Ming is a true friend to gays, going out of his way to help Muey even after finding out she doesn't feel the same way about her and when she was outed. He understands the pain of love is universal after seeing Muey and Jom, two people he cares about a lot suffer.

There's so much trouble that Jom could have avoided if he would just stop hanging out on the pier at night, where so much drama happens. Jom keeps seeing what he shouldn't see and he keeps doing the same thing. It's still understandable that he feels he should go there in case he can gain some understanding in how he time travelled through the water and how he can return. The actors for James and Robert can speak English, but I feel so bad for them for having to deliver what sounds so much like poorly machine translated Thai to English lines. It's a shame that no one advocated on their behalf to edit the lines to make them sound more sensible for speaking. I'm impressed that there didn't seem to be any apparent product placement in the show. You may think a period drama would preclude that, but some may try.

Euengphueng goes from being Jom's sister in law to become his beloved younger sister Jeed. Euengpheung and Fongkaew experienced marital rape and Engpheung also the additional trauma of finding out she was pregnant as a result. I'm glad the show went through with Euengpheung being able to make the decision to abort, even telling her girlfriend Muey she is telling her of her decision because she loves her and is not asking for permission. It's so good to see a woman character get agency in getting an abortion and get to stick with the decision. It's so sadly rare in media depictions. Euengpheung leaves the house with Muey, Fongkaew leaves with her mother without Khamsaen, and Yai goes off to law school in France in that lifetime, but they all return to Jom's life in their next one. A man in modern clothes looking exactly like Yai with his memories appear to to reunite with and hug Jom, but there's no peace for poor Jom, because seemingly no sooner after this moment, Jom in the same clothes awakens to an even more far off past of Thailand to the time of Warrior Yai. It seems like there is a hope and intention to continue the story to explore that part of the romance between their souls and perhaps how Jom got wrapped up in the time travel in the first place, but it's been two years since the show aired as of this review writing. I hope the same leads and production team will get to finish out the story sooner rather than later.

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Suffocatingly Unfunny

The film truly had nothing to say, but attempting to mine gross out humor from the incest concept. I felt horrible for Rin from the beginning to the end having to put up with a creepily invasive and controlling male family member her whole life because he and his father are the only family she has left in the world. Due is awful and selfish and his disgusting behavior towards her is of course enabled by his friend and even his boss. The writing is self aware enough with Due's rash out of nowhere reveal to her that they aren't family, his mind only about being able to date her, while to her she just found out she never had a nephew and brother in law in the first place. Regardless of the truth of them not being blood related, they were still raised as family and she only ever saw them as such. There was never once at any point of the film that establishes that Rin felt anything other than familial towards Due. The ending is even left open ended because they know it's weird that she would ever date him and he just acts the same instead of making it clear he will treat her as just family from now on. There is no point that the film makes either way. The side character of the guy that's obsessed with her is also extremely unfunny. His aggressively unwanted, intrusive advances are really no different than Due aside from the fact that she can't get away from Due because he's family. It's sad that she never even got to try dating the cute college guy that liked her and she also liked back. I'm glad she went off to England to study though, at least she did something for herself though she did miss the family that she grew up with.

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Silly Divas

The cinematography makes the show looks like a indie film, the best cinematographer at GMMTV does it again. Fluke is a total revelation as Nevia, the gorgeous, confident queen. Lego is such a pretty princess as Ingky. I wonder if they made the Air Dolls high schoolers instead of university students despite everything that they do would fit being a university student is purely so they can show how they modify their high school uniforms when in college they can straight up just wear the women's uniform. Also less legal ramifications for stealing the crown and messing with the pageant maybe, that wasn't really addressed. The whole show is very silly and camp, you get exactly what you expect.

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Disturbingly flippant attitude towards SA

The positive part of the show is the two main characters Hai Yuan and Xi Cha. Hai Yuan is smart and has a strong boundaries though has some anger issues while Xi Cha is very friendly and cheery with everyone. Their entangled fates spans lifetimes, but their current selves get along in their unique way. They have good chemistry and it's really good how grounded and quick on the uptick Hai Yuan is to Xi Cha's supernatural situation. It's also nice that Hai Yuan's bar gig bosses are the most lovey dovey lesbians as a elder queer mentors for Hai Yuan and also Xi Cha. It's unfortunate the episodes are so short that there is no time to further elaborate on Hai Yuan's former lifetime's relationship with Xi Cha as the young master that we do see a glimpse of and as Xi Cha's wife who was never shown, and to also reconnect with Xi Cha's mom at any point later in the story. It's weird she's not around for her son's university graduation. Xi Cha getting to live a second life time and having to head straight into sophomore year of college and needing to do different extracurriculars and contests was a idea for him to experience new things that could have been used more. The dorm RA who told fortunes for a little bit and enjoys though has no talent in calligraphy had a weird side plot of being at the school for some kind of mission that was never explained though he was a fun character that Xi Cha got to interact with outside of Hai Yuan's roommate that is also Hai Yuan's distant cousin.

It would had been great if the show was confident in the already very interesting reincarnation and soul swap premise and characters and not resort to rape, especially as an introduction to the very important character of Xia Zefang who may or may not be trans because Zefang could have just been desperate to do anything to get with Hai Yuan, which makes it even worse that the only trans adjacent character is also the one portrayed as an obsessive creep. The episode runtimes are so short, instead of the attempted rape, the time should have been spent on Zefang's regular personality before death so there is some clear delineation between Zefang and Xia Cha who takes over Zefang's body aside from the fact that the grandpa is not a rapist unlike the grand kid. Hai Yuan and Xia Cha never talk about Zefang's terrifying behavior although only at the very end Xia Cha does recognize that he spoiled Zefang when he should have been teaching him right from wrong. Xia Cha in his original body also spoke with a very distinctive Mandarin and Cantonese speech that should have continued for a little bit more than the one Cantonese phrase he spoke at the hair salon before completely speaking in only Mandarin when he has to live as his own grandkid at University. The setting is also confusing, it's alluded to be Hong Kong because Hai Yuan's mom said Xia Cha helped her out when she first moved to Hong Kong, but aside from her and Xia Cha, but everyone speaks Mandarin and it looks like Taiwan. As soon as Xia Cha gets to university, it's yet another attempted rape scene and there will be another one later in the series by the same person who is both Zefang's now ex-boyfriend and Hai Yuan's half brother Ri Qing who also makes a creepy incest joke at the end that's more a commentary on Taiwanese drama's obsession with awful assault scenes than funny. There is no real consequence for Ri Qing's assault. Xia Cha moves out of their shared dorm, but the assault is never mentioned as an issue ever again. I hope Taiwainese dramas will stop trivializing sexual assault.

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Wednesday's Child is full of Woe

The Wednesday club being named for a group of college freshman all being middle children who in looking for connection also find their various family issues converge. They make mistakes and are taken advantaged of because of their youth, desperation, and ambitions. It's realistic that only some in the club become real friends and the others remain acquaintances that go through some trauma together all the same and in the end they go their separate ways.

The series missed the opportunity to really dial in on the friendship connections. May and Tam seemed like it was developing, but then they don't really interact anymore, being sectioned off to their own storylines. Either someone on the directing or writing team seems to have a thing for urine, featuring it not once, but three times. The lack of emotional connection between any of the club members leaves the ending feeling a tad empty.

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School 2024: Thailand

The intensity of childhood friendships is no less dramatic, complicated, painful, or joyful than romance. Shin and Saint's friendship is the most intense of them all, though it's nice to see the various other ones between the other groups of characters that all coalesce into a heartwarming of peace and friendship between the whole class. Their angst was well acted by the characters, though the reveal of what happened between them took way too long. They should have revealed it to the audience at least in the second episode because it just felt like it dragged the story down. It wouldn't have made the impact of Saint confessing he beat Shin to the point of him breaking his leg and losing his ability to play soccer to the whole class any less or lessen the pain of Shin's being so heartbroken by Saint's not understanding the thing he truly couldn't forgive Saint is for leaving him when things are hard instead of facing it with him. This series is based on kdrama School 2013 where the friendship of the male leads were also the heart of the story. I would say though that High School Frenemy leaves things a bit more open as to the possibilities of what these two friends could become in the future. Aside from their family, and other friends, they love each other the most in the world. They keeping making promises and oaths to each, and tell each other they love each other. The last time they do in the show in the rain and sharing an umbrella, hints to the possibility in the future of more. It's nice they don't have to deal with that on top of the other wild things they've been dealing with and just enjoy their friendship for now. It would be interesting to see how they would deal with trying dating other people once they are in college or something.

Though they have 16 episodes, which is longer than a lot of other Thai series, they didn't get enough time to address a bit more of the home life. Saint's dad is definitely an alcoholic, he's almost always drunk, but he's never abusive to Saint, though him owning money causes Saint to take beatings on behalf of his dad. It's implied that at the very least he settled things with the loans sharks when Saint met up with him outside the police station. It's weird that his alcoholism is never called out though. They saved that for Ken's dad instead. We don't get to see Peeta and her mom come to an understanding, just an off screen acknowledgement that Peeta finally doesn't have to go represent the Thai academic team any more once Peeta is sent to the hospital. Eve and Airy is another friendship that hints at possible romance. They are newer friends and it's pretty blatant from Airy's questions and approach to Eve that she does have a crush on Eve. The teachers also on their journey to learning how to understand and help their students along the way was nice too. It was pretty crazy that neither Mr. Sung or Ms. Jan stepped in after Saint pushed Shin into the mountain of desks that fell on him and he was actually knocked out for a minute and Shin called Mr. Sung for help. Saint wasn't faking it, he was really out, which should be concerning because it's different than all the other times he takes hits and are fine. All lot of the beatings look very realistically brutal, but it kinda breaks the realism that most of the time no one ends up in the hospital after them, like when Saint got kidnapped, beaten, and left outside where Shin finds him.

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Psychological Escape Room Jumanji

It's nice to see teen drama tackle other dramatic instances that can occur other than anything that sexualizes them. Topics such as being a scumbag politician and reckoning with the existential horror of time passing by without you.

A lot of the games are battles of wits and wills between the clever and the devious. At least even the bully kids have some kind of conscience to save Mark and they weren't wrong to expose Mamay for her fraudulent election. She had to make a choice and chose to become the person she was pretending to be. Aom's story is the most tragic, having sacrificed herself to save her friends, she missed out on 30 years of time with her parents, one of whom passed away before she's able to return. The dice was found where Pan left her notes after a decade of searching, so the dice only chose to appear when it wanted to. It also seems to want to collect souls. Sumat is very smart, but in the moment he didn't think to be specific in his wish for the souls to return and poor Aom is trapped again. It's kind of funny that Mark is dating Pie, but he clearly is crushing a bit on Aom too, who turns out to be basically his auntie with her being his mom's childhood bestie. There are plot threads that remain dangling like Don's huge monetary debt and of course Aom's trapped soul by the end with conclusion left open to continuation, but if it never gets another season then it's pretty dark.

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Short of a full or good story

Yot is crass, drinks a lot, and has a high sex drive, but he's otherwise a regular guy who does honest work as a mechanic despite sleeping in and what not. It's kind of understandable for him not to take his mom's chastisements seriously when she's the one with a comparatively more destructive vice of gambling that he implies has left him feeling neglected and that puts their family's livelihood at risk when loan sharks come knocking. She wants Yot to be ordained so she can have something to boast about him to others about and so she can have a good after life. The argument scene between mother and son was acted well. Her seemingly normal request within their culture, but perhaps she's also not feeling so great about life, but her son doesn't pick up on that, but he definitely doesn't or at least doesn't want to really think about what those closest to him need for happiness. He refuses to acknowledge all the signs that M is probably gay and has been in love with him for a long time. M got too drunk and decided to do a very gross thing to molest an unconscious Yot. That's truly terrible no matter the reasoning and Yot was correct and didn't do anything wrong or overboard in his reaction. It's just tragic that M drank and drove into a lethal accident. The horror scenes of M's haunting were surprisingly well done with good direction, editing, and make up work. I do like his one request was just for Yot to honor his promise to ordain upon his death. Despite what M did, Yot clearly did value the friendship at the very least and it's a fair thing for him to do in honor of it as well as something to inspire his mom as well. The show should have shown her quitting gambling or something. It's never resolved if she paid or her debts. Also, it's weird that M's soul seemed to be purified from being an angry ghost, but now he's still somehow eating ghost yogurt and still haunting Yot forever, but in a more childish way. That feels like a homophobic ending to portray him as not being able to move on and chooses to predate on a guy eternally.

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Fluffy finale epilogue

If you weren't sure what the writers intended the main show to be about, the film class pitch that Muenfah's group gives to their teacher is basically the summation. Joy and Type gets to re-join the action after not being around towards the end of the main series. Their penchant for not being able to keep a secret becomes a plot beat in the first ep. It's wild that it's been almost two years and Lee and Ghlai didn't even officially go out yet, but Lee had been acting like the utmost devoted boyfriend the whole time. It was nice to see that Teerak had some friends from his freshman year that he ran into and got some hot pot with along with Muenfah. Of course one of them confesses to Teerak that he had a crush on him, but is chill and is a good sport about Muenfah blocking his every move towards Teerak, complimenting their relationship. Teerak was so popular in his freshman year, captivating so many people.

Muenfah's dad keeps calling him away to Hong Kong to help him with the business. It was never mentioned, but assuming that he's also still co-managing the drinks and eatery place with Real, it's a miracle they are graduating. Joy and Type learned to keep a secret and joined in on throwing Teerak an engagement party in the end. Muenfah really brough the the most giant ring box. It's funny that Babe reminds them not to get married too early though. She doesn't say it, but big sister is basically hinting that she isn't even getting married yet, so definitely not younger bro. Teerak is very, extremely happy about his sex life to the point he was basically boasting about it by even mentioning it to a grossed out Type and Joy, while ironically his brother in law bestie Lee doesn't. The scene where he presents himself with a ribbon around his neck to Muenfah was giving me flashbacks to another series from the company that was too cringey, but it was handled okay here.

Real and Hia give zero romantic chemistry. It's somehow less than the scenes with Ghlai who is still feels like he popped up from out of nowhere, like from Lee's wish one day to have a boyfriend. His feelings for Ghlai is an impetus to give a scene between Muenfah and Lee where Lee asks him why Teerak and they connect over each finding someone that that affects their lives so tremendously. It looks like IQIYI sponsored the three episode epilogue, but not so much that they could keep the original camera and cinematography of the main series. It takes a moment to adjust to if you are watching them directly back to back, but it's okay. There's some behind the scenes clips after the episodes and it shows Teerak's actor coming from and talking about his actual school life. He's filming and handling mid-terms at the same time. I'm always impressed by the young actors that are still attending university at the same time as filming their acting roles.

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Slivers of important messaging within the fluffy clouds

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.

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