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#stories from my thai class
airenyah · 7 months
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today at the end of my thai class my teacher asked us about what we thought thailand's soft power was and i've never struggled more to keep a straight face
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ace-with--a-mace · 1 year
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i definitely think quarantine stunted everyone under the age of like 25's growth and its detrimental to society today
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absolutebl · 4 months
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Best 23 of BL 2023 - Quirky Awards
SHOCK & AWE AWARDS
1. Biggest BL surprise of 2023:
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The last 3 months of 2023 in general got my biggest WTF award.
GMMTV fielding OffGun AND TayNew in the same quarter while also airing Last Twilight (arguably one of their best BLs ever)
That they ALSO optioned 3 JBLs
That there's a high heat omegaverse BL staring Pavel
That there were 20 BLs airing and none of them Korean.
With 5 VAMPIRE BLs announced for next year
But my prize in this category goes to My Dear Gangster Oppa.
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It's just crazy:
Thai talent, Korean money + IP (this is adapted from a manwha) airing on a Chinese channel (iQIYI). Plus it was GOOD and made smart reuse of a pair who richly deserved it. I'm delighted by the eclectic insanity of this production. And wonder if any other film genre could even do anything like this.
2. The “that country did WHAT?” award:
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The 8th Sense from Korea?!
I mean, seriously?! Dealing with metal health, suicide, darkness, therapy, age gap, & first time love BUT FROM KOREA? And then openness and casual boyfriend physical affection? What's next? An actual hard fought coming out narrative with an HEA? Gay domesticity and families?
Careful Korea, you'll strain something. Possibly your own culture and film industry.
I should stop having expectations of Korea, they keep surprising me.
Runners up: Korea letting OnlyOneOf do Bump Up Business not to mention that OmegaX thing. AND Korea adapting Why R U? What are you up to, Korea? Qua? Is this a coded message? Should we send help? Do you need snacks?
3. Biggest casting whoa! where did you come from? award:
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GeminiFourth in My School President.
Seriously? Babies what? How did GMMTV find you? How do you exist? How is BL this lucky?
4. That studio did WHAT now? award:
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GMMTV putting EarthMix into Moonlight Chicken.
And then doubling down with G4 as the damn sides.
Fucking genius.
5. I’m sad you were ignored award:
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Destiny Seeker.
It's just a really fun little Thai pulp, the pairs were good, silly dialogue, plus consent and other good rep. I enjoyed it. No one talked about it AT ALL.
6. 2023 BL That Actually Made Me Lose My Mind Award?
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Laws of Attraction. -The casting, the crazy story, the soapy drama! But specifically: Film playing Charn - the range of his smiles alone. GLORIOUS
I mean I Feel You Linger in the Air also sparked something in me, but LoA drove me actually nuts.
NARRATIVE AWARDS
7. Best story 2023:
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La Pluie
I know, you're surprised, right? At the time I didn't chat much about it but I really enjoyed the discourse others were having. I love anything that really examines the fated mates (soulmates) trope and the idea of "the one". What a clever way to do that. (This is one reason UWMA is my favorite Thai BL.)
This one reminded me of the way Color Rush approached allegory and that's no bad thing. Such an impressive little piece.
8. Best narrative structure 2023 award:
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Unintentional Love Story.
I know this may seem a simplistic pick. But I love the tidiness of this no frills contemporary romance, how the culture of work and personal ethics and corruption fight against the main character's affection and integrity. Poor baby boy is driven into a corner and then punished for it. But it is punishment he feels he deserves, and so it is up to his (now) ex to figure out what went wrong and why.
It's just great. I love it when no one is stupid or wrong, it's just impossible circumstances and unintentional love deeply felt.
9. Best 2023 dialogue (script) award:
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Jun & Jun
Never before has Korea laced a BL with that much perfectly executed innuendo. It was a master class. I didn't know you could be that lascivious in Korean, quite frankly. Plus the way the 2 Juns constantly seamlessly transition between formal register (work, public - where they are boss/employee) to informal register (when they are alone and age mates + childhood sweethearts).
Beautiful to hear and watch.
10. Favorite scene 2023:
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The dub con scene in I Cannot Reach You because I AM TRASH for an out of control seme. I'm sorry I just AM.
I have said it before, I will say it again, NO ONE DOES THIRST like Japan. And when that thirst bubbles over, it is heart-clenching and very hot.
11. The most rewatchable BL of 2023 award:
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Our Dating Sim
That scene where they lie on the floor + the stolen kiss + giggle? Come on, it should be on comfort repeat in war rooms. It could bring world peace.
ACTORS & CHARACTERS AWARDS
12. Best performance of a queer actor in a leading role, 2023:
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Fluke in Make a Wish.
It was fun to see him as an irreverent immortal and while I love OhmFluke I also really enjoyed this new pairing. It was a genuine pleasure to watch.
13. Best pining 2023:
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The moot pining in Tokyo in April is...
Boys, seriously? Japan must you destroy us like this? Hurts so good.
14. Best wingman 2023 (The Namgoong Award)
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Tiw from My School President
I mean, come on, of course it's him!
(Also can you believe Mark went on from this to do fricking Only Friends!? To Last Twilight! Come on GMMTV GIVE HIM A LEAD!)
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15. Biggest OMG I LOVE you boys together, YAY!
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Dimpled McMafia & Feral Bunny Foo Foo from Kiseki Dear to Me.
They were feral for each other.
We were feral for them
It was a whole delightful THING.
16. Most unexpected return of a BL pair? award:
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The Private Lessons pair showing up in Love Class 2.
I know it was only a cameo, but SERIOUSLY? Thank you SO MUCH Korea! A big studio picking up a Strongberry pairing? I love you.
Seriously tho between them, Taiwan & Korea tried for ALL THE CAMEOS this year.
17. Well aren't you two just the prettiest? award:
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NetJames in Bed Friend.
Need I say more?
18. LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
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Bah Vinh in Vian & Mr Cinderella 2. I did like either show but I loved him in them. Especially the make outs.
Yes you have chemistry with all the boys in Vietnam and you kiss beautifully. But it's okay now honey, you have the crown. Relax, you're stressing us out.
RANDOM PICKS
19. Favorite Linguistic Moment of 2023:
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Our Dating Sim
Caught in the act by the elevator scene. OMG it's so funny. They're being such boyfriend shits to each other, and to be caught in the act by THAT character, and try to manifest formal language whole cloth? Hilarious.
Honorable mention to War Peanuts in Destiny Seeker.
20. Biggest disappointment of 2023:
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You Are Mine
Seriously Taiwan, AGAIN you disappoint me with an Office BL? You're Taiwan, land of offices and suits. This should be YOUR SETTING TO WIN. And yet... argh. I mean it wasn't bad. But it wasn't good either. Stop it Taiwan, do better.
Runners up? Between Us, Chains of Heart, Dangerous Romance - this was a HOTLY contested category.
+ 2 Winners in the sub-category of FUCK YOU FOR THAT ENDING award:
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The Director who Buys Me Dinner - I mean this nicely but: you have your lane now Korea, stop hurting us, that's Japan's responsibility and they do it better.
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I Feel You Linger In the Air - I'm just hugely disappointed. Thailand ALMOST got its second 10/10 from me, but that damn ending.
Argh.
21. Best Wardrobe/Prop Use 2023
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The shower of packaged bedsheets in My Personal Weatherman
Amazing. Brilliant. No notes.
22. Best Queer Rep 2023
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Chot in Step By Step
In fact, all the queer characters in this show were treated with great integrity.
AND props to this cast for refusing to do fan service. GOOD FOR YOU! Fuck those sasang wankers.
Runners up? The found family cast of Love in Translation and the Rainbow Rice Cakes in The New Employee.
23. Best Meta Trope call out
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Tin Tem Jai
Come on, what a zinger, but at themselves (and Taiwan)
Final question: which of the 23 was the hardest for me to pick?
Honestly? Question #1 this year. But also question #20.
(Last year: 2022's Version) 
Remember I only pull from shows that were completely finished by the end of 2023. Or The Sign probably would have taken multiple categories. But it will fall into 2024 offerings.
(source)
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writingwithcolor · 9 months
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Representing Biracial Black South American Experiences…Through a White/Asian Mixed Race Character in Europe
@colombinna asked:
I have a YA story that's in very early development - pre-alpha, if you will. For now what I have developed is the characters: one of the MCs is a biracial asian queer girl (her dad is thai-american and japanese, her mom's white), she has a medium/dark brown skin, and lives in a very white context in a fictional European country. The contact she has with her extended family is limited to phone calls and regular visits because her dad moved from the US to said fictional European country.
I'm a biracial black queer girl myself, living in a very white community in South America, my extended black family also lives in a different place, and I'm taking a lot of my experiences of being not white and queer whilst living in white communities into her story (the feeling of not belonging, the impostor syndrome, standing out as one of the only POC kids in class, etc) and thinking back to what I've heard asian friends and classmates say about their experiences in the same school/community context as mine. But I want to know how different her experiences as a dark-skinned asian girl would differ from mine and my friends' in a similar context (white community, small number of other asian people - and POC in general - in the social circles, and limited contact to her extended family), and what experiences could make sense if the character was biracial black like myself, but won't if she's biracial asian.
Why not write a biracial Black girl if those are the experiences you want to represent? 
This MC is straddling, like, 3 different cultures. Having multiple immigrant identities in not-Europe is not the same experience as being Black in South America; while both are complex minority experiences, there are too many differences in intersections and histories to compare. Not to mention, it really depends on what European culture(s) you’re basing your not-Europe on. 
I think you’ll find that the written result will ring much more genuine and rich in depth if you either translate your experiences more directly or pick a more narrow focus, instead of assuming that there is a universal for racism and colorism against biracial people that is transferable across contexts. Because there isn’t. There can be overlaps, but if you’re looking to cover the entire range of What It’s Like in general, it won’t work.
This isn’t to say that people can’t use other identities to write about specific experiences of their own, but in this case you need to think about what story you want to tell and what your reasons are. Marika’s commentary will go more into when and how this can be done effectively. 
Also, if the point is to make her a dark-skinned Asian, as a white/asian mix myself, I implore you: why must you make her 1/4 Japanese and 1/2 white? Even with the Thai ethnicity thrown in, Thai people very much range in skin tone and have their own domestic issues with colorism. It’s not impossible for dark-skinned examples of your MC’s ethnic makeup to exist, but still I don’t recommend it for two reasons: 
It's going to make researching people whose experiences fit that much more difficult. Most experiences of colorism, othering, and other forms of discrimination that mixed white asians tend to face are completely different from mixed race asians who tend to have darker skin & features.
There's enough Japanese & white mixed Japanese rep in the Asian rep sphere as is. Consider that this individual could be mixed Asian (not Japanese) with something else (not white)! 
But again, think over your motivations. I’ll spare you the copy/paste of our Motivations PSA, but re-read it and consider. Why do you wish to write a mixed Asian character to tell the story of your experiences as a mixed Black individual instead of a mixed Black character? What does it add to the story? Is it an effective vessel for the experiences you want to convey? 
~ Rina
I think Rina brings up some good points here: I’m not hearing a lot of specificity in your query. As you doubtless know firsthand, the more intersectional and complex an identity, the more of a chance the identity may come with unexpected baggage and nuances that fly in the face of what is common sense for less intersectional identities. This can make writing such characters challenging just because there is so much choice on which identity themes to emphasize. 
I once spent about 15 minutes explaining to a person the thought process I used to determine when I could wear jeans depending on which country I was living in as a mixed race person who is perceived as different things in different places. It might seem trivial, but it’s actually very important to me for the purposes of identity, safety and gender presentation, so I personally think it’s interesting. But will my readers think a character’s multi-page internal monologue on whether or not to wear jeans is especially compelling? Does the writer-version of me want to research the version of myself musing on my specific jeans conundrum to that extent? Or do I want to talk about other things related to attire a lot of other people would relate to? I think those are all YMMV questions, but hopefully, they provide some perspective that will help you be intentional about how you might want to tackle something potentially very time-consuming.
When I say intentional, I mean that when covering a complex identity with which you are peripherally familiar, it will always be more effective and easier to use it to tell a specific story extremely clearly than to be extremely broad in scope and try to include almost everything about your own experiences, especially because some of those experiences might not be as relevant for your character’s background as they are to yours.      
One of my favorite childhood picture books is written and illustrated by a Nikkei writer-illustrator team. The book is titled Ashok by Any Other Name (link). The story features a desi child growing up in the US who wishes he had an American name his friends and teachers wouldn’t think was strange. It covers how being othered for his name makes him feel, and how he copes with that feeling. Speaking as someone both Japanese and desi, I think through the plot device of names perceived by the majority of Americans as foreign, this book aptly shows how many immigrant/diaspora creators are capable of relating to the pressures of assimilation experienced by other immigrant, even if the creator, the audience and the story’s subject’s backgrounds all don’t completely overlap 100%. 
There will be aspects of your Blackness, mixed identity, skin color, sexuality and living in a local community lacking diversity as a member of many minority groups that you will find resemble/ resonate with the experiences of mixed-race, Japanese individual in a Europe-themed setting, and I think any story that leans into those themes will be considerably easier for you to research. In other words, instead of asking us “How does my experience differ?” I would approach this issue by deciding what narrative you want to show about your own experience and then research the specific contexts within which your desired story overlaps with elements of mixed-race Japanese experiences. 
- Marika.
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bellaxgiornata · 11 months
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All These Years [Part 1: "Saturday Night"]
Pairing: Matt Murdock x Fem!Reader
Summary: You met Matthew Murdock unexpectedly at Columbia University and you couldn't deny that there was an instant attraction–for you. But for Matt, you became as close of a friend to him as Foggy did. As the years pass by, your feelings only grow for your best friend, but all you can do is watch as he dates and sleeps with every other woman on campus and eventually in New York City but you.
Warnings/tags: 18+ for this series; contains emotional hurt with no comfort until the final installments, angst, pining, friends to lovers, slowburn, and eventually smut
Word Count: 3.3k
a/n: Welcome to me starting yet another Matt Murdock series. This one isn't intended to be too long, but this story will be told in a series of installments (much like my series Falling For the Devil is). It will be angsty and there won't be comfort for a long while. This series will follow Matt and Reader briefly through college and then after, all the while Reader pines secretly for Matt. You can find the installment list for this series here. If you're enjoying it, please leave me some love!
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Sprawled out across Foggy’s bed and lying on your stomach, you focused on your laptop on the mattress before you. Absently chewing on your thumbnail, you were trying to finish your assignment for class while simultaneously trying to tune out the Foo Fighters blasting from Foggy’s laptop just next to you. As you worked, your left hand dropped down the side of the messy bed, fingers feeling around for your beer bottle on the floor. A moment later you found it, your hand curling around the neck of the bottle and picking it up. You brought it to your lips for a long drink, eyes never leaving the laptop screen.
You often spent your Saturday nights hanging out in Foggy and Matt’s dorm because your roommate was usually fucking her boyfriend. It wasn’t a secret. So you usually spent the evening either drinking with the pair of them, working on assignments, or both. And usually both Matt and Foggy were here with you, their dorm room filled with the sounds of teasing jokes and loud laughter from the three of you. It was a ritual that you’d all always splurge on takeout, the room smelling like pizza or burgers or Thai. And that was how every Saturday night had gone since you’d met both Matt and Foggy. Except on the evenings Matt was out on a date.
Like tonight.
And on those nights, you always drank and worked on homework. Generally while Foggy sent you sad, knowing looks and occasional comments telling you to just admit your feelings to Matt, which then usually resulted in you denying your feelings wholeheartedly. 
But the truth of it was, Foggy was right. You’d had feelings for Matt since the day you’d met him at the library six months ago. 
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Frantically your thumbs swiped across your phone screen, typing up a message to Professor McCarthy discussing the details of your current project. You were hoping to make some headway on it at the library today, planning to work in the quiet confines of the library away from your very sexually active roommate. 
You were almost finished writing the message when you ran straight into something incredibly solid, your phone almost falling right out of your hands at the collision. But before you had the chance to even glance up and see who it was you had hit, a loud handful of heavy thuds rang out before a sharp pain shot up through your right foot. 
“Son of a motherless donkey!” you shouted.
A loud snicker came from in front of you, but a very enraged librarian yelled out over the noise and drew your attention.
“We do not shout in the library, miss!” she scolded. “Keep your voice down or leave!”
You shot her a sheepish, strained smile as your foot throbbed in pain. She glared at you a moment longer before returning back to her computer, your attention finally focusing on who you’d apparently run headlong into. And then you’d almost jumped back in surprise, not expecting your victim to be the guy grinning down at you. He was wearing dark glasses which covered his eyes, but even despite that, you could easily see how attractive he was. Your mouth felt like it had gone dry instantly.
He was beautiful .
“Shit, I’m sorry,” you apologized. “I should have been watching where I was going, I’m sorry.”
“Quite alright. And I apologize for dropping my books on you,” he said, the grin never leaving his face. “Didn’t break your toes, did I?”
“No,” you said, a nervous laugh leaving you. “Let me just–”
You bent down to help him gather his books at the exact same moment he’d bent down to do the same, which resulted in the pair of you bumping your foreheads together. Standing bolt upright, your right hand flew to your forehead rubbing the sore spot as you cursed under your breath. An amused chuckle sounded before you, the noise drawing your attention. 
“What? No more interesting curses that time?” he teased, the palm of his hand briefly rubbing his own forehead. “I’m not suddenly the son of a fatherless goat now?”
You flushed, shaking your head but unable to fight down the smile that was spreading over your lips. “Uh, no,” you answered. “Sorry, I uh, I can grab your books.”
“That’s alright, I can grab them,” he assured you.
“No, really,” you pressed, “I caused you to drop them, I can at the very least pick them up for you.”
“But I dropped them on your foot, and judging by the way you shouted, it sounded like it hurt,” he countered. “And, well, they’re my books. Makes me responsible for them.”
You watched him curiously as he finished with a shrug, wondering why he was so adamant to argue with you instead of just accepting your help. Eyes falling down to the very large texts he’d dropped on your foot, you skimmed the titles of them–and then immediately laughed. His head tilted curiously to the side in response.
“I’m missing something, what’s so funny?” he asked.
You gestured a hand at the texts on the ground by your feet. “Law student,” you said. 
“Yes?” he replied, eyebrows rising above his glasses.
“No, I mean, it makes sense,” you explained, focusing back on his handsome face. “Why you’re arguing with me about something so ridiculous. You’re a law student.”
The corners of his lips twitched upwards at your words. “Are you implying I enjoy arguing, miss…?”
You bit your lip, hesitating for a brief moment before you offered him your name. And then you nodded. “Yes,” you told him. “I am in fact implying that, because you’re doing it again. Looking for something to dispute.”
He went quiet for a moment, his head still tilted a little to the side. Your eyes took the opportunity of his silence to take in the sight of him before you, studying the boyish grin still on his lips and appreciating what you could see of his face. Gaze dropping down, you noticed the way his dark tee-shirt fit his chest, displaying more muscle than you’d have expected on a law student. He clearly spent some time at the gym. You’d also noticed the cane in his hand and deduced immediately that he was blind and therefore thankfully couldn’t see you checking him out.
His hand reached out in the space between the pair of you, drawing you from your ogling of him. You curiously glanced back up to his smiling face.
“I’m Matthew,” he said. “But I go by Matt.”
Your own hand quickly darted forward, shaking his offered hand. The brief contact of his warm hand wrapped around yours caused your heart to hammer wildly in your chest, something nervous flitting around in your stomach. And then you quickly drew your hand back, too afraid to accidentally hold onto his for too long and have him thinking you were strange.
“Tell you what, if you tell me your major, I’ll let you pick up the books,” he suggested.
His offer caught you off guard and you laughed, shaking your head. “Oh you’ll let me pick up your books, huh? The ones that nearly broke my toe?” you teased back.
He flashed you a broad smile, the brightness of it lighting up his handsome face. Your mind momentarily went blank at the sight before you found yourself suddenly blurting out your major and then picking up his scattered textbooks from the floor.
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Eyes still focused on your laptop screen, you lowered the almost empty bottle of beer sightlessly back down to the floor beside Foggy’s bed. You spent a moment typing a few things up for your assignment, but your hands came to a stop over the keyboard the moment you heard noise just outside of the door. 
Your heart sunk to your stomach when your ears registered the giggling mixed with the sound of Matt's deep, rumbling voice on the other side of it. Foggy glanced up from his notes, his attention drawn to the sound, too, before you saw his attention shift down to you on the bed beside him. He took one look at your face and was shooting you an apologetic smile, his mouth opening as he was about to say something. 
But then Matt and a pretty blonde came barging in through the door of their dorm and Foggy's mouth instantly closed. 
"Oh, sorry, were we interrupting?" the blonde asked, eyeing you and Foggy.
"We were just studying," you told her, voice strained. 
Her nose scrunched up as if the thought of homework on a Saturday night was just that repulsive. You bit your tongue as she wrapped her arms around Matt’s waist, drawing herself into his side. Something painful and sharp coiled in your stomach as you watched him smile and drape his arm around her shoulders in return, his own brows creased at your words.
"Really?" he asked. “That’s all you’re doing?” 
"Uh, yeah dude," Foggy stated matter-of-factly. "We usually study every Saturday night. You know that."
The blonde laughed, turning and burying her face against Matt's broad chest. Jealousy flared like a fire in your veins–scalding hot and all-consuming. In the six months you'd known Matt, you'd watched him go on dates with a handful of different women. All of them beautiful. And you were always left wondering why you'd never been good enough to be asked on a date by him. 
"Right, yeah," Matt said, flashing you both a smile. "I just forgot my scarf."
Your eyes watched as he felt along his nightstand, grabbing his dark scarf off of it. The young woman stood on her toes, resting her chin on Matt’s shoulder. Your heart ached at the scene unfolding before you.
"You know, my roommate is out," the blonde said to Matt, her tone suggestive and not quite quiet enough for you to have missed.
Your eyes snapped down to your laptop's screen instantly, trying hard to ignore that nauseous feeling churning in your gut as you bit down harder on your tongue. There was only one reason they'd be going back to her dorm with her roommate gone. You weren't stupid. 
It's not like you didn't know that's what Matt was doing with all these young women he’d been going out with, but you usually didn't have to witness his conversations about it. You didn’t need to look up from your laptop’s screen to know what he was reaching for in the top drawer of his nightstand now, the blonde once again giggling from her place wrapped around him. 
Gritting your teeth together, you fought hard to keep the burn of tears at bay. You would not cry over this. He was just your friend. He wasn't yours. He could sleep around if he wanted to. It’s not even like he was being an asshole about it–these women wanted it. And honestly, you couldn’t blame them. You had often wondered what it would be like to have sex with Matt. Or to even just be wanted by him, even for a moment.
You tried to focus on your homework, desperately attempting to ignore the thunderous pounding of your heart in your chest and the way Foggy was staring at you from the corner of your eye. You would not let this make you cry. Because it was just a stupid, silly little crush on your friend. That’s all it was. And it would eventually pass with time and you’d laugh about it someday with Matt, joking about how absurd it was to have ever thought the two of you could have feelings for each other.
“Enjoy your studying ,” the blonde said, her voice cutting through your thoughts. 
You glanced up, watching as she sent you and Foggy a wave before leading the pair of them towards the door. Matt was laughing lightly, wrapped around the back of her with his cane folded up in one hand and the unmistakable gold foil of a couple of condoms hanging out of his back pant’s pocket. 
You laid frozen on the bed, your heart further sinking to your stomach as your eyes lingered on their retreating forms. Eventually the door closed behind them, a loud giggle erupting before all you could hear was Foggy’s laptop still blaring Foo Fighter’s “Best of You” and feeling like you were being mocked by the universe itself. 
Foggy’s hand on your shoulder caused you to jump on the bed, startling you out of your trance. Head whipping in his direction, you glanced up at him with raised brows. His own were drawn tight and low on his forehead, a deep frown set onto his lips. 
“You okay?” he asked softly.
“Yeah, of course,” you instantly answered. “I’m fine, Fog. I told you, I don’t like Matt.”
His hand squeezed your shoulder gently as he whispered your name. “Then why are you crying?” he asked.
Right hand darting up, you wiped the back of it against your cheek. Unexpected dampness hit the back of your hand and you swallowed hard. Clearing your throat, you forced a smile back onto your face and turned your attention back to Foggy.
“I’ve just been staring at this screen for too long,” you lied. “Eye strain, you know? It’s a bitch.”
You pushed yourself up into a sitting position, turning and bending over to grab your beer from the worn wood floor. As you brought it to your lips to finish off, you heard Foggy saying your name softly again behind you. Swallowing down the beer you rose up to your feet, that forced smile still on your face.
“I’m grabbing another, you want a new one?” you asked, gesturing at his beer.
“Come on,” Foggy said seriously, glancing down at his laptop long enough to lower the volume of his music. “Don’t lie to me here. I’ve known you for months now. Everytime Matt is with some other chick you have this look on your face like someone punched you in the gut and then poured gasoline over your expensive programming laptop. I’m not blind like Matt, I see the way you look at him.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you muttered. 
You made your way to the mini fridge across the room, tossing your empty beer bottle in the recycling bin the guys had next to it. Opening the door, you bent down and pulled out another beer from the case you’d brought over. Rising back up to your feet, you grabbed the bottle opener from the top of the fridge, popping the bottle cap off. As you took a pull, you turned back around and saw Foggy sitting on his bed staring at you very seriously, his arms crossed over his chest.
“Can you just be real with me for a minute here?” he asked.
You rolled your eyes, taking a step away from the fridge to lean up against the wall. “Fog, we’re just friends. Matt is my friend,” you stressed.
“But you like him as more than that, don’t you?” he pushed.
You ground your teeth together, your hand tightening along the bottle of beer as Foggy continued to press forward with his questions. That angry, jealous monster in your gut was thrashing inside of you, begging to be let out, but you tried to shove it down.
“He’s my friend,” you said sharply.
“Then why does it make you cry when he goes off to have sex with other chicks?” he pressed.
“I told you, I wasn’t crying it was–”
“Don’t lie to me,” Foggy cut you off, shaking his head.
“Fine!” you snapped, pushing off of the wall and crossing the room towards Foggy. “I like him, okay? I’ve liked him since I ran into him at the library and he shot that stupid fucking charming smile of his at me! But he only sees me as a friend, so it’s fucking pointless!”
Foggy’s face fell, his eyes softening as he stared back at you. You threw a hand out, shaking a finger at him.
“No, uh uh, don’t look at me like that, Fog,” you said firmly.
“Why don’t you say something to him?” he asked. “Tell him you like him?”
Your hand flew up, two fingers pinching the bridge of your nose as your eyes fixed upwards on the ceiling, fighting back tears. You really didn’t want to cry over Matt. Not tonight. Not again.
“Because he clearly only likes me as a friend,” you answered. 
“You don’t know that!” Foggy exclaimed. “You’ve never told him how you feel!”
“Fog,” you began, pinching the bridge of your nose even harder, “I see you guys basically every day. It’s been like that for almost six months now. If Matt was interested, he’d have asked me out by now. But he hasn’t because apparently I’m not good enough for Matthew Murdock to ever–ever want.”
You couldn’t help the way your voice cracked on the last word, your eyes snapping shut as the warm flood of tears slowly snuck out of your eyes. There was a creak of the bed before you felt Foggy pulling you into a hug, tears streaming down your cheeks as you tentatively wrapped your arms back around Foggy.
“That’s not true and you know it,” Foggy whispered. “You’re vastly smarter and funnier and sweeter than all of those other girls he brings back combined. You’re a damn catch, inside and out, and I’m sure Matt sees it.”
“No,” you disagreed, shaking your head as a loud sniffle left you. “He obviously doesn’t feel that way. That’s why I’m just his friend , Fog. Nothing more. But I don’t–don’t want to talk about this anymore, okay?”
You pulled away from Foggy, wiping the back of your hand across your cheeks. Foggy had a sad smile once again on his face as he let out a little sigh, nodding his head.
“Okay, so what do you want to do tonight?” he asked.
You shot him a look, gesturing your beer at your laptop. “Have you suddenly suffered from amnesia? We’re working on homework.”
Foggy pulled a face, waving a hand at the open laptops behind him. “Fuck homework, let’s have some fun,” he said, a grin quickly appearing on his face. “You want to go to the bar? I can break out my awesome dance moves.”
You couldn’t fight the smile drawing its way onto your face as Foggy flailed his arms and shook his hips not very in sync with the song playing from his laptop. He abruptly stopped, his eyes widening as he gasped.
“Oh! Or we can get some late night noms!” he exclaimed. “You want tacos? I would kill for some tacos.”
“Okay, yes,” you grudgingly agreed. “Tacos sound like heaven right now and I really don’t want to work on homework anymore.”
“Yes!” Foggy exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air dramatically. “Finishing all of that can be a tomorrow us problem, but tonight–we feast!”
You laughed, shaking your head as you brought your beer to your lips. “Okay,” you agreed, “but let me finish this beer and save my work.” You took a long pull off of the bottle as you made your way around the bed towards your laptop. “And for the record,” you added, “I don’t think we can afford to feast, Fog.” You gestured your beer between the pair of you. “Broke college kids, remember?”
“You know what?” Foggy said, focused on turning off his music and closing out of his open tabs. “When Matt and I are rich lawyers and you’re a rich programmer, we’ll have a night feasting on tacos in honor of our college selves.”
A sharp pain hit you in the chest at the mention of Matt, but you kept the smile on your face as you finished turning off your laptop. You really didn’t want to think about him right now. Especially not with what he was doing. 
“Sounds like a plan,” you agreed.
Bringing your beer to your lips, you chugged the last half of it down, hoping to drown and dull that lingering ache in your chest. When you’d finished, you pulled the bottle from your lips and  shot Foggy a strained smile, one he didn’t quite seem to catch the pain in.
“Let’s go get some tacos, Fog.”
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nattaphum · 8 months
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Mileapo’s interview with WorldY [08/29/2023] - highlights
*translated by google from thai tweets*
MileApo talked about KinnPorsche and their direction after that
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Apo: i don't feel that there is anything in me that has changed from the KinnPorsche era. Porsche is still in my flesh with his determination and ambition. When I finished playing KinnPorsche, I said to myself that I would no longer play roles that I didn’t like. I will only accept the roles that I feel like doing. Because during this lifetime from today until the last day, we don't even know when we’re gonna die, so I think that, from now on, I will only do what I want to do.
Mile: The more I listened, the more I understood in which direction my ideas were going. Now, like Apo, I just wants to play in the roles I’m interested in. Be with a team that feels comfortable while working and has the same passion.
Host: What has changed for you after becoming an actor?
Mile: it helped me to understand myself better, understand what comes in during filming and after filming, making it possible to increase my performance skills.
Host: Apo's near and long-range goal as an actor is…?
Apo: I want to be a world-class actor. If it happens or not, it doesn’t matter. But I just want to dream because I feel that dreaming is not a waste of money.
MileApo talked about ChatKhem
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Mile: Chat is a calm person. He has high survival skills and can overcome any difficulties,
Apo: Khem is a good-looking and talented person, but people only pay attention to his appearance.
Apo gives 80-99% similarity between himself and Khem’s character. The other 1% may be the difference in the context of the social environment. Khem is not playful but bright and serious. The difference is about the impatience, Khem is more impatient.
Host: what kind of tv series/movie would you like to try in the future?
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Mile and Apo both reply a ghost movie.
(Ps. In the past Mile said his dream was to act in a ghost movie and Apo said he wanted too but only to make Mile happy because Mile made Apo happy accepting to play in a period movie with him)
Apo: I often listen to ghost stories.
Mile: I listen to them often too 🌚
Host: What kind of fashion has Apo never tried but wants to try?
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Apo: Drag, I never tried it.
The clip below seems insignificant but i think it means a lot <3.
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Mile was talking seriously when Apo suddenly teased him by imitating his gesture. Mile was focused on the topic and his eyes were focused on the interviewers in front of him but he still hinted a smile to validate apo. This is sooo subtle but so important 🥹
On intimacy and closeness (x)
Host to Mile: what level of intimacy do you have with Apo, from 1 to 10?
Mile: more than 10
Host to Apo: what level of compatibility do you have with Mile, from 1 to 10?
Apo: more than 10 *laughs*
MileApo: *shake hands*
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guzhufuren · 1 month
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Thailand 🇹🇭 A Guide to Some of the Best Queer Asian Shows
Full list here.
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1. KinnPorsche mafia boss/bodyguard; action; kidnapper/kidnapee side couple
Kinn, a son of a prominent mafia head, is ambushed by an enemy, and meets Porsche, a bartender who comes to his rescue for a price, thus beginning their reluctant relationship as boss and bodyguard, which soon turns into something more.
iQIYI
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2. Bed Friend friends with benefits; office setting; trauma
King and Uea work in the same office. After a company outing ends in a drunken hook-up between them, Uea and King agree to keep seeing each other on a strictly physical basis. With no strings attached, will these two be able to keep things between them simple and carefree or will their emotions eventually get the better of them?
Uncut 18+ on iQIYI or GagaOOLala or cut on YouTube
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3. The Sign reincarnated lovers; fantasy; thai mythology; police
The story of the love between Phaya and Tharn who used to be mythological creatures Naga and Garuda in their past lives, and were forced apart. But fate intervened, and two men were reincarnated in new bodies. Now, they work together as partners in the Special Investigations Unit to uncover violent crimes and supernatural mysteries while their love is tested by mystical forces and past enemies.
YouTube
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4. I Feel You Linger In The Air period drama; time travel; bittersweet
Jom, an architect overseeing the renovation of a rundown villa, continuously dreams of a man he's never met. When a twist of fate transports Jom to Chiang Mai in the 1920s, he assumes the role of a servant to the affluent young master Yai, the mysterious man from his dreams.
GagaOOLala or YouTube
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5. You're My Sky sports; university setting; coming of age
Thorn, a young basketball player follows his senior Fah to university as a result of the promise they’d made — to become national basketball champions. However, to his dismay, he finds that Fah has already given up on basketball. --- Aai has to work in pairs throughout the semester with San, 1 year footballer; in order to receive a scholarship to study in Japan, Ai must be willing to do everything to get an A grade. --- Track running requires the compatibility of the team members to be very high. Vee, who became the new racquet 4, has to speed up training to fit in with the team as quickly as possible, especially with Dome, spending extra time together to train. Is love actually a major obstacle on the path of being an athlete?
Viki
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6. Cutie Pie (+Cutie Pie 2 You, Naughty Babe) arranged marriage; secret identity; crack
The sons of two companies, Lian and Kuea, have been engaged to each other since childhood. One decides he doesn't want the arranged marriage anymore while the other decides to win him back.
Cutie Pie: YouTube & Cutie Pie 2 You: Uncut 18+ on iQIYI or cut on YouTube & NB: uncut on IQIYI or cut on YouTube
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7. Until We Meet Again reincarnated lovers; forbidden love;university setting
Two boys who couldn't be together in one life find each other again in another.
+ Between Us university setting; swimming club; trauma
A parallel story to Until We Meet Again. Win and Team get to know one another through the swimming club, and eventually develop a relationship. They grow their connection as Win helps Team deal with his childhood trauma.
UWMA: YouTube & Between Us: Special: YouTube & Between Us: Uncut 18+ on iQIYI or paid YouTube or cut on YouTube
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8. Step By Step office setting; boss/employee; slowburn
Jeng is a marketing manager and son of the owner of the company. Pat is a new team member. Jeng develops a secret fondness for his new subordinate, but in this position, he has to be strict and picky with Pat.
Uncut 18+ on Viki or GagaOOLala or cut on YouTube
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9. GAP The Series wlw; office setting; boss/employee; class difference
Long after Sam first came to Mon's rescue when they were kids, Sam is unambiguously Mon's idol. In order to be near Sam, Mon gets a job working under her. When they finally meet again at the office, Mon is surprised by Sam’s icy exterior, so different from the image she'd had of her. Mon and Sam aren't just different in demeanour; they stand apart in class and age.
YouTube
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10. Lucky My Love wlw; office setting
In the pursuit of love, Nabdao has been doing everything. She has got her fortune read. She's gone on a string of blind dates. Unfortunately, no one seems to be on the same page as her. She starts to think that perhaps her gorgeous and caring boss Pheem could be the one for her. Then Vela, her new team leader, comes into the picture and shakes things up with her observant and affectionate care.
YouTube
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11. La Pluie soulmate alternative universe
In an alternate universe where Thailand is perpetually rainy and soulmates exist, La Pluie traces the story of Saengtai, who suffers from sensorineural hearing loss every time it rains. The only voice he can hear then is that of his soulmate, but he is adamant about not giving said soulmate a chance due to having seen his parents’ (who are also soulmates) relationship deteriorate.
YouTube or iQIYI
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12. I Told Sunset About You (+ Last Twilight in Phuket, I Promised You the Moon) coming of age; childhood friends to lovers; high school setting
Two childhood best friends-turned-rivals meet again, awakening an old rivalry and old feelings. They now have to navigate their lives together and the growing attraction toward each other.
Viki (ITSAY) & YouTube (LTIP) & Viki (IPYTM)
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13. Ghost Host, Ghost House crush at first sight; ghosts; grief
Kevin's passion is the challenge of hunting ghosts. He returns to Thailand after 10 years to stay with his aunt's family, but he didn't know that he'd come to stay under the same roof as those hunted ghosts. There he meets Pluem, a young gardener working for his family and a spark ignites between them.
YouTube or GagaOOLala
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14. Something In My Room ghost/human; mystery; bittersweet
Looking to start a new life in a new house with his mother, Phat feels something uncanny in his room, which turns out to be the ghost of Phob. Phob wants Phat’s help in solving the mystery of his death before it’s too late.
I recommend watching the extended uncut version on KissKH or Dramacool, but you can also watch cut version on YouTube
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15. Manner of Death crime; mystery; dark
A forensic pathologist Bunn is threatened to identify a manner of one victim's death as suicide — something that is not true according to the autopsy performed. The prime suspect seems to be a man named Tan who denies all involvement. They team up together to find the real murderer.
WeTV
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16. Triage time loop; hospital setting; crime; mystery
As a resident in the emergency room, one should be indifferent when not saving a patient's life. But Tin got the chance to reverse a random patient's death for the second, third, and countless times. To help Tol and save his life.
AIS PLAY
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17.  Love Mechanics cheating; university setting
A love story that starts one night in a club — between Mark, who is drunk and carrying the painful burden of his one-sided love, and the boy who he bumps into and mistakes as the object of his affection. They spend a night together and gradually Mark falls for Vee, although he knows Vee has a girlfriend. Will the love between them make it?
WeTV
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18. Wedding Plan wedding planner/groom; lavender marriage; wlw side couple
Nuea is a professional wedding planner. Sailom happens to be the perfect man for Nuea based on his visual considerations for a man. But the universe has an unimaginable sense of humor as Sailom and his fiance Yiwa turn out to be Nuea's new clients.
Uncut 18+ on iQIYI or cut on Youtube & iQIYI (special episode)
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19. Laws of Attraction lawyers; crime
When working-class man Tinn's niece fails to receive justice for her untimely death, he encounters Charn, a cynical morally corrupt lawyer. As Tinn and Charn team up to delve deeper into the case, they form a close bond despite their ideological differences. The series explores Charn and Tinn’s fight for justice, even though they were on opposite sides of the fence at the beginning.
YouTube
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20. Secret Crush On You “nerd”/popular guy; queer friend group; university setting
Discover the secret of a nerdy young man, Toh, who fell in love with a popular third-year senior. Because his dream is so far from reach, observing is the only thing he could do. But what happens when one auspicious day the world devises an opportunity for Toh to make himself known to his crush Nuea?
YouTube
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21. To Sir, With Love period drama; family drama; rich man/lower class man
A powerful family suffering from internal power struggles is now facing an even greater secret threat, the oldest son and heir is gay.
YouTube
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22. My Only 12% best friends to lovers; slow burn
Cake and Seeiw, next-door neighbors and childhood best friends, navigate their feelings towards each other as they grow up.
YouTube
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23. Show Me Love wlw; beauty pageants
Meena moves to Bangkok to achieve her singing dreams. She chances across Cherine who asks Meena to join her in a beauty pageant. The girls' journey for the crown begins and a romance between them sparks.
YouTube
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24. Pit Babe omegaverse; alpha/alpha; car racing
Babe is the number one race car driver and an alpha with special abilities who only has sex with other alphas. Nerdy naive alpha Charlie approaches Babe to ask for his help to become a racer himself. Babe agrees to help Charlie realise his dream, but it will come with a price.
Uncut on iQIYI or cut on YouTube
---
You can watch many shows for free on YouTube, and watch others on the streaming websites by setting VPN to Thailand. In other cases I recommend paying for subscriptions to show appreciation and support of content in order to get more of it in the future, but if you can’t, watch on KissKH (better quality), Dramacool or get files from MkvDrama. Enjoy!  🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
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chawarin-panich · 3 months
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I really had to read with my own two eyes multiple times since this post had multiple people add on to it, bringing it back to my dash again and again, that the drama from Tharn and Phaya's past life did not feel dramatic at all. And somehow that detracts from taking the drama of the present as seriously as the show is taking it. This story is based on Thai folklore? The Naga and Garuda are eternal enemies. The love between a Naga and a Garuda is an insult to the literal cosmic order. Chalothon who was only trying to preserve the natural order has been wronged by their love. The natural order is also referenced several times but especially when the priest was like keep Phaya and Chalothon away from each other, they're destined to be enemies. Not meeting the show halfway to accepting this as part of your lens as an audience is frankly...an interesting choice to make. The next bit is pure conjecture on account of me not being Thai but I'm trying to relate to what The Sign is likely trying to do from my own understanding of Asian folklore and the way we use those stories to build new stories. What is there to get out of this show other than the big fuck you to 'natural order' of things that must be because of the way that they are. Why can't a Naga and Garuda be in love? This must be a concept that people explore under the general lens of forbidden love in Thailand (pure conjecture but also like I don't know how it can't be true). We all have our poorly explained versions of Forbidden Love gone bad; Romeo and Juliet, Ram Leela, Devdas would be some heterosexual stories of Forbidden Love that kind of hand waves around the forbidden part a little bit that I'm familiar with. Devdas (the story I'm most familiar with of the one's stated) and its myriad adaptations is a story about the absolute ways we hold on to class even as it brings about our own downfall.
It's a great pick for a queer adaptation because the reasons why the lovers couldn't be together was so made up and really came down to ONE person (Devdas' mother) who just couldn't let go of class even though everyone else was literally begging for the two to just be together because let me tell you none of you have met a poor little meow meow on the scale of Devdas.
The Sign is bringing the forbidden love between a Naga and Garuda as a parallel of the forbidden love between two men. Homosexuality outside of the legal sphere really does come down to an ideological difference as to what is natural vs not. Homosexuality goes against a natural order of reproduction. And this is true. Two men cannot reproduce, two women cannot reproduce with each other.
The challenge isn't to prove that they can, it's to prove that reproduction isn't the centerpoint of human life, that we have transcended the need for our life to be dictated by this 'natural' order because on principal our societies just aren't built along the paradigm of 'survival of the fittest' where the benchmark of species fitness is its ability to reproduce.
Thai shows including things that have come out of Idol Factory (that produces The Sign) are often socially engaged with LGBT rights within Thailand. Now that gay marriage is legal or on its way to be, I assume a move in the direction of bringing same sex relationships up to the same societal respect as straight relationships would be a natural direction that future screenwriters will go.
The Sign is trying very hard to take the question of homosexuality right to the heart of Thai culture and tradition and talk about it from that lens [this is less conjecture and more paraphrasing what Saint has said about the show in interviews] And I know that you all are capable of meeting a story halfway in respecting its desire to set up the stakes through references of allegorical story telling since y'all have been doing it with Last Twilight and Le Petit Prince. So I don't know even know why I had to make this post but: tl;dr: The stakes of the love between Tharn and Phaya and the forbidden nature of it is set before you even see much of the show just from the fact that Tharn is a Naga and Phaya is a Garuda and as a member of the audience you have to accept that the love between Naga and Garuda is a deviant form of love in Thai culture.
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lurkingshan · 4 months
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Last Twilight Episode 10
Okay…okay. I have had some concerns about this show on a low simmer for weeks and unfortunately, the direction this episode took has brought them all roaring to the surface.
First let me just say there was a lot about this episode I really loved (anything to do with Night especially). But there are also a few things that did not work for me so well, so let’s take them one at a time.
Mhok’s Story
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Mhok’s financial struggles, the prejudice he faces as a formerly incarcerated person, and his deep grief for his sister have been back-burnered for weeks while he and the story focused on Day. I chatted with @my-rose-tinted-glasses about this last week and said that I was reserving judgment and hoped this was an intentional part of the narrative that would come to the fore—Mhok was subsuming his own problems by making Day his entire life, and when he inevitably left the caretaker job he would have to face them again.
Welp, this episode was the moment for that to happen, if it was ever going to, and the show didn’t do it. Instead, they quickly glossed over Mhok’s struggles with two short scenes and a couple lines of dialogue, stuck him in a new job, and went right back to focusing on Day. Will I ever get a Thai bl that sets up class conflict and financial struggles and then actually takes it seriously?? Apparently not today.
This choice to gloss over Mhok’s money problems is also making the romance feel pretty imbalanced, and I’m really mourning the opportunity to see Day be a supportive partner to Mhok like he has been for him. I want Mhok to be a whole person, not an improbably perfect love interest. The lack of reciprocity in their dynamic is not great and it’s holding this romance back from reaching its full potential.
Day’s Mom
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Let’s be very clear: Day’s mom’s behavior in this episode was abusive. She was within her rights to fire Mhok, which he knew and that’s why he resigned before she took action. But her choice to intentionally isolate Day and lock him up in his room with no access to the outside world was cruel and selfish. And it doesn’t seem like the show really gets that, given how they presented her and Day through the rest of the episode.
That family holiday scene was really missing the underlying edge it should have had given she was playing the loving mom while doing these things to Day, and other than one brief line from Night that got interrupted, we didn’t see any acknowledgement in the story of how wrong she was, or even get a good sense of how much she was harming Day.
I would have liked to see Day actually seem affected by his isolation rather than focusing on more cute date moments. Bad Buddy was really adept at delivering excellent couple moments while never letting you forget about the underlying trauma and melancholy of the story, but this show is not quite managing to do the same. Moonlight Chicken also has some glorious moments where bad and abusive parenting was called out very directly, so the lack of it here is really jarring. It all feels curiously light for the subject matter and I expected more from Aof.
Day’s Vision
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Obviously after the end of the episode this will be the worry on everyone’s mind heading into next week. We know Aof previews can’t be trusted, but it seems clear the surgery is going to happen. Thematically, I do not think it makes any sense for the show to restore Day’s vision. I wish they weren’t going here with the eye donation surgery at all, but if they’re going to do it I hope its purpose is for the procedure to fail as a mechanism to force Day and his family to finally accept that his disability will not be fixed. But given the above noted poor execution on some of the story’s other themes, I am not currently feeling super confident that the show won’t do something very silly here. Fingers crossed!
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jinitak · 8 months
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Rant about the book Jom is reading
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The book Jom is reading from is Khan Chang Khan Phaen, a Thai literary classic. It is folklore from Siphon Buri and was only written down long after it was conceived.
The story by modern standards is quite problematic, I have summarised the story below but there is a TL;DR below this paragraph;
Khun Phaen (previous name, Phlai Kaeo), Wan Thong (previous name, Pham Phi La Lai) and Khun Chang were childhood friends, Shun Chang is handsome whilst Shun Phaen is balding. Wan Thong would fall in love with Khun Phaen and Khun Chang would fall in love with Wan Thong and they marry but he was sent to command an army to Ching Mai. During his absence, Khan Chang came up with a scheme to get Wan Thong to marry him, by lying that Khun Phaen was killed in action, it worked and Wan Thong was unwillingly married to him. When Khun Phaen came back, he found what happened and tried to get Wan Thong back, despite him finding a wife in Chiang Mai already. He kidnap Wan Thong from Khan Chang, getting a 3rd wife in process. Each side would kidnap Wan Thong back and fourth a couple times which led to a trial by Phra Phanwasa (meaning the Queen mother), the matriarch of the Kingdom, which ended in Wan Thong being executed for not wanting to commit to either men.
TL;DR a woman gets stuck in a love triangle between a man she loved which betrayed her trust and a man she didn't love who treated her well but their relationship was based on lies. In the end she was executed for not committing to a relationship. (Who could blame her to be honest)
Parts of this epic is actually mandated in Thai schools (I had this for one of my Thai midterms, lol) and in the education system, they focus on the literary rather than the historical context behind the epic.
Many scholars such as Sujit Wongthes believe that this epic is actually a story about a fictional hero of the Suphannaphum Kingdom, one of the kingdoms that would become Ayutthaya in the 14th century. The Suphannaphum dynasty would rule Ayutthaya for much of its early history, which might explain how the story is so widespread.
Sujit believes that many aspects of the epic is representative of the early history of the Suvarnabhumi (not the airport) region, such as
Khun Phaen being a name for the Hindu god of creation, Brahma
Khun Phaen's magical sword, the "Fa Fuen" is named after an ancestral god of the Nan and Luang Prabang region.
When presenting the "Fa Fuen" to Phra Phanwasa, she placed it next to the Chai Si sword, which is representative of the Lao-Khmer origins of Ayutthaya.
All in all, Sujit argues that this folklore is more rooted in the ruling classes than the popular folk. This analysis of Khun Chang Khun Phaen is not present in the episode though, as this would ruin the mood of it so much.
But its inclusion even though it seems out of place (Suphan Buri is in the central parts of Thailand whilst the story is set in the north), is actually not that weird. In the period of the series, Bangkok has just had a major reforms to local administration, ditching the Mandala system in favour of western style centralisation based on colonial administration in the Dutch East Indies. This had the effect of Bangkok suppressing Lanna culture and a "Siamisation" of Lanna. Yai's family who I presume is local administrators sent from Bangkok shows this very cleary, he doesn't try to blend in with locals, he speak the central (Siamese) tongue and reads Siamese literature.
The inclusion of this epic rather than using something most Thai people already know to create the scene, it also creates the historical backdrop in which the series is set.
Thank you for coming to my TedTalk. I might talk about Sunthon Phu, which Yai recited whilst drunk and also talk about the historical context behind the series too. Please tell me if you are interested.
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airenyah · 6 days
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there's a new lady in my thai course and her name looked incredibly familiar to me and it turns out she studies at my uni
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juyuppang · 2 months
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I’LL SAVE YOU ૮ ․ ․ ྀིა | p.sh
pairing: park sunghoon x f! reader
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genre: non idol au! childhood friends to to implied lovers! reunited after a long time type of scenario!
synopsis: when y/n gets unexpectedly saved by one of the country’s national treasures in the most popular live annual dating show
word count: 1.9k words
warnings: none
author’s note: hi hello! this is my first short written on here, please bear with me!! i wrote aus & short stories before but never published them on tumblr, enjoy :)
ps. this is loosely based off of a scene from the thai drama called ready set love. i have been hooked on that show ever since i finished it. who knows maybe i’ll turn this into a fic with multiple chapters, we will see!!
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Y/N sat in the yellow chair, facing the large mirror in front of her.
She glanced at the wooden box hooked onto the mirror, peeking inside to find a pair of earbuds. Y/N grabbed the earbuds and took in a deep breath, unsure of what to say once the “lucky” guy walked in through the other side of the room.
Y/N was at her limit to say the least. She, in just one day, already embarrassed herself in front of one of the men participants, get a call from her aunt saying her younger sister was in the emergency room, and almost lose the last round in the first game.
Out of pure luck, Y/N and other contestants were given a chance to go to the second round. She needed to try her best in order to secure a spot- after all if the guy who chooses her does not save her, she is doomed.
It did not help that this entire game show Y/N was competing in was broadcasted on national television. Everyone, as in everyone in the entire country, was watching the show at the present time.
After the country faced a deadly pandemic in the 1970s, the men population started to decline rapidly. The pandemic seemed to only affect the men population while the women population withheld the illness and later deemed themselves immune.
The amount of men started to become scarce, leaving them to become “national treasures” of the country. With women barely giving birth to a baby boy and the numbers growing worse, men were then placed inside a private area called “The House”.
Men were never allowed to see the world outside “The House” and stay within the walls. With only 200 men remaining in the past 10 years, the government and the elite decided to create the annual game show called Ready Set Love.
Every year, 50 contestants are chosen to woo over the 5 most popular men of the “House”. Through each round, contestants are asked to play games whether it be through a team or alone. After each round, there can be only one winning team and whoever loses will be sent home immediately.
This year was different for the game show; the rules were changed in order to make things more “fair” and for everyone to have a chance to participate.
10 lucky participants who were not of the elite class were given a chance to win a spot on the game show as a contestant. Usually, chosen contestants would be those who were born into a rich family or have a high status within the country. But now, 10 lucky women were able to have the chance to try and also win.
And that’s exactly what happened to Y/N. With her younger sister buying at least 10+ cartons of milk every week at the convenience store, she got lucky and was able to secure her sister the 50th spot as a contestant.
Y/N, to say the least, was hesitant. She thought to just decline the offer and just ignore the results of the lottery. Except, the cash prize was huge. Bigger than she’d ever imagine. And that money can be used to help pay for her sister’s medical bills and expenses.
Now, Y/N is nervously sitting in her chair, waiting for someone to walk in. She bit her nails a little, feeling nervous about the outcome.
All she wanted was just to win, grab the cash prize, and nurse her sister back to health.
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It was at least 20 minutes since Y/N sat in her chair. So far no one showed up, leaving her to walk around in circles in the room, scared.
What if the guy she needed to woo in just 5 minutes will never show up?
“Does Y/N not know there’s multiple rounds of this minigame?” One of the announcers raised her eyebrow, looking at the screen. “Seems like she’ll be chosen in the last round.”
The current mini game consisted of the 5 men picking a random room to walk into. The chosen participant would sit on the other side, waiting to start a conversation with them. The pair has 5 minutes to interact as the contestant needs to woo the man. If the man thinks that the contestant is fit to move into the next round, he will then do a little dance in front of the mirror and say, “I save you.”
“I guess not, but look who’s about to walk in!” said the other announcer, pointing towards the right corner of the room.
Sunghoon opened the door, walking straight into the right side of the room. Closing the door quietly behind him, he walked towards the wooden box and grabbed the pair of earbuds, stretching his arms a little.
He snickered to himself, already over with this mini game, ready to go home.
The first 2 rounds of the mini game was an automatic fail.
The first girl he chose pretended to be someone she was not. He could sense she only wanted to fit his needs and not put herself first in certain situations, and Sunghoon did not like that.
The second girl just giggled uncontrollably and ended up passing out. Sunghoon was confused and just hoped she was okay. She must have been a bit too excited, he thought to himself.
Y/N saw the mystery man take a seat on the other side, bewildered by his sudden entrance. She then took a seat, fixing her hair and her posture. As she settled down on her chair, she realized who was right in front of her.
“Your 5 Minutes start now, good look girls.” The intercom through the room spoke.
As the intercom was turned off and the 5 minutes started, Y/N snapped her fingers and pointed towards the mirror, “Oh, it’s-”
“It's you again?” Sunghoon grunted. He leaned back into his chair, rubbing his chin. “Are you stalking me or something?”
“Hey, you picked this room, okay? Did I ask you to pick this room?” Y/N said in annoyance, fed up with Sunghoon’s question.
Sunghoon reached into the pocket of his jacket and brought out his phone. He put an image on the middle of the mirror and pointed towards it. “Do you know what that is?”
On the mirror, a picture of a figure was placed in the middle. Y/N sighed, “It’s a person.”
Sunghoon then pulled up another image from his phone and asked another question. “About this?”
“It’s also a person.” Y/N replied, unaware of the point Sunghoon was trying to make.
Sunghoon put his phone away, shocked by Y/N’s responses.
“You see that the first image is the symbol for men, the second is for women. You walked into the men’s restroom earlier.”
Y/N gulped. She blinked her eyes rapidly, feeling even more embarrassed than the first time she ran into Sunghoon.
“Where I live we don’t have those signs. I apologize again and I’m not a stalker.”
The silence deafened between the both.
Sunghoon crossed his arms, not batting an eye towards Y/N.
He already knew what to do at the end of the 5 minutes: he was already ready to tell her she would leave and not get through this round.
Y/N was stumped. She already messed up the first time and what more now?
“Sunghoon, listen, I need to win.”
“Okay and? Doesn’t everyone?” Sunghoon replied. He glanced towards the other side of the room, looking at Y/N.
“I need to get into “The House”, it’s the only way I can survive right now.”
“Listen to me,” Sunghoon leaned in a little, shaking his head. “You don’t want that, trust me.”
Sunghoon hated to admit to himself but he envied the women who lived in the outside world. He wanted to know how it felt like to actually be outside and not held in captivity. If only the contestants knew how lonely it was within those metal walls.
Y/N bit her lip, holding back her tears and raised her voice. “You don’t know how privileged you are. You don’t know how life is for me right now. You don’t know.”
Sunghoon stayed silent. He was unsure of what to say. He never saw someone cry in front of him, let alone a girl. A girl pleading for him to help her.
Y/N wiped a tear off her face and looked up to Sunghoon. “I’ll just leave. I already know your answer if that’s the case.”
Removing her pink sash with the number 50 decorated on it, Y/N sniffled a little. She looked at it in despair, setting it down on the chair.
Sunghoon looked at her, in silence. As Y/N removed the sash, a black thread necklace was brought out from beneath her shirt, noticeable.
Taken aback, Sunghoon looked at the necklace that adorned half an emblem on it. He blinked his eyes rapidly, shocked by what he was seeing.
It couldn’t be.
Y/N was the young girl he’s been looking for ever since the government officials found him and captured him. She was the one who saved him for a bit, hiding him in her secret hideout away from the city when they were kids.
She was the girl who might be able to save him from his destined faith.
“Y/N wait,” Sunghoon stood up.
Y/N ignored Sunghoon’s request, removing her airbuds and placing them back into the wooden box.
Sunghoon walked towards the door and ran towards the middle of the game room. He walked straight into Y/N’s side of the room.
Opening the door, Y/N looked at him in confusion.
“Sunghoon-”
“The 5 minutes is now over, please give your answer.” The intercom spoke.
Sunghoon let out a little cough, regretting what he was about to do. He did the little dance, feeling like his life was already crumbling before his eyes. He swore he never was going to give any of these contestants a chance but now Y/N was the lucky one in his eyes.
After Sunghoon finished his little dance, he pointed towards Y/N and gulped. “I save you.”
Y/N looked to him in confusion. She stood there quietly, shocked by Sunghoon’s actions. She thought he was going to let her lose but why? Why did he let her go through to the next round?
“Sunghoon, what is the meaning of this?” Y/N asked.
“Don’t question it. But please Y/N, try and win.” Sunghoon walked closer to Y/N and spoke softly. “You’re my only hope of getting out of here.”
Y/N looked up to Sunghoon as his facial expression became soft and calm. It was as if the person who he was just now, left, vacant in his spot,
The two stood there face to face, basking in each other’s presence. Y/N thought about her own reasons to why she was there. She nodded her head, in response to Sunghoon’s words.
It was only then the intercom would then announce for the contestants to go back to the main room and for the 5 men to go back into their waiting room.
As Y/N parted ways with Sunghoon, she was curious to why he had a sudden change of heart. It made her question if this game show had a deeper meaning to it, deeper than just trying to woo a man and win a date with him each round.
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© juyuppang , 2024
landing page | masterlist
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absolutebl · 2 months
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Top 10 Best BLs on Gagaoolala
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My Beautiful Man AKA Utsukushii Kare
Japan 2021
One of the most Japanese BLs to release in the last decade, as weird and as messed up as any 2000s yaoi: emo af and hella warped, entirely true to itself with no attempt made to modify its POV for modern sensibilities or current BL fandom. It used seriously old school problematic and kinky tropes, like whipping boy, for a truly uncompromising piece that also manages to hit up themes of communication, consent, and self acceptance. It’s a wonderful BL but uniquely dirty and harsh, in the best possible way - Japanese cinema, uncompromising.
I lost my ever loving mind over the ending. This show won the Grand Prix “My Best TV Award” at the 16th Galaxy Awards.
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Minato's Laundromat AKA Minato Shouji Coin Laundry
Japan 2022
A classic age gap romance where a high school student pursues the man of his dreams (who runs a laundromat). This BL is so steeped in yaoi nostalgia, not to mention a classic romance arc, that it will overload some, but those of us who love this genre for its DNA will adore it. It made me very happy because it did everything I want a BL to do - there’s not much more I could ask of a show than this. It’s the closest Japan has come to perfect live action yaoi since Seven Days (and I never make that comparison lightly).
Squee watch-along here.
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My Ride
Thai 2022
Thai BL grew up with this pulp (the first ever to make my end of year top 10). It’s a truly lovely and special little show featuring the extremely rare pairing of sunshine/sunshine (AKA a cinnamon roll couple) plus mature explorations of relationships using one of the softest, sweetest, and most innocent friends to lovers vehicles. Kindly, overworked doctor meets broken-hearted motorcycle taxi driver in an “other side of the tracks” slow burn romance. The support cast is excellent, making for great friendship groups and family dynamics. With honest queer rep that adds to, but doesn’t impede, the story, and genuine conversation about the nature of class, wealth, and classism, not to mention communication, honesty, and respect for boundaries, you can’t go wrong with this show. In other news, I am a sucker for a single dimple.
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Takara & Amagi AKA Takara-kun to Amagi-kun
Japan 2022 I gnawed on my knuckles and squealed a lot with this BL. Reserved cool kid who must learn to communicate to keep the tiny disaster nugget he’s madly in love with. It is beyond charming: soft and gentle, packed with cuteness and high school angst, thirst, & yearning. Was there plot? Not really. Was it emotionally tense and paced well enough for me not to notice? Absolutely. Did I enjoy the hell out of it? Oh yes.
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Kiseki: Dear to Me
Taiwan 2023
The plot is totally ridiculous and slightly unhinged, but that’s normal for Taiwan. It involves all the tropes under a very casual framework of gay mafia gangs + food = love. Absolutely every character is queer. There’s a gum-ball machine of cameos, elder gay rep, great chemistry from all pairs, and a KILLER side couple. As a result Kiseki is a poster child for Taiwanese BL, and I happen to love Taiwanese BL. Bonus? They also managed to END IT WELL, which we cannot expect from Taiwan.
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My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho
Japan 2023
This style of live action yaoi really only works from Japan. Basically: boys who fell in love in college end up living together but both are so repressed they actually don't realize they're in love. It's higher heat than we usually get from Japan's HEA stuff, and that part is also very well done, but it leaned into the "why don't they just talk for fuck's sake?" trope which is only exacerbated into undiluted frustration by the fact that they're already fucking. It's great, but watching requires more patience than usual, even for Japan.
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Our Dining Table AKA Bokura no Shokutaku
Japan 2023
A lonely salaryman and talented cook gets accidentally adopted by a college kid and his little brother. I was always gonna love this show if they stuck to the manga (which is very dear to my heart). And they did, paralleling it almost exactly. It’s a quiet & cozy little parable of found family alleviating loneliness. Possibly too slow for some but definitely high up there for me as the best of what Japan can do with softness (like Restart After Come Back Home). It’s only flaw (if I dare say such a thing) is that it is not really “romantic.” Lovely & sweet but the romance beats are being used to build a family relationship, not just couple intimacy, but that's OK with me. This is a very safe show for anyone to watch.
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Step By Step
Thai 2023
This was Thailand’s answer to The New Employee, and everything I loved about that show I loved about this one. This office romance between a stern boss and sweet subordinate felt more authentic to cubical work than previous Thai BLs of this ilk. That authenticity added tension to the narrative and its characters development (how novel). I also really enjoyed the charming side characters and the brothers' relationship to each other (although I could have done without that brother's side BL).
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Long Time No See
Korea (Strongberry) 2017
Catfishing assassins on either side of a turf war who fall in love not knowing they are on opposite sides. Or do they? Suspenseful plot, good fight sequences, mature characters, hot sexitimes and even hotter beating the shit out of each other and kissing while covered in blog (this came from KOREA?), plus an HEA. One of the hidden gems of the BL genre.
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About Youth
Taiwan 2022
A truly lovely little coming of age high school BL with a classic YA low drama but high angst and an earnest depth. I didn’t even mind the singing, and that’s saying a lot. A weak seme/uke dynamic but tons of BL tropes (both rare in a high school setting but common for Taiwan) makes this one feel both sweet and colored by real world authenticity and grit.
Some of these shows ALSO appeared on Viki or iQIYI, but these BLs will appear only once on these round up posts (here for Gaga), not on the other platforms top 10.
(source)
This list updated Spring 2024, not responsible for cool stuff that aired on Gaga (or was taken off the platform) after that date.
This is part of a series more here:
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wen-kexing-apologist · 6 months
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IS BROTHER ANURAK THE ONE ARMED MAN?
OKAY! SO! 
I feel like I am teetering on the edge of delulu for this fucking show, but…because I just wrote a post about the Left Hand Path and all the left hand/left side imagery, and because I’m…well, me, and hands in shows are My Jam. When I was watching the promo trailer for Episodes 8-14, I noticed something. I never once saw Brother Anurak’s left arm. So I went to the teaser trailer for the whole show, just to see if it was coincidental that the like 5 seconds total of screen time Brother Anurak had in the Part 2 trailer just happened not to show his left arm…but uh…
Brother Anurak holds his rosary with only his right hand…
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And Brother Anurak’s left hand just hangs at his side, rather than resting on his lap like his right hand is doing…
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And Brother Anurak is shoving Trin with only his right hand…
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And Brother Anurak’s left hand is hidden from view by some books…
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And this, naturally, started me thinking about the One Armed Man. We don’t know much about this man, only that lost his left arm in an accident and then engaged in some homosexual and substance use activity, he was arrested and executed. We know that Dan, after losing his lucid dreaming stone, had some sort of dream or vision about this one armed man. 
We do not know what purpose he serves to the story yet, we do not know if he is truly evil or just presented that way by the villagers. I mean, if the One Armed Man truly is a wild ghost, the Venerable Monk gave a few theories himself: a) The wild ghosts in the village got angry when the school was built and floating bodies down the water in sacrifice was banned after World War II or b) the wild ghosts take those who ask them for help, and who they like. 
And we do not, currently, know the One Armed Man’s identity. Or…do we, cause you see, I was thinking about the fact that in just these trailers alone, I had not seen a single instance of Brother Anurak using his left hand. 
And so…I did what any completely reasonable, totally non-obsessed, definitely completely normal human being would do….
…and spent the last few hours watching every single scene that involved Brother Anurak in Episodes 1-7 to see if he ever uses his left hand. (I don’t have photo evidence for all of these because trying to screen shot them all would be impossible but, trust me or you can verify for yourself. I also recognize this is a lot, so you’re welcome to just like, choose at random which ones you read).
Episode 1
Welcoming Dan The first time we meet Brother Anurak is when Dan first steps foot on campus. Anurak is the person who gives Dan the school tour and walks him to class. When Dan arrives, he does the traditional ‘wai’ hands that we have come to expect of any Thai show, that is, he presses the palms of both of his hands together when he says hello. Brother Anurak, whose arms are both tucked behind his back, does not return the ‘wai’ and instead just nods. When Rerng, the groundskeeper, runs in to Dan and Anurak, he does the ‘wai’ hands at Anurak and uh…once again Anurak just nods, he does not return the ‘wai’. When he introduces Rerng to Dan, he gestures at Rerng using only his right hand. Otherwise his hands remain tucked behind his back out of view. 
Rescuing Dan from Anan  We are introduced to Anan in the locker room where he immediately establishes his Utter Irrepentant Douchebag status and tries to control all the boys. Anan comes in at some point and puts a stop to Anan’s hazing, and you don’t really see his body at all, the camera mostly focuses on close ups, but if you watch closely you can see only his right shoulder moving because he’s gesturing with his right hand. His left shoulder stays relatively still. 
Talking to Dan about the Shadow
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Brother Anurak has been working with Dan and his mother since Dan was about 7 years old. When Brother Anurak is talking with Dan in his office after his first Shadow dream, you can see Anurak’s left hand stays staunchly at his side, he does everything in this scene with his right hand. 
Visiting Dan in the infirmary  Dan spent the night in his dorm away from his dorm…the infirmary, after he faints in class. Brother Anurak comes to visit him, and both of his hands are hidden by the bed for the entire scene. 
Episode 2
Finding Dan at the lake  At the end of Episode 2, Dan collapses near the lake while coming face to face with the Shadow. Anurak and Rerng find Nai and Dan, and Rerng helps Nai carry Dan, Anurak takes the flashlight from Rerng with his right hand and that is his full contribution for Getting Dan Out of There.  
Talking to Nai  When Brother Anurak is scolding Nai about being off school grounds with Dan, his hands are once again hidden behind his desk, and he only gestures with his right hand. 
Visiting Dan in the infirmary → transitions to his office
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Brother Anurak is standing on Dan’s right in the infirmary when he wakes up after his collapse at the lake. Once again, Brother Anurak’s hands are hidden behind the bed, so you can’t see them, and then when, out of nowhere, Dan and Anurak are talking in Anurak’s office, his left hand is hidden behind the arm of his chair. 
Dan wakes up from his dream
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During their office session, Dan is shunted out of his dream and realizes that he has been in teh infirmary the entire time, and was not actually in Brother Anurak’s office at all. What has snapped him out of his dream is Brother Anurak shaking him awake, but… he is only using his right hand. 
[Side Note: I am taking careful notice of the fact that Dan’s ability to remain present and conscious in reality seems to slip often when he is in Brother Anurak’s presence. Then again, he also sees the Shadow a bunch when he is around the theater teacher, but I have already looked at his hands, and his left hand is real and he does use it so I at the very least I don’t think he has any relationship to the one armed man.]
Episode 3
Dan, Josh, and Nai are punished for coming back late.  At some point, Anurak appears to observe, but not deliver, the caning of Dan, Josh, and Nai for missing curfew after going to see the Venerable Monk. We get a wider shot, which means Anurak’s left hand is visible, but it is held in exactly the same position it always is, and he continues to only gesture with his right hand. 
Telling Dan not to wear the ring   Brother Anurak runs in to the boys in between classes, and he notices the lucid dreaming stone around Dan’s neck. Anurak reminds him that accessories are not allowed in school, and while standing there, his left hand still in the same position it has always been in, and he only points to  Dan’s necklace with his right hand. 
Teaching class 
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Brother Anurak is writing on the white board with his right hand, this in and of itself is not all too suspicious because he could just be right handed, but when turns to face the class, his hands are covered by the students so you can’t see either one of them. He moves to the podium and his left hand, which continues to hang at his side, is hidden behind the podium, so we can’t see his left hand. But he places his right hand on the podium, and whatever brief glimpses of the left hand we see when it peeks out the side of the podium, it is in exactly the same position as it always is. 
Episode 4
Grabbing Dan from his room to take him to visit his Dad  When Brother Anurak visits Dan and Josh’s room to bring Dan to the hospital to say goodbye to his father, not only is Anurak’s left hand hanging at his side, but he is shot from the right side of his body so any potentially visible part of his left hand is hidden by the open dorm room door.
At the hospital Anurak is standing on Dan’s father’s left hand side, making his left hand visible… in exactly the same position it always is, his fingers never even twitch. When Anurak leaves the room to give Dan some time alone with his father, he uses his right arm to comfort Dan even though his left arm is closer to Dan’s shoulder. 
Outside the hospital room, after the flashback to Dan’s homelife  Left hand visible, in exactly the same position it always is, cut to talking to Dan outside the hospital room, his left hand is hidden between his legs. We get the best close up we have had of Anurak’s left hand and it is too smooth, and is lacking in any pores or spots, and it’s weirdly shiny. (Unfortunately like the one above, the way my computer works for screenshots, the play bar covers the part of the screen I would need to take a photo of).
Flashback to Anurak talking with Dan’s mother
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When we see Anurak interacting with Dan’s mother, because she was his patient, his left hand is visible, still in the same position. AND HOLY SHIT, ANYONE READING THIS, YOU NEED TO GO TO TIME STAMP 18:27 AND WATCH HOW BROTHER ANURAK STANDS UP FROM HIS CHAIR. THAT LEFT HAND IS FUCKING FAKE. IT’S FUCKING FAKE!!! He gives the rosary to Dan’s mother with his right hand. 
Dan’s mother’s funeral  Anurak is sitting on a bench outside the temple, and we only see him after Dan drops the coin he has leftover from buying ice cream, and it hits Anurak’s right foot. We pan out into a wide shot, and Anurak’s right side is visible. Both his hands are in Anurak’s lap but his right hand is covering his left hand so we can’t actually see it. Then, Dan sits on his left side so we never 
Baby!Dan sees the Shadow and Anurak comforts him
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Shortly after his mother’s death, Dan wakes up in the middle of the night and sees the Shadow looming over him. He runs screaming from his room, at which point Brother Anurak appears on the stairwell. (What he is doing in their home after Dan’s father accused his mother of sleeping with Brother Anurak, is beyond me but I digress). Brother Anurak’s right arm is hugging Dan while his left arm stays at his side, in the same position it always is 
Right before Dan fights his father
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Dan’s Father’s funeral  Anurak comes up to talk to Dan at his father’s funeral, and as he does he places his right hand on Dan’s shoulder. Left hand? Does nothing, as usual.
Episode 5
Dan confronts Brother Anurak
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We get the scene from the trailer where Dan tells Brother Anurak that he thinks Trin was murdered after seeing the visage of Trin’s dead body in the pool. This is one of my favorite instances of the hidden left hand, due to the creative use of binder placement. You get a little bit of skin from Brother Anurak’s right hand because it is further away from the camera, but in the foreground? We are not entitled to see what Anurak’s left hand looks like. 
Flashback: Talking to Trin in his office after his Student President Win
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After Trin wins the student body president race in a unanimous vote, he is taken first to the Headmaster’s office and then to speak with Brother Anurak about the policies he hopes to institute (read: the traditional systems Trin is hoping to change). Like always, both of Brother Anurak’s hands are initially hidden behind his desk, but as he gets more engaged, more serious about the conversation at hand (haha) he leans forward and he only brings his right hand on the table.
Anurak gets a phone call about Trin’s medical records
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I don’t remember if this is the first phone call where Anurak is told that Trin had bipolar, was off his meds, and was treating his bipolar with narcotics, or if this is the second phone call where Anurak is calling an unknown person, angry because he didn’t know how Trin’s medical records got leaked to the press. Either way, and in both cases, he answers the phone with his right hand, and never uses his left. 
In his office with Trin’s parents 
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Trin’s parents (one of whom is an MP) are naturally, pissed that Trin’s medical records got leaked and storms over to the school threatening to sue. Brother Anurak speaks with them in his office, and he offers them tea, using only his right hand, his left isn’t even in frame.
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And while he is speaking with Trin’s parents, trying to calm them and sort things out, he once again, only puts his right hand on the table. His left is hidden from view. 
In his study, listening to old recordings of his sessions with Trin  Anurak is thinking more about Trin, and digs out old files of his using only his right hand to pull the files out of his cabinet. When he sits in his chair to listen to the audio tapes, his left arm settles in to the same position at his side as it always is when he’s in that chair, and he hides the hand very quickly underneath the file folder when he opens it.
Episode 6
Brother Anurak does not have a lot of screen time in Episode 6, but he is at the student org fair where he meets the husband of the homophobic teacher that is sleeping with Anan. And here again, the people he is with all do the ‘wai’ hands, while he just nods.
Episode 7
Taking Dan from the headmaster’s office after Anan beats him up
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Dan is the unfortunate victim of Nai’s decision to blackmail Anan, and gets beaten up once again. He and Anan are called in to the Headmaster’s office to talk about what happened as Dan left the Funhouse, when all of a sudden Brother Anurak appears, asking to take Dan away since Dan is under his care. Brother Anurak’s left hand is visible, but it is once again, still held in the same position, and his right hand is the one he is using to place a comforting hand on Dan’s shoulder.
Talking to Dan in his office 
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We reach the final scene with Brother Anurak in the first half of the show, before the One Armed Man is introduced to the story. And it is, once more, the same deal as it has always been throughout the entire show so far. Brother Anurak’s left hand is sitting at his side, in the same position is has literally never changed from. And then he is gone from the rest of the episode, so we don’t have any visual reminders that he exists while the One Armed Man is being introduced and discussed. I have gone through every scene, I have watched to see if his fingers even twitch. They do not, his left hand, whenever it is in view, never moves. You cannot convince me at this point that Brother Anurak and the One Armed Man aren’t connected somehow. This man does not have an actual left hand. 
I do not know if Brother Anurak is the One Armed Man, if he is the scapegoat for the One Armed Man, if he is possessed by, a reincarnation of, or a legitimate ghost of the One Armed Man we learn about at the end of the episode. I do not know what the Shadow is, what it wants, if it is malicious, neutral, or good, I do not know what the ghosts of Trin or those two boys want, who the dead bodies are, what happened at this school. I don’t know any of it, I don’t know if all the pieces of the puzzle we need to figure it out have been revealed yet. 
But the one thing I do know, is that Brother Anurak does not have a left hand, and the level of detail that the show has done to both reveal and hide that is truly fucking impressive. Utt Uttsada who plays Anurak is doing a fucking phenomena job. I do not know how much time and effort went in to consciously never moving that arm. Like he has not once, not ever moved it. His shoulder remains completely still, his arm swings precisely as much as someone with no lower limb to control will swing. He has to be wearing some sort of prosthetic glove to keep his hand exactly in place, to make sure that his fingers don’t twitch. 
It is so incredibly clever to hide his hand like this. To give us enough glances at his left hand from a distance so we don’t question it. I mean, we see his hand, right? We see it is there, it looks real, and there are so many other things to figure out about what the fuck is going on, that the last thing in our minds is the fact that Brother Anurak never uses his left hand. 
Anyway, I don’t even know if this will end up being BL, but I need the entire rest of the BL fandom to deal with the occasional jumpscare and creepy smiles and stares and watch this show, so that I can scream about this with more people. Because holy fucking shit, if this show maintains the quality it has given me with the first half of the story all the way to the end, it might make a last minute grab for Show of the Year for me, with how intentional it has been. 
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respectthepetty · 17 days
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I need to share this with someone. So, I'm very new to Thai BLs, but Not me personally assaulted me and left me behind obsessed. I am now watching a lot of things, but still Not me regulary comes to my door. I gathered in my last weeks that there are sometimes cameos of pairings in other shows or things like our skyy. And while I was watching Only Friends (which I totally don't do to see First and Mond later on), it came to me how fucking awesome it would be to have Black do cameos. Like just Black being somewhere in background doing shady shit. Not me didnt do him justice, but him becoming a local cryptid could heal me.
I see the vision, Anon, because Force and Book showed up as Enchanté's Akk and Theo, aka HUSBANDS, in Vice Versa.
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And Gun showed up in Vice Versa as well as Theory of Love's Third.
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If only Jojo would have followed through and had 3 Will Be Free's Shin meet his rich-on-the-beach buddy Nueng in Never Let Me Go, then I would have been in heaven.
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But could we actually imagine Black showing up in other shows? Judging all these bitches. Being rude in the background. Starting fights.
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Because he was already doing that in his own show! Just haunting everyone's ass, judging those bitches, being rude in the background, and starting fights WITHOUT EVEN BEING THERE!
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So I don't want Black in other shows like Never Let Me Go, A Boss and a Babe, or Dangerous Romance judging Palm, Cher, and Sailom for crossing the class line and siding with the one percenters because of some dumb shit like "feelings" or whatever.
No!
I need Black back in his own series dealing with the fallout of how he dealt with the one percenter who LOVES him!
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Because I know for damn sure unlike sad-boys-who-just-need-a-hug Nueng, Gun, and Kanghan, Todd would rather Black shoot him in the face before he would ever accept a hug from Black because Todd knows hugs are only reserved for his brother White, and Todd never wants to be in the same category as Black's brother since that man is Black's LOVER!
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Therefore, I don't need cameos from Black. I need an actual series to give him his much deserved story since Not Me failed to do that!
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GIVE ME NOT ME 2: BLACKOUT RIGHT NOW, GMMTV!
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RIGHT FUCKING NOW!
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surfinminho · 6 months
Text
Kinktober day 31- corruption w/ minho
⤷ warnings: sub!Minho, unrealistic circumstances, past trauma(?), innocent minho, chan is mentioned, wounds, handjob, cum eating
⤷ word count: 1,2k
⤷Taglist : @greysweaters-blog @hannie-bees @ashydoinwhat @chansbabygirlsstuff @hiddlestandom @stanskzsstuff @mal-lunar-28 @leeracha @linos-kitten @bonateukna @ihrtlix @conwunder @jazzyluuv
⤷ permanent taglist: @iadorethemskz @iluvseungie
*sorry this was so late, but this concludes Kinktober 2023!!*
*please dm me if you want to be added or removed from the taglist.*
You had friends, friends come and go. It's a cycle. But when you meet minho you felt as if everything changed.
You met him in the spur of the moment, you were walking home from a late night class. The trains running too late for your liking so you decided to walk home. You passed an alley way and heard crying, maybe you were stupid for checking but curiosity got the cat. You had the police on speed dial, street lights illuminating the empty streets.
You were really second guessing this, praying you weren't going to get kidnapped or something.
What you saw surely stunned you. A male sitting with his head inbetween his knees, there was visible bruises aligning his arms some fresh and bleeding while some were old and turning yellow.
You slowly creeped over, trying not to startle the boy.
"Hello?" You put your phone flashlight on, keeping a safe distance between you and the stranger.
He looked up, eyes red and glossy. He was shaking and looked like he couldn't trust anyone.
"Hi, I'm here to help you, okay?" You crouch down, touching his arm, but you heard a yelp come out of his lips.
"Help?" His voice wasn't that loud, hiccups interrupting the silence.
"Do you want me to call the police?" You didn't expect thay reaction, someone in this situation would be adamant to get help but he isn't.
"N-no thank you"
"You're bleeding sir, you need help" you were conflicted, you wanted to call someone to help him but you didn't want to scare him off.
You sighed, rubbing your temples before getting up.
"Get up" holding out your hand for him to grab.
"Where are we going?" Surprisingly he takes your hand, feet wobbling.
"My place."
When you got to your apartment, you brung him to the bathroom telling him to wait there.
You stepped out to call your friend.
"Chan? Are you busy?"
"No? Why"
"Okay I did something, but you can't get mad" you were speaking fast, heart beating.
"Can't make a promise, go on"
"I was walking home and this kid, no older than you I hope all bruised up so I kinda took him home but I have no clothes for men so I was wondering if you could come over and help me?" It felt good to get that off your chest.
"It's always you, I'll be over in 10"
"Thank you channie, I owe you"
You heard him mumble something along the lines of sure before he hung up.
You walked back over to the bathroom, checking up on the stranger.
"Can you sit on the sink? Your wounds look nasty." He gave you a nod, looking down.
"Can you tell me what happened to you?" You got some rubbing alcohol and bandages, some miscellaneous things as well to clean his cuts.
You were listening intently suddenly feeling bad for the boy. He ran away from wherever he was, explaining how he didn't have much freedom even as an adult.
"And— shit," he winced, eyes shutting.
"Sorry sorry" you put the bandaid on, moving to another spot.
"My mother I guess didn't want me to leave, I was kinda homeschooled. I didn't have Internet access, I don't have much knowledge on things" he went quiet talking about his family, you could tell he was skipping parts of the story.
Your phone rang, caller id reading "chan". You pick up, telling him the door is open, once again telling minho to stay put.
"You don't think sometimes you know." He shakes his head handing you some clothes.
"You're a live saver, thanks" sometimes, you didn't know what you would do without him.
"Where is he?"
"In the bathroom, I was cleaning his wounds." you say, walking back towards your bathroom door.
Chan tells you he's gonna chill on the couch as you finish with the boy. You didn't mind the extra company anyway.
"I'm coming back in" you warn, before pushing the door open.
"Here's some clothes— it's pretty late I think you should just change for now" you look down. Was he always this cute? You shouldn't be thinking like this, he's in pain and probably scared. You snap out of your thoughts when he mutters a thank you hopping off the counter.
"When your done, I guess you can sleep in my bed with me? If you don't mind if course"
"Only if you're okay with it" he spoke as if something was chasing him, almost how he sounded earlier that night.
"Then it's settled" you open the bathroom door, leaving him to change his clothing.
You walk into your living room once more to see chan slouching on his phone
"He's cute."
It doesn't take long for chan to leave or for you guys to end up in a bed together. Your bed is big enough for two people to fit so it isn't so uncomfortable.
You heard him wince when he lied down, curling into himself before breathing out.
You couldn't help but feel for the boy, ending up in the middle of nowhere and now sleeping in some strangers bed. Though, you decided to sleep on it before moving forward.
You were awoken from cries coming from your left, you checked the time 2:34 am. Minho didn't tell you about another wound earlier? So you wondered what it was.
You turned your body to face his but all you saw was his back. Nonetheless, you tapped his shoulder before whispering.
"Is everything okay?" he jumped, moving his hands over his eyes to wipe them off before turning over to you. He went silent again, looking at you before looking down.
"You need to communicate with me Minho, a conversation works two ways" you sat up, leaning over your bedside table to hand him a glass of water.
"It hurts" is all he said, you couldn't see much but you could see the red tint of his cheeks due to the moonlight.
"What hurts min?" You didn't expect him to shake his head. Confused on why he wouldn't tell you.
"No? Come on I'll help you" he hoped you didn't see him tighten the hold of the blanket.
You sighed, grabbing the end of the cover.
"I'm gonna take it off okay?" He couldn't even get a word in, you quickly took the cover off.
"N-no!" You were surprised honestly, you didn't expect to see him popping a boner after dark.
"That hurts minho?" He probably woke up with it, of course it'll hurt.
He silently responds, nodding his head.
"We can fix that, if you trust me of course" smiling to yourself, you sit in front of him hands in his sight.
"I trust you."
It happened fast, soon after your hand was down his pants rubbing him slowly.
"Remember what you were dreaming about?" You question, maybe it was just 'morning wood' or whatever men call it.
"I- I can't tell you" he brung his hand up to his mouth, biting down on it.
"You seriously don't know why you woke up like this?"
"I-I don't! I mean, it never hurt this bad." You knew he was about to cum, he twitching in your hand.
"I feel- im-" he was cut off by his own moan, thighs tensing up and his eyes were tearing up, droplets dripping down his cheeks.
You removed your hand from his pants, sticking them in his mouth.
"Suck baby"
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