#(the one where wai shows pran a gif of his crush and pran is like ''oh NO'')

[lurkingshan]

Rose's Day of Asks

Top 5 QL couples that you think can truly have a HEA?

Have a great Day💜

Oh hi Rose! I would be honored to participate. This is a great question because there are not actually that many qls where I end the show convinced the couple will stay together for the long haul, either because the characters are very young, the relationship problems are not entirely addressed, I don't fully believe in their bond, or I picture the characters changing in a way that is not compatible. There are a handful that I have a hard time imagining ever breaking up, though.

Pat and Pran, Bad Buddy

After everything these two went through to be together and, crucially, stay together? Ain't no way. They've already survived being forced to compete with each other, feuding friends and families, years-long separation, long distance, and plenty of serious conflicts both with each other and with threats external to the relationship. They will survive the rest and live together through it all.

Kasuga and Nomoto, TsukuTabe

It took them so long to find each other, and now that they have you can bet they will be sticking together. These two are so well matched, and they each provide something the other needs, both where food and emotion are concerned. Nomoto is kind and curious and Kasuga is steady as a rock. They decided to move in together before they even kissed (the u-haul lesbian jokes write themselves). I can easily picture them still sitting at that table eating together in 40 years.

Payu and Rain, Love in the Air

These two are so young, but this is a situation of two perfectly suited people finding each other at an improbably early age. It's rare, but it happens! They are not only a perfect match for each other sexually, but their personalities are also very-well suited. Payu needs to direct his care taking energy to someone who wants it, and Rain needs someone to give him attention, motivation and focus. They give each other a lot of joy and you can feel how happy they are whenever they're together. They will have a long life together pushing each other to succeed and discovering new kinks.

Baram and Hantae, Sing My Crush

These two have been devoted to each other since the day they met. They love each other and they like each other and I can't imagine either of them wanting to be with anyone else. Even if Han Baram's music career takes off, he will be bringing Im Hantae along with him.

Achi and Karan, Cherry Magic Thailand

They are husbands! And even if they weren't, I would like to see you try to pry Karan away from Achi. This one is interesting because we have multiple adaptations of this particular story, but for me Karan and Achi are the pair I believe in the most. Achi really put in the work to learn how to communicate and reciprocate Karan's affections, and their bond with each other feels mutual and rock solid. They're going to have a long and happy life together and be that sickeningly sweet married couple everyone else rolls their eyes about (except for Pai, she will be in the background swooning).

[icantevenwiththisplace]

I just love the fact that because they were “enemies” growing up, it allowed them to know each other on a different level to anyone else. It’s not even an I know your every thought kind of know each other. They were there in each other’s lives when their quirks developed. It’s an I know every thing about your personality. I know why you think the way you do. Pat knows what to do to help Pran calm down and vice versa.

I haven’t read the novel. But it gets me that for basically their whole lives, they’ve been best friends. First they talk from their windows and then eventually to each other in person then back to window then through the phone and finally in person.

It kinda hurts my heart to think that there were times when Pat and Pran wanted to talk to each other but couldn’t. Can you imagine Pat having such a bad day that he goes out to his balcony only to remember that Pran is at boarding school?

I guess that explains why Pat is so angry in the beginning. The one constant in his life is taken away abruptly and he’s angry at himself, at their parents and for a time I think he was also angry with Pran. Just because he said he never hated him, doesn’t mean he wasn’t angry. He was lonely.

I sometimes think of how bad it must have been for Pran. He unlike Pat, is an only child. His sibling was Pa, and his friend/crush was Pat. The guy he’s been competing with since conception. To make it worse, Pran is really close to his mom. His love for her is so palpable and I can’t imagine being shipped off away from everyone I know and love. Yeah he made friends but he like Pat was angry.

They were both so angry that they both gained reputations as fighters. People knew to stay clear of Pat and people knew that Pran would kick your ass if you antagonize him. Which is actually hard to do. He doesn’t seem to actually like fighting (unless it’s with Pat but he prefers verbal games more than anything) but he will fight if he has to.

I think that if they hadn’t reunited and if Pa hadn’t asked them not to fight (I’m pretty sure the only person they were close to who specifically said no) they would have fallen into their old routine. Not to say they wouldn’t have ended up where they are without. Of course they would. It would probably just have taken slightly longer. Pran is definitely the once bitten twice shy kind of person.

Although lets talk about the fact that Ink is the only one who really knew them in high school. This might be an exaggeration but she was literally the only one in this show who has never seen them fight. Can you believe it?

PS. Their biggest FU to their parents is not the fact that they are together, but the fact that despite being raised by their parents who are shit at communicating, they have it down pat. I’m pretty sure that their parents didn’t realize that they were actually teaching them to be good communicators. I mean having to sneak around mean that they have to become experts at it.

There is this weird thing about their relationship that just occurred to me. While they were felt like it was them against each other their whole lives it was actually them against everyone else. The one thing they could count on was each other.

PPS. Sorry this post is so long. It got away from me.

[ablazenqueen]

Someone on my last post demanded my full Pran’s Friends Are The Best Rant™ and I’m weak, so here we go! This is gonna be a long one so buckle up.

I’m going to break this down into four categories to avoid going off on a tangent: Loyalty, Trust, Support, Understanding. And for (attempted) brevity’s sake, I’m only going to break down one-two example of each.

Loyalty:

Obviously, we see this right from the get-go.

Wai trusts his friends will come to help him and they, of course, do. No questions asked, they rush to his side. The thing that I love about this is that Pran’s friend group is shown to be mostly pacifist. Wai is really the one who always charges in headfirst. He starts the fight with Pat’s group all on his own - and he is most certainly the one who initiates - and he’s always the one who (when pushed by My Most Dearly Unbeloved, Korn) tries to start physical brawls everytime the two departments argue.

I like to imagine they’re just a group of goodie-two-shoes that adopted this chaotic little troublemaker and decided they would protect him. But moral of the story, this is a crew that backs each other up, physically and emotionally.

Another note I want to make about this scene is that it does a good job of establishing Pran’s friends as their own characters. Sure, narratively their role in the plot is to serve as “Pran’s friends” by default because Pran is one of the two protagonists, but we understand immediately from the start that they aren’t just sidekicks. Interestingly enough, aside from the whole ordeal with Pat, Pran is a pretty passive member in his friend group. I’m pretty sure that he would be the least likely to initiate fights, even without Pat being involved. And the fact that our very first scene starts with Wai challenging Pat and Wai getting caught up in a fight and Wai rallying his troops? For a hot second there, it feels like he’s the main character. And I mean that as a good thing. The group spends time together but they aren’t attached at the hip like a single entity, they do things unrelated to Pran, they’re the protagonists in their own stories (mainly Wai, we don’t see too much of the others).

Trust:

The scene I mentioned in my previous post is an excellent example of a subtle sign of trust.

Pran shoves Wai and Wai doesn’t even flinch or retaliate. He instead stumbles, surprised but not angry. Because this is Pran, this is his friend, and Wai trusts that he means no harm.

But another scene that I want to point out is this one.

This one is a good display of both trust and loyalty.

Wai senses that Pran feels unsure and sees Pat as a threat, so he immediately steps in. Pran backed Wai up when Pat first cornered him, Wai will back Pran up if Pat tries anything now. Theirs is, in every way, a friendship with equal give and take.

And now Pran. The way he stands behind him, looking very unsure but safe. He fully trusts that his friends, Wai especially, will protect him. Unbeknownst to his friends, in this case the protection is probably more emotional than physical. It’s hard to tell if Pran does or doesn’t want Pat to be able to approach him and I think that’s because it’s both. Emotionally, the idea of Pat being worried and wanting to comfort him is appealing. Intellectually, he knows that they can’t show their friends that side of him. And beyond that, he’s still jealous over Pat’s crush on Ink. The nicer Pat is to him, the harder it is to remember that, as far as Pran’s (incorrectly) concerned, Pat is not into him. Obviously, he is but that’s a rant for another post. In this way, Wai - without even knowing it - serves as an emotional shield that Pran can hide behind and feel secure.

I also want to point out Pat’s reaction here (and how it qualifies as one of the many little things that makes his relationship with Pran so good). He backs off. Yes, I know that doesn’t sound like a big deal. But we can probably all think of an example where a character’s love interest is being shielded by someone else which leads them to using force to barrel through. Pat doesn’t do that. He sees that Pran feels safe behind Wai, he sees that Pran doesn’t want him to come closer, he knows that Pran would be upset if he fought with Wai, so he respects Pran’s unspoken but understood wishes and boundaries. And, as such, he backs off.

Understanding:

I want to point out two scenes here specifically.

First:

This scene isn’t hugely significant but on a surface level, I like the way it cements how well the group knows each other. Wai “gently modifies” the explanation for why Pat’s group was chasing him and Pran can immediately tell and calls him out on it. However, there’s also a deeper understanding than that as the conflict between the two groups grows. Pat’s friends bully Wai at work and post a video of it, and Pran’s friends understand how upsetting this is for him and they back him up in getting revenge. It’s something that can easily be overlooked from the outside. “That’s a dumb reason to fight.” But to his friends, even Pran once he finds out, who understand him and see the insult to Wai as a personal insult to them? It means a lot more than that. It means something to him so it means something to them.

Second:

Wai isn’t just describing the definition of a secret crush. Sure, it starts that way but as he sees Pran’s reaction, he starts actively watching Pran and describing what he’s doing. He starts describing “smiling when you think about them” after Pran starts smiling at the memory of Pat then patiently waits for Pran to reveal the truth that he already knows. And when Pran runs away, Wai doesn’t push. If he isn’t ready to talk, he isn’t ready to talk. And that’s okay.

Support:

Pran’s friend group is supportive in multiple ways, as I’ve already mentioned. Physically supporting each other in brawls, emotionally supporting each other through teasing and talking things out and verbal reassurance, supporting each other by sharing the responsibility of their actions and bearing each other’s burdens as a team.

This scene has been talked about over and over again, but you can’t talk about how awesome Pran’s friend group is without talking about it.

Not only are they hugely supportive of the idea of Pran dating another guy but they go as far as to reject Pran’s immediate attempt at using heteronormativity as a defense mechanism for being accidentally outed. Not only is this great because hurray, they’re not homophobic, but it’s the way they go about it.

It’s not just “we can forgive that you might be gay because you’re our pal”, instead it’s a firm reassurance that “this is completely normal and okay and we support you and we’re going to tease you about having a suitor to prove that you can be open and honest with us”. They’re normalizing it in order to extinguish any possible fears Pran might have. This, my friends, is reassurance and validation in their purest forms.

Conclusion: Pran’s friends are awesome. A little reckless maybe but they’ve got the spirit.

Aaaaaaaand that’s all, folks! Thank you for coming to my unnecessary Ted Talk!