#desperately hoping they don’t pull some kind of weird stunt with gia

[ablazenqueen]

Okay but Nuea and Kluen’s dynamic is actually pretty clever. Mutual Pining™ is one of my all-time favourite tropes, don’t get me wrong, but in order for it to work, there has to be a good reason the characters aren’t together despite their mutual crush and often the fallback is that they’re just very oblivious to each other. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just makes Star In My Mind a refreshing change. Because the mutual pining here - while yes, in part due to confusion and miscommunication - is primarily due to personality and circumstances. And interestingly, the mutual attraction is something they’re both vaguely aware of but refuse to act on.

On the one hand, we have Nuea. He’s the go-getter, the loud and open and straightforward one who always says what’s on his mind. He’s the one who, by his own admission and previous demonstration, would approach and confess to his crush. Even in his dreams, he pictures himself confessing to Kluen first, not the other way around. It’s just in his nature.

But here’s where the circumstances come into play. 1. He’s already confessed and received a non-answer. As far as he’s concerned, he’s been as good as rejected. 2. He thinks that Kluen has a girlfriend and is unavailable. And he’s way too self-respecting and strongwilled to be a secret mistress.

But he isn’t stupid either. He doesn’t need to be for the story to work. He’s fully aware that Kluen was leaning in for a kiss during the drawing lesson, straight up calls him out on it, but the moment - and the knowledge of his attraction potentially being mutual - doesn’t change anything for him. Because Kluen still hasn’t admitted to having feelings and because he’s still, to Nuea’s knowledge, taken. Nuea isn’t stupid but he does have tunnel vision and situational bias (and self-respect).

Then, on the other hand, we have Kluen. He’s harder to get a read on, by nature of being a quieter, less emotive character. But after Nuea’s confession and immediate move to Germany, it’s likely he thinks Nuea moved on and got over him. And to make matters worse, Nuea’s stubborn, slightly prideful, “let’s plow forward” personality leads him to deny ever having known Kluen at all. That adds to the uncertainty. Barrier 3.

The only way Kluen can be sure either way is by asking Nuea. This presents several problems. First, he’s a very reserved person who clearly struggles to convey his emotions and open up to others. There’s also the fact that asking Nuea if he still has a crush on Kluen would mean outing his own crush. Because why would he care to know the answer unless he likes Nuea, right? He thinks Nuea still likes him but then Nuea pretends they don’t know each other. He thinks Nuea might still like him but then he hears Nuea sweet-talking someone on the phone. He thinks Nuea might still like him but then someone comes running to Nuea’s aid and calls him Dao, the nickname that’s reserved for romantic partners. At every turn, there’s something to make him question and hesitate.

I think what makes it such an interesting dynamic is that they’re both in the exact wrong position. If the roles were reversed (ie. if instead Nuea had found out about Kluen’s crush immediately before getting shipped off to another country and surprise reunited a year later), they would’ve gotten together by the end of the first episode (depending on the situation with Gia, that is). And that makes for excellent characterization.