#mew X ray

[sunsetandthemoon]

"Without you in my life, I have more freedom. I don't have to worry about who you secretly have sex with. I only care about myself now. I’m the most important one for me. You take no space in my mind at all."

Only Friends (2023)

[liyazaki]

I’m not the right one because you never give me a chance.

ONLY FRIENDS | EPISODE 7

[bisonsclothespin]

Don't apologize. It's not your fault. Nasty people like Top and Ton can't always hide their nastiness. Don't feel guilty.

+

[bird-inacage]

Only Friends EP4 / EP8 | Ray & Sand vs Ray & Mew

In Episode 8, both Ray and Mew were having to assure one another that they weren't bored in each other's company. It made me wonder how much time they used to spend as friends, because there was a definite air of stiffness between them.

At the start of the episode, Sand claims he shares nothing in common with Ray (which is untrue) but also an attempt to deny their obvious chemistry. Yes they differ vastly in background and perhaps compatibility on paper but in spite of that, they get on very well. In direct parallel, Mew doesn't share anything in common with Top either, and yet he clearly misses spending time with him.

Neither Ray or Mew are able to find true fulfilment when they're actually alone as a couple, especially when you compare how they behave with their other romantic interests. You either have chemistry or you don't. And you can't force that, no matter how hard you try.

[pickletrip]

This preview is ending me. Mew is drinking and doing "bad stuff" (Top failed to protect Mew and now he wishes he could protect Mew).

There's a Halloween party and Mew is dressed as Harley Quinn and Ray as Joker! Damn. Serving looks.

Ray is being a little shit as usual.

Nick seems hung up on Boston but we finally get a new entry - Whoever Pappang is playing!!!

And we have the police and drugs. Shit.

This part of the show we barely know about. We're in new territory and things can go South any moment.

[segueintoromanticism]

ngl I was really vibing with the raymew scene with the bg music chemistry n all but then I saw this grown ass man suffering the consequences of his own actions and immediately went NOPE NOT COOL

[thatgirl4815]

Just piggybacking onto an earlier Ask pointing out how Ray doesn't react when Top holds Mew's hands - I actually found that whole sequence starting from the coke-snorting quite upsetting precisely because of how passive Ray seemed throughout. Admittedly I'm still very angry at Mew so it might be clouding my judgement(!), but first we see Mew's lacklustre response when Ray thanks him for picking him, his almost scoff when Ray tells him he loves him, then we get the avoided kiss and him leading Ray out by the hand, and then the Top confrontation where it felt like Ray had been totally reduced to an accessory - he's virtually silent throughout, his face is mostly pretty blank, and he doesn't even really react when Mew throws his drink in Top's face, and definitely doesn't look like he's enjoying the encounter, at least until Mew kisses him. Mew might have been the one in the collar but in that scene it's Ray that reminded me of a dog, and it just made me super sad. It's yet another reason they shouldn't be a couple - Ray's sense of self is entirely subsumed by Mew when they're together because of the imbalance in their relationship aka Ray's idolisation (which in itself obviously isn't Mew's fault - it's when he takes advantage of it that I get mad). We see it even before they "get together" - in almost all their 1:1 scenes, Ray immediately deflects any attention back onto Mew. The only time we really see him express his own agency is unfortunately/disastrously a) the bathtub scene, b) when he kisses him while he's sleeping, and c) his ep 6 meltdown (I'm not counting the end of ep 7 convo cos I 100% believe Ray wouldn't have brought anything up if Mew hadn't led the convo in that direction). Anyway, don't really have a point much beyond expressing how, given what happened beforehand, Ray still just makes me ache with pity and sadness, even after he turns on Sand.

“Mew might have been the one in the collar but in that scene it's Ray that reminded me of a dog”

^Yes, that is a perfect way to describe it!! I think all the context before Ray’s fight with Sand is what makes that scene hit so much different than it does in the Ep8 preview. That might also be why we see Ray fade to the background so much during the encounter between Top and Mew. Ray’s realizing that he’s only a pawn in Mew’s revenge plot.

You’re right—Ray’s agency with Mew is extremely limited. The interesting thing is that Ray has kind of imposed these limitations onto himself by putting Mew on such a pedestal. I think there’s a part of him that is utterly terrified that he will do something wrong and lose Mew. But I suspect there’s another part of him that wants better from Mew; I wouldn’t be surprised if he denies those thoughts though, because he thinks he has no right to them. He has Mew, and that’s already more than he deserves (obviously that’s not true, but I could see that being Ray’s thought process during the scene with Top).

Really, the ways Ray interacts with Mew are so painfully indicative of how much he craves someone to care about him. He’s decided that Mew is that person, so he will do all he can to make it so, even if the reality doesn’t live up to the fantasy. Of course it will take a lot for him to finally admit it won’t work out, simply because he’s spent so long wanting it.

Ahh, tbh the psychological insights are the only compelling aspect of the RayMew dynamic for me, haha. Poor Ray.

[ibreathhere]

The way I see it Ray indeed is in love with Mew at least at the beginning. We have no explicit reason for which, we could deduce that he was never in love with Mew.

Mew was his friend, he took care of him, he showed up for him, It's normal to fall in love with someone like that. Some people say it's just gratitude, but I don't think we are entitled to say so, not yet. Ray had these feelings for so long, I think he's enough emotionally mature to say it's love.

But right now, in the present, I don't think his feeling for Mew are purely love, not the conventional type to say the least. Mew has become for Ray a "religion", let me explain myself. Ray had these for so long, and the way I see it, feeling are bound to evolve, romantic feelings at least. But for these two there were no evolution.

Ray fell in love> confessed> got rejected> stayed friends> ray still loved him.

I don't think romantic feeling can stay in the same "station" for lack of a better word. When there is no reciprocity, love either is bound to fade or stay stuck. And the later is what happened to Ray's love for Mew, without growth he began treating his feeling like duty, he had to continue loving for the sake of doing it, keep going. Because that love made him feel alive at some point, so he has this devotion to that love. That's why I think It's not love anymore but, duty, devotion, religion.

[ctrb92]

I think Mew maybe likes knowing that Ray likes him. Maybe he likes the power it gives him over Ray. I don't think he likes Ray in a romantic way. I'm not sure he even sees him as a friend, really.

[ppeonppeonhan]

The trailer for Only Friends tried to hook audiences with an unprecedented amount of BL actors in one series -- with the promise of mixed couple pairings and endless NSFW sex scenes. Soooo....

I'm a sucker for First and Khao, in general, so. 🤷🏾‍♀️

[storm2rain]

imagine if one of them got an STD

[sunsetandthemoon]

does it ever drive you crazy

just how fast the night changes

[liyazaki]

I’ve wanted to do that for so long- this too.

ONLY FRIENDS | EPISODE 8

[inventedfangirling]

um so the ep8 teaser with the halloween party facebook invite from mew and ray hit me hard and i just thought up a whole fanfic about it and now i dont know what to do with it, if the elaborate scenarios ive imagined could just magically appear onto a word doc i could just format and post it pls

[bellarkeandclintashaandsuch]

I finally watched episodes 1-4 of Only Friends. I think it’s a show that’s well done, well acted, well directed, pretty, etc. But I don’t like any of these couples. So please feel free to ignore the rest of this while I ramble. I just need to get this out. I do like the show! It’s very entertaining!

And I do like Sand and Ray. But I prefer Ray and Mew. How do they want me to watch Ray calling Mew, crying, to tell him he loves him, seconds away from killing himself, and not expect me to ship them? Insane. And for Mew to say he’ll never abandon Ray, only for Ray to end up drinking in a bathtub again, feeling abandoned. Unforgivable, show. ☹️

Here’s my bad opinions because my brain doesn’t want me to just be happy and enjoy the messy, sexy show, so please don’t take offense or take it too seriously. I swear my brain likes to undermine my enjoyment of television.

Nick is creepy. Looking through his customer’s phone. Wiretapping his FWB’s car. Playing the tape of two people having sex for his roommate. At least he acknowledges that he’s nasty, I guess.

Ton is messing with Ray, Mew, and Top. Mew and Ray are supposed to be his friends. Mew does not deserve that. And I’m not sure how much Ton and Cheum know about Ray almost killing himself, or if they just know he was in a bad place, but if Ton does know, that’s really messed up for him to manipulate Ray like that and open him up to being rejected again if he knows Mew already rejected him once and that Ray is really sensitive to feeling unloveable and like a burden. I do still enjoy watching Ton try to manipulate people, though.

Top gives me such a smarmy feel. I don’t know if he’s supposed to, though. Or if that’s just a me problem. Like it’s hard for me to believe that he really does like Mew, but I think I am supposed to believe that. But the audacity of him telling Mew he has nothing to hide when he just slept with one of Mew’s friends is hilariously awful. And he slept with Ton because of a photo of Mew kissing Ray two years ago. And didn’t even bother to talk to Mew first. Also throwing out one packet of drugs does not mean you’ve quit.

Cheum seems great. Although she was a little pushy with Mew having a boyfriend. But she’s cute with her gf.

Sand, I do love. He’s great. My only issue with him is that he was mad at Ray for leaving to help Mew. Disappointed, sad, let down, that’s understandable. But would you really want to be with someone who prioritizes having sex with you over helping a friend who has nowhere to spend the night? But overall he’s great. And him not like Top is a strike against Top.

Mew, I also love. I don’t get what he sees in Top, though. And in terms of his list of requirements. Ray, yes, did kiss him in his sleep. But he apologized and does feel bad genuinely and he really does respect Mew. He is Mew’s friend and gets along with all his other friends. And I thought the only secret he was keeping was his crush on Mew, but Mew already knew that. So ✔️✔️✔️ Whereas, Top does not respect him, or he would’ve talked to him about Ray before having sex with Ton. Ray hates Top, so as Mew’s most beloved friend, that’s another fail. And he definitely has secrets. So ❌❌❌ So if you want a rich boy, Mew… also of course, Ray was wrong to kiss Mew. But separately from that event, over the past two years, I do think that Mew (and Ton and Cheum) should take more care in general with Ray, knowing his mental health history. I don’t think it’s reasonable of Mew to expect their friendship can be the same as it was, at least until he knows for a fact that Ray has moved on. So I don’t he should be calling Ray his most beloved friend or be as affectionate with Ray or talk to him about how happy he wants Ray to be, knowing how Ray feels. That sucks from Mew’s perspective, but he has to know that’s not helping Ray get over him. That’s just going to make it hurt more when he turns him down again. It’s not Mew’s fault that he feels that way, but Mew shouldn’t expect that nothing will change. But then again, after promising to never abandon him, if Ray and Mew ended up not being as close, I would have murder in my heart. So either way is a lose-lose for me. Also it was cruel of him to say Top is the first person to make his heart tremble. Hon, just say, yep really like him. And it’s not nice of him to keep trying to push Ray on Sand to make himself feel better about not liking Ray back. But more broadly, Mew, Ton, and Cheum go out drinking all the time with their friend who clearly has a drinking problem, and also apparently, a drug addiction and they just pawn him off on each other, knowing he feels like a burden. His mental health isn’t their responsibility, but maybe they could consider inviting Ray to some events that don’t involve drinking and partying once in a while.

And Ray. Ray is my favorite. My poor (in all but money), sad, lonely, lovestruck boy. I adore him. He’s always smiling, but dead inside. He has no one but Mew to be his emergency contact, even though he talks about his dad often. I can’t blame him for loving Mew. He feels like a burden to everyone, thinks everyone hates him, and Mew is over here giving him sun themed keychains and telling him he brings brightness, that he’s a ray of sunshine. How do you not fall in love? And it has to hurt to see that the person Mew is falling for is so much like him, except worse. I think he genuinely likes Sand, too. But I just don’t think it would work. Because he seeks Sand out when he’s upset about Mew. And that’s just not fair to Sand or Ray himself.

In conclusion, I think the best way to go is RayMewSand, even though I just said Ray and Sand wouldn’t work (Mew does seem to pay a lot of attention to Sand, calling him lovely [jealous of not having Ray’s attention perhaps? 🤫]) to make everyone (me) happy. And also TonTop so they don’t inflict their garbage on anyone else. And Nick gets no one because he does have sad eyes, but I draw the line at looking through a customer’s personal photos and masturbating to them to boot.

[pickletrip]

So we're getting Ray Mew and my Sand Ray ship is sinking hard because of the narrative. This show is going to new places and it's getting dangerous and exciting.

Just stop hurting Sand. 💔