#mileapo's public date

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MileApo's vintage dates (plural)

Pre-empting questions about what the other vintage dates were with this... As far as we can tell, they went out on at least three vintage shopping dates that were vintage themed/they were photographed and videoed. (the July 2021 doesn't seem to involve shopping). They undoubtedly have gone out more times, but you know. They stopped posting on SM because we're all so damn nosy.

March 2021 - @phakphumm did the summary post here.

June 2021 - Mile posted this on his IG in June at least. Yes, the mirror photo is real, not a shop! Irene (iyyene on twitter...also possibly on tumblr?) did a roundup of this date here.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mile Phakphum (@milephakphum)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mile Phakphum (@milephakphum)

There was another mirror selfie that wasn't on this date but I can't (read: am too lazy to) track down right now, but I think given that Mile bought the mirror from the June date, Apo was helping Mile shop for a mirror. Mile wore variations of this gd outfit (white shirt, hat, and variations on pants/shoes) all throughout mid 2021 so it's a bit hard to discern them 🙃

July 2021 - I just posted about it here.

June 2022 - During KPTS's airing. This one is more sleuthery.

Mile posted this photo he had taken of Apo and about them vintage shopping. I don't want to track down the translation for this again but Mile was basically crying his wallet hurt 😂

With a fan

so. that's it (for now).

[discluded]

I need to get Apo pregnant. Need to breed him.

Mileapo @ “A PINK RABBIT” café in Song Wat, Bangkok (07/06/2023)

[matan4il]

NAURRR bcos the zendayafication of zendaya herself happened pretty early and then later we find out that zendaya and tom had already been dating for a while just keeping it private 🤣

OMG, Nonnie! I'm so sorry, I didn't get a notification about this from Tumblr, I apologize for how long you've been waiting for a reply! ;_; To you and others who have sent or will send me asks, I am gonna try and check my inbox more regularly because of this glitch!

As for the Zendayafication of Apo Nattawin, I have to tell you that while I obviously have heard of Zendaya's... laughter issues since her and Tom Holland happened, I haven't really followed their r/s. I'm just happy for them that they found each other and are happy! Most of what I know is that they met in 2016 and that, when in 2021 they were confirmed to be a real couple, it seems like they didn't intend to come out as one. So IDK how long they were in a romantic r/s without letting the public know about it, but you're right, they had to be secretly dating for a while. I may not know if Mile and Apo's deep bond is a platonic or romantic one, but it does upset me sometimes when some say it's delusional to think they could be together. Why would it be? This type of r/s between co-stars, romantic and kept under wraps, exists. Why is it fine to speculate that a man and a woman have this, but it's so insane to think that about two men? The double standard screams homophobia to me.

To get back to the Zendayafication and the question of when it started, I'm still not sure, but in an interview Mileapo gave at the Yniverse awards (26 Mar, 2021), they mentioned talking to each other daily. I kind of suspected that if they were that close by that point, then it's possible that something of this effect had already started taking place... You can be the judge of that for yourself, I cut the very start of that interview for you to decide! Please do let me know what you think, is this Zendayafication happening in front of us?

Thank you for the ask, and again sorry for the delay in replying! Have a great day! (for all my Mileapo/Kinnporsche posts, click) xoxox

PS - Oh yeah, and I also know Tom used to refer to Zendaya repeatedly as "mate" which has to be the un-sexiest way to address a possible partner unless you're a pirate. So, you know... this is a gentle wave at anyone who thinks that Mile calling Apo "cool bro" means they can't be/get together.

[chaos0pikachu]

Hi. What do you mean that GMMTV encourages the kpopification of BL? I understand the final answer but I'm lost on the rest.

I'ma be honest I don't know where that post went so idk what I said in full sorry dude

but overall, I mean that gmmtv markets their talent like Idols rather than Actors.

So it's something @lugarn has also brought up, but gmmtv works like an Old Hollywood Studio did. So in the 20/30s actors weren't freelance like they are now, they had contracts with specific studios. For example, Joan Crawford was under contract at MGM for years, studios would be the ones to choose what films the actors did, they'd also choose a "persona" for them as well to present to the public. This was often connected to the types of films they did, to blur the lines of the star with the film char they'd play and get the audience to build a connection (we'd call this a para-social relationship today) with them.

Joan was often cited as frustrated with MGM because she didn't feel like they were using her to her full potential but she couldn't do films that weren't MGM unless she dissolved her contract. It's like how First will never star in a MeMindY production he's contracted under GMMTV. Eventually Joan did dissolve her contract with MGM and moved to Warner Bros, whhere it was the same thing, ie she could only do films produced by Warner Bros but hey she got an Oscar and a pop culture iconic movie outta that deal so. Here's a good video about Joan Crawford.

Kpop operates in a similar way, companies will present group members as Idols often times with specific roles - Leader, Lead Vocal, Lead Visual, Main Dancer, Main Rapper blah blah blah - and a persona for them. They present a curated version of themselves to the public and are sold more as products than musicians*. You'll notice that there will be similarities to how Branded couples are marketed, not as actors but as products as well. Case in point:

This is merch for ForceBook, not them separately, not their characters in Enchante or Boss and a Babe, or Only Friends like you'd see with other actors but together. What's being sold and marketed here? What is the product? ForceBook, not Force and Book even, but Forcebook.

I tried to find merch for Man Suang but could only find someone reselling the film cups. I looked up Kinnporsche merch and found this, which includes a necklace that says "Porsche" a tracksuit based off the bodyguard uniform (which I would legit buy tbh). I also found a plush series based on the KP characters, and a lightstick based on the show.

Know what's not there? Anything that's specific to MileApo or BarcodeJeff or even BibleBuild.

When I looked up Bad Buddy this was the only merch I found (which is wild considering the popularity of the show). I did find OhmNanon merch but I couldn't tell if it was official so I'm erring on the side of caution and assuming it isn't.

But look at the difference between the merch for Bad Buddy, undenibly one of gmmtv's most successful shows to date, and ForceBook's "couples" merch.

Now, before anyone jumps me no I'm not saying Forcebook don't "deserve" merch or like whatever, but look at the merch for A Boss and a Babe and how it's marketed and labeled:

It's not labeled or marketed as "Boss and a Babe" it's marketed as "ForceBook". Force-Book plush dolls (as seen on a Boss and a Babe!), Force-Book folder (not even in the costumes of their chars lol). The closest to actual show merch is the mug.

So when I say gmmtv sells a weird combo of actor-idols I mean it. They're not selling the Actors as Actors first and foremost, they're selling them as a branded coupled up product.

If you look up Squid Game the merch you'll find is going to be specific to the show. Not the actors because the show it the selling point, the actors as a bonus, a benefit, an additional. People might go to see a movie for Angelina Jolie but they go to see her in a good movie. Because they wanna see her act.

gmmtv often makes shows that just have outright miscasts but the miscasts will happen b/c they need to keep their branded couple(s) together because the show isn't the product the branded couple is.

Fans don't care that ohm and nanon don't wanna work together again, or if they'd even be good in another series again, they just wanna see them together.

My thoughts aren't as articulate as they should be regarding this so forgive bro hope this made some sense at least

*I do want to note that the kpop industry IS getting better at treating their idols, there has been push back and progress made as well and I don't want that to get lost in the sauce here

[absolutebl]

I’ve been watching BL for about 3+ years now and consumed my fair share of series and I have to say the actors’ responsibilities to their characters/series off set is starting to feel very “gay for pay”. What I mean is the majority of the actors, in my opinion, seem very obviously straight but the shipping culture, rabid fans delusions on their personal lives, and requirements to always appear like a couple when In public (fan meets, interviews, reaction videos of their work, variety shows, selling products on live, etc.), make it so that they must always be “on” even upon wrapping their series and this makes me veryy uncomfortable and I feel bad for them. It takes the artistry or this is work element out of what is clearly just a job. I for one try to avoid most of the “IRL” stuff actors do outside of the series itself bc it’s makes me just so uncomfortable and embarrassed…. On another note, it seems like many of these actors take on BL to break into the industry. Is there much success in a popular BL actor pivoting into “mainstream” or non BL celebrity? Bright Vicharawit seems to be doing well and Mew Suppasit. Although I hate to say Mew’s career pivot rubs me entirely the wrong way bc I feel like he didn’t bow out of BL gracefully but used BL and the popularity of his shipped couple and dropped it all like a bad habit trying to erase its existence from his history... I’m sorry my bitter might be showing on that last bit haha. I hope I made some sort of sense. Thanks!

Yes, it's weird, creepy, and exploitive - from all sides. That's why I avoid all the fan service stuff.

With respect to Thai actors? I actually don't know if BL can be seen as "breaking in" since BL the big guns of the industry there. Where else is there to go? Het dramas are less popular, at least outside of the country. Not sure what's going on internally.

Presumably, Mew is getting this chance, and it's a big one, because he looks, well, like Mew (very appealing to a Korean aesthetic), and also I'm assuming speaks Korean well enough to get by. Also, he was always a very very ambitious boy, that one.

I won't blame him entirely for anything tho, MAME's actors seem to have it the worst.

I have my reservations about Korean BL too. I think some of the boys *think* they are getting a leg up but... still too short to ever be leading men material (by Korea's standards). Especially the idols. (”Ieg up” ... see what I did there?) And I think doing BL there can still do more harm than good because of the homophobia (like what happens in China). I think some of the working actors who happened into BL (like the To My Star Boys) seem to be realistic and have fun about it, but they're both established in themselves as people and as actors BEFORE the fandom happened to them.

Japan and Taiwan it's just another job. There seems to be neither weight nor stigma (these days, it was different a decade ago). You can gain a bit of international cred and some sweet modeling and sponsorship deals (see the Cherry Magic boys) and maybe a follow up gig in the form of a movie or whateves, but that's more like just... being part of a successful show.

I don't know, kids becoming celebrities. It's never gonna be pretty, that gruesome combination of performative ego, accelerated attention and wealth, parasocial relationships the then add.... fake dating the same sex in a largely hostile society.

Can't imagine any of these youngsters come out not borked in the head.

Now the ones like MaxTul or even, maybe, MileApo who clearly talked about this and how to handle it with each other, and have some kind of game going on (with each other and us as fans), and entered the situation more grown up aware and mature age-wise (and therefore somewhat fixed in ego and personality) - I don't worry so much about them.

But mostly, since PerthSaint went south what, 4 years ago was it? Yeah, it's ALL creepy.

That's enough of this kinda gossip.

(this post from this one on my reservations about pair branding)

[discluded]

Porsche’s wish is fulfilled 💕

The restaurant they're eating is a restaurant which only can be reached by boat, you can’t drive because it's in the middle of lake (guessing), you can only eat there by taking a boat and Apo said he made a lot of effort to find that place to eat.

[yeahmileapo]

Mileapo being very interesting past few days. I know Apo usually signs the date but I think its interesting that miles posted a story of their date with Porsche in the background and he also signed the date. I don’t want to speculate anything but I wonder if today is a special day. And another thing, why do I feel like it’s so important to miles and Apo that fans don’t mistake their relationship as fanservice? They don’t want fans to think they do what they do to please them. And Apo saying he doesn’t want to do things because of other people really stood out to me. And them mentioning how fans can fell how much they love each other and care about one another even if they don’t make things public. Idk sorry thought dump but I’ve just been thinking about them and after the interview

If you only knew how much I love mind-dumps or random anything about mileapo😄

I agree yesterday/today stood out

Apo's ig post was so meaningful and personal. And also him expressing how grateful he is for BOC changing their logo to Pride.

Even back on April 19 Apo posted that standard pop was one of the best interviews he's done

Mile and Apo both marked today's date

Mile never posts non-work pics of Apo yet today he posts TWO

They rarely reveal what they do privately but not today! So why?

I really appreciate knowing they safeguard and value their privacy together. It shows their sincerity and the importance of the other person. They have no desire for that fake ass showy display, and their respect went up 1000% because of it

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HIIII from where is the mileapo vintage date from? The one where apo wears a white tank and cap and mile in a black shirt. I keep seeing clips but never a full video!!! And im dying bcos they’re giving me hongkong movie stars/ models vibe i loveeeee

hi! so according to Bee (@xzybkp on twitter) it was a vlog posted by a fan club, and now that fc deactivated. Bee posted clips and photos they had compiled 🥰

Because tumblr sucks I'm not going to post the videos since I'm too lazy to pull them from twitter and then re clip them into one video but you can see Bee's thread here.

This took place in July 2021, which for context was when Filmania's KPTS was officially cancelled (circa July 3) and they were working to gather sponsors and hustle to put together BOC

and also yes there are multiple vintage dates... at least three they posted enough videos/photos that we have a general sense of what they did that day (multiple outfits = probably not the same date).

also. feeling a little 🫠🫠🫠 over Apo's lesbian trucker look

[discluded]

mmhm 🤭🤭🤭

I can’t believe Mile posted a story where he holds a bouquet of roses and the caption says “romantic afternoon :)” 😳

There aren’t many people in mumbai to spend a romantic afternoon with….

I’m- 😳

Just a reminder of apo’s answer to the question: - “What’s your ideal gift for Valentine's Day?”

🌚

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I just realized that the porsche in the book was probably like kinn’s type? Cos they initially imagined a korean actor to play it right.. so apo being called to cast is really sus lol

I have never read KPTN and according to people who have, it's better for my brain that I haven't 😂

According to Reliable Sources, apparently Porsche wasn't Kinn's Type™ because Kinn's type is pretty and novel!Porsche wasn't pretty. But Apo is very pretty so obviously that wouldn't work 😁

Okay since I have a minute now:

KinnPorsche Casting: The Lore

First posting (one version) of the casting story for everyone to set the stage. Thanks to @lorddio for helping me find this one again and MileApo Safe Place for translating as always. it's got a very special part that needs highlight 😉

But setting the record straight(ha!) about the basics:

Mile was Kinn's face model, and purportedly many elements of Kinn were based off of Mile's public image (very importantly: wealthy heir to an important Thai family)

In the variations of posts about Mile is Kinn lore I've seen, this was the specific photo that inspired Daemi's Kinn. He reposted it around the same time his casting for KPTS was announced (this was reposted Dec 2020) but if I remember correctly from scrolling back in his feed, it was taken when he was 24-25 years old.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by MP 15.15 (@milephakphum)

As anon mentioned, and Apo mentioned in the clip above, Daemi chose a Korean actor as the face cast for Porsche.

However, he was contacted and specifically invited to audition for the role of Porsche. According to Apo, he didn't even read for any other characters

Those are the basic public facts we can agree on. But of course there's more going on behind the scenes! There's actually a lot going on here so I'm going to break it down for each actor, starting with Mile because that might set the ground for some of what happened with Apo.

Admittedly some of this is my opinion or interpretation, so take it with a grain of salt and use your own judgment! Again, the above facts are what is probably known and agreed upon.

Casting dates (a clarification)

First of all, there's a couple of confusing things going on with the dates, which I actually didn't highlight in the last post about it, but was exposed by the Facebook posts.

The first Facebook post dated October 1, 2020 talks about how the audition process has started and the first round will go on to October 3. The second post is from October 4 and then lists the dates of the auditions for October 10.

Now, October 10, the "official" audition date is (1) The day Mile and Apo were both fast tracked through auditions and (2) met again. I don't think anyone on the English side of fandom has noticed this or at least publicly talked about this discrepancy so I'm bringing you hot news (that I've been sitting on and not sharing lol)

It is worth pointing out that this is supposedly the photo below is of their first kiss from the auditions, and they're both wearing different clothes, so. I'm guessing the fast tracking was actually for the first round of auditions between Oct 1-3, and then the kiss was Oct 10.

Anyway, they sat next to each other and Apo talked to Mile first, regardless of if it was the same day (likely not, in my opinion)

There's also a couple of different photos of them together at audition.

Notably, in the first they're sat in uh, waiting area chairs. There's a different clip of Apo sitting behind Bible, so I'm guessing this is before Apo talked to Mile and he had noticed Mile while sitting in this area and went to talk to him.

The moved together down the line to the audition room, I think?

where Sprite interviewed them:

Also based on this last photo they switched sitting order at some point while waiting to audition

Mile's casting

So aside from the fact Mile visibly went to auditions, there is a rumor with some basis that Mile was pre-cast as Kinn. Probably soft confirmed by Mile himself.

I'm just going to close the loop on this discrepancy too: I think Mile was an invited audition/casting in the same way Ke Huy Quan was invited to audition for for Waymond Wang. Mile did audition. He was likely get the role because he was so preferentially invited by the authors and was the basis for the character.

Clearly, Ke Huy Quan won an Oscar and Mile won a GQ breakout actor award, so in invited casting, even for seemingly "unimportant" roles, it doesn't speak to an actor deserving or not deserving the role based on of acting skills. Mile also was cast as the main character Bohn in My Engineer in 2017 before turning it down; he clearly has some acting chops and can win lead roles.

In academia, often times internal postings will open for tenure track positions with a preferred candidate in mind; but due to rules these postings are made public and sometimes an outside candidate will blow the preferred candidate out of the water in terms of quality and get hired instead.

Which is to say there could have been another actor that ended up impressing more in auditions as Kinn even with Mile being preferred, or another actor pair that seemed more suited for Kinn and Porsche.

The other thing auditions do is allow for actors to screen test chemistry. So finally, Mile actually going through the casting process allows him to screen test a for a pairing partner. Which brings us to...

Pre-cast Preferred casting rumor credibility: 10/10

Apo's Casting

Play Mastermind.mp3 by Taylor Swift

Once Twice upon a time, the planets and the fates And all the stars aligned You and I ended up in the same room At the same time

Okay if you didn't catch it on the first watch...

Mile, what the heck is that expression. 😂😂😂

Again, Apo was invited to go to casting specifically for Porsche and only for Porsche. Apo has never acted in a BL before going to audition for KPTS, so the question begged who invited him and why?

First of all, Mile has made it clear that he was a fan of Apo's acting work and followed his career after they met in the gym. He's also made it clear he had the world's biggest crush on Apo. Look how excited he was to talk about working with Apo and how handsome he thinks Apo is in January 2021 (like 3 months after they met again!)

If Mile was the preferential Kinn cast and he didn't have an pairing partner, it would make sense to ask him if there were any actors he thought he might work well with.

I'm not entirely convinced Mile engineered for Apo to get cast or anything. Apo's acting career and skills stand on their own and I think their insane screen chemistry speaks volumes about why they were cast. But as for who made the request to Apo's manager ... hm 😏 Maybe we'll find out one day.

Mile Phakphum - Mastermind.mp3 rumor credibility: 6/10

[discluded]

Congrats on getting Mileapo bingo! 🎉 I was just wondering - what does ‘boyfriend soft/hard launch’ mean? Thanks! 😅

OH THIS IS FUN

I think I posted about it a while back, but I never quite tagged for it, but this R29 article probably has the most succinct definition:

Soft launches are great if you’re not totally ready to shout about your new romance from the rooftops. "They’re a subtle way to show the world that you are no longer single or that you’re currently immersed in the dating process with someone," she says. "It’s almost a way to test the waters with that person too, about how you both would like to manage the snapshot of your relationship that shows up on social media." [src]

The term soft launch originates from marketing, wherein: "A soft launch, also known as a soft opening, is a preview release of a product or service to a limited audience prior to the general public." The marketing part is about the fact that it's there, but you have to stumble upon it more than a direct push to make people know about it. It's there but not actively being advertised.

Here's some more details about how people online typically "soft launch" their relationship:

Evie soft-launched her situationship by posting photos of her food and drinks while on dates with him. "I didn’t tag him or show his face," she says. Soft-launching also mirrors the excitement of these early stages of a relationship – because although soft launches appear nonchalant, there’s an air of mystery about them which makes them exhilarating, too.

This one is funny too.

The term “soft launch” initially went viral thanks to a since-deleted tweet from Bottoms actor Rachel Sennott. In 2020, she aptly described the social media trend when she wrote: “Congrats on the Instagram soft launch of ur boyfriend (pic on story, elbow and side profile only).” [src]

(ps - watch Bottoms, a high school comedy you've seen before, but this time gay!!!)

Apo originally led with these on his IGS from the Vogue Gala last year:

it's even more obvious in context here lol:

okay yeah yeah obviously we know this is Mile, but let's not take the fun out of it for them :P

But let's not forget this is a part of it too -- if they are. :) but part of the fun of the soft launch is that they don't have to commit to it.

Fear of public backlash is especially prevalent in queer relationships, according to Madeleine Ciano, a television program coordinator who identifies as bisexual. It’s hard enough with societal pressures, but the added layer of homophobia and bigotry raises the stakes, according to Ciano, especially when it calls your safety into question. Ciano explained that she didn’t hard launch her girlfriend, knowing that she would “open [herself] up to a lot of vitriol” on social media.

But these are more of the "hard launches" where they show up straight up with the entire face and looking so boyfie on social:

[discluded]

often I see people saying MileApo are different from other couples, do you mind to explain what makes them standout ? what makes their relationship special from others?

Hi, not to sound purposefully obtuse, but do you mean Thai BL actor pairings that promote together? I know "couple" is often what they call those too, but just trying to make sure you don't mean like, people who are dating or married. 'cause that I can't answer.

ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ coupla what durr hurr hurr

Thailand seems to have a film/media culture where there are actor pairings that often work together and those pairings are really well loved by the public in terms of their chemistry. This was an old Hollywood standard that doesn't happen as often anymore, but they still exist even in the west, for example, with Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler's work, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gossling already cast together on a Ocean's franchise movie, and also Ryan Gossling with Emma Stone.

One such popular Thai couple is Mario Maurer and Mai Davika whom Apo has both worked with before, and Mario one of Apo's good friends. They've appeared in a number of films and projects together, though they often do work separately as well. Like the aforementioned Hollywood pairings, Mario and Mai are are also openly dating other people. Apo is good friends with Mario's partner Junji too!

The QL/BL industry has taken this and set it up where often, successful partnerships will involve the pairing working together across multiple projects almost exclusively. The standards for getting into acting into a QL/BL project are also not very high, which contributes to the Thai general public's perception of the quality of work and the actors' skills among those who participate in BL projects.

As such, a lot of people who want to get into acting see doing BL as a stepping stone into a more "respected" acting career, such as doing lakhorns. Oftentimes, these pairings will work together for a few projects and then like, sometimes part on bad terms. Often times, if the first project is super successful, they might not even pair in the projects even if they're both in the series or show (See: BrightWin).

MileApo differ in terms of that because Apo started out as an lakhorn actor and was relatively acclaimed as an actor on a local level. He's appeared on magazine covers, both for the series he's starred in and solo prior to KinnPorsche.

For actors who achieved such the level of success they have in their first series, many similar actors would decide to part ways and pursue more "respected" roles/projects, like BrightWin have. Part of the reason there's so much toxicity and infighting between solos and couple fans is that has been the precedent set for among BL fans, and solos were expecting them to part ways as acting partners with their own projects.

In fact, I've read quite a number of not-so-nice tweets implying Mile was "relegating" himself to BL roles when he doesn't have to do "that kind" of project anymore. (ah the inherent homophobia of people choosing to consume BL shows... 😑)

So they're mostly different in that they're actively choosing to work together across multiple projects even when they have the opportunity to pursue solo projects given how famous their first project made them. Of course, none of us expect this to be forever since Mile will have to return full time to his sexy CEO job at some point... but the future isn't written in stone.

But yeah, toxic solos be big mad that Mile and Apo genuinely love and respect each other and want to continue working together despite having multiple options otherwise. LMFAO.

[discluded]

couple photo expectations...

vs. reality

well take it 😔emoji with the cowboy hat

Mileapo - 3 days in Seoul

March 13

Mile and Apo arrived at the airport dressed like cowboys

and took a flight to Seoul

March 14

Fans welcomed them at the Seoul airport

and then they disappeared for the entire day. Only mile posted pics of his day at night:

The first story is taken in a Ralph Lauren store.

They went (again) to a pet shop called Ggulggul. Mile posted the photo of a dog who is the same dog Apo took a pic with, back in october.

March 15

Finally Apo started posting too. From this moment till the end of the trip they posted many matching stories.

They went to eat dinner at a restaurant called "Saemaeul Restaurant". They took the same vid from their phones

but Pond is the only one who showed us their faces lol

As they were having dinner, Apo posted on IG a set of pics from the world tour and they both commented on it:

After dinner they took a walk

that probably made them hungry again ahah

March 16

Mile went to a guitar store, maybe alone

They went to a flower shop together🌸🌸🌸

met a dog that was so cute that they couldn't resist taking a pic :)

and then went to the exhibition of David Jimin. They took maaaaany pics. These are their matching stories:

I particularly loved this matching trio❤️:

The artist was flooded by notifs from both mileapo and fans so he started following them :)

After the exhibition they had to go to the airport but apparently they needed to make a run to the pharmacy first. Fans spotted them crossing the street:

Apo was carrying Mile's bag too and they seemed very happy (pls my heart)

PS. Mile posted a story of a concert in Bangkok of one of his favorite metal bands, that he missed because of the korea trip.

He commented about it on a tweet of a fan today (march 17):

"was so happy in korea too" awwwww.

Last pic (for now) of Mileapo sightseeing Seoul 😍:

Finally they went to the Seoul airport:

and safely landed in Bangkok :)

❤️

[discluded]

Not looking to dump on you about the state of fandoms in your inbox but the MA fandom is the most Kpop adjacent fandom I have ever been a part of that shares some similar characteristics. It has been really eye opening to see the power of trending and just how much the efforts of the fans really do pay off in the promotion of the celebrities and the opportunities they receive but IMO you have to have one fan buy enough tickets to account for half of the presale record the movie set it is genuinely a bit demoralizing. It's amazing that fans are super committed and there was clearly interest in the movie as half the presale tickets did come from genuine fans and the public but I sometimes fear that people are too focused on the numbers games. These actions show the passion that fans have for these celebs but a person's work and the results should speak for themselves. I mean fandoms are changing constantly so maybe this is the new normal but for someone who isn't used to it it's been a bit annoying trying to find out what the actual reception of the movie is amongst the general audiences and how well the movie is actually performing in the box office.

https://twitter.com/Pandababygirl2/status/1709397703736824259?t=_yF0NTDyS3VL7wK3Jj19vw&s=19

you're not wrong with that and you're not the first to have noticed this rapid shift and interest in Thai stars recently.

for example this article was published on HBSg (which has a very friendly relationship with mileapo thanks to Kenneth Goh) and resyndicated in other Sg media outlets in the last couple of months.

As for whether that's good or bad, I think you've hit the nail on the head that business as usual changes, and this appears to be a new business as usual.

I mean, western celebs are also taking advantage of this as well. Some more egregious than not. TSwift recently got called out by her own fans for one of these common kpop practices of releasing multiple album versions specifically to drive up sales (cough line her own pockets with fans' money).

(op has already deleted her account now as she said she would but I have it cached from earlier)

as far as I'm aware, this was also a ticket donation project so not just a single person buying tickets and leaving the seats empty, or the equiv of a single fan buying dozens of albums which they can't listen to.

I actually think this is a much better use of fan funds than some of the projects like the Time Square ad placement for Man Suang... which of course was useless because there was no international release date announced 🥲 you want your advertising dollars to go somewhere effective and this was pretty much an equivalent of throwing money into a river. (sorry to the FCs who ran this.. I understand how hard it was to organize things like this so I tried to avoid criticizing but the effort could've gone somewhere else...)

as for the "actual reception", it's actually a relatively new phenomenon that we're able to hear first hand the thoughts of common viewers on the film à la Rotten Tomatoes. historically, films relied on good critic reviews to drive foot traffic. I actually have so many negative opinions about forums like RT (which suffer from the same problems as film critics... ie who is frequenting the site) but that's for another time.

ultimately the one who controls your fandom experience is you, so if you don't want to engage at this level or see this kind of behavior, just remove these kinds of more extreme (passionate?) fans from your line of sight. As long as they're not hurting anyone, including themselves in a financial sense, I don't feel like it's appropriate to moralise on the best way to be a fan. these fandom spaces are predominantly female-occupied when male dominated fan spaces (see, sports and video games) are not subject to the same amount of scrutiny over the level of zeal.

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not the way the MC was hiding in the bushes filming them like Pond did in the pool scene 💀

the cameraception.... the videographer filming the MC filming mileapo 😂😂🤣

[discluded]

Oh Boy. When I said that last night and then proceeded to be a little shit this morning about What I Know, I was not exactly anticipating them to preempt me with even more obviousness.

Here's a recap for everyone else:

Two Chinese tourists posted this morning that they saw MA on their date at the temple yesterday, and it was only the two of them together. She shared a photo of Mile in the passenger seat and Apo driving, and confirmed multiple comments it was "Just the two of them."

link 1 / link 2

Supposedly the girls (1) didn't know who Mile and Apo were... but said (2) "they look uninterested in girls" and (3) "they're a couple, right?" (The tweets have the same translations, but I'm translating it for you right now and since they're not embedded in the screenshots I'm not gonna post the comments. Source: Dude, trust me™, I also read Chinese 🤣)

Also, I'm sorry, I just spent like 20 minutes laughing about this. WHEEZE

Okay, so supposing y'all read the industry plant article, I'll just summarize what I think is going on here.

Industry plants can also be "fan" accounts that sway the mood and direction of the fandom. They can create what appears to be "organic" hype and dissemination of information when it's specifically shared with the fandom by the PR team. Sometimes shared directly with these accounts. That isn't to say these accounts aren't real fans -- but that some of these fans have an actual In we might not know about.

And why is it important the origin is Weibo?

The thing is, they have a very large fanbase in China and on Weibo, probably larger than even on Twitter and they have a lot of movement power on Twitter as we saw by the KisFarger x MileApo event that reached 1 million tweets. As mentioned by the volume of conversation in Weibo in general, information spreads very quickly. Sometimes the origin is purposefully obscured (see the screencaps redacting the usernames).

In the first picture, it appears to be the tourist who spotted them confirming they were spotted together and only by themselves. In the second one, it appears to be specifically a new blog post sharing parts of private conversation where the OP tourist who posted the photo said they appear to be a couple and hypothesized they're disinterested in girls (lol).

This is all then shared quickly back to Twitter for one specific reason: Weibo is heavily monitored and censored by the Chinese government. Mirrors of Twitter users are oftentimes Weibo users who share just a fraction of what they see, and they're sharing it in case it gets deleted.

This creates the appearance of an "organic" spread of information, and works very very well in highly invested, high-volume, rapid information dissemination fandoms such as this one.

So who is the PR team here?

I'm going to say... it's not BOC. It's probably Mile's strategy. They might be using BOC resources to some extent because I don't think Mile has his own personal PR team and outsourcing another PR team would be stupid when they've got on one staff, but the strategy is way more competent than the level BOC's internal team has been working at. And that's where Mile the Journalism Major comes in. (More to come on that with What Happened After Phuket which will still not be shared until After Kalasin)

What's the goal here?

I'm uncomfortable speculating the final end point, but as I've mentioned to a couple of people now, it's escalating daily. I actually did not expect this level of escalation today because in some ways it's a bit... too obvious.

But I will say this now and then you can all come laugh at me if I'm wrong,

At least the next very obvious level of "escalation" that we can will see is that Mile and Apo are going to go Kalasin together before the month is over and they leave for other countries on their world tour. This makes sense -- Mile will want to spend time with his family before they're super busy for work, and he's already said he wants Apo to come home with him if they have the chance. They'll post pictures from some of the tourists spots together. That's why the fans pointed out they were shopping for women's clothing yesterday at the mall.

At this point, I'm about 50% sure the question that got asked two weeks ago at the MileApo x Farger event about Mile taking Apo back to his hometown was intentionally seeded.

I want them to come out!

🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️ So I've gotten remarks to this effect over the last couple of days, so let me just put this out there: MileApo being able to be honest about who they are and who they love in public is not about you. Their lives are not entertainment for us. They are out there living honestly and allowing us to share in their happiness. But It's not about any of us. It's about only Mile and Apo.

As for what "out" means for any queer person, please see this interview with renowned gay rights activist and Ian McKellan from 2010:

Well, speaking personally I think it isn’t always enough to come out and say you’re gay, and be happy about saying you’re gay, and expect other people to accept you as you are. As long as there’s one person in the world who you couldn’t openly talk to about [it], you’re still, in a sense, closeted. You have to absolutely eradicate any inhibition which would stop you being honest. I’m not absolutely convinced that all people who think they are out have actually done that. And even to this day, if I’m in a taxi — and English taxi drivers like to talk — if they ask me about my supposed grandchildren, or my wife or something, sometimes I decide not to have that conversation. And I edit what I say. Even I feel that I am not absolutely, completely, totally out, because there are situations when I decide to be discreet. However, there are situations a gay person might find themselves in where it would be dangerous to say that they were gay. So I don’t know. Until you can totally stand resolutely on your own two feet, and be brave enough to do that, then you can’t get on with the business of changing the world.