#HOWEVER FEEL SORRY FOR JENG

[scrumptiousstuffs]

Do you think cat for cash is gonna be angsty or just fluff and romance? Also I read that the director doesn't do nc scenes, do you think it will have any?

Anon dearest, there has not been a FKT show (whether together or solo) that I have not shed tears 😭 because of them (except maybe Fong from 2gether) - even Blacklist (which in all account is an okish series, I still felt bad for Khaotung’s character (Joe), especially when the crew decided to interrogate torture him). The recent KT cameo as Phi Jeng from STGD?? - I cried 😭☹️….his heartfelt scenes with Jay/Jway were just heartbreaking.

And let’s not forget First’s cameo/side role in F4: Thailand. Did I watched it? - no (cause I watched both Japan and Korean versions, and let’s just say I’m so so tired of the cliche rich bully falling in love with the main girl storyline). However, it did not stop me from having my heart breaking into pieces whenever I see Phupha’s clips (or gifs) on social media - with his sad, bruised face as he got bullied and nobody helped him.

Even when it was supposed to be comedic cameo like Alone/Kaitong in OLTH, I still felt a twinge in my heart when I saw Kaitong hugging Alone tightly on that hospital bed.

Plus - these 2 are the prettiest criers from GMMTV (I will fight anyone who says otherwise) - so, you can bet the director(s) who employed them will utilise them to the max. As one tumblr user said (I forgot who), these 2 men make us feel so sorry for them even when we knew they brought the problem into themselves and deserved it (I think said user was talking about Ray self-destructive tendencies).

So, after all my spill above - I am almost certain we will be getting a mixture of angst/hurt comfort with fluff/romance and some comedy as well with Cat For Cash.

Angst/hurt from Lynx and his brother (Leo), likely lots of miscommunication. And remember, he lost his mom - so trying to deal with the grief and moving on!

Comedy from Tiger communicating with the fluffy cats (and Lynx probably not understanding the situation) 😂

Fluff and romance? - oh yes! I’m expecting slow, besotted smiles and meaningful gazes from these 2 (bonus if I can have soft kisses underneath the rain, pretty please! 🥺). Or just them cuddling with cats (heaven!!!!!)

As for NC scenes….well, the first 2 series he directed featured Gem/Fourth in high school settings. So, I’m not surprised it’s tame on the “heavy NC” scenes. (I’ll be curious to see once Gem4th grow up a bit how they will handle those high heat NC scenes, if they choose to pursue them!)

OLTH actually did have some NC moments, and while it’s not as “explicit” as Jojo’s series, the series itself doesn’t call for that.

People also seem to forget he is the assistant director to P’ Aof who gave us well-thought out NC scenes in MLC, ATOTS etc.

So, I don’t think we should worry about CFC not having NC scenes - but more, what are we as fans expecting those scenes to be (cause if you are thinking in the direction of THK - likely not). Contrast to let say The Eclipse - AkkAye who at the end of episode 12 has one of the softest ‘first time’ NC scenes - then, I reckon we will get at least something similar/just as soft.

I’m also certain we are getting amazing kisses 🫣 (cause what’s the point of casting FKT who kisses so beautifully otherwise).

16/06/2025

(They were so breathtaking during the Shabushi that I had to put up more pictures)

See me proven wrong - and Tiger/Lynx being the freakish out of all the boys characters 🤸

[miss0atae]

Random Thoughts about High School Frenemy (EP 5 - 6):

I'm so obsessed with this show right now. I know I could get all my answers by watching the OG version, but I don't care about the OG version. I care more about this version of the characters.

Usually, I get annoyed when a situation gets drag on for too long. I feel like it makes no sense to spend too many episodes on a conflict between two characters. However, here, I'm fascinated by the love-hate relationship between Shin and Saint, especially as it is quite obvious for us viewers that the hate part isn't that big. Shin always declares that he hates Saint and he would never forgive him. Yet, there is a longing in his eyes where you can see how much he would like to start again. I'm impressed by how Saint never let any rebuff stopping him from saying how much he misses Shin and how much he loves him or how much he wants to be his friend again. The bromance is high here (so BL-coded and so sad it's not a BL too).

Unfortunately, what Saint did, certainly changed the course of Shin's life and he can't let go of the grudge. Obviously, what happened (even if we haven't seen it yet) must have been terrible to destroy their tight bond. However, many characters have already said to Shin that holding this hatred of the past will never give him peace. It will keep him bitter and sad. Forgiving Saint wouldn't mean that he would forget what happened. Forgetting is not and never was a required outcome of forgiveness. They will probably never return to what was their relationship before the "incident", but Shin should be able to rebuild trust and safety.

I feel like Shin's life is stuck or frozen in time from this "incident" time. Since then, he hasn't really been able to grow. He made new friends in his school and he still defends the same values, but he hasn't been able to heal from his "incident". He also has to suffer from the reputation of the Tsunami, a name he took for himself, despite not being his, at first. Jeng, because of everything that is associated with this nickname and what Shin did to save Chatjen, put his resentment and sadness over the death of his brother on Shin (even though he is not responsible and Jeng should have been a better brother). Jeng isn't a normal person, he is part of a violent gang. This violence can get to Shin in various forms and it must not help him have a positive view on his life. It just reinforces the idea that nothing will ever be good since Saint has been responsible for his legs' injuries and changed his life.

Now, most people know about the supposedly murder he did. Even if some are defending Shin such as Chatjen or Saint, no one really listen to them or believe in the truth. The school board, apart from Sung and Jan, are set on expelling Shin to make an example. However, we've seen from the beginning that they are so unprofessional and incapable of finding a real solution to the violence between Udon Phithak and Thep Burapha. I wasn't expecting them to actually think properly, this time either. This new threat in Shin's life will not help him be able to heal from the past. It will just convince him that things are ineluctable because he can't change anything and everything has been terrible since Saint's actions towards him. I hope the teachers and his friends will help him.

I didn't expect Sung to have a deeper role and to be partly behind the main conflict that still opposes Udon Phithak and Thep Burapha. You see how much he wants to correct his "mistakes" (sorry I couldn't find a better way of saying it) and that's probably why he became a teacher. However, this past guilt is still present in his life. He may be the metaphor of the idea that there’s No Such Thing as “Forgive and Forget”, but to heal you must forgive yourself to be able to live and do better. Memory plays a key role in supporting and managing relationships or your actions.

Two other characters made a great impression on me in these episodes. Of course we have Chatjen who has always been a positive force in this story. He is really trying his best for Shin and he is a very good friend to him. He is also supporting Saint so he can mend his relationship with Shin. Let's not forget that this character is as remarkable as he is because he is being played by Mark Pakin. The second character, I really like is Ken. I know he is supposed to be a bad guy, but I feel so much pity for him. I feel like he is the victim of his environment. You can see how much he hates following Jeng's orders. He also fears him and he doesn't know how to escape the hold Jeng has on him. I really hope he will get his redemption and that he'll find a way of escape.

I could say so much more about this series, but it'll be too long. I already can't wait to see the next episodes.

[bl-bam-beyond]

TRISANU SORANUN

[Nickname: MAN]

[sunshinechay]

If we keep with the Pride and Prejudice parallels, this episode really cemented for that Put is the closest thing we’re going to get to Mr Wickham. I’m not here to say he’s as awful as Wickham or an irredeemable a-hole or anything like that. Ultimately, Put is a much more sympathetic character…at least so far and I’m hoping it stays that way as I really don’t think the show needs that kind of angsts and drama when it has enough already.

What I mean by this is that, in the original Pride and Prejudice, Darcy and Wickham served partly as parallels and partly as foils. They are both men with similar backgrounds that come from respectable families (Wickham’s family wasn’t gentry but it is still made obvious that Mr Wickham senior was a good man who worked well and honourably, much like Mr Darcy senior). However, they went on wildly different paths due to their very different personalities.

Darcy is awkward and quiet but underneath that is a man who treats his people well, is honourable about all things and above all, learns from what Lizzie has to tell him. While Wickham is charming and friendly, he is ultimately a man who is completely out for himself with very little regard for anyone who might be hurt or suffer in the pursuit of him getting what he wants.

Most importantly, both feed into the narrative that being prejudice for or against someone can be very bad. Again, Wickham is presented as charming and friendly, someone Lizzie gets on well with almost immediately, while Darcy is almost the exact opposite. He and Lizze butt heads almost immediately due to their differences in lived experience and world view. Wickham’s charm hide his insidious nature, while Darcy’s awkwardness hinders his ability to relate to other people and often renders him as that guy at a party that others tolerate because he is rich and they don’t want to be on the outs with the rich guy.

How does all this connect to Step by Step…well, Jeng and Put basically are these two archetypes. Jeng is that awkward guy that people tolerate because he’s rich (the son of the company president, the one you don’t want to piss off if you want to have success) who is ultimately a good person, who wants to continue learning how to be a better person while Put is the charming and friendly guy that everyone loves but isn’t all that he appears to be.

To reiterate, I’m not saying Put is a bad person, or a bad character. He is a much better person than Wickham, that much has already been shown. He genuinely cares about Pat, but ultimately he is not going to win the battle for Pat’s heart, because while he loves Pat and wants to be with him, he doesn’t want to be with Pat at the same time. He wants Pat, but he wants the idealized version of Pat that he spend the years since their breakup pining over. But that isn’t the Pat that exists today. I find it very interesting that much of flashbacks we’ve seen of their relationship, have been on Put’s end. They’ve been obviously rose tinted from the beginning and present a version of Put to the audience that looks like he is just a guy who loves Pat and wants to get back with him and who is sorry for what he has done in the past to cause their break up (you know, the part where he ghosted Pat).

One only needs to look at his initial interacts with Pat after Pat comes back to Thailand and they meet again. He is so focused on Pat and their past that he can’t seem to see that he is making Pat uncomfortable. Or at least, if he does notice, he doesn’t care. He shows up at Pat’s apartment, possibly drunk and proceeds to ask questions that are definitely not his business (asking who Pat got a ride home with and seems upset that Pat would accept a ride from another man). He ignores Pat’s feelings at almost every possible turn until Pat has to almost yell at him to stop because it’s making him uncomfortable and he’s trying to do his job…and then once again asks him on a date.

This episode just kind of made it all worse. Even if we didn’t have the scene with Jeng to parallel, his reaction to Pat making him dinner is lacklustre to say the least. He almost completely ignores Pat for most of the evening, too concerned with his job (I’m not saying his being concerned about his job is a bad thing, it’s not). I get the feeling that his being so concerned with his job was a major issue in their relationship in past. One that Pat never had the confidence to bring up, and probably still doesn’t. Pat seems like he has just accepted that this comes with a relationship with Put. He is always going to have to put his job before Pat.

The longer time goes on, the less likeable he becomes. He clearly cares for Pat and isn’t a bad person, but it’s becoming more and more obvious that he also clearly hasn’t thought about all of the ways their relationship likely wasn’t working before. Pat’s first impression of him before ended up not working out for him. His first impression this time seems to be working out even worse. Has Put changed? Yes. Has he changed for the better? I’m not so sure about that.

This is all made even more interesting when I think about it in the context of the broader message the show is trying to make about the BL industry as a whole. So often, actors have to act a certain way in public. They have to be a nice, more charismatic, open and personable version of themselves. They have to hide their flaws and only showcase the good things about them. Any time Put is shown to be around people who are not in his private life, Put acts exactly like that. He is more friendly, more open, more charming, more everything. In private, it is not like he isn’t still those things, but he has also been shown to be selfish, manipulative, smug and even uncaring (or at the very least, unobservate about the feelings of others, especially Pat). None of these traits make him a bad person, not even all of them together. But they do make for a person who is very different from the way he acts on a stage, so to speak. It also speaks to his emotionally immaturity. Self admittedly Put broke up with Pat because he needed to come to terms with a lot of things about who he was as it related to job and how some part of him are incompatible with his chosen profession. The part I don’t think he spent nearly as much on, is the emotional maturity required order to have the kind of relationship that Pat wanted to have with him.

One of this shows central thesis’s seems to be (to me at least) that the way a person presents themselves in public is not the full story, especially for a BL actor (I mean, most of them are straight guys who are being paid to pretend to be with their screen partner, both on and off screen in some cases). In Pride and Prejudice, besides Darcy, Wickham is the most obvious example of this. His first impression is fantastic and his initial relationship with Lizzie one of ease and that of two people of a similar mind getting to know each other, even if Lizzie never truly considers him a suitor. As the novel goes on, this impression gets worse and worse until it is ruined beyond repair, when Wickham convinces Lydia to run away with him. The same looks like it’s happening with Put. While his initial impression to the audience isn’t a great one, through the tiny POVs we get from him, we see that he is not a bad person. He is sad and heart broken and utterly aware that he has no one but himself to blame for feeling that way. He is overall, a sympathetic character that the audience can root for, as any good second lead love interest should be. As time as gone on, we are seeing more and more of the unflattering character traits that he has. We are seeing more and more the reasons why him and Pat wouldn’t have worked in the long run, even if they hadn’t broken up before.

In fairness to Put though, the show clearly doesn’t want anyone to be overly invested in his relationship with Pat, since it tells us from the get go (the pilot trailer) that this show is, at it’s core, the love story of Pat and Jeng. One can only hope they don’t have Put completely crash and burn and become utterly irredeemable like Wickham is by the end of Pride and Prejudice. If they did that, I definitely feel like it would be a disservice to both the character and the message the show is trying to send.