perhaps slightly influenced by how stacy is older than joe, but while naim feels very naive—approaching intimacy with a clumsiness in a way that makes it clear he's never dared before—so many of ryan's scenes have him seeming so jaded. he's scared of the entity obviously, but there's this weariness to his terror, a beat-down habituation to all the violence and fear that comes with acting on his desires. ryan has been in this everybody-knows-everybody small town and suffocating church long before naim got there, and likely came to understand his queerness at the same time he was taught it condemned him to hell. the only indulgence of his queer desires he can get is a brutally abusive relationship with the pastor's son, someone in complete denial about who he is and who offers ryan no real companionship.
idk just . ryan is so strikingly mature in contrast to naim and hunter. he knows queerness isn't something that will go away, and understands the sort of life they will live because of it. maybe that's why he finds himself irrevocably enamoured by naim's tenderness and wide-eyed innocence. ryan likes naim because unlike with hunter, outside pressures haven't yet poisoned naim's capacity for gentleness. naim is a ray of light in the dreary sameness of ryan's life in bandee; where he's stuck upholding a masculine facade to fit in with the boys at school who he doesn't actually like, and to appease a community who would shun him if they knew who he actually was. ryan's character arc is harder to grasp since we don't get his pov, but if i had to put forward my interpretation, i would say that while naim's arc is about accepting the unchangable reality of being queer and fear that comes with it, ryan's is rejecting the idea he deserves violence and learning to let go of the place he was raised in.
despite how much focus is put on the boys love for each other, i think people forget ryan effectively abandons naim at the end of the film. i don't think he does this because learning naim outed him killed his feelings, but because naim never telling him is the final slap in ryan's face that confirms naim will always be ruled by his fear. hunter went to his death denying who he was, and ryan cannot bear to bleed for naim knowing that he will always let fear of outsider's judgement dictate whether he reaches for ryan's outstretched hand.
but when naim finds ryan at the bus stop bruised, exhausted, and fearful, ryan forgives him without the need for an apology. because naim crossing the road symbolises what ryan has needed from him this entire time—for naim to accept that queerness comes with risk, and not let it prevent him from having a relationship with ryan. naim's tired smile at the bus stop matches the weariness i felt from ryan the entire time. naim understands now what it means to be queer in a society that hates them for it, and now he stands before ryan and answers "please tell me it's really you" with a simple nod. he never stopped being afraid, but he's finally not letting it dictate his relationship with ryan. he pillows his head on ryan's shoulder showing affection without ryan having to initiate, and closes his eyes because he doesn't care if the people on the bus are watching: he's accepted their reality. and ryan lets his eyes stay closed leans his face into the gentle touch because he trusts naim will stay: finally not alone.
