We LOVE this trope! We have been kicking and screaming over all the cute moments we are getting lately! There is something so intimate about noses. Sometimes it's an act of cuteness aggression. Other times, a precious expression of love. It can be a gentle reassurance. Or it can be a question... a first point of contact before proceeding to even more intimacy. We really don't care if it's touching, rubbing or kissing... it's so sweet and we can't get enough!!!

Duang With You inspired our last Trope Time post (Sleeping Kisses) and is back again with these precious Duang and Qin moments:

But before we could post this, we were gifted with adorable noses again by Tim and Pai in My Romance Scammer!

AND more with Arthit and Daotok!!!

SO MANY NOSES!!!!! So let's celebrate these delightful moments!

Like okay yes, Teh makes AWFUL decisions and I cannot justify any of it. He's awful to Oh'Aew. However, this is totally consistent with his characterization in ITSAY. Teh is deeply immature and insecure--that's his character! His actions are irreprehensible but they're so him. I don't understand why people said this series ruined his character. He's always been like this.

And this season also does wonders for Oh'Aew's character. Both seasons are undoubtably the Teh show (he's the main character no doubt) but I genuinely believe that IPYTM does an even better job of characterizing Oh'Aew outside of his relationship with Teh. We finally get to know who he is as a person. And he's deeply flawed too!! He's also immature and insecure but the difference with Oh'Aew is that he's trying to grow up and learn to be a better person.

I've only just finished episode 4 so my opinions could change over the next hour of television I guess, but as of now, I don't understand why everyone hated this series when it dropped.

I was tagged by @emotionallychargedtowel who laid out a lot of beautiful observations for the game @my-rose-tinted-glasses started with this post, including a great summary of the themes @porridgefeast pointed out out in her response to this ask game.

Here are the criteria Rose gave herself, for anyone who wants to follow along. The central idea is "a list of couples that I think have what it takes to make it in the long run." She ruled out couples that are portrayed in high school exclusively, couples that have already stayed together for a long time (e.g. Shiro and Kenji from What Did You Eat Yesterday?), and couples who could only be argued to belong on this list with a lot of extensive headcanon type action.

I've happily seen all of the couples I'd personally pick for this game come through my dash already, so I'm gonna break the rules a bit for my own fun.

Instead of picking the couples who I think have what it takes, I'm going to pick couples who I think would give us a compelling series as an established couple. I'm thinking about how heart-wrenching ATOTS's Phupha and Tian's story was when we revisited it in Our Skyy. I'm thinking about the adjustment Kongpob and Arthit undergo as the power dynamics reverse in the adult world of SOTUS S. I'm thinking about the couples that we want to see living together and still working through personal struggles well into their 40s and 50s like Shiro and Kenji in What Did You Eat Yesterday? Forgive me for letting some high-schoolers into the proceedings who fit the mold. Because I want to know which couples years down the line will still have an interesting story left to tell?

Kongpob and Arthit from SOTUS

It feels ridiculous to say a pair that's already had an established-couple sequel series still has more gas in their tank, but so much was left beautifully open-ended in SOTUS S and their Our Skyy episode. Call up writer Bittersweet; there is a meet-the-family story primed and ready in there! We saw neither come out to their parents, and so much has changed culturally in Thailand since we last saw them. But does that mean Arthit's been able to accept that the culture's changed? Arthit's rampant anxiety and stubbornness in contrast with Kongpob's romantic idealism is just such rich storytelling fuel.

Kit and Shane from Boys in Love

This is a couple I think would struggle in fantastically compelling ways, but they are nothing if not committed to working, however slow, to stay with the routine of their comfort person. At the end of the series, Kit had just given up a huge academic opportunity, and Shane's entire future had fallen apart. They just had each other. I want to see them in college or as adults: Kit's impulsivity tempted in more ~adult~ scenarios; Shane's rigidity and parental traumas creeping up at the worst moments; both of these neurodivergent boyfriends discovering the new challenges of workplaces. They have so much left to still figure out, but I also believe they've found a rare home in each other that they would come back to at the end of their struggles.

Gu Hai and Bai Luo Yin from Addicted

Screw censorship. Gu Hai is never letting Bai Luo Yin go, whether the latter likes it or not. That's a fact. Luckily, under the grumpy face and internalized homophobia, Luoyin does like it. And with all the class and corruption issues tucked into that dynamic, it's gonna be one hell of a relationship (with some fantastic sex). The question is not whether they stay together, nor whether it would be an interesting story. I'd only be desperately wondering if they're navigating the provincial Chinese economy toward a happy-ending or deeper into the belly of the beast. Maybe I should read the web-novel to find out where it actually takes them?

Teh and Oh-aew from ITSAY

They're so fucked up, y'all. They're so fucked up. I want to watch them fight every day when they're married and then quasi-make up because they're stuck in how good the sheer intensity of it feels. Maybe one day Teh could get his BPD diagnosis and medication, and then I won't need to watch they're beautiful trainwreck of a relationship anymore. But until then, I would be happily plopping my lawn chair out to watch these two Phuket stars trapped in each others' orbit.

Ae and Pete from Love By Chance

This is my slice-of-life vote. These two characters are so deeply gentle. I want to watch them buy groceries. Together they'd find something to smile about in the basil. They could visit with each others' lovely families, have dinner with their ridiculous friends, and have average jobs that tire them out but make them feel fulfilled. Then, they could come home and lie on each other's shoulders. There'd be some steam in this slice-of-life, too, cuz Ae would still be going wide-eyed and hard over how soft Pete's cheeks and lips well beyond when they are old and wrinkled. I could weep for years over these two simply loving each other as they go about their days.

CONFESSION! I know not everyone will agree with me about the following.

When Bua/Baabin and Chian/Fou4Mod get together in the end -- besides the issue of these four WONDERFUL characters not getting enough screen- and development time (which has been fully discussed in the tags, thank you fandom) to really close their stories as ripely as we wanted them to be closed,

I also thought to myself, we've seen this before, or at least, I've seen this before, in a Boss Naruebet Kuno show. What did I see that I thought I've seen before?

When I first watched Boss Kuno's I Told Sunset About You, I focused my meta on the amazing cultural framework of the show, the intermingling of the history of the environment with the show's characters. However, I spoke my truth on my feelings about the ending of ITSAY in my review of I Promised You The Moon, ITSAY's sequel, a show that was screenwritten and directed by another person (Meen Tossaphon) that wasn't Boss (who served as a producer for IPYTM).

In short, at the end of ITSAY: I could have very well seen Teh and Oh-aew not getting together. I loved Teh for the hotttttt mess that he was. I could have seen Oh-aew hold him very accountable for that hot mess action in ITSAY. It didn't happen in ITSAY -- but it did happen in IPYTM, when Oh-aew peaced tf out for a year before they got back together in their later adulthood, all because Teh remained messy, and Oh-aew had had fucking enough.

So, what I'm seeing in the tags is at least, Chian and Fou4mod didn't have to get together in the end for many fans to consider the show a success.

Between ITSAY and Gelboys, from a dramatic narrative perspective: I could go either way with an ending for Teh/Oh-aew and Chian/F4M either being together or not, as long as the dialogue could support an excellent accountability read on imperfect people.

However. From a purely emotional perspective,

Who the fuck am I to ask characters that are teenage boys to hold each other, and themselves, accountable to the feelings of someone else -- when they might not know how to *do* that kind of accountability?

I can't. First of all, I'm a mom! I have to model that behavior myself for my kids as I raise them, which, hello, I can be a mess, too, dur.

I've written in my past Gelboys meta that a huge theme of this show, for me, is nostalgia. The show places an emphasis on the point that despite environments and modes of communication changing over time -- that interactions of emotions between two people remain mostly the same throughout generations. I truly loved it when Bua told Baa,

That sentiment has remained universal throughout the advent of fuckin' cuneiform, the printing press, the telephone, e-mail, text messages, and AirDrops and TikTok likes. The little squeal that you make when the person you like gives you the moment of attention you need. That's been universal since our brains grew larger than walnuts.

In order for a person like Baabin to get there, to give the attention that Bua is wanting and demanding -- well, shit, that'll take work on Baabin that he might not know how to do, because he's a kid, too, like Bua. And I feel the same for Chian, and for Fou4mod, too.

These guys are confused, horny, in love, playing games, and using technology to dance around their crushes and their feelings. That shit is all messy, and that mess was captured perfectly in Gelboys, as it was in ITSAY, as only Boss Kuno knows how to capture it (and Meen in IPYTM, too).

From a dramatic perspective, Chian and Fou4mod could have not gotten together, and again, I think the show could have worked. But from an emotional perspective, Chian and Fou4mod do get together, and....do I call that a happy ending?

Not necessarily -- and I'm okay with that. Because Boss's past work, from ITSAY to IPYTM, showed that he himself is aware that humans continue to grow, past their teenagehood, into probably imperfect adults that will still make mistakes, because they are simply humans who will never actually be perfect.

That's what I'm taking from this finale of Gelboys. Like most of what others are saying in the tags: I believe the convictions of imperfections that I'm talking about, the chaotic intricacies of these characters, would have HUGELY benefitted from a couple more episodes.

I think there's a lot of emotional layering that we missed out on. I think I could have seen a lot more of Fou4mod with Faifa, and not only because I cheese on Paper Peerada everyday. I think Fou4mod making those mistakes with Faifa could have been elaborated for us to get a more in-depth look into his mindset when he was with her, and how the lessons he learned from fucking it up with Faifa turned into his ultimately trusting Chian in a relationship. I think that storyline was rushed, and we missed out on some key growth development from Fou4mod. I really also think we could have had so much more time with Chian and his growth, besides his growing out of love from Bua. I would have loved to spend more time with Chian in university, watching him grow and trust himself more.

But, what can you do. We got what we got, and ultimately? Despite my quibbles, I absolutely LOVED THIS SHOW, from beginning to end. This was a Series Y drama with a totally fresh approach, leveraging romantic nostalgia through the chaotic lens of modern technology, and I think Boss absolutely slam-dunked the risks he took to shoot the series the way he did. That weirdly-lit, frowsy, old-timey cinematography while Fou4mod and Baabin were in the nail salon to start the final episode? Crank up the gaslights, I absolutely love the way that scene looked.