#nuttui

So the announcement of Nut’s father passing happened right after I started writing and compiling this. I hope this doesn’t come off as tactless or rude. If anything, you’ll hopefully get to see the really strong positive bonds within LYKN and between Nut and Tui, who—dating or not—are wonderfully close friends. I know with this info, I felt glad Nut was with this particular group of people who will surely be helping him through the grieving process when the news came in. In fact, Nut was close by to support Tui, along with all of the LYKN parents at the funeral for Tui’s grandmother last year. I’ll just ask people’s forgiveness if this seems in poor taste to them at this moment.

But here are the deets:

LYKN are, as Tay says, “a group of chaos and happiness and not a group of drama.” Lots of skinship between all of them, and they do, in fact, all joob each other regularly and publicly (and here’s maybe Nut and Tui joobing at a rehearsal posted by a gmmtv crew member so we’re still within my guidelines of acceptability), so I wouldn’t blame anyone for missing what I see as the most likely pair within the group to be secretly dating…at least through the view in my rose-tinted shipping goggles.

Tui and Nut first met on Project Alpha, and clearly became fast friends as seen on the main show and the bts web series that accompanied it. The first time it was clear on the main stage was the episode Nut lost his throne among the alphas. He sobbed on stage 🥺 and went to join the other contestants who embraced him, including Tui who was sitting beside him and kept holding onto him well after. They then got slotted into the same group next and jumped for joy in each others arms (and completely slayed their next performance alongside Keen, winning Tui a chance at a throne). But they were posting content together throughout the competition, too, even though they didn’t work together until midway through the series. Here’s Nut talking about being Tui’s first close friend during Project Alpha’s filming as part of the promo for their big Impact arena concert

And in that above clip, you can see both Nut and Tui calling each other handsome, which happens A LOT—on stage, in comments, and in interviews. See the first impressions game that starts 7 minutes into this LYKN variety show where Tui describes his first impression of Nut as “insanely handsome. I’ve never met a guy this handsome in my life.” Nut gets defensive when others start teasing Tui and blurts out that he’s “the best looking in the group,” and describes him as sweet, chatty, someone who makes me feel comfortable, and adorable, blushing as he says the last one and all the other members start to giggle.

Obviously, winning and forming LYKN at the end of the show meant they stayed close, but early on after their formation one thing happened that, to me, provides the strongest evidence of a romantic nature to their relationship. Nut invited everyone into his family home for an episode of ArmShare (and if you want a good cry right now you can go watch it to see Nut’s dad telling him how proud he is of his son 🥹😭). The boys are clearly new to the media game and awkward for the first half before loosening up as the show goes on. Tui and Nut start engaging in more skinship with each other (than the others) as the episode goes on. Over the years, Arm and his producers have a knack for stirring the pot and spilling the gmmtv-insider tea for viewers paying attention. (This is the team that edited together a BookJu ship segment with hearts after all). The most interesting moment for Tui and Nut happened at 18 minutes in while going through Nut’s closet and shelves. Arm finds an infinity necklace which Nut explains was a birthday gift from Tui. When asked what it means, Tui says “a friendship that will never disappear,” before Hong and Nut both fold over with laughter. Very smooth. I appreciate that platonic relationships can be deep and loving, even more so in Thai culture, but I also appreciate that these are the first BL-adjacent boys I’ve seen givingeach other jewelry to commemorate their ‘friendship.’ Usually buying or exchanging jewelry is saved for CP fan-service. And Lego’s face when the gift was brought out suggests everyone in the room probably knows that as well…

And band mate reactions are a trend that continue to happen. Lego teasingly exposes them, like when Lego posted this photo of them hanging backstage while Nut worked on his Cays Room illustration project; or the time Lego shifted the gaze line at a performance around to put them together; or at a recent event where Lego talked about Nut and Tui sharing everything to help with diet and exercise…”even the chairs they sat on.” Meanwhile, William always tries and fails to hold back his smile when he clocks them showing affection.

But how do you really gauge intimacy in an industry culture for which you KNOW they are recommended to engage in skinship and potential shipping behaviors? Like I said, all the band does skinship and shows affection, but something about the TuiNut interactions feel at times more measured. Then, when less guarded, they can read as more intimate than some of the others, and sometimes less for show, like this moment in ThamePo where their hands linger together (more notable since that’s not really their characters’ vibe lol). Tui’s outstretched arm brushing Nut’s hair in the background while William and Nut are doing an interview is a perfect example of something more casually intimate that clearly isn’t being performed for the fans. For the Riser promo, starting around the 16 minute mark, during which everyone in frame seemed either exhausted, drunk, or maybe a bit of both, Tui and Nut stood to the side of the rest of the group under each others’ arms for nearly the whole segment.

Photo: Nut kissing Tui’s mom’s dog. Like I said, their interactions aren’t always your typical fan-service.

It’s that kind of behavior I like to think of as confidante behavior, often choosing to stay beside each other when given a choice and constantly checking in with each other instead of others through glances, even when across the group. A large chunk of the content in LYKN’s vlogs is Nut and Tui hanging out together, and that also happened at the RISER concertt rehearsals and starlympics.

Another sign of particular closeness is a bit of playful bickering and teasing—plentiful across all of LYKN’s members but the tininess of Nut and Tui’s can seem a bit more familiar than some of the other in-band bickering. And, in the case of Nut, who’s actually a pretty gentle and passive person despite his on-screen and stage personas, he can be quite happily resistant and loud toward Tui as seen toward the end of their Halloween video where everyone feeds Nut food until it gets to Tui. I take it as a sign of trust and comfort. There’s also Tui’s baby voice which seems to be specifically reserved for pouting directed at Nut. Nut even brought up a tiktok edit of Tui calling his name up on a show.

And I’m usually the last person to use gazing as a metric for dating rumors—people are allowed to look at other people! Especially when they’re talking!—but, just this once, the way that Nut looks at Tui in almost every setting actually feels like legitimate evidence. That also might just be because Nut just has an especially warm gaze tho lol. You can decide for yourself how you want to weigh it.

More legitimate as evidence is what I consider a classic couple behavior if you’ve read my other speculation posts: posting from the same location on near but different dates without obviously including one another in the pics. Nut and Tui do this constantly as you can see on instagram. Sometimes it’s while they’re on tour and/or you can find another LYKN member third-wheeling, but just as often, it’s just a regular old day with the two of them. And you can hear about their one-on-one time in interviews and vlogs too. Like, talking about beginning to run together or the time Nut mentioned splitting a Dubai chocolate shaped like a heart with Tui after a concert. And Nut has spoken openly about liking to go places (while on tour) with Tui because he “takes good photos,” which only makes me wonder how many more of Nuts’ photos was Tui the photographer? Like, for example, this photoset of Nut with a bouquet at a cafe posted on Valentine’s Day, captioned, “Like swans,” which I assume refers to the birds’ life-long monogamy…Did your favorite photographer come along for that pic, too, Nut? The one who gave you an infinity necklace to represent being together forever, perhaps???

Dating or not, you have to respect the deep and earnest connection between these two. Hong, around the 18:30 timestamp in the interview where Tui and Nut were calling each other the most handsome boy ever, describes Tui’s feelings towards Nut now as “the phi you’ve been waiting for your whole life.” After the LYKN Dusk Till Dawn concert, Tui wrote and published notes for each member, but the one for Nut was especially effusive and personal in comparison to the others more skill-focused messages (Compare to his notes for Hong, William, and Lego). “I just want to say you’re such an amazing person, truly incredible in everything you do. In my life I want to be an idol, a role model, someone admired and looked up to by others. And for me, you already are that person, without a doubt. You’re amazing, phi. Love you.” Nut’s was the only one that included that last phrase…Whatever they have going on, it’s love.

#LYKN: I got the best friends in this place