Ilka

double points if they don't even plan to do it. they decide to soft launch via no longer actively hiding their relationship, just slowly acting more like a couple around other people. they're both at some event and ilya finds shane and just wraps his arm across his shoulders, which maybe that could just be ilya being ilya, but then shane just leans into it? like this is fine and normal? and when someone questions it shane panics and is just like "why wouldn't i? he's my boyfriend" and whoever they're talking to is like "what? since when?" and ilya is immediately onboard with this game "since 2017."

they just keep doubling down "you don't remember me sneaking out to go visit him every time we played in boston? you were all chirping me about it."

"wait, did you two drive here together?" "why would we take separate cars, we live together?" "you WHAT?"

when someone thinks they're joking they bring up the group chat with shane's parents, ilya scrolls back to a text where yuna calls him her favorite son. they bring up a video clip jackie sent of the twins saying "we love you uncle ilya!" shane brings up his thread with svetlana where she sends him russian words and phrases she thinks he should know.

they quickly enlist everyone who already knew, get them all onboard to pretend like their relationship wasn't ever top secret information. shane posts a picture of him with anya, when someone comments "that looks just like ilya rozanov's dog?" he just replies "yeah, we adopted her several months ago" and ilya replies "love our daughter ❤️"

#hey hey hey hey (affectionate)

Boring, you know, when Ilya calls Shane boring, he's saying he's in love with him. And he's not boring, Ilya is endlessly fascinated by Shane. And the only way he can communicate that is by making fun of him and calling him boring because anything else would rip his soul out through his face. - Jacob Tierney

I remember being at the monitor and my intimacy coordinator and producer were like, “Is that kiss too sweet?” I remember just being like, “I don’t care. It’s so good. It’s sweet. I want it to exist.” It wasn’t scripted that way, but at the same time it was Episode 2 so there had to be hesitation. But I was like, “I love it. I just want to watch them kiss each other.” When Ilya takes his hoodie [from Shane], they just had it.