Asian Addicts Anonymous

Angst there may have been at times, but Thai drama 2gether was actually a breath of fresh air during the end of winter beginning of spring. Win and Bright had excellent chemistry as Tine and Sarawat and the supporting cast who played their friends also showed some great chemistry. I especially loved “Khaotung” Thanawat Rattanakitpaisan as Fong who was the voice of reason for Tine when he was really mixed up about his feelings. I enjoyed “Mike” Chinnarat Siriphongchwalit in Theory of Love as the playboy who falls for their teacher and liked him as one of Sarawat’s good friends who helped push Sarawat to reveal his true feelings to Tine. “Gunsmile” Chanagun Arpornsutinan is such a riot, but I think his randomness and going off script kept his parts even smaller.

2gether kind of throws a new twist on a sort of contract dating. Green, played by “Gun” Korawit Boonsri confesses to fellow freshman Tine, played by “Win” Metawin Opas-iamkajorn, out of the blue. This stuns Tine as he was hoping to find a romance with a woman, not a man, during his college years. His previous dating experiences all did not go well at all. Hence this is partly why Tine joined the cheerleading club for his faculty as here are more females to males. Tine tries all sorts of tactics, including pretending he’s still with one of his most recent ex-girlfriend’s, but nothing works. So…his friends advise him to get another guy to pretend he’s his boyfriend instead. Tine is reluctant at first, but to get Green off his case he decides to ask for help from one of the most desired men on campus Sarawat, played by “Bright” Vachirawit Chivaaree.

Sarawat is a cold, cool guy who is part of the music club and doesn’t give Tine the time of day, but after Tine tries his hardest to join the music club in order to get Sarawat to agree, he finally caves in and agrees to be Tine’s fake boyfriend. At first Sarawat maintains his cold and aloof attitude, but when Tine complains, he slowly starts trying to do what one would really do in when in a relationship.

While the main focus is on Sarawat and Tine, we do have side couples. They sadly, to me, don’t really have enough time to develop. While Man (played by Mike) bothers Type (played by Toptap Jirakit Kuariyakul) until Type and he become a couple…I kind of felt at the end of 2gether that they didn’t really have enough time for them to develop into the couple they become, but it wasn’t 100% unbelievable either. We also have Phukong (played by “Frank” Thanatsaran Samthonglai) who is Sarawat’s younger brother. He happens to fall for a senior at university named Mil (played by “Drake” Sattabut Laedeke). Of course, Mil only has eyes for Tine and poor Phukong ends up getting…not even friend zoned, but brother zoned by Mil by the end of the drama.

Towards the end of the series we learn the truth that Sarawat has had a crush on Tine since high school. He happened to literally bump into Tine at a Scrubb concert when they played at the very university where he and Tine are now studying. It was love at first site for Sarawat and he frantically went to every Scrubb concert he could in hopes of meeting Tine. He was over the moon when he finally ran into Tine the day that Tine asked to be his fake boyfriend. Of course, since Sarawat had real feelings for Tine, he didn’t want to get involved in a fake relationship with the guy of his dreams. You could see during the series, even before this big reveal (if you haven’t read the translation of the novel already of course) that Sarawat had sincere feelings for Tine and Tine was a dense idiot who had no idea he was really being hit on.

With anyone else, Sarawat was cold and didn’t really show any effort or care, but when it came to Tine he was 100% different. Sarawat’s affection eventually reaches Tine and he then must overcome the dilemma of his own feelings…plus the fact that Sarawat is guy, not a girl. So of course Tine needs time to figure out how he really feels. He also has a habit of jumping to conclusions, like when the girl Sarawat initially thought he had feelings for back in high school enters the picture and Tine begins to think he’s just a giant replacement for the girl when that wasn’t the case at all. Sarawat thought he liked her until he met Tine at the concert.

Music is a big part of this drama. And of course Scrubb songs (yes, Scrubb is a real Thai band). We get to see Bright serenade Tine and Tine, in turn, try his hardest to perform for the injured Bright. It’s really sweet and cute. What is interesting is Gun’s character of Green. He had a relationship with a senior who is also the head of the music club, Dim (played by “Guy” Sivakorn Lertchoochot). Him going after Tine wasn’t really him being sincere towards Tine, which is almost hard to believe when you saw his total obsession of going after Tine. He was on the rebound since he had a fight with Dim and the two broke up. Of course, Sarwat was aware of this the entire time which made Tine upset, obviously, when he found out.

But in the grand scheme of things…it really wasn’t one of those creepy things in the realm of Well Intended Love. Where the leading man does stalkerish things behind the back of the woman he loved in order to win her and protect her. And while the backstory sounds complicated and we also have Mil in there as an antagonist, the drama was pretty straight forward. I actually rewatched all the episodes while waiting for the new ones to air. There was just something magical about this drama. The acting was mostly perfect and Bright really did a great job of showcasing the two very different sides of Sarawat – his stoic, cold appearance with everyone else and his adorably flirty appearance with Tine later.

There are only 13 episodes and you can catch them all with English subtitles on GMM TV’s YouTube Channel. I highly recommend this drama. It is probably my favorite of the year followed closely by Lost Romance and Go Ahead. In spite of the angsty parts and mostly Tine being an idiot, this was not a drama that made me super frustrated or drove me up the wall. It seemed to be well-paced and it really was a joy to watch Tine and Sarawat’s blossoming love and relationship. They had a short follow-up drama later this year called Still 2gether where you can see what happens to these characters after being together officially for a year.

Kudos to Gun for portraying the over-the-top Green. He really did an excellent job. I think I first saw Gun in the first installment of GMM’s Ugly Duckling series and I liked him. It would be cool if he, like Khaotung has now, can get a full leading role because he really is a versatile actor. He can do this over-the-top comedy, but you can also see his emotional acting and he can do serious, too. He and Guy as the always bickering couple was a riot (you’d see this more in Still 2gether).

For once we kind of broke out of Engineering faculty in BL dramas. In those dramas, you know the gear has a special meaning. For 2gether the big item was Sarawat giving his uniform to Tine to show they are indeed a couple. Also, on Sarawat’s actual jersey he uses for playing, the words on the back actually reference Tine! Yep, he had it bad, lol.

I also liked how this was a refreshing love story which depicted a more healthy relationship than you can necessarily see in BL dramas. I mean…I am guilty of watching Tharn Type, but I will also admit that Tharn and Type’s relationship wasn’t the healthiest at all and if you’re honest, even though Type did have a bad incident in his past…he was an awful jerk. This also isn’t heavy in sex scenes, either. You get a few kisses, but just a lot more content than that and I honestly don’t think this drama suffered from NOT having such scenes in it. Again, it was a breath of fresh air. It really was.

Bright has actually been acting for years now, but this drama really shot him into the limelight. Win is a baby actor, but did such a great job. He had some weak moments, but overall, he did an amazing job in his first series and in a leading role to boot! He and Bright will be starring in a Thai version of Boys Over Flowers coming in 2021 if you want to see them act together again. I am curious…will they follow the actual Japanese comic series or will they play off the Korean drama? They love to remake Korean dramas in Thailand…and their own dramas as well, too.

Enjoy this great love story and don’t forget to look at BTS and interviews with Bright and Win.