Bed Friend – Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review

The Rules of the Tryst

Episode 3 of Bed Friend starts with Uea and King jumping right into a friends-with-benefit situation. Uea makes a list of rules they should observe in their new relationship. He wants their relationship to be purely sex, no one in the office can know and a few other things that King agrees to.

King is not really in a position to negotiate too much but he is okay with Uea taking charge. Another important rule for them is that they cannot sleep with anyone else while in their “relationship.” With the rules settled on, they get busy and for the most part, things go well. They spend at least three nights together and start getting along much better.

One day, Uea gets messages from his mom after he declines her call. His mom wants him to come home over the weekend but Uea doesn’t want to go home. He has traumatic memories of his mom locking him up as punishment for being gay. Home is not a place he feels safe at.

King notices the message and unknowingly encourages him to go home. However, Uea tells him he has not been home for a long time and he has no intentions of going. King notices that Uea isn’t okay but Uea changes the topic and invites him to his place later that night.

At his place, King tries to help Uea dry his hair. He softly kisses Uea’s neck as a sweet gesture between lovers but that triggers Uea. It reminds him of his uncle doing the same thing to him when he was a child. His uncle Som molested him when he was a child. King is shocked by Uea’s reaction when he suddenly jumps from him and asks what he is doing. He apologizes to Uea and promises not to do things he doesn’t like.

Uea is still traumatised by his past. He was raised by a homophobic mom, got molested by his uncle and his mom is still a pain in his life. It is a lot for anyone to deal with. Especially, if you couple it with a cheating ex-boyfriend who is harassing him.

The next morning, King offers a drink to Uea as an apology and Jade assumes that King did something wrong again. At this point, Jade is in serious denial or he needs better glasses. How is he not seeing these interactions as strange? There is also the possibility he is playing dumb because he wants his two best friends to date.

Later that night, King calls Uea and informs him he is going for a few drinks with Gun. Uea acts like the call is a bother but he is happy that King called to wish him goodnight and update him about his night plans. As Uea rests at home, he gets another message from someone asking him to reply or the other party will come to him. It is unclear if the message is from his mom or Pock.

At the club, King and Gun have some drinks but Gun is having a hard time flirting with girls. King, however, is laid back and turns down advances.  King offers to help Gun and asks what his type is. Gun, without hesitation names Uea as someone who fits his type since he is cute. King is not pleased to hear this and tells him he is crossing the line.

The following day at the office, Uea reads King’s late-night messages detailing when he returned home. Uea replies that he already knew since Gun informed him. At the same time, Gun arrives  and starts preparing some coffee to nurse his hangover.  He accidentally gets something in his eye and Uea offers to help. King sees this and forcefully drags Uea away to speak to him privately.

King remembers what Gun told him at the club so he feels insecure.  He tells Uea that he is jealous. Uea is taken by surprise and reminds King that he has never taken anyone seriously. He warns King not to say those words to him.  King gets angry and leaves.

Still at the office, Jade is dealing with Mongkol’s incompetence as he makes them work overtime. Uea wants to report Mongkol but Jade stops him, Jade is scared to say anything.

Before leaving the office, Uea and King run into each other in the toilet. King is still angry and is avoiding Uea. However, he folds once Uea invites him to his place later that night.

King takes him up on the offer and they head home where they have steamy sex. King asks Uea why he agreed to be his sex partner and Uea responds that he is trying to run away from his life. He figures he has nothing good going on in his life he might as well complicate it further by sleeping with a colleague. King asks him to let him be the good thing in his life.  Uea thinks King is joking and they end up having sex again.

The following morning, Pock attacks Uea while parking his car at work. He is refusing to accept the break-up and is harassing Uea. The audacity of this man! Luckily, Jade steps in and calls security to help Uea. Uea also threatens Pock with his dad. It turns out that Pock’s dad is a well-known politician.

At the office, Jade and Gun comfort Uea and King overhears what happened. He suggests they report Pock to the police but Uea insists that the matter is handled. He thinks Pock won’t show up again after he threatened him using his dad.

Later, King comforts Uea and asks him to move to his apartment for the time being. He is worried that Pock will attack Uea at home. Before Uea can respond, Gun summons King back to the office saying it is urgent.

Night rolls by and Uea and King, head to their home separately. Later, they text and King asks for permission to video call. Uea says no but still picks up the call. They have a fun video call and wish each other goodnight.

The next evening, Mongkol leaves work early again and soon the other people leave too. Uea wants to wait for King to wrap up his work but King tells him it is okay. He assures him that he should go home first and rest. As Uea makes his way to the parking lot, he is attacked by Pock. Pock pins him on the backseat and mocks him saying that no one can help him. Uea tries his best to fight him off.

The Episode Review

This episode was an emotional rollercoaster, to say the least. One minute we were smiling, the next we were cursing at Uea’s mom and Pock. And then, we also found ourselves smiling and blushing every time King and Uea were together.

This episode was triggering and Uea has been through a lot. What his uncle did to him is a crime and traumatic. This is one of the reasons Uea has a hard time trusting anyone. His mom hurt him and hated the fact he is gay, while his uncle sexually abused him when he was a child.

These were people who were supposed to protect him and they hurt him the most. They gave him deep wounds that even time has not helped him heal. It is a good thing he is trying to cut them off. It is also infuriating that Pock is repeating the same cycle of abuse.

This episode was really hard to watch but James did a great job portraying the character of Uea.