We Are (Thai BL) -Episode 1 Recap & Review

 Phum’s Contract

Episode 1 of the GMMTV Boy Love Series We Are starts with Pheem finishing his painting and heading to the art gallery to turn it in for the upcoming showcase. Meanwhile, Phum is playing football and kicks the ball off the field, destroying Pheem’s painting. Instead of apologising, Phum starts yelling at Pheem to pass him the ball, which leads to a confrontation between them. Pheem then kicks Phum in his private parts, leaving him groaning as he takes his ruined painting and runs off. 

The scene then goes to a day earlier before the confrontation. Pheem is a second-year fine art student, and his friends are clamped up in the art room since they pulled an all-nighter to finish assignments. Fai brings them breakfast and takes time to appreciate the class’s masterpiece from the Maestro student, Q, asleep on the floor. Later, the class presents their work to the professor, and as expected, Q gets an A while Pheem is excited, and he gets a C because he will not have to repeat the assignment. Before the lesson ended, the professor reminded them about the art gallery. 

Q flaunts his A after class and excuses himself to check on his junior and help him edit instead of helping Pheem set up for the art gallery showcase. Q’s mentee is Toey, who is finishing an assignment with his classmates and friend Matthew. While Q is teaching him about shading, Toey’s eyes are focused on Q instead of the drawing paper, which shows that Toey has deeper feelings for Q than just a mentor-mentee relationship. 

Elsewhere, the engineering students Phum, Mick, and Beer are in class, and Phum receives a message on his phone. He leans into Beer and tells him that he has to pick up his brother, Khaofang. After the lesson, Beer reminded him that they had to play football, and he said he would meet him after dropping Khaofang off at home. 

At the art gallery showroom, Q confronts Pheem for being a people pleaser who prioritises helping others instead of finishing his work first. A senior asks them to take some art pieces outside, and they run into their friend Tan, who invites them out for a drink since he has something to tell them. Tan then runs into Phum and excitedly asks about his brother Khaofang when he says he is picking him up. He invites him to drink at Ueai’s bar but turns him down. 

At Ueai’s bar, Pheem is the first to arrive, and he has small talk with Ueai before Tan, Chain, and Pun arrive. Pun is wearing pyjamas since he did not want to be at the bar that night. Q joins them after his singing set, and the high school friends, who are now in the same university, get extremely drunk. 

The following morning, Chain wakes Tan and Pun to prepare for their classes. Tan joins his school friends Phum, Beer, and Mick at the engineering building. He invites them to play football after school and subtly asks Phum about his brother Khaofang. We learn that Khaofang is an architecture student with a busy workload, making hanging out impossible. 

The next scene leads us back to the opening scene. Pheem finishes his painting and gets a call from Q asking him to hurry up since the seniors will not accept this painting past six. Meanwhile, Tan’s friend asks him to get to the field, and Phum hits Pheem’s painting with the ball and starts shouting at him to pass back. Pheem angrily throws his sandal at Phum, and the two start a confrontation. Tan tries to calm them down, but they force him to pick a side. Beer and Mick join them, but Phum is still unwilling to apologise, which leads to a kick in the nuts. 

At home, Khaofang makes fun of Phum when he asks for his help getting back at Pheem, but he eventually agrees to help. Khaofang mentions their father visiting the following week, and Phum seems unbothered. He does not allow Khaofang to tell him anything more about the visit. 

At school the following day, Beer tells Tan that Phum went to the hospital for a checkup, but he mentions that Phum might be angry not because of the pain but because of the embarrassment. He advises Tan to tell Pheem to watch out. Tan freaks out, wondering what Phum might do to Pheem, so he gives him a call. Tan finds Phum waiting outside his lecture hall and asks that he take him to Pheem. Tan is reluctant, but when Phum threatens to find him using his means, Tan agrees to take Phum to Pheem, but he wants something in exchange. 

Meanwhile, Pheem worries about Phum’s retaliation and his friends freaking him out, saying that nobody messes up with Phum unless they want trouble only heightens his anxiety. His friends blatantly tell him that if Phum comes for him, they will not help, and that is precisely what they do when Tan arrives with Phum. Q tries to hold Pheem back for a while, stopping Phum from taking him away, but he soon lets him go since Phum promises not to harm him. Tan is confident that Phum will not hurt Pheem. He gives Q and Chain permission to punch him in the mouth if he hurts him but regrets it as soon as these words leave his mouth. 

Phum takes Pheem, who is begging for his life and apologising for hitting him, to a secluded place on campus. When Phum fails to let him go, Pheem pulls his hair, and the two get into a cat-like fight to pull his hair and then stop. Phum asks Pheem to take responsibility for hurting him and hands him a hospital bill of 200,000 to pay back. Pheem complains that the cost is too high and then starts laughing, thinking he might have ruined Phum’s gears. Since he cannot afford to pay back 200k, Phum says that Pheem has to compensate with something, which he whispers in his ear at the end of the episode. 

The Episode Review

The first thing to appreciate about We Are the series is the cast. The director put together a fantastic ensemble with different dynamics and great friendships, and we cannot wait to see the trouble they get into in this series. The premise seems easygoing and uncomplicated, all about campus fun and balancing relationships and studies.

The first episode is promising and hilarious, with a subtle enemies-to-lovers plot for the first couple of PondPhuwin. I hope every couple will get enough screen time since episode 1 concentrates on PhumPheem and a little QToey. What will Phum ask Pheem to do as compensation for hurting him?