This episode examines the predicament of our hero, who finds himself growing further away from his girlfriend: they are always arguing and he’s learning certain things about her that he disapproves of. Which tests his character, because at the end of the day, is he the type to persevere with the relationship or give up?

Aroon’s pet peeve is someone who compares themselves to others and someone who lives outside of their means. It’s becoming glaringly obvious that his girlfriend Non, is showing sides of herself that he hasn’t already seen. And I think that that bugs him the most, the fact that they have been together for so long, yet he wasn’t aware of her pesky habits. For instance, she likes to shop at expensive stores and max out her credit cards. She explains to him that she needs to remain chic if she’d like to stand a chance in the company. When she couldn’t afford to buy a purse, she outlandishly borrows his money. They’ve talked about saving up to buy a house but his girlfriend is spending her money recklessly- and all for the sake of keeping up with the joneses.

It doesn’t help when each of their friends confirm that they just need to work this out, persevere. Dekcha advises Aroon to think about all of the good times he and Non had together. While Nut reminds her sister that Aroon is the best man for her and that she had always seen them happy together. No one could fathom that two people who are growing miles apart have already changed. Non seems to think that it is because of Whitney (due to Gusuma’s prodding) and Aroon thinks, well, that she strives to be someone other than herself. But could it be that upon the appearance of someone else (Whitney), it allows Aroon to see a different side of his relationship that hasn’t really worked to begin with? Is Whitney then inevitably involved whether she wants to or not?

One thing is for sure, this episode reveals that Aroon and Whitney are much more compatible than they realize, which makes for a great relationship development. They spend a whole day together, following a night when Whitney drops him off at his condo (his car broke down yet again.) She asks him whether he likes sitting in her car. He is nonchalant about it and advises her to get her car blessed before she continues driving it. This is news to Whitney, she isn’t familiar with the concept of blessing a car for luck after purchasing it. She takes down the name of the temple from him. On a weekend, she decides to heed his advice. Like minds.. Aroon is visiting the temple that day as well. She meets the monk who raised Aroon and tries to help the older man up but doesn’t realize that a woman could not touch a monk’s skin. Aroon appears around the corner and they help the monk back to the temple, upon which, Whitney proceeds to interrogate the monk.

They walk out of the temple and Whitney asks Aroon what happened to his mom and why he was raised in a temple. (After learning that he is the dream son for the monk. What no weakness at all?) Aroon asks her why she wants to know, lol. Whitney blurts out that friends should want to get to know each other, but she changes her words and says that people who work together should want to get to know each other. Aroon takes her to his mother’s burial. He explains to her that his mom had a terminal illness and before she passed away, she sent him to live in the temple. She knew that she would not have long to take care of him. But Aroon is not sad. The monks taught him to not compare himself to others and to be very proud of himself. Whitney adds that he should be very proud of himself, look where he is at now.

The temple kids approach them on their way out. They invite Aroon to kick around a ball with them. He humors the kids as Whitney plays the cheerleader. She has never seen her boss smile and to watch him play with the kids, she couldn’t help but smile with him. Aroon’s phone rings and not wanting him to get in trouble with his girlfriend, she pretends to be Aroon’s guy friend lol. At the end of their bout with the soccer ball, Whitney wants to go to the evening fair by the temple. Her smile and happiness is contagious, I don’t think there is a moment with her that Aroon feels sad. His quiet demeanor needs a fun, feisty girl to ruffle his feathers. They eat, play and laughed together. But this scene is not all about laughing; the two is also pulled together. They take a seat on the bench to nibble on their snacks.

Aroon glances at her and says that she’s like a kid. Whitney wrinkles her nose and says that he’s like a father who’s taking his daughter to the fair. And out of the blue, she blurts out, “I like you like this.” Aroon chokes on his food. She tells him that when he smiles like that, he’s even more handsome. Aroon could only look at her with bemusement.

“Do you want me to just smile like a fool?” he asks.

“Just smile,” she tells him. “Please smile for me. You’ve never smiled for me before.”

“There’s not a lot of cause in my life to smile. I’m not very good at it,” he admits.

“Don’t think of it that way,” she replies, “In my life, I don’t have many causes to smile. But I always try because it makes me feel better.”

“And what is it about your life that is so difficult?” he asks in return.

She opens up about her mother being a gambling addict, and her father, addicted to his second wife, lol. She tells him that no one needs her. Females think she comes off too strong and men just wants to be with her for obvious reasons. Is that sad enough? She wants to know. Aroon tells her to face her problems and fight it, it will make the problem less daunting. She tells him she has been trying, otherwise, she might have already gone insane. He looks at her with understanding.

That night after Whitney drops him off at his condo, Aroon learns that she had been the one who pretended to be his male friend. He smiles at her mischievousness and glances at the picture of himself on his desk. How cute is that? He kept her drawing!

Meanwhile Whitney’s defiance against her step mom is backfiring on her. She’s too chummy with Dekcha and his family- forcing Kongkaew and the society’s ladies to help purchase goods from the market. And when Whitney promises to go against every one of Kongkaew’s lectures and wishes, Kongkaew seeks her husband’s help for some preventative actions. They feel that match making Whitney with a hi-so man, namely Yoting, it would disincline her to get any closer to Dekcha. To do so, they arranged for Whitney to play Snow-white, and Yoting as Prince Charming, at their upcoming charity show.

Whitney is livid that she is being forced to play in the charity show. But she isn’t going down without a fight. She tells her dad that in order for her to play Snow White, they would also have to hire Dekcha’s siblings as her seven dwarves and Nut as one of the models. They agree to her terms, but this cause dispute with the coordinators and they bully Whitney. I love how she confronts them with their attempts by telling them that if they mess with her next time, they will surely be sorry.

Non becomes more irrational and irritable every day. She flips out when she learns that her sister is relegated to being a server when she didn’t past muster of being a model. She felt Whitney is responsible for that. Then when she suspects that Aroon is starting to change on her, she tries to play up the fact that Whitney is already spoken for. Based on the news released earlier by Kongkaew- that a matchmaking for Whitney and Yoting is underway- Non immediately shows Aroon the news. But she didn’t know that Whitney has already told Aroon that she cannot stand Yoting and that she was merely using him as a devise to escape Aroon that one time. Aroon is confident that there is nothing between Yoting and Whitney. No matter though, to him, gossiping about anyone is rude and he tells Non this, causing her to be doubly upset at him. It seems like nothing he does or say will make her happy. It doesn’t help that Gusuma is constantly brainwashing Non.

The day of the charity event arrives and everyone is doing the final rehearsal. Aroon walks by the hotel ballroom and catches Whitney in her Snow White costume, rehearsing her line. She is lively, happy and completely infectious. He finds his feet walking closer towards the stage of its own volition. The “dwarves” (kids) notice him and come to his side. Whitney looks away shyly, embarrassed at being caught in her rehearsal. They meet for a cup of coffee in the lobby.

“I’m so embarrassed to be seen in this outfit,” she says.

“It looks good,” he compliments her.

“Good then, I will dress as Snow White to work everyday then, “ she teases, “as for you, you will dress up as Prince Charming.”

He smiles widely at her.

Nut spots them from across the lobby and looks at them worriedly. They are enjoying their dessert and coffee.

Yoting is furious that Whitney is missing. He berates the entire crew for wasting his time. [He’s such a duchebag and playboy, could you blame Whitney for being disgusted of him? He’s so confident of his conquest skills that he tells his mom that he is sure he could get Whitney. She’s a big fish, and it will take some time to reel her in. It’s even worst when her father indicates that it is normal for a man to be a playboy.]

Funny that Aroon mentions to Whitney (referring to Yoting), “It looks like you’re having a good time on the stage. You must like it.”

“Who says?” she replies. “It’s boring. Did you know that this morning, reporters were interviewing only about my story with Yoting? It was frustrating.”

“Then you must be a great actress because you made me believe that you were really having a good time (on stage,)” Aroon says.

“Well there was no pr’ek. But if the pr’ek were you, I wouldn’t complain,” she blurts out. Then realizes her mistake when she sees Aroon’s expression, his smile fading.

“I meant to say that.. if it changed to be you that would be good right? You or even Dekcha,” she explains quickly, “it would be fun.”

He nods his head awkwardly.

She gives him three invitations to the event tonight. They were extremely hard to get and she wants to make sure that Non attends it as well.

As we all can surmise, Gusuma twists the story about the tickets to Non. Aroon had forwarded the tickets to Gusuma for Non, so Gusuma tells Non that Aroon really wants to go and doesn’t care if Non decides to go or not. This fuels Non’s anger and she storms to Aroon’s office and tells him that Whitney could not pay her to attend. To Aroon, his girlfriend is becoming more unreasonable by the day, drawing him even further away from her. And thus, bringing him closer to Whitney.

The story really takes its time with this, setting up the feelings, subplots, so that by the time they do end up together, it wouldn’t hit us by surprise. I can’t help but think though, what they did in 4-5 episodes, could easily be done in one episode. Brevity is not Channel 7’s strong suit. Despite it all, we are shown more of Aroon’s character and depth, which is sustaining my interest.

 

(This is a cute and silly pic of them!)

*Source: DaraVDO FB (pics), screen shots from Sleepy20sChannel