O-Negative (Foon further scrambles Peun's brain)

One of Chompoo's stranger flirting techniques

We've gotten to Episode 5 of the Thai TV show O-Negative (Episode 4). The previous episode ended with a Senior trying to get Foon drunk to take advantage of her. Before we see if he succeeds, we jump to the rest of the kids who are partying with Go and another Senior.

Chompoo is also quite drunk and she and Go are teasing each other. He jokingly calls her a pain in the neck, so she climbs on top of the picnic table to stand on top of his neck to show him just what a pain she can be. However, she gets sidetracked into doing a silly food preparation dance (don't ask) which the Seniors record on their cell phones.

In the next scene Art, Peun and Prim are taking drunken Chompoo back to their cabin. She's so drunk she can barely walk. She is happily babbling about how she loves them all right before she throws up on Art. They get her back to the cabin and are trying to clean Art's shirt when it occurs to them that Foon isn't there.

Concerned, the two boys set out to find Foon. When they find her Guide (that's the Senior lothario's name) is literally pouring booze straight from the bottle into Foon's mouth. Art is angry, and is ready to head over and deliver some rough justice, but Peun stops him and says he'll get Foon. Foon is glad to see Peun and grabs onto him. Guide claims he was trying to tell Foon to go back and go to sleep, but Peun isn't buying his line. Guide even starts to follow Peun and Foon until he sees Art glaring at him and decides discretion is the better part of valor.

If three is a crowd what are four?

Back at the cabin, when Peun puts Foon to bed she pulls him down with her and asks him to stay for a while. She's very drunk and she rambles a bit. She then kisses Peun before rolling onto her side and passing out. To say Peun is left frustrated is an understatement. Plus, entertaining for us but even more of an obstacle for Peun, when the camera pulls back for a wide shot we see that Chompoo and Prim are sleeping on different mattresses in the same room.

We then cut to a scene that is very odd to an American viewer. Peun is sitting on the beach, both worked up over the kiss and baffled by Foon's secrecy. Art joins him and, sensing Peun's conflicted mood, asks what's wrong. Peun just looks at him and then he slowly leans in as if he is going to kiss Art. He stops and Art asks him what the hell he was doing. Peun says he was seeing if he could kiss Art. Art is all "WTF?" while Art muses whether you can kiss somebody you have no feelings for.

Wait until Chompoo's Mom and Dad see these videos

The next morning we join Prim, Chompoo, Go and another Senior at breakfast. Chompoo is hungover and doesn't remember much  of the night before. So, it was her second time drinking and already she's blacking out, wonderful. Go and the other Senior are teasing Chompoo with the video they took of her last night, threatening to post it to the internet.

Foon eventually shows up. When she goes to the buffet to get her breakfast Guide arrives as well. He tries a bit of flirting with her, but that ends quickly when Peun and Art arrive and flank her. Again, one look at Art is enough to convince Guide to beat a hasty retreat. Foon is relieved to be rid of Guide and thanks the two.

On the bus as the head back the two boys are sitting together and Foon and Prim are also together. Chompoo is still wildly out of control and dancing in the aisle. Art is laughing over the number of embarrassing pictures he's taken of Chompoo to tease her with. Foon suggests he get closer to her to take more. When Art gets up to do that, Foon moves over to the seat next to Peun. After a bit of chit-chat she tells him she remembers last night. He asks her if she is sure that she remembers everything. She answers by kissing her finger tips and then touching them to Peun's lips.

Houston, we have a problem

Later Foon and her parents are in a restaurant having diner. Her Mom wants Foon to make some time next month because Mrs. Mam, who is the mother of the mysterious Ong-Art, called to say he's on summer break and Foon's Mom wants to get together with them. Foon tries to beg off, saying she may have to submit projects during the summer, but her Mom is adamant and points out that Ong-Art misses Foon and wants to see her. She also adds that Foon should give him a Skype call.

In Asian dramas families are a lot more involved in their children's romantic life, so Foon's Mom pushing Ong-Art is probably going to be a problem for her. I think we now see why she's being secretive with Peun -- she wants to keep that relationship hidden from her mom.

After a brief interlude in a pottery class Foon and Peun sneak off to go shopping together. Peun asks her why they are doing this secretly and Foon, as usual, doesn't give him a straight answer. They end up at a street vendor where they buy some food and have a good time being playful with each other.

Meanwhile the other kids are at the freshman workshop. This is a building loaned to them  in an earlier episode by the Female Drill Sargents. In a nice play off of Peun and Foon's secret date, Prim catches Art trying to secretly take a picture of her. She's amused by it and teases him while he's embarrassed and tries to tell her he was just randomly pointing his camera around.  

Chompoo is onto Foon and Peun

The kids at the freshman workshop decide to eat some lunch. Over a hotpot Chompoo tells Art and Prim she thinks that Foon and Peun are secretly seeing each other. Demonstrating that the word 'perceptive' should never be applied to either of them, Art and Prim are doubtful. Chompoo texts a picture of their lunch to Foon and Peun and invites them to lunch to establish that they are together.

Peun arrives first, when questioned by Chompoo he admits he was shopping with Foon. However, when she arrives she makes light of that fact, and further lies that the whole time they were together Peun was texting other girls. Peun is shocked and hurt by her continued denials over their relationship. Later he confronts her over them, and the episode ends with her giving no clear answer as to why or how long the deception needs to continue.

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Thai University Hazing - I got curious over the hazing shown and searched Google for information about it. It is a month long freshman initiation to university life called rub-nong. It is based on the SOTUS system (Seniority, Order, Tradition, Unity, and Spirit) and it is intended to help incoming freshman make friends and adjust socially to school life.

Due to abuses it is surrounded by a certain amount of controversy. The show seems to take a very benign view of it. Aside from pushups, a lousy breakfast, embarrassing dances and a lot of screaming  there is little to the hazing as it is shown in O-Negative. In reality there is much more humiliation involved. There is an ongoing debate in Thailand over the practice. The Nation Thailand opinion piece Time to end hazing culture in universities is a good discussion of the SOTUS hazing issue.

[Episode 6]