I write fic for SOTUS and UWMA because I love the characters and I want to stay in their world longer.

I write fic for TOL because it annoyed me.

Theory of Love was pretty good overall! If I weren't a writer, I probably would have walked away from it content with what I got, but Khai's character arc was a broken mine cart on fire and IT STILL BOTHERS ME.

AND LET TWO AND UN KISS.

ALSO—

Like the future part is cute, but one of Khai's only redeeming qualities was his snark. Third is ALSO snarky, so making their dynamic "Khai is always nice and Third is snarky" just makes it seem like Khai changed /every/ aspect of himself for Third, which…isn't a great message.

ALSO LET TWO AND UN KISS

ALSO ALSO like—

Third says he fell in love with Khai despite all the perfectly kind people around him. I’d take a leap and say that says more about Third’s self-worth than Khai. Ultimately, Khai didn’t have to change his personality, just his behavior and treatment of people.

Khai can still be a snarky smartass and treat Third with respect.

“Hey, I want to have sex with my new girlfriend later tonight. Are you cool with giving us some privacy?”

PERFECTLY FAIR.

I don’t mean to be the Communication Always Helps person but

Communication Always Helps.

It might not SOLVE everything, but it HELPS.

Oh oh! And! Okay, Khai is in his third year and he DOES seem well-liked, but he doesn’t seem to have many friends outside his group. Third is his best friend, Two and Bone are friends, and everyone else is in a category of potential fyck buddy, annoyance, or neutral existence.

Un: annoyance
Shane: neutral existence
Most women: potential fyck buddy
Exes and women he’s already slept with: neutral existence/annoyance

I don’t think Khai has a propensity to seek out and make new connections. I think he’s an introvert posing as an extrovert. He seems perfectly content with his three friends for the first half of the drama. Which is why the train thing devastates him.

He has a line about how he pretends not to give a shyt to protect himself, and I wonder if it’s because he only has three friends and has never loved anyone but himself. That could explain why he doesn’t understand that he’s shooting himself in the foot with his choices.

This also might explain why I, an extrovert, don’t understand Khai as well as I do, say, Kongphob or Win. Or even Third, come to think of it.

I wouldn’t have thought of Khai as an introvert but the more I think about it, the more it seems to fit.

Like, it’s genuinely easy for him to erase every woman off his phone. He doesn’t even hesitate. And I guess the drama could be doing a “this is how much he loves Third!” thing with that but I think it’s more that Khai genuinely didn’t connect with ANY of them.