Hello Readers

Long time no blog. So, I think I’ve told many readers the whole process of how chapters are made but for those who don’t know it’s a long process. Firstly I draft a plot for a chapter, write out everything, find or decide whether it should have songs or pictures, pre-edit the chapter, post it on a group page to be analyzed, final edit it, then save and wait for the Wednesday.

Where am I getting at you ask? Well, our group always has a solid and extremely helpful and supportive reviewer who analysis and summarizes our chapters. Although not a writer himself, his in-depth reviews on our chapters greatly helps improve our output. With that, and with his permission, I’ll be sharing his insights of each chapter every Saturday/Sunday after each new chapter. He puts as much effort and thought into his constructive feedback that I felt it was a shame to be left only to the eyes of fanfic authors. Without further ado, here’s his review. :)

Chapter 33: Encounter
(click the title to go to the chapter itself)

This chapter opens with a series of texts from Pete to Lhew starting a week in the past and progressing forward in time to the last one just sent. In each message Pete attempts to reach out to her for an unstated purpose and each message goes unanswered. In the present, Earn asks Pete who he’s texting, but Pete fibs to Earn telling he’s texting his mom in response to her concern that they may have worked into the night and skipped dinner. Pete then teases that when Earn asked him for help with his homework he didn’t know that he genuinely needed it. Earn responds that he needs the help because his focus has been off lately and it’s really all Pete’s fault because of his dumb smile, cute reactions and the way he his lips when he’s nervous. As Pete drifts within his own thoughts, we learn that a week has passed since their first date and things have been going great. The Cheer Club’s every other day practice schedule leaves them time to hang out together on the alternate days for dinner, movies etc. It seems they reached an agreement on when they can be intimately progressive, even if Earn was reluctant about it. Pete also shares that since that first date he has really wanted to contact Lhew to apologize for the things he said to her during their big blowup. He’s grateful for her efforts to motivate him to confess to Earn and just plain feels bad about what he said. Pete is brought back to the present by Earn asking if he’s going to help him or not, but Pete refuses, telling Earn that he was misled. As his adorable pleading continues, Pete sets down his phone and decides it’s time for a little break. The boys lock lips and things begin to escalate almost immediately. Initially Pete complies as Earn ratchets up the passion and their hands caress each other to a fevered pitch, but suddenly Pete reverses course, much to Earn’s consternation. Earn wants to throw the go-slow/wait agreement out the window, but Pete tells him that he’s just not ready yet. Earn shoots back that if things were going to be this way they should have never done anything in Bang Saen. At this point Earn basically shuts down and Pete is left to fret and worry in silence.

After a terse goodnight between the two, Pete’s mind is in turmoil. He’s feelings for Earn are genuine but he’s afraid Earn may still like Noh and that he’s just a rebound attraction. He questions whether the night in Bang Saen really was a mistake like Earn suggested and wonders whether he should give in to Earn and hope for the best. Unable to sleep he grabs his jacket and wallet and heads out to catch some fresh air and ends up a little café near Earn’s house and orders a bowl of soup. As he eats, he tries to understand Earn’s side of things and worries that maybe all their time spent with so little intimacy has driven Earn off out of boredom. As he eats, he hears someone approach from behind and is suddenly confronted by a breathless Earn telling him to get up and come home while dragging him out by the collar. Once outside Pete shakes himself free but Earn grips his wrist and pulls him along. As they approach the gate to his house Pete calls out Earn’s name and tries to yank his wrist free but cannot. Finally yelling for him to stop, Earn finally lets go and Pete tells him not to push him around and that he could have waited for him to finish his meal. For his part Earn doesn’t appreciate being yelled at and then wants to know why Pete left in the middle of the night, so Pete frankly tells him that since he wouldn’t talk to him, he wanted to get some fresh air to clear his head. Earn proceeds to tell Pete he left his cellphone behind and that after calling it, he’d been running all over the place looking for him. Pete responds that he’s not some kid or fragile girl needing his constant protection, and reminds him that it was his coldness that drove him out of house in the first place (in spite of acknowledging to himself that Earn has a right to be upset over his taking off).

At this point Pete apologizes in an irritated tone and implores Earn to go to sleep since they have school the next day, and wishing this is all just a bad dream. As guilt, anger, sadness, shame and worry envelop him, Pete suddenly finds heavy arms wrapping around him from behind and Earn asking him not to be mad. Now it’s Earn apologizing for pressuring him while admitting to being petty earlier in the night and explaining how he panicked when he discovered Pete had left their bed in the night. Pete tells Earn that he shouldn’t have started anything between them knowing that they had already agreed to wait for a month. As Earn’s arms tighten around Pete, Pete manages to get out that Earn’s hug is killing him so Earn releases him. Pete turns around and faces Earn telling him they should not be fighting over this and suggests they go to sleep. Pete asks his “Panda” to hold out for a week and he agrees, calling Pete “Penguin” in return. Pete tells him they should just forget about the argument since they both did something stupid. While drinking a little water before heading off to bed Pete notices that Earn is sweating a lot and concludes that he must have been frantic to find him. As they lay side-by-side with their hands intertwined, Pete moves to rest on Earn’s chest and Earn puts wraps his right arm over Pete’s shoulder. Pete’s negative feelings melt away as his mind eases and a radiant feeling takes their place and the two drift off to sleep.

The interactions between Pete and Earn leading up to their first fight show a pair of young lovers growing closer together as a couple. The teasing Earn directs at Pete about being the cause of why he can’t focus is a good example. Another example takes place after they come out of the other side of their disagreement and refer to each other as Panda and Penguin. But as they grow closer, so do the opportunities for them to step on each other’s toes. So the boys have their first fight. Pete now knows and understands his own feelings but he still doesn’t have complete faith in where Earn is coming from. We already know that Pete can be too smart for his own good, and he’s still too inexperienced in relationships so he’s (over?) compensating by thinking too much. He knows an alternative approach exists whereby he can jump in and hope that Earn’s feelings turn out to be equal to his, but he just can’t let go of his nagging fears that Earn might still like Noh and that he’s just a rebound. Earn seems quite dedicated emotionally, but we know he can be headstrong and since this is his first serious relationship, his emotions have that much more power over him. So maybe Pete’s concerns are not completely unreasonable. The important thing to come out of this fight is their relationship. They fumbled through a misalignment of expectations and skinned their knees, but they helped each other up and are getting on with their life together. Or so it appears.

We move to the next morning at school and we get treated to some fun banter fired among the fantastic four as they exit class on their way to the cafeteria and Por throws lightning bolts around only to be shot down by Card, Pete and Earn. When Pete senses something is off with Earn he asks him what’s up and Earn tells him he is just thinking about their date later. Pete drapes his arm over Earn’s shoulder and admits to him that he’s excited too, but he notes to himself that Earn is acting a bit strange and he keeps catching him in deep thought as the day progresses. Pete refrains from questioning him to avoid upsetting him before their date. When they get to the lunchroom, Pete volunteers Earn to save a table for the group and steps up to buy his lunch in an effort to ingratiate himself. While he waits alone in line to order food, Pete opens his phone to read the text he received from Lhew the previous night in which she flatly refuses to meet with him and orders him to stop texting her. Pete’s resolve to apologize remains undiminished however. With food in hand, he returns to the table where Por and Card are sitting, but Earn is noticeably absent. After Por makes a funny joke at Pete’s expense, Pete responds with an overly terse comeback, signaling his irritation at Earn’s absence. As Pete shovels food into his mouth, Card volunteers that Earn went to the bathroom, but Pete shoots back that he didn’t ask where Earn was. This prompts Card to ask if they had a fight, but Pete tells him no; adding that they aren’t joined at the hip. Card then moves on to asking about club business and gets a commitment from Pete to drop by the Student Council Office to check on the status of their performance trip to Huamark Stadium later that day. Por then launches into a campaign for a study session at Card’s house as Earn takes a seat next to Pete, while agreeing that the idea is a good one since Pete is such an amazing tutor. This both relieves Pete’s concerns about Earn’s absence and gets Earn into Pete’s good graces. After it’s revealed that Por only wants it to be a Card’s house because of the air conditioning and the snacks that come along with the location, Card smacks him on the head calling him an , but then admitting that it was only last week that he was trying to get everyone over to hang out at his house. After they all have a laugh over this, Pete reasons in his head that Earn seems to be happy and concludes that he must be over-analyzing things as lunch ends and they return to classes.

The rest of the school day races by and as Pete and Earn head off in one direction and Por and Card in another, but not before Card reminds Pete to stop by the Student Council Office as he agreed over lunch. Earn asks Pete if it will take long since he has to use the bathroom. When Pete raises the concern that he seems to spend a lot of time there lately, Earn tells him he’s been drinking lots of liquids, and they agree to meet at the flag pole when finished. Pete heads to the office, bumping into Ohm making his way from the Music Club room where the joke around a little before moving on. As Pete continues toward his destination he begins to dread that he’s going to have to speak with Phun again, but when he gets there, no one is inside, in spite of the door being unlocked and the lights left on. Pete learns from a group of underclassmen nearby that Phun did indeed abandon his duties and leave the office open, which Pete concludes, could only mean he went to the Music Club to see Noh. Concerned that he now has to deal with both of them together, Pete marches toward the Music Club room. Along the way he admits to himself that Noh really isn’t a such a bad guy, but that he’s just annoyed at him for being the object of Earn’s affections, plus being the source of Earn’s misery and depression earlier in the year. But he also admits that if Noh had expressed any reciprocal feeling for Earn, then he’d have been left out in the cold. 

Rounding a corner, Pete is suddenly crashed into by a distressed young convent girl he recognizes to be Yuri, Noh’s girlfriend. This is a scene taken from the series so I won’t spend much time on it here. Suffice it to say that Pete does his utmost to calm her and encourage her, realizing that she’s coming from the direction of the Music Club room where Phun and Noh are, and being this upset, must have witnessed an exchange between them that prompted her present emotional state. After they part company, Pete realizes what Yuri just experienced is not far from the hurt, rejection and betrayal Lhew must have felt when he broke up with her. After all, he reasons to himself, since Lhew had left before he woke up the next morning, he never really saw the aftermath of their break up. In spite of knowing that Earn is probably waiting, Pete decides to take a minute to call Lhew and leave an apology on her voicemail. The ringtone he gets is pretty “in your face” but he manages to pull it together and explain that he while he would prefer to do so in person, he realizes the hurt and upset he’s caused her and wants her to know that he is sincerely sorry and regrets the things he said to her, particularly because he was really angry with himself and at how right she actually was. After leaving the message he proceeds to meet up with Earn but he’s not at their meeting spot when Pete arrives. Scanning around the vicinity he spies Ohm again and calls out to him, but Ohm asks him to make it quick since he’s rushing home because he feels like for ing something up real bad (a clear reference to the Phun-Noh-Yuri incident in the Music Club room). Pete asks him if he’s seen Earn, and Ohm explains that he saw him twice; the first time after seeing Pete on his way to the Student Council Office and the second time about 5 minutes ago. Ohm tried to talk to him, but Earn said he felt unwell and was going home. Pete’s concern immediately rises and he worries that Earn may have witnessed what Yuri had seen going on between Phun and Noh. Pete becomes anxious that Earn may sink into another depression and tries calling his cellphone without success. Pete races toward Earn’s house, hoping he’s home when he gets there.

Pete lets himself in through the gate and races toward Earn’s room, letting himself in through the sliding door. Earn is on the bed with his earbuds in listening to music, and Pete, clearly rattled, asks him what he’s doing there. When Earn matter-of-factly tells Pete that he left because he was taking too long, Pete makes his doubts of the explanation clear. Asking again and getting the same response from Earn only increases Pete’s upset and presses him to ask a third time. This time, Earn admits to witnessing something distasteful, and Pete, believing his earlier suspicion about Earn seeing Phun and Noh is correct, quickly downplays the event and tells him to forget what he saw, while sitting on the bed and placing a hand on his shoulder as a gesture of comfort and support. Earn shrugs off Pete’s hand and asks in an incredulous manner if Pete expects him to act as if nothing is wrong. Pete tries to reassure Earn that he’s here for him, but Earn tells Pete he’s got some balls and then pausing, concludes by stating that he doesn’t even want to see Pete’s face. Earn’s reaction quickly alerts Pete that they are talking past one another, so he asks Earn why he’s angry at him when he’s there to comfort him after seeing Phun and Noh messing around. When Earn tells him not to play dumb, Pete immediately asks him if this is about their fight the previous night. This in turn has Earn telling Pete to stop treating him like an idiot and asking him if he’s just a phase to Pete. Earn then grips Pete by the collar, demands Pete tell him if he’s just a rebound or distraction, and ends asking Pete if he really likes him at all. Pete is confused a flustered by all of this and tries to escape from Earn’s grip, but Earn demands an answer, accusingly noting that he saw Pete hugging Yuri earlier. When Pete tries to explain she was upset and he was only trying to comfort her, Earn moves on to ask accusingly about Lhew. After revealing that he saw her text the previous night when Pete left his phone behind when he went out for air, Earn explains that he knows Pete wants to meet up with her again, and that he also witnessed Pete calling her and leaving a message stating he regretted what happened. It ends with Earn asking Pete if he’s just his play thing to get over Lhew, and if that is the reason Pete won’t sleep with him.

Pete denies Earn’s reasoning, but Earns is not easily convinced that he’s wrong, citing what he witnessed firsthand. He finally tells Pete not to lead him on and make him suffer, and Pete responds by putting his hands on Earn’s shoulders and promising him nothing weird is going on. After they sit on the bed and Pete puts an arm around Earn’s shoulder, Pete reiterates that he’s serious, and Earn is the only person he has feeling for. Finally, Earn opens up and tells Pete that he just can’t take being rejected all the time, and Pete apologizes for allowing Earn to doubt his feelings for him. Pete admits to being so wrapped up in his own feelings that he never stopped to think that Earn may have had his own doubts. As they recline on the bed listening to music, Pete takes the opportunity to air out his feelings by telling Earn that he was afraid that he was a consolation prize after Noh. Earn assures Pete that he could never think of him in that way, and nonchalantly tells Pete he loves him. Pete asks him to repeat what he just said, and Earn tells him that he could never think of him as a consolation prize, but Pete stops him and asks what he said after that while sitting up and turning to face Earn. When Earn repeats that he loves Pete, Pete repeats Earn’s statement as a question back to him. Questioning Pete’s hearing ability, Earn draws out the statement in long vowels “I Loooooove Yoooooou!” Pete flips himself onto Earn and kisses him furiously with more passion than ever before, causing Earn to push him off and ask what’s gotten into him. Pete returns the declaration to Earn along with a smile so wide his face hurts. As the words sink in, Earn shouts out a celebratory “Wohoo!” and the boys passionately sink into each other.

What follows is another exceptionally round of ual antics the likes of which I will not spoil by clumsily recapping. The important factual event which may enter into the story at a later point is that Earn bottoms for Pete.

There is a considerable amount of ground covered in this chapter. It started with Pete’s series of texts trying to reach Lhew only to finally get shot down by her response mid-chapter. This is an example of Pete being true to his principles and moral compass. In his own life, he’s figured out that Lhew ‘s participation in his life was helpful and critical to where he’s gotten to, that he wronged her in not fully appreciating this and in saying pretty hurtful things to her as a result. Beyond that he’s grown enough to try and let her know that he now understands he was wrong and that she is entitled to an apology. His understanding the importance of this event is clear by his desire to issue the apology in person so that she knows he is sincere. Even more, after running into Yuri post Phun-Noh, he now emotionally empathizes with Lhew’s experience. This additional life lesson is indeed the trigger that pushes him to realize that even if Lhew won’t see him in person, he needs to let her know that he understands her feelings and his own mistakes by calling a leaving her a voicemail message. My only issue is that I do not think Lhew would feel betrayed by Pete finding his attraction for Earn greater than his attraction for her. She knew up front that this was a possibility, and although she may have issues of public perception in the eyes of her friends, but she is pretty mature emotionally and has been morally centered from the beginning. She might feel betrayed on a friendship level because Pete said such critical things to her, so if that is what Pete meant, then I can understand his statement. I can also accept that Pete may believe he betrayed her in the way he acted or in choosing Earn over her, regardless of whether she feels betrayal or not, but Pete may truly believe that she does. Anyway, I found all of this to be a very interesting and positive development in Pete’s character.

Another development is Pete and Earn opening up and sharing their fears and feeling with each other. The day after their first fight is a crazy mix up of misunderstandings elevated to a crisis fueled by each of their internal fears and insecurities. I want to doff my cap again for the fast footwork shown in working around a series plot obstacle and incorporating it into serving the purpose of this storyline. With Pete feeling uncertain about Earn liking him in rebound as a backdrop, first Earn had to suspect Pete might still desire Lhew, so Pete had to leave his phone at Earn’s after their fight allowing Earn to be awakened by the text from Lhew telling Pete to leave her alone. Then the next day, while Pete senses Earn is acting differently without knowing why exactly, the written story has to place Pete where he could run into Yuri and console her (to satisfy the series plotline) with Earn looking on, followed by Pete calling Lhew to leave the recorded apology which Earn also heard; both events feeding into Earn’s insecurity that turns out to be the exact concern Pete has about Earn’s feelings toward him, namely the rebound effect. A complete misunderstanding of what’s really going on is thus whipped up by misinterpreted events based on fear-induced assumptions and self-doubts shared by both boys, leading to a crisis point manifested in a lover’s quarrel; the deflation of which entails a complete sharing of fears followed by reassurance and confidence in their relationship. The words “I love you” have never sounded so sweet to either of them I am certain. This is a lot effort, but it takes them to their next level of physical intimacy and now they can move on to new challenges together. I want to also add that I really felt Earn explaining his fear of rejection (after Noh) and about being Pete’s rebound was quite touching. When he asked if he was just Pete’s play thing to help him get over Lhew and if this was the reason Pete refused to sleep with him, my heart sank. It shows how much thought is being put into making these characters 3-dimensional.

After the hot , they shower and get in bed to stare into each other’s eyes and repeat the three magic words to one another. Although they both express the desire to stay that way forever, they both admit to being hungry, and Earn suggests they have dinner and let his parents know Pete is staying over. When Pete calls him presumptuous, Earn teases that he plans on returning the favor Pete dealt to him because he doesn’t want to be the only one with an aching . This gest Earn a whack on the head after which Pete gets up and heads toward the door with Earn accusing him of acting likes he lives there. Pete ends on philosophical note, stating that joys of the relationship are worth the ups and downs that come with the territory. He anticipates more challenges to come, but feels it’s worth it all as long as Earn is by his side every step of the way. This is a terrific chapter that opens up future plots, contains delicious , and ends with the boys overcoming a big misunderstanding to stand together with more conviction than ever. Thank you so much!!! Bravo! Bravo!

Writer's Note

Recently, in the past few chapters, there has been a decrease in viewership and comments in each chapter. Although I'd like to finish my story as soon as possible, if this continues, I'm afraid I'll be updating less frequently. Not only does my line of work drain my energy but, I've made my chapter posts a weekly deal as to finish as soon as possible, keep the Fanfic Writer's page active, and because my readers would view and leave a comment. I've stated on numerous occassions that comments/feedback has always helped me through my long days at work and encourage me even more to write productively. My appreciation for readers who do leave comments has not waivered in the slightest and I love them for doing so however, with it lessening, it points out that people aren't as hyped or interested in chapters after Pete and Earn have gotten together. With that, depending on the viewership and comments left in the next few chapters, this review blogpost may replace a Wednesday in between posting chapters. Thank you for understanding and sorry for the unconvience/news.