The novel falls into the category of yaoi or "boy love": stories aimed at an audience of young girls about pretty, feminine teenage boys falling in love with each other, with sighs, moonlit strolls, and maybe a kiss but no sex.
It's a traditional like teen idols in the West: non-threatening "dreamy" boys with all of the mythology of "true love," but no competition from another girl.
On to SOTUS:
At a strange totalitarian Faculty of Engineering (university engineering school), hundreds of white-clad freshman undergo intensive hazing by evil red-robed seniors. The head haze-master, snarling martinet Arthit (Perawat Sangpotirat), singles out fresh-faced Kongpop (Prachaya Ruangroj) for special abuse because he can't acknowledge his attraction.
These photos come from a photo shoot the two did for the gay magazine Attitude. In the series, they don't go out on a date until the 10th episode, and don't kiss until the last episode (in the second season, they finally spend the night).
Arthit is busy subjecting Kongpop to so many hazing pranks that one wonders when either of them have time to go to class: find 10 guys to sign on to be his lovers; run 54 laps; get drunk; do squats; eat a plate of rice loaded down with hot peppers.
Meanwhile there's a basketball tournament, a capture-the-flag contest, and a Mr. Engineering School contest, and some shenanigans involving missing class notes.
Eventually Kongpop manages to turn the tables and become dominant, forcing forcing Arthit to recognize their mutual attraction and agree to a date. Afterwards, there's no homophobia in this world (or gay culture either), so all they have to worry about are competitors trying to break them up.
Other characters include
What's up with the names? "Bright" and "Knot" are English words, but not English names. Nor are they literal translations of Thai names.
More single-syllable names that are (or sound like) English words. "Wad" is not exactly complementary.
3. May, who wants Kongpop for herself.
Apparently they've all starred in yaoi-based dramas before.
SOTUS, by the way, is explained as the hazing credo, Seniority, Order, Tradition, Unity, Spirit, but Kongpop tells Arthit that it really refers to the Story of True Love between Us.
The romance is standard romcom, bickering couples who grudgingly admit their attraction, just with two pretty boys instead of Sam and Diane. But there's enough Thai culture to keep you occupied between the shirtless scenes (hint: displays of casual physical affection between friends).
My grade: B-. A- if you are into Asian twinks.
It's funny to me that Netflix picked up SOTUS which was the one Thai BL drama and its sequels that I skipped over (I started down the overseas BL rabbit hole with My Secret Love and Bad Buddy and didn't really want to do one more "young guys in college who are enemies but become lovers" plot at the time). Even the worst of the BL series coming out of Thailand/Vietnam/Japan/South Korea/Phillipines are still better than anything produced for American television in terms of gay male representation and lead characters. Hell, even China is putting out series which are passing their draconian censorship rules but still refer to the male leads as 'soulmates' (Word of Honor, which is also now on Netflix. BTW, dip in at Episode 2 if you try it and then go back to Ep 1 for the 35min plot setup if you like it). I now gladly suffer reading subtitles so that I can watch male couples time travel, go to alternate universes, get wrapped up in ghost hauntings, run the mafia or wield mystical martial arts while falling in love and having varied levels of sexual intimacy (depending on age, production company and rating but only a few make it to the 'Cinemax' level there though).
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