I've read the first ten chapters (about 170 pages) of the novel today. And, I must say, I'm so thankful the screenwriters and directors decided to use it merely as a guideline than anything else.
The whole arc from chapter 7 to chapter 10 falls short especially when compared to the greatness of episodes 4 and 5, which are somewhat supposed to be adapted from there. Even when you rightfully consider it as its own thing, it still doesn't make a good impression.
In chapter 6, while being drunk and cuddly, Pat confesses to Pran that he only wants Pran to be kind with him, that he wants to be the person he deems the most important in the whole world. He finds himself thinking he wants Pran all by himself. He calls himself possessive of Pran. Despite deeming some of his phrasing to be a bit too much, I thought to myself: 'Oh, well, he's drunk. He's unfiltered right now. Surely he doesn't genuinely mean any of this, he's just being vulnerable.'
Trigger warning: s3xual ass4ult
Pat becomes a jealous mess over the course of the next chapter when he sees Wai and Pran acting friendly with each other, to the point that:
he makes a show in the public cafeteria of their university, splashing a bottle of water on the table where Wai and Pran are hanging out;
he beats the shit out of Wai during a fight between their faculties (and he gives Pran a solid punch by mistake too) to the point that Wai almost passes out;
he has sex with a girl who had been quite pushy while never explaining to her he's not interested in a relationship or even in having a repeat of the act, as he's questioning whether or not he's gay and he's realizing his feelings for Pran, all the while being annoyed when said girl asks for more;
when Pran tells him the girl he's had sex with is known to be a bit dangerous and he should maybe avoid seeing her, he lashes out his anger on Pran and, while arguing, he forces himself on Pran and kisses him against his will (all the while thinking to himself that he's so much stronger than Pran and won't have a problem imposing his body on his if he wants to).
A bunch of other messed up things happen, then Pat and Pran talk again, heart-to-heart, Pat apologizes for everything he's done, but he also confesses his feelings in such a way that, had it been a different character, would have actually sounded manipulative (as in: "Tell me how you feel because I can't be here if you can't be mine, so if you won't be mine I might as well disappear, go somewhere else"), all of that after he also stated that, even if Pran didn't feel the same way he did, he would push and push until their feelings would have eventually been mutual.
At the end of chapter 10, the boys do actually get together. Pran is more upset with the fact that Pat needs to respect his friendship with Wai and should apologize to his friend, and with the fact that he slept with someone other than Pran, compared to the fact that Pat actually kissed him against his will. He does tell him that for them to be in a relationship Pat will have to be loyal and stop fooling around and that he will always have to be sincere when apologizing, not just doing so hoping to end an argument. Which are all fair and valid points, but I couldn't get past that horrendous first kiss and I can't see how Pran did.
Another thing that bugged me is that Pran is way less emotionally involved in this whole situation compared to the show; and, again, even if we want to discard the show all together, Pran just sounds genuinely annoyed with Pat for almost the entirety of these ten chapters. There are moments when you realize he actually cares about Pat, that he scolds him again and again and again but deep down doesn't totally mind his company, but he's never presented as a character who's putting on a mask just to avoid showing how he really feels. Pran is, very earnestly, fed up with Pat most of the time in these chapters (and, while I can't totally blame him, at times I almost felt sorry for how mean Pran actually was towards him). Don't get me wrong: he's always there when Pat needs him the most, when he's in danger or when he's feelings vulnerable, but it never feels like it's something he does because his heart's in it. It's still something he's trying to figure out - how he actually feels towards Pat. He doesn't hate him, but he doesn't like him either, which is why it's so weird to me that he actually agreed to date him at the end of chapter 10. He might have felt actually flustered in chapter 6, with a drunk, plain-spoken Pat laying on his shoulder and telling him he wants to be special for him, but we never get to see how he truly felt about that in the next chapter, when the pov actually switched to Pran's, which I thought was a shame.
All in all, I've enjoyed the first 6 chapters of this novel and I haven't minded the end of chapter 10, but I'm pretty disappointed with how the events were developed. I'm still missing more than 500 pages, so I'm hoping things will get better from now on.
