Touch & Daisy in Secret Crush On You
I’m sorry to all the KinnPorsche obsessives out there and the Cherry stans and the Semantic hold overs, but these two have
There is no room for anyone else.
Okay, so I’m not going to talk about the show itself, because I have unbelievably mixed feels. They’re so all over the place and in need of processing, that I decided I couldn’t even talk about SCOY in the weekly updates. Don’t you worry, there will be an epic rant/praise/mind fuck of a post when it finally ends.
The episode is question is: 9 4/4
Secret Crush On You - Queer Coded Language & 3rd Gender Identity
But until then, I MUST talk about Daisy & Touch and their language. (Here’s the foundations on particles and honorific in Thai BL, I’m not gonna recap, just jump in.)
So the subber said they “wished they could convey” this dynamic, and I’m sure they’d do it better justice, but I am still going to tackle it, anyway.
Most of the time with the other characters and his interactions with them (of which there are not many) Touch follows the standard rules of the game for a male oldest of his peer group. Which means he uses phi for I, refers to everyone else (because they are all younger than him) by their name without honorific, and politely uses krap.
With Toh and his friendship group, as a group, he’s softer than other phis might be. As a group they are nongs to him, or a bit more child-like than normal juniors in the school system would be. He thinks they’re adorable. This probubly reflects the general innocence, look, and behavior of this particular queer cadre. Frankly speaking, they act kinda like cute kids, so that’s how he speaks and treats them (so do Sky and Nuea). (It’s Touch’s softening towards the whole group that initially red-flags Nuea’s jealousy, because it’s clear Touch likes them better than his other juniors. That fondness indicates romantic interest. And Nuea knows Touch is queer, and might like Toh.)
So Daisy throughout this series uses third gender language. (I’ve talked about this concept before and how difficult a 3rd gender is to grok for binary cultures.) Technically, Daisy does not identify fully as a her, because Daisy sticks to and uses ha or, very rarely, ja, throughout the series, and almost never kha. 3rd gender individuals will use any and all of these three particles, but the preferential use of kha indicates a inclination towards a more feminine identity, so more trans (spectrum here, my darlings, SPECTRUM). Daisy doesn’t do this.
Point of comparison: Kitty in La Cuisine is linguistically exactly the same as Daisy. Using ha most of the time. While the hot butch teacher chef character, on the other hand, uses ja.
Daisy seems to prefer what western queers might regard as a nonbinary identity, so less female than femme, in that Daisy likes to be pretty, even to be called “beautiful lady” and similar, but doesn’t fall fully into what we would think of as a trans identity.
So why is Touch’s language when he is flirting with and courting Daisy so amazing?
Because Touch shifts into Daisy’s particles (and register).
A man interested in courting someone who identifies as a woman might use kha to flirt.
A man who wanted to be seen as queer and flirt within the queer community might use ja to flirt.
That’s Daisy’s own particle, so to speak. It’s also the particle most associated with household intimacy. Touch is softening himself for Daisy. He’s using his language to temper his own identity and masculinity to better match Daisy’s. There’s no adequate parallel in English for this kind of register shifting.
So Daisy refers to self using own name, or (interestingly) nu for I pronoun. (Nu is a diminutive that either means or is derived from the Thai word for mouse หนู). This might be because that’s what Touch used to open their flirtation (ep 9 2/4), like he gave Daisy a pet name, or it might be that Daisy has used this before in the series and I never noticed.
So then Touch does it back, referring to Daisy as nu for the you pronoun. And he even slipped a few raos instead of phis in there, for I. That’s very soft and a smidge old fashioned.
Also he’s flexing between na (the entreaty question particle) and ha. So what’s translated as:
because it ends with ha not na, is a bit more statement of fact, “You’re so adorable, you must have a lover.”
Now there’s a ton to unpack here because Daisy is clearly accustomed to being the butt of jokes. Daisy is also used to gay men flirting by rote, and it not actually meaning anything. It’s a kind of queer coded group requirement. Much as gay men will flirt openly with drag queens, calling them beautiful etc without it necessarily being genuine sexual or romantic interest, just a kind of affectionate flattery. So Daisy spends most of their date (such as it is) not entirely sure if Touch is serious, until he insists on opening the car door.
That is courting behavior, that’s more than just flirting. That’s when Daisy’s smile just lights TF up. That’s also why Touch is so happy. He figured it out. As good as he is with words and registers (and he’s VERY good) it was actions that worked best in the end. Now he knows what he needs to do to woo Daisy, rather than what he needs to say.
Fuck, I wish we got a whole show of these two.
Okay, that’s enough for now.
Leave me alone to dwell in the adorable for a while.
Whoever was asking me about BLs with Thai subtitles?
Secret Crush On You has them!
Also its captions are intended to encompass those with hearing disabilities (music and some sound effects also described) which is just another way the team behind this show went above and beyond with regards to inclusion.
