I find Duang's insecurities so fascinating. I feel like we so often see where one person's insecurity is a massive barrier in the relationship. It keeps them from pursuing/being pursued because they think so low of themselves. Duang doesn't do that. He hasn't ever wavered when it came to pursuing Qin and even though he gets a little shocked when Qin initiates something, but he accepts it every time with no question. When Qin kisses him, he buffers and then kisses him back. When Qin invites him to shower, he buffers and then follows him. He takes everything that Qin offers him, just as Qin takes what Duang offers (just obviously in a very different way).
Where Duang's insecurities really lie are that he really just sees himself as mid. He doesn't think he's ugly or totally untalented or unlikable or unfunny, he simply sees himself as Just A Guy. But to him, Qin is on a completely different level. It's strange because initially it came off as him putting him on a pedestal, but the more he learns about Qin, the more human he becomes and Duang learns his fears and flaws, Duang seems to think even more of him. The more mutual these feelings are, the more Duang thinks the world of him. And that just doesn't always compute to Duang because, again, he's Just A Guy. So while he knows all of his feelings are mutual, he also sees Qin as someone so great that it doesn't make sense for him to settle. So Duang wants to earn him and assure him that he's not settling for Some Guy.
Which is really what I loved about conversation at the end of episode 8. Duang needed to hear that Qin feels the same and that it's mutual and that he's fully in this thing with him. He's not going to tell him to leave, he's going to disappear, he's not going to lose interest. Qin is finally in place where he can say it openly: he wants to put in the work. He wants to keep Duang just like Duang wants to keep him.
So, truthfully, no one is settling. They're meeting each other in the middle and giving and taking what they can. They just want each other around so much.
And I can't wait for Duang to be even more insufferable about it now.
