The series were made from 2 Thai novels…
Cutie Pie: Story of Kuea & Lian
Naughty Babe - Story of Kon Diao & Yi
I’m going to share with you a summary of each book. As I watched 2 ep so far, the series are mostly 80% followed the novels. The background is a bit complicated so I will start by breaking that down.
This is CUTIE PIE:
Kuea Kirati: Coming from old money family with his great-great-grandfather had title similar to a Lord or Knife… so his mother was a Lady and owned several great pieces of land in Bangkok. His dad was a Thai high-ranging ambassador in Europe… They commonly traded ambassadors around every few years. During this storyline, his dad is in Vienna, Austria.
He was using his mother’s last name Kirati because that’s how the inheriting-line can be passed on his mom’s side of the family.
His family was among high-profile society. He had the good name, titled mother, well-mannered, money, look and great reputation last name among the old money.
Kuea’s grandfather engaged Lian to Lady Kavarin’s child since before she was married because he wanted to be connected with the Wongs… he genuinely loved the Wongs since when they didn’t have money. When Kuea was born as a boy, his grandfather wanted to keep the engagement regardless. He loved and trusted Lian and his family… they made ‘heart’ promise. His gut told him that Lian was the one for Kuea.
We will learn throughout the story that Kuea was extremely popular. Many hi-society families were ready to pursue his hand if the engagement to Wang family ended. Anyone would want to be related to Kirati family. He was popular in school and company where he did his internship. Also, he was in a very high demand as Kirin.
Lian / Kilain Wong: Coming from poor Chinese immigrant family. His father worked for Kuea’s grandfather’s silk fabric company. He was trusted, loved and advanced to be the general manager. Mr. Wong, 40, married his mom who was much younger and her family owned a small ice factory. His father quit the GM job to work with his wife after the marriage. His family started doing welled after Lian was born.
Even after leaving the silk company GM job, their families were in touch. They saw each other weekly and treated it like a church day… Wang family dressed up in their Sunday-best for their weekly visit at the Kirati mansion. They love each other. Their moms were very close. After Kuea was born, Kuea’s grandfather decided to keep the engagement and the Wongs agreed. They all were ecstatic to have their 2 families combined… They only loved and trusted one another… it was the ‘heart’-promise, they felt.
Lian’s family has borrowed millions of dollars from Kuea’s grandfather during their beverage business expansion was underfunded. Lian’s family always felt in debt to the Kiratis and will always do anything for them.
Wong family was doing very well now financially. They own a leading alcohol & beverages company and Pentagon pub. Lian was about to buy in to the Gemini bar where Kirin loved to play. Gemini was described to be a small rooftop bar and not profitable when Lian brought in… he only did that so Kuea had a space to be Kirin.
Lian & Kuea loved each other as long as they know it… They were 7 years apart. Kuea moved to attend a boarding school in England… I’m guessing from Naughty Babe book that when he was around 7-8 years old… that’s when & where he met his best friend, Kon Diao.
Kuea moved back to Thailand when he’s 18… After high school… same time with Diao… for a different reason. He missed Lian so he is giving up his music (drumming) prodigy opportunity in Europe.
________________________________
Kuea & Lian loved each other but they “mis-communicate” a lot.
Kuea was trying his best to be angelic like all his life… his old money + ambassador family position put him in an absolutely neat, well-mannered and soft-spoken image… Lian thought that’s how Kuea is… Kuea thought that’s how he should be to be suitable to Lian, who was a perfectionist in Kuea’s eye. He thought that’s what Lian wanted… Kuea deeply loved Lian and lived his life with one final destination… to marry Lian/Kilian Wong.
Lian was doing something in the same manner. He thought Kuea was so neat & flawless and he had to try his best to be immaculate in all aspect to be perfectly matched up to Kuea. He truly loved Kuea since he was 7 and Kuea was a baby. Lian thought Kuea was that cutest no matter what Kuea did. He lived his life planning to fit himself with sweet/innocence Kuea… Lian worked so hard to have money so Kuea can be hi-society housewife like his mother… he thought that what Kuea wanted. His fear was to embarrass Kuea… Chinese immigrant was viewed as rough + Kuea’s family was his dad’s boss… marrying the boss’ kid deemed to be viewed as an ‘over-reach’ regardless. He had to try extremely hard to be ‘good enough’ in the view of the society.
While keeping up with the charade. Kuea built up wall to cover his secret loves of Auto Engineer (dirty job), superbike (inappropriate), and drumming (and inappropriate). He had a secret house to hind those. His mom & dad were in Austria…his grandpa passed away… so he was alone in the mansion. The mansion that he was hardly there. He spent most of his time in his safe house.
Apparently, Lian and Kuea are more alike than they thought...
Lian loved supercar while Kuea loved superbike. They like dark, raw concert walls & naked closets for their houses... Kuea loved Lian's house. They both over-dressed for each other because they thought that what the other like. They loved the same music (Indy).. that's what got Lian to start looking for Kirin in the first place. Lian had good ear when it came to music. He was following Channel Kirin, a Youtube channel that had close to 1M followers.
Lian was there when Kuea played at the Gemini bar for the first time. Lian was frequent there for 5 years before Kuea moved back to Thailand. He was there for the music... He had to make a stiff face when Jay excitedly told him about Kirin, his new hiring… if he said he was interested in hiring Kirin also, Jay would not be opened to him about Kirin’s info.
So he was so mad to see Kuea under disguised as Kirin... Lian recognized Kuea of course. He nearly broke the glass in his hand… He just dropped off sweet Kuea Kirati at the mansion, called to say good night, went back home to change and now Lian was watching cheerful Kuea on the stage drumming it away. Before this Lian thought he gave Keua room to be teenager. He thought Kuea was a sweet / one-dimension person as shown to him. He never double-checked.
After that, Lian started a serious investigation on Kuea. When there was a secret about Kirin, Lian could only guess that there were more. Lian then knew about the superbike and that Kuea has a secret house because Kuea was hardly at the mansion... His PIs couldn't get the location of the safe house because Keua usually went there on the superbike and he managed to loose the tail without knowing that he was being followed.
Lian felt betrayed when he saw Kirin, he felt mistrust.... although he was also pretending… hypocrite LoL! … he never told Kuea about his super-cars, racing that he loved to do for fun and love for Indy music. Lian kept that for over a year while he grew slightly cold, uncomfortable and apart from Kuea.
Kuea got drunk for the 2nd night in a roll after his first attempt to break off the engagement and ended up revealing the safe house. That night, they kissed and Lian learned that Kuea really loved him... and that gave him the confidence to change his strategy in pursuing Kuea aggressively... His original thought was to wait until Kuea was a bit older. Kuea was so drunk and he thought he has kissed a stranger that looked very much like Lian… He didn’t want to believe that Lian could be in screen t-shirt and cut-off jeans.
Lian started to understand Kuea better after that night… he as well got very nervous that Kuea would break off the engagement… Breaking up was the last thing he wanted… His parents would kill him and he loved Kuea and wanted the marriage himself… He didn’t have a back-up plan. Lian was now learning to love Kuea as an adult, even-though it was more like a puppy-love before… they both were processing that.
So far Kuea was truly crazy about Lian without saying... He named everything (Dragon), which is the meaning of Lian's name... I think that's very cute.
Lian = Dragon in Chinese
Kilian / Kilen= Dragon in Thai
Quilian (Kuea's BMW Bike) = Dragon... forgot the language that this came from.
Kirin = Dragon in Japanese
Kuea = “Support” in Thai
Lian brought Toothless and Light Fury dolls for Keua as a gift (toothless for Valentine and Light Fury for Birthday) and then he saw them again in one of Kirin's Youtube videos. Kirin put the dolls behind his drum set... Lian got excited and saw this as a game he wanted to win...he wanted to win over Keua that he wanted Kuea to be himself... he seriously wanted them to be real to each other and was planning to force Keua out from the fake shell.
PS: Kuea didn't like animation. He fell asleep every-time watching it. He told Lian that he went to see How to Train Your Dragon (His friend dragged him to see) and Lian thought Kuea like cartoon. They both have to learn to communicate. LoL!
After the night of their first kiss, Lian decided to show his real self to Kuea…with the hope that Kuea would show off his true self as well. He didn’t want to just tell Kuea that he knew… He wanted Kuea to break down that wall himself… He felt Kuea didn’t have to pretend and Kuea had to know that on his own. He already accepted Kuea in any shapes nor forms, he was just mad that he was lied to. He would let Kuea pursue his dream if that’s what Kuea wanted.
Lian made the move by arranging for Kuea to come live with him… Kuea’s mom agreed while his dad didn’t aware… and Lian now show his talkative personality… playboy like, flirty… shameless when talking to Kuea… that’s how he actually was… He was doing his best to sell himself… that’s how he put it.
Needless to say, it worked! They are mellowing along that path of getting to understand each other and letting out secrets.
Lian decided to invite Kuea to his friend get together/drinking party at his Pentagon pub. Lian didn’t want to do so prior because he was afraid that Kuea would know that he wasn’t a quiet guy… things that his friends would tell Kuea… he decided that it is time for Kuea to know + he didn’t want to tarnish Kuea family good reputation by bending that rule + Kuea was now 20 and can legally be in a pub & drink. 20 is the legal age for that in Thailand.
Yi lured Kuea into playing the spinning bottle game. Yi cheated, of course! Kuea, who already loved drinking, got really drunk and kissed Lian in the open in front of all his friends… Lian thought that was funny. Lian took Kuea home and they slept together. Kuea was drunk and too physically flirty… Lian lost control because he already had a foundation to see everything Kuea did was so cute.
After that night, Lian was addicted to be around Kuea. He moved up the plan to take his parents to talk about dowry and wedding plan with Kuea’s parents in Vienna that summer, instead of after Kuea’s graduation which was 2 years from then.
While they lived together, Kuea learned that his family financial aspect was somewhat in serious trouble. His grandfather and his mom have transferred/sold everything to be in Lian’s name. Lian now own, managed and keeping Kirati’s business & property ownership afloat.
It was more financially sensible if Lian didn’t marry him… Kuea was panic because Kirati’s financial was holding back Wong’s… Lian said he would marry Kuea no matter what because that’s the promise and also what he wanted … Kuea shared that info with his best friend, Diao. Diao consoled him. They then looked around to see that Kuea had financially. They were in shock to see the online bank statement of Kuea’s music income. There were around £800,000 (around $1,066,000) sitting there untouched.
Kirin made that money as a hobby in roughly 5 years. Kirin works included drumming cover for big screen movies, sport events, fashion show, Channel Kirin videos, etc. He played, recorded and sent them in… he only picked the jobs that he felt like… he never checked the income. He just liked doing it.
Now… Kuea has to break it to Lian because he doesn’t know how to manage that much of money and he thought the money could help Kirati’s financial. Kuea was emotionally racked crying at his safe house… he was afraid to come forward… Lian came home to an empty house and got annoyed… he was very much addicted to Kuea by this point… his heart was not with work and he was looking forward to see Kuea all day. He called Kuea and felt right away that Kuer was not ok. He started to guess that Kuea would be at his secret house and wouldn’t want Kuea to be on the bike while he is emotionally unstable. He begged for Kuea to share his location… when Kuea did that, Lian knew that he was about to reveal the true.
Lian had a hard time getting to the safe house during rush hours. He jumped out of his luxury car, hopped on the train, switched the train, walked and got soaking wet by arrival. He was very annoyed by the rough journey… but then when he saw Kuea, he suddenly felt fine… He knew then that Kuea was his home.
Kuea told him everything. He was perplexed by the amount of money Kirin made as a hobby during that brief period of time. Kuea offered to hand him all the money. Lian said he didn’t need it. Kuea insisted… so they agreed for Kuea to keep that as their safety nest if they ever needed it. Lian knew he didn’t need it.
Shortly after, Lian arranged for his team to share all his financial info, including Kirati’s properties. He’s a billionaire… they spent hours with his team and accounting department going through the list + how they should manage Kirati properties. Lian was planning his will for everything to go to Kuea if something happened to him before they were married. His parents would have given Kuea everything anyway. They thought of Kuea as their own, married or not.
That night, Lian gifted Kuea a superbike, Ducati Panigale v4. Because Lian didn’t want to tell Yi, his best friend, who the bike was for, Yi, who owned the major dealers, set up the full set delivery of the bike with the whole team of sale staffs, lights and paper shoots as a prank… Lian only asked for the bow on the bike. Lian was so embarrass with the big commotion. It was a laugh for Kuea. Kuea named the Ducati, Kirin… like his Youtube channel. (His first bike was Chelin)
During that Summer break, Kuea, Lian, Mr and Mrs Wong were on the flight to see Kuea’s parent. Keua was about to be 3rd in college. Lian was extremely nervous like he never had before throughout his life… For Thais, proposal is done by parents or grandparents or elders. They all have to agree or the wedding can’t take place. Lian wanted the proposal to success so badly.
When they arrived, they never got a chance to officially get to the proposal until the last day of the trip. Lady Kirati loved Lian and gave him the greenlight for Kuea & Lian to live together before the marriage BUT the ambassador (Kuea’s dad) was unhappy with Lian. It is not that he hated Lian… it is more like ‘no one was good enough for my child’… so he coldly reprimanded Lian. Lian was a confident man who had never afraid of anyone… he felt so small in front of the ambassador… he was badly seeking his approval and the only way was to be at his mercy.
Lian was not allowed to be with Kuea for the whole time that they were in Austria. Slept separately… not even hand holding … Kuea’s dad didn’t have to say it in those exact words but Lian got the message… it was the true well-mannered / old family highroad way. Lian was at the ambassador’s mercy. He was very obsessed with Kuea by that point and he was having such a hard time sleeping alone. The ambassador ordered Lian to go back to Thailand with his parents in a week and Kuea would stay 2 weeks longer here with them. He wasn’t asking. He coldly said it and that’s how it was going be.
Lian was exceedingly terrified and panic during the private conversation with the ambassador. His palms were sweating... He never ever like that. The ambassador never raised his voice and that made it worse... He was clearly disapproval of Lian, especially the subject of moving Kuea into the apt and living together before the marriage.
At the proposal, Wongs wanted to move up the wedding and prepared millions in money, properties, and their businesses as dowry and they were ready to render anything and everything as needed, including the shirt on their back, for the wedding to take place… and they were sincere about that. Kuea’s parents responded by not wanting anything at all. They said they had plenty with properties on the ambassador’s side of the family. They just wanted Kuea to be well care for. That was the ultimate way of the old fashion / old money behaved on both ends. They both got into the a very long polite and heart wrenching conversation of pushing the dowry back and forth… very rare indeed.
In Thai tradition, if the dowry is too small for the bride profile, it is deemed to be inappropriate in the public eye… because the dowry is to replace the value of the bride… the bride belongs to her parents as a property… the groom takes the bride away so he has to replace the value of the bride. The higher the profile of the bride, the higher of her value so the dowry has to be appropriate to her value.
The Wongs got panic when the dowry was rejected… they truly wanted the Kirati to have what’s appropriate. At the end, they all could only agree that they would talk about this matter again in 3 years when Kuea has graduated. Lian didn’t object but somewhat disappointed.
The Wongs were leaving Austria. Lian & Kuea were holding hands & pressing their foreheads together at the airport. They both were having the hardest time saying good bye. Lian turned around and followed his parents to the gate. Kuea ran after him to give him a kiss. Lady Kirati reprimanded him for bad behavior and the ambassador was looking at Lian with disapproval. Lian’s heart was filled for first time in the entire week…
Now Keua got an internship at the Formula race track of Chen family. Kuea was the only intern ever. It was a favor of Yi and no one badly thought about it negatively. One is because Kuea was very much down to earth and could do everything that was asked. Another was because Keua just wanted some experience as he had so much interest in auto engineering… They all knew that he would just have him for that intern period.
One of his dream was to work for the world Formula One racetrack in Europe so he was testing the water by this internship experience. He had to be in the Northeast province of Thailand for 2.5 months. Lian unhappily agreed… He wanted Kuea to live a full life that he wished to have. He asked only that Kuea came home every weekend. Lian was sleepless when Kuea wasn’t there. Lian learned to ride the superbike when Keau did the internship. He rode the superbike to pick Kuea up after the flight every week.
The novel described a bit of Kuea’s simple and down to earth character in the country… very cute… no one knew who he was. He was dirty and had the time of his life at work. Kuea also had a hard time when he was back to the hotel/apt.
One week toward the end of his internship, Kuea didn’t come home because the company has a party. Lian made a surprise visit. Lian got to see Kuea funny dance. He was having a moment to know Kuea as Mechanic Kuer, who was sooooo popular among ladies at the company seeing from the massive number of flowers after the dance show.
FYI: Tomorrowland is a Belgian electronic dance music festival held in Boom, Flanders, Belgium since 2005. In 2022, the festival has 17 stages and lasts 3 weeks. 400,000 of people attended.
The story cut to when the Kirin is about to perform at the Tomorrowland concert, in Belgium.
Kirin has signed his first major contract and agreed to reveal his face / identity at the festival. Kirin NEVER review his face / identity… (The series had his face revealed in the episode 2…I’m sure why.) His fans followed him there when they were told of the plan. His secret identity behind the facemask was one of his major selling points. People love that about Kirin.
Lian got away from his busy work to give Kirin emotional support. Kirin was so nervous… it was a major step in his music carrier, which he chose to do. He went out to drum and he did so well… Lian had that moment… his heart was beating so loud… he felt in love with Kirin.
Kuea & Lian spent few days together at festival… they were having such a great time. They felt free that no one there knew them. (Kirin didn’t unveil his face.) They could kiss in the open. They didn’t have to keep the bodyguard nor secretary.
At the end of the Tomorrowland Festival, Kuea had to go to the US for 2 weeks to meet up with the team at music company he signed with, while Lian headed home and back to his busy schedule. They both had a very rough time being without one another. Kuea couldn’t drum… it was ok… they already planned for him to work from Thailand, record and send the work in.
As soon as Kuea came back, thy discuss building a new house on the land that used to be Wong’s original ice factory. Kuea needed more work space for his music room and recording studio. Kuea wanted to buy that project himself to be their home. Lian was touch and agreed.
Somewhere in the middle of the book, it talked briefly about his jealousy of Kuea and Diao. He knew that nothing was going on but he felt of their closeness. He understood that Kuea would always leave an empty seat for Diao. He was annoyed that Yi wasn’t there in his place so Kuea had to be that close to Diao so he sometime put a prank on Yi… it was fun for him.
Toward the end they understand each other better while situated into their comfort zone. Kuea loved Lian more as his everything, friend, brother, boyfriend, lover, husband, life partner and sometime father who protect and care for him.
Lian loved several versions of Kuea…
- Kuea Kirati: a sweet well-manner, high and mighty in the eye of society and beloved of all the elders
- Ai Kuea: the rude and funny among his friends in college
- Mechanic Kuea: a guy who loved the auto dirty job and speed of his superbikes
- Kirin: the prodigy who’s passionate about his music and so attractive while he was drumming
Lian was always so happy of his decision to pursue Kuea when he did. He could imagine not having Kuea in his life… When they had the fight at the beginning of the book, Kuea was considering moving back to Europe which decision would receive full support from his dad.
Now they were each other's everything…
The 3 weddings…
1st:
After Lian’s 70th Birthday party, Kuea & Lian went home and spoke of how they wanted to be together like Mr & Mrs Wong… Kuea proposed and they got private wedding that night just the two of them with Toothless & Light Fury dolls as their witnesses. Kuea was an engineer student, he had a gear. So, he used the gear as the item to seal their promise…. Like the SOTUS system, ‘the gear is where the heart is’. Kuea mentioned that many wished for his gear… he wasn’t exaggerating that. They made the promise to each other, played Lian’s dad most favorite love song of Mr & Mrs Wong, and dance to it.
2nd:
After Kuea & Lian were in tune with each other / Before the trip to Vienna, not that long after, Lian planned for their weddings in front of their close friends. Jay called to asked/forced Kuea to come play at Gemini that same night. Lian was on the schedule to work very late that night so Kuea agreed.
Guea showed up at Gemini bar with all his friends from college dressing down (way down!) & Lian’s friends all dressing up…and Diao who handed him a white jacket. Walking inside Lian was waiting for him on the stage with a guitar. Jay dressed up in a very handsome suit waiting to walk Kuea down the hall. Jay felt like Kuea was his kid.
Lian sang Kuea a love song and they exchange the rings. They moved their original rings to the right hands and pressed the new rings on the left hands… with their close friends as witnesses. Their engagement rings had diamonds. Their new rings were plain… as Lian explained that he understood Kuea better so the plain rings would suit Kuea’s lifestyle and showed his understanding & acceptance.
3rd:
The last official wedding was left out of the book. It took place after Kuea’s graduation when Kuea was around 23. They had a couple of thousands of guests.
Let me help you with the language and naming stuff.
Kilen/Qilin/Kirin doesn't mean "dragon" but it is a chinese mythical creature named Qilin that could resemble dragon.
Qilin is its Mandarin Chinese name.
Kirin is Japanese as well as Korean and in some other chinese dialects/languages for Qilin.
Kilen is how the Thais call this creature.
Lian, however I think, actually means dragon. I'm not sure in which of the chinese dialect it is, but it's definitely not Mandarin. And it definitely is the Thai rendition of the word because of how different it was from many chinese dialect reading of the word. According to wiktionary, the closest reading to Lian is possibly Hokkien reading.
https://www.mebmarket.com/index.php?action=BookDetails&book_id=186717&page_no=1
This is the link where you can purchase the English version. I think its 490 baht.
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