“Where I live, who I am…especially as I am a Muslim, it is highly forbidden and not allowed.”

“It is a fantasy,” Daniel, who has not come out to his family, said about BL. Lead actors Vachirawit Chiva-aree and Metawin Opas-iamkajorn have also drawn massive followings on social media - Vachirawit with 4.3 million Instagram followers and Metawin with 3.1 million, as of writing. The hashtag #2GetherTheSeries was a Twitter trending topic in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Cambodia whenever new episodes were released. According to social data firm Social Blade, 2Gether’s first episode is one of the most viewed among GMMTV’s over 10,000 videos on YouTube, now with over 9 million views.

It was the YouTube live stream every Friday that crossed borders in Southeast Asia.