The Sound of the Ghosts (and Feelings?) Continues in ‘Stay By My Side’ EP 3

BL Recaps Taiwan

2023-07-17
01:20

Last week’s pilot episode of ‘Stay By My Side’ introduced us to Bu Xia, a young man raised in shrines who starts to hear the voices of the ghosts and finds out that his roommate slash enemy, Jiang Chi, can silence the unwelcome sounds by simply touching him.

Find out how the two who argue day and night will react to this surprising turn of supernatural events in BLTai’s recap of ‘Stay By My Side’ episode 3!

Warning: Spoiler alert! Read at your own risk.

Episode 3 – We got close, and then what?

Bu Xia hides in his room and clutches his shattered amulet while the sounds of the spirits in the dorm haunt him. When he informs his sister of his situation, she confesses guiltily that she had unintentionally burned the corner of Bu Xia’s seal while attempting to increase its strength. He begs his sister to help him, and the latter promises to do so. Just as his sister hangs up the phone, he sees Jiang Chi enter their room and grab his legs, desperately looking for any kind of help. He gets shocked when the unsettling voices of the ghosts suddenly stop upon the touch that startled the law student. When he tries to explain that he can hear the spirits’ voices, Jiang Chi ignores him and refers to him as a ghost. Ignoring his roommate’s weirded-out gaze, Bu Xia hugs the former again and confirms that indeed, touch with him silences all the haunting noises. He asks Jiang Chi about his birthdate and hypersensitivity and gets ignored.

At the university, a girl asks Bu Xia to give Jiang Chi her cupcakes just after he calls his sister and reports the development. His sister instructs him to stay close to his roommate before hanging up. He discovers Jiang Chi studying in the park after just having a text-based argument with his parents over going to law school. He intended to frighten him, but he didn’t realize that the law student could see him in the laptop’s mirror. As a result, he almost fell backward, but Jiang Chi was able to pull him close. The cupcakes are rejected by Jiang Chi, who then wipes the icing off Bu Xia’s mouth as he eats them sloppily. In the meantime, images of the two from their arm wrestling are seen all over the campus.

Later, when Bu Xia is once again bothered by the noises, he hugs a surprised Jiang Chi, who opens the door for him. The law student wakes up in the middle of the night to see his roommate holding his hand while they both slept. As the days go by, Bu Xia tries to find several ways to touch Jiang Chi, which starts bothering the latter, who wonders about the sudden display of affection. In the common room, pictures of the two are posted around, garnering an audience. Bu Xia gets the bright idea to see whether he can hush the spirits’ voices by touching other people, but he fails. In the end, the intrusive voices are only silenced by his roommate, whom he just happened to bump into in the room. Bu Xia gets the idea to test if touching other people can also mute the voices of the ghosts, but fails. Ultimately, only his roommate, whom he stumbled upon, silences the unwanted voices. He hugs the latter and tells him he is special, then leaves the room. Jiang Chi chases after him and pins him against the wall while asking him what he meant by special. Bu Xia pushes him away as Jiang Chi stares at him intently and manages to run away.

The following day, the basketball team manager follows Jiang Chi around school and tries to recruit him, but he keeps turning her down. The manager says she anticipated the law student would now join because he is already acquainted with Bu Xia, which caused him to look at her. He suddenly asks the manager, pretending it is for a friend, what it means when someone constantly finds a way to touch or stare at you and calls you special. The manager asks back what the reaction of the friend is, and if the friend did not refuse the initiative, then maybe they are also subject to affection. She concludes that the friend and the person who displays affection like each other romantically. When the manager asks who that friend is, Jiang Chi changes the topic.

At basketball practice, the captain’s ball is caught by Jiang Chi, who arrives out of nowhere and hands it to Bu Xia. He questions him about why he hasn’t responded to his question yet, which causes the latter to become flustered and hiccup. The law student ruffles the basketball player’s hair before walking away, garnering teases from the basketball team. The captain gives an ultimatum to Bu Xia to recruit Jiang Chi. If he fails, he will not be able to play in the next game.

A troubled Bu Xia is seen in the common area staring at Jiang Chi, who is reading. He is asked by Jiang Chi if he has anything to say to him as the “special person”. The basketball player glances away and denies that he is staring at his roommate. Jiang Chi moves in closer to him and informs him that he has been wondering about his motives ever since they started arm wrestling because of the latter’s actions of first going close to him and then moving away from him. Bu Xia becomes flustered and moves further before admitting that he truly finds the law student to be comfortable around him and that he ought to join the basketball team so they may “touch more.”. The embarrassed Bu Xia, who is still trying to convince him to join, is teased by Jiang Chi as he draws closer. He says that since he is special, joining the team will depend on his performance, then walks away. Bu Xia stumbles at Jiang Chi as he tries to stop him from leaving, the two end up staring at one another after the latter manages to catch him in his arms.

Writer’s Thoughts:

There is a lot of touching between the two major leads, and we love it! In contrast to the stoic Jiang Chi of the pilot episodes, Episode 3 depicts a very different Jiang Chi. It is obvious that our guy Bu Xia has begun to leave behind lingering thoughts and feelings, but what is refreshing in this situation is that he appears to welcome the new feelings with an open mind and even places a lot of weight on the other boy calling him special. Meanwhile, the boy who can hear the voices of the ghosts remains oblivious to his effect on the poor guy! But Xia’s situation has not yet been resolved, but there are still seven episodes left in the series to explore it. Keep an eye out for the release of “Stay By My Side” Episode 4 on July 21!

Watch ‘Stay By My Side’ on GagaOOLala.

RELATED ARTICLE: