Is "Stay With Me" a BL or a Bromance?

I am not agree with all your reasons but I think it is a BL

Ahahah I knew it, I was right about the misunderstanding. Reread my post of yesterday, I never said it was not a BL (for me arguing about BL or bromance is irrelevent) I just said at this point and from their (Wu Bi and Su Yu) perspective they are not in love yet, that's all (even if I think Su Yu begins to understand something since the reconciliation)

Well it will not be easy by writing to explain everything I think about your reasons and the fact that you misunderstand my position that I explain yesterday will not help.

For me it is a BL but all my posts are about analyzing their relationship and how they arrive to the lovers step.

About your 10 reasons, two arguments (on many):
- episode 8 - When Wu Bi cries, he explains that it is the first time he has a real friend. You can't use a scene before episode 8 to talk about BL if the main character himself say they are only friends at this point.
- episode13 - If Wu Bi is in love with Su Yu at this moment why he gives up so fast ? why when the girl calls him he said "I wish you happiness" ?

To be clear, for me, at this point (episode 16) and from their perspective they have a fusional brothers relationship but very close to change (it is the last step before love for me: ennemis, friends, best-friends, brothers, fusional brothers and lovers). But it is fromTHEIR perspective, we see that from their girl classmate perspective they are lovers and probably from your perspective too (and I respect your position)

All the physical contacts they had until now (episode 16) are quite normal for friends/brothers even if the "ass pillow" is particular.

For the jealous parts, it depends on the moment:
- At the hotel, his jealousy is more like "I searched for you all the day, I arrived at night, I let you alone while you do something with that girl you know I don't like". It is more than roommate, Wu Bi is scared that she will kick him out from Su Yu life  at the moment where they became brothers/confidents (Su Yu will spend more time with her than with him, they will not be closed to each other because of her and we know that Su Yu is the only good thing in Wu Bi life and the reaction of Su Yu is really important because he tries to hold back Wu Bi).

- At the mall, it is more lover jealousy because Wu Bi insists on "you flirt with a girl"

As I already said, this whole story is based on feelings and relationship evolutions so their interactions evolved step by step (they have more physical contacts in the episodes 15 -16 than in all 14 previous = feelings and relationship evolutions), so for me you can't have an evolution if you begin by the last step (lovers)

And having an evolution help for the censor, because if the kiss arrives at the end you can't censor because everything is already up and we see that in Addicted, they censor from the moment of the blowjob.

I read this and I'm reminded of the song ? friends don't look at each other that way  ?

For me, it's all in the eyes. When you're in love, it shines through your eyes. Please man, it's a BL! 

 yonghwa7:

This is certainly an interesting discussion - in part because there’s some grey area that can make it difficult to pin down. Like many pop-culture concepts it really boils down to how the individual defines BL. To me, the defining characteristic of BL is a clear “homoerotic” relationship (another thing to define). Thus, if there is clearly a desire to have a “sexual” relationship - then it is BL.

That's an important distinction.  Because I was defining it as love, which is why I included #1, which is when Wu Bi was actually thrilled to have his allowance cut because he wanted to be poor in order to remain in Su Yu's world.  But others would contend that he wanted to stay in Su Yu's world as a platonic friend.   In fact, the director was going for a reading that said "platonic friends" because that's the way to slip under the censor's radar. 

Your definition of sexual desire leaves no room for the possibility of 2 boys just wanting to be friends.    Hence, it's much harder to depict this without alerting the censors eye. Nevertheless, I think the director managed to do it a couple of times.   It was there in the scene where Su Yu rested his head on Wu Bi's bottom and said it was "softer than a pillow."  Now, there was plenty of room on that bed for him to lie down without using Wu Bi's bottom.  In fact, he has his own bed in his room.   

If he used Wu Bi's bottom, it was because he wanted to physically touch him.  In another scene it's Wu Bi who finds a way to touch Su Yu.  I am referring, of course, to the scene where Wu Bi pulled Su Yu down onto the sofa and began to wrestle him.  Their faces were far closer to each other than any hetero guys would have dared allowed. And they were wrestling in a far slower, gentler way than hetero boys would've.   Wrestling was Wu Bi's way of getting his body to intertwine with Su Yu's, just as Su Yu's sleeping with his head on Wu Bi' bottom was his way of gaining physical contact. 

In most BL's there is a phase before the confession wherein the boys are trying to find excuses to touch each other without it being too obvious.  In "Where Your Eyes Linger" for example,  Han Tae Joo pretends he cannot shower because of his injured arm, thus devising a way to get Kang Gook into the shower with him.  That scene could be interpreted as "just friends helping each other."  Yet for those open to seeing gay love, it was an intensely erotic scene. 

Maggi64 

I disagree but I respect your interpretation.

You really think that a crying Wu Bi who is destroyed by what's going on will think "oh I can't tell them that I love someone they don't know" ?  In general opposite happenned, it is perfect time to confess.

I agree that their friendship will turn to love but not at this time. If you consider Wu Bi loves Su Yu at episode 8 why they don't step up at episode 16 ?
Don't answer me "because of censor" because you will melt real and fiction and I stay from THEIR perspective in the fictionnal world

Yes he gives up, Su Yu tries to hold him back but he leaves anyway and after Su Yu hits him he disappears and never try to pursue. And when he answers ofc he is sarcastic, he is not happy by the situation but he answers and stays alone in the bridge. Not a lover action specialy from Wu Bi that we know is the kind to act. For me he gives up because he thinks "Su Yu chooses her and not me" that's why when Su Yu comes to him for reconciliation he is not happy but more reassured, relieved and he begins to ask if Su Yu understands that the girl lied.

I agree about the competition with the girl but it could be explained by the fact that Wu Bi is alone without Su Yu and he doesn't want to take risk (but your interpretation could be correct). Maybe he wants to know the kind of people Su Yu loves ? 

Yes at the mall it is kind of lover jealousy, Wu Bi begins to shift his feelings but he doesn't put a name of it now, but I really think Su Yu understand better (the last look they have in this scene is so relevent).

When I talk about evolution it is a process, not a black or white situation that's why there are a lot of left unsaid, a lot of little clues...

I look at it as a question of what the production itself is trying to tell us.

The clues go by fast, sometimes so fast that we can miss them.

For example, in Episode 3, the morning after Wu Bi first goes to Su Yu's home for dinner he's waiting for Su Yu in the street so he can tag along to school with him.

The camera pans over a sign: "Haircut and Shave, 8 Yuan". 

And then we see Wu Bi, who is checking himself in a mirror and adjusting his hair. Did he just get a haircut, or is he just checking to see how he looks? (The presence of the sign makes me think he actually got a haircut.)

Whichever it is, it's as revealing as a girl who plays with her hair when her crush is near -- it's what sociologists call "grooming behavior". (In this case, maybe literally so!) Wu Bi is checking how he looks while he's waiting for his crush.

Another example: while Su Yu and Han Bokuang are eating KFC in Episode 2, they have a conversation about the Taiwanese girl:

Han Bokuang: I feel like she's interested in me.
Su Yu: How do you know?
HB: She's always picking on me.
SY: You think that means she likes you?
HB: Isn't that how boys show interest in girls?
SY: That's a boy's trick. Girls are different.

This, after several instances of Wu Bi "picking on" Su Yu. The implications don't dawn on Su Yu, but they ought to dawn on *us*!

These things, along with the posters in Wu Bi's room and Wu Bi telling Duoduo that he's "tormented by love", seem to present such unrefutable evidence that ROMANCE is at play instead of mere friendship, that I am starting to wonder if the people who continue to insist this is just a bromance are simply afraid of jinxing it.

I'd also like to know what additionally they'd want to see in order to agree it's a BL. I can't remember another BL series that encoded m/m love into its production as thoroughly as this one has. Yes, other BLs have been more upfront with the character dialog saying "I like So-and-so" but the subtlety here in this series doesn't mean a failure to commit.