- [India] Hello.
- Hi, cheater.
(India laughs)
(upbeat music)
- Hey, I'm Mei.
- I'm India.
- And this week we're gonna be following relationship advice
from TikTok.
We've been officially dating for a little over a year.
- I use TikTok a little too much.
Maybe a third of my day is just me scrolling on the app.
- I definitely am on there more than I wanna be.
Do you look online for relationship advice?
- I've maybe saved one or two videos to be like,
"Oh my God, let me bring this up to Mei,"
and then that just goes over and I never actually do.
Yeah, I am stuck on my ways, I'm very stuck on my ways
and she's very stuck in hers
and I honestly think I'm right,
but what are you gonna do? - Yeah, but you know,
we get there eventually, but maybe with these TikToks,
we'll get there even quicker.
My expectations are very low,
but maybe we'll get a gem or two.
- All right, let's do it.
- [Mei] Stop looking so nervous.
- So this one is favorite things.
Start a sentence with,
"Do you know one of my favorite things about you?"
Bonus points if it's something you haven't even said
to them before.
- I feel like we do that a lot. That's sweet.
I just wanted to tell you one
of my favorite things about you.
One of my favorite things about you is that
whenever we do something for my work,
so whenever we do videos and stuff,
then you try really, really hard to make them really good
even when sometimes the camera makes you nervous
or makes you uncomfortable, you always try really hard.
And I love it. And I love when you're in videos with me.
- Thank you.
- And that is one of my favorite things about you.
- Fart in front of your partner.
Chances are it will make them feel more comfortable
about farting around you.
- Okay, honestly, though, this has been something
I've been trying to work on with them.
- A year later.
- No, because literally, India will get out of bed
and run out across the room.
- Don't out me, please!
- No, and turn on the sink
and not even just get out of bed--
- Babe! - Get out of bed,
walk across the room, turn on the sink,
and then be like, "Sorry."
And it's like, I really just don't care. Like I don't.
- I don't know what to say about it, honestly.
- [Mei] India's making tea because somebody
is having a little stomach issue.
What did you just say?
What'd you say? You said, "I have to," huh?
- [India] My stomach hurts.
- [Mei] What did you just say, you have to do what?
- To relieve myself.
- [Mei] Somebody has to fart!
And look, they already got up, trying to run away.
- Can you turn this off?
- [Mei] Okay, but like, just promise me right now.
Will you let it happen next to me?
You have to sit, sit right back down there,
and just let it happen.
We're building intimacy, babe.
- Okay. Can you turn it off?
- Good morning, happy day two.
Day one was already pretty interesting
with our IBS and farting escapades.
So honestly, though, that one has been kind of successful,
I guess.
It's been a joke now.
It's something that we're laughing about.
The next one is about texting.
So it says, "Whether you're long distance
or living together, don't text each other
throughout the day."
Oh God.
"Say good morning and your plans for the day,
then don't talk again until you have real,
meaningful conversation that night.
With social media, everyone's all up each others (beep),
wanting to know what people are doing all the time.
Don't do that."
- I think it's really fun to be present
with what I'm doing and just yeah,
say good morning and then have dinner and then talk.
I really like that actually.
- We're doing the no texting thing
and India is gonna be busy
and I'm not really doing anything.
I'm literally just working at home.
You're the lucky one in this situation.
- Yeah, I mean, I'm gonna be playing drums all day
and so I'm not really gonna have even a sec
to look at my phone, so, it will be nice for me.
I'm gonna be very present.
All right, well, speaking of that, I gotta get ready.
- Okay, bye. Talk to you in eight hours.
One thing, though, that I'm being forced to acknowledge
is the amount that I just constantly
am oversharing with them.
And that's definitely just the type of people that we are.
We are that couple that tells their partner
every single thing that they're doing,
It's been three hours, so, I'm fine.
Everything's fine. It's fine.
- So I'm on my break right now
and honestly it's been going kinda well.
I haven't really thought about wanting to text Mei that much
because I've been so busy and I just haven't even
had space for a thought and now I wanna text her.
And I think calling is technically not cheating,
so I think I'm gonna go do that right now.
- (laughs) Wait, not this.
- [India] Hello.
- Hi, cheater.
- (laughs) Hi! They said no texting, so this doesn't count.
- I think the point of the advice wasn't really
to just absolutely not talk at all.
I think the point was just kind of remove yourself
so you're not kinda doing the whole 24 hours,
talking all the time so that then you'll cherish the time
that you do have together.
And I think that that is really important
and something that we really don't practice.
The next one is gift ideas.
If your partner mentioned something that they like
or think is cool, write it down.
That way you'll have a big list of gift ideas
when you need them that they won't be expecting
because they just said it in passing.
Oh, I do that all the time.
- I've kinda been doing that too.
- You have? - Mhmm.
- Aww, I didn't know that.
Gift giving is something that I'm really obsessed with
and that, just you haven't--
- I'm really bad at it.
- But this will be good for you to practice.
- Mhmm.
- Okay, so I'm currently on a grocery run.
I have some stuff that I need to get from the store.
But I was thinking about this whole gift giving thing
and trying to get ideas and then I remembered,
India has been complaining so much about this lemon squeezer
that they have because we were touching
on the stomach issues and something that really helps India
is this lemon tea.
And the lemon squeezer that they have to make said tea
is broken, it's not juicing lemons correctly.
It's just one of those things that I think will mean a lot
to receive, but is really easy for me to do.
So I'm gonna do it.
Good girlfriend behavior.
- Okay, so I finally got done with my shoot.
It's been a really long day.
Been especially long not texting Mei.
I'm really excited to see her later.
I feel like I missed her a little more than I usually do.
(India knocks)
- Hi! - Hi, Mei-mee.
- Hey cutie, missed you!
This is our every-time-we-eat tradition.
We have to dink. - Dink.
Sink.
(laid-back music)
- I got you something because it was something
that you said you needed.
Or, not, no, you didn't.
You didn't say you needed it, but I know that you need it.
So I've got you, and I feel nervous,
because I don't want you to not like it
because I put into thought into which one I was gonna get.
- Okay, okay, okay, I'm ready.
- Okay.
- No, it's perfect!
Babe!
- It has really, I looked it up. Why are you laughing?
What's wrong?
- (laughs) Nothing's wrong.
This part is funny to me, that's all.
- I don't know, I don't know what to tell you.
- That's why I'm laughing, that's it.
I think it's perfect.
I need this so bad and I really appreciate it.
Thank you.
Honestly, I feel like I had a better day than you
because I was so busy and so I didn't really have time
to think about texting you and also I got a gift,
so I think I won today.
- I get the concept of not talking 24/7
so that you cherish the time that you have together.
- Yeah, a whole day is a bit much, but.
- Yeah, but I don't know.
It was a pretty good day.
(upbeat music)
Hello.
It's morning hug time.
- Hugs.
When you first wake up every morning,
give each other a long hug.
Oh, we sometimes do this.
- We do that every time we wake up.
- But we call it special hug.
- That sounds like a code word for something,
but no, it's just--
- No, it's literally just-- - It's a special hug.
- It's an intentional hug.
That was fun!
(both laugh)
- It was nice that we're both smiling in the morning, so.
We like the morning hug.
- Had a nice start to our day and I felt
in a really good mood and I feel like I've been waking up
really grumpy in a bad mood, so I really enjoyed it.
'Cause, look, I'm all smiley now.
- Yeah, it was a good, it was a good start.
I think we should probably keep that one.
I liked it.
- Cuddle break.
If you work near your partner,
instead of taking a break on your phone,
take a break for a cuddle or a kiss.
- We definitely do that, somewhat,
but we could make it more intentional.
- Okay, so we ended up coming back to Mei's
because she had some work to do
and now I'm just trying to kill time.
I changed and I'm just waiting around and I'm kind of bored,
so I'm gonna go over to her and ask her
to do a little break.
So let's see.
Hello.
- Hi.
- [India] So, can we take a little break? Can you cuddle me?
- (laughs) Yeah, we can take a cuddle break.
(jazzy music)
We should do this one more often.
It's really full.
- [India] Hi, thank you!
- Hi!
- [India] I just wanna say one of the things I love
about you is when you do stuff for me
and I really, really appreciate you.
- (laughs) Oh are you doing the favorite things one?
- [India] Yeah.
- I love you.
Try sitting across from each other,
close enough to hold hands.
Set a timer for five minutes,
play some nice background music, and look into their eyes.
You'll feel weird and silly,
but by the end of the five minutes,
you might start crying because you feel seen.
It sounds, it's sweet.
But also that's a long time.
- I could maybe do it for 45 seconds.
- I think the issue is that it's gonna be hard
for us to take it seriously.
Five minutes on the clock, start.
(both laugh)
(jazzy music)
(inaudible)
You look like you're gonna throw up.
- (laughs) No, I'm not.
- You look like you are.
(alarm rings)
- That was fast.
- Yeah, it didn't feel fast at the end.
Timeout.
- I try to not think about it so much.
- Yeah.
(laid-back music)
Okay, morning hug.
This one's for date ideas, so a great cheap date idea.
Carry your bedding into the living room,
put some cookies in the oven
and spend the whole day together in front of the TV.
- I live in a studio.
- Okay, but I live in a two bedroom so we can do it at mine.
- Yeah.
- And baking cookies is so perfect for the season.
- Yeah.
- Aw, fun. - I'm down.
- We're about to go dog-sitting for our friend,
which is really fun.
- Yeah, I'm really excited.
We're going to have an easy date
and we're going to bake cookies, hang out with a dog--
- Be cuddly. - Be cuddly, watch some TV.
So yeah, I'm very excited.
This is my dream.
- [Mei] I'm gonna cry, it's so cute.
- Mmm, soft! Mhmm, yeah.
- [Mei] This is when you get the real India.
(laughs)
So we didn't make cookies, but we got ice cream,
which is honestly a more fun date anyways
'cause it got us out of the house.
Technically we didn't follow the advice,
but I feel like having the advice made us wanna actually
go on a different type of date.
- It was inspiring.
- It feels like this counts
and it seems like a pretty successful trip.
Now I have brownie on my cookies and cream.
It's time to dance!
- Okay.
- Okay, let's go, it's a party!
- Imaginary scapegoat.
Make up an imaginary person as a couple
to be your scapegoat, like someone named Rick.
That way you can blame Rick for forgetting
to pay the power bill instead of scapegoating each other.
- Wait, I actually was told to do this in therapy once
with my mental illness.
I actually did find it really effective.
Squish? - Uh-huh.
- That is Squish and I guess he's our scapegoat.
So Squish is making it so we have to go get up and dance.
When your alarm goes off in the morning,
instead of laying around on your phones,
blast some music, get up, and dance.
Now, hate the dancing part.
However-- - I could use this.
- Yeah, the argument of India, get the (beep) out of bed,
please, we've been laying in bed for 45 minutes
and we need to do something.
- Can I just say?
I love to wake up and kinda snooze a little bit
and be cuddly and she will start shaking
'cause she's so restless and I'm like,
"Can we just please have a minute?"
And she's like, "I need to get out of bed now."
- Okay, when we have somewhere to be.
It's gonna be fun for me
'cause at least we'll be out of bed.
- All right. - Alexa!
Play me something to dance to.
- [Alexa] Dance music from Mei's Spotify.
("Fix" by Deep Bones plays)
- This one is things to do while she's cooking.
Hug her from behind, clean up during or after,
dance in the kitchen with her,
and throw her up on the counter.
- Okay, I do the first three.
- We do that a lot.
We do hug from behind a lot, which I really love.
I don't throw you on the counter.
Well, seems like you should.
- Sometimes you will sit on the couch.
- Maybe you should, they say.
I wouldn't be opposed to being thrown onto the counter.
- [India] I am having my breakfast made and in the spirit
of being in the kitchen, I'm gonna follow the TikTok advice
of being in the kitchen.
- [Mei] (laughs) I love the In The Kitchen challenge.
(laughs) If you can't tell, I usually do that part.
We split it, but for breakfast, specifically, I clean.
Breakfast of champions in our little cutie heart things.
In The Kitchen was fun.
- I feel like we fought a little less.
- There were some quicker resolutions
because we were just kind of making jokes
about this video the entire week.
I brought up morning hug like every three seconds.
Like, "Oh, another morning hug," or whatever.
- I liked the morning hug because it actually
made me feel really happy and really close.
Something really helpful was the dancing one,
only because it really helped me get warm
because it was very cold in your apartment.
- That one actually was really fun,
and I think that was probably the most surprising thing.
- The ones that I would love to keep doing moving forward
are morning hugs, keep giving me gifts,
and saying nice things about me.
- [Mei] Oh, the favorite things!
Yeah, that one was really cute.
- It's very hit or miss,
but I think there are some gems in there.
- My girlfriend is a break dancer,
so that was definitely the highlight of my week.
(chill music)