Thepabut Maya Thepthida Chamlaeng

Ramil is an extremely handsome, highly sought-after young man and fabulously wealthy thanks to the inheritance left by his parents, who have both passed away. The only family he has left is Mae Kaew, or Khun Kaew Angkab, his kind and loving stepmother, who is actually his maternal aunt. Ramil lives the full playboy life, dating only beautiful, high-class women. His rule with every woman is the same: they can be together only as long as it pleases him, with no commitment and no intrusion into each other’s personal lives. His latest regular companion is Atcharawadee, a glamorous, fiery model and actress who is determined to catch him for good.
Then one day, Ramil is nearly driven mad when Mae Kaew tells him that before his father Rames died, he had agreed to betroth Ramil to the daughter of his close friend Phakinai. That fiancée is Phakramai, nicknamed Mudmai, the little girl Ramil had only seen once in childhood and never again. But he remembers perfectly well how naughty, wild, and wickedly mischievous she was. She used to torment him with all kinds of pranks until he came to dread and dislike her so much that he nicknamed her “the little demon.” What makes it worse is that Ramil likes beautiful women—but the young Mudmai he remembers was plain-looking, wore thick glasses, and was skinny as a telephone pole. The other thing he remembers is that her family had an estate called Montra Farm, with horse stables, and that Mudmai loved horses.
Ramil protests to Mae Kaew that he will never marry Mudmai, but he is stunned when Mae Kaew reveals the condition their fathers set: once Ramil and Mudmai are informed of the engagement, they must marry within three months. If Ramil refuses to marry Mudmai—or if they marry but fail to stay together for at least a year—he must hand over all of his cash assets to her. The same condition applies to Mudmai. Ramil wants to die on the spot when Mae Kaew adds that Mudmai has already agreed to marry him. He vows that he will never marry her, and he certainly will not lose all his money to her. Instead, he decides to make her reject him.
When Ramil goes to find Mudmai, the first sight that greets him leaves him speechless: a tall, flawless beauty riding a horse with elegance and grace. She is in fact Phakramai / Mudmai, but she already has a plan to toy with him. So she tells him that she is not Mudmai, his fiancée, but just another woman coincidentally also named Mudmai—only she is a servant of his actual fiancée. Looking at her complexion, her beautiful face, and her expensive imported clothes, Ramil can hardly believe someone like her could be a servant. Yet for some reason, he does believe her.
This “Mudmai” is also very sharp-tongued and refuses to yield to him. From the moment they meet, she verbally tears into him before he can even collect himself. She is a “high-born servant” indeed, bold enough to snap at her mistress’s fiancé. Ramil is puzzled by how much she seems to know about him and his fiancée, almost as if she were Phakramai herself—but Mudmai cleverly talks her way out of suspicion. Ramil goes home frustrated, while Mudmai doubles over laughing with Tim, the real maid. Tim does not want Mudmai to tease Ramil, but Mudmai says a flirtatious, reckless man like him deserves to be taught a painful lesson. Otherwise, he will keep thinking that everything—especially women—comes too easily.
Ramil goes to vent to his best friend Dhanuphan, who laughs and says Ramil has been outmaneuvered by his late father. But Dhanuphan has romantic troubles of his own. He is courting Natasha, Ramil’s younger sister, but Natasha still has not accepted his love. To make matters worse, Pimmada keeps pursuing him, making Natasha suspicious that he is a womanizer like Ramil. Meanwhile, Natasha is being pursued by Apichart, the owner of a leading magazine for which she works as a photographer, and Dhanuphan is driven almost mad with jealousy.
Natasha is Mudmai’s close friend and just as mischievous as she is. Mudmai has only recently returned from France, where she lived for many years and became a famous model in Paris, even gracing the covers of top international fashion magazines. There, she used the name Matty. Natasha asks Mudmai to model for her magazine and appear on the cover, and Mudmai agrees—but only on the condition that she can wear strange, fancy, fantasy-style makeup and clothes.
Ramil gathers his resolve and goes back to see Mudmai again. He hires “Mudmai the servant” to pretend to be his girlfriend for three months. He hopes to kill two birds with one stone: to get rid of the fiancée he hates and to cut off Atcharawadee, who has begun to invade his life and seems determined to trap him into a serious relationship. Since he assumes this Mudmai is merely a servant, he offers to pay her 10,000 baht, but Mudmai demands one million. Ramil has no choice but to agree, and she demands 500,000 baht up front. He takes her to a dinner date to spread the news that she is his new girlfriend. He deliberately brings her to the restaurant owned by Ploypailin, Atcharawadee’s close friend, hoping Ploypailin will clearly see he has a new woman. Also, reporters often come there looking for gossip. Mudmai dresses in an evening gown so stunning that Ramil is amazed. Once there, Ploypailin taunts and needles her, but Mudmai tells Ramil that Ploypailin actually likes him and is only being nasty out of jealousy. Ramil does not believe her. Ploypailin calls Atcharawadee to complain, and the next morning Atcharawadee goes straight to Ramil’s company. Ramil remains indifferent to her. Filled with hatred, Atcharawadee vows to make him suffer so badly he will never forget it.
Ramil later takes Mudmai to a gala dinner. On the day he comes to pick her up, he sees a woman with the same figure as Mudmai standing with her back turned, giving orders. He calls to her, but she does not turn until Akkhanee, the head worker, speaks to her. When she finally faces him, Ramil is horrified—her face is horribly scarred, almost ghost-like. As they talk, he realizes that she is Phakramai, his fiancée. He forgets all his hatred and feels deeply sorry for her. When “Phakramai” acts humble and says that he is unlucky to be engaged to a woman with a face like hers, Ramil is even more moved and can barely speak. He speaks gently, sympathizes with her, refers to himself as “older brother,” and calls her “younger sister,” just as they did in childhood. Once “ghost-faced Mudmai” goes back inside, she laughs nearly to death with Tim, saying that Ramil has eyes but no insight—he believes everything he is told. Tim pities him and begs Mudmai to stop joking and tell him the truth, but Mudmai says she is still having fun.
Mudmai removes the ghost-face disguise and goes out again to greet Ramil as “Mudmai the servant.” Atcharawadee keeps pursuing Ramil relentlessly. One day she runs into Mudmai and Natasha when they take Ramil to the studio of Yangzon, also known as YC, a new Thai designer who has become very famous overseas—and Atcharawadee desperately wants to model for YC. Later, Ramil sees Mudmai at an Italian restaurant and thinks she is with another man. Without realizing it, jealousy flares across his face, and he grabs her. Mudmai has just finished a photo shoot and is still wearing blue contact lenses, so she pretends to be Matty, speaking Thai poorly. Ramil looks unconvinced, but Natasha comes out just in time to help cover for Mudmai. Then Atcharawadee arrives, and when she sees Mudmai she becomes thrilled that she has met the real international model and greets her as Matty. Only then does Ramil calm down, though he still is not fully convinced that Mudmai and Matty are two different people.
Atcharawadee says something rude to Natasha and gets scolded in return. Mudmai realizes that Ramil is bound to investigate the matter thoroughly, so she rushes home and has Tim put on the ghost-face mask to play Phakramai, pretending to be ill while Mudmai tends to her. Sure enough, Ramil comes to the house, and when he sees the fake Phakramai together with Mudmai, his suspicion finally fades. Once again he feels sorry for ghost-faced Phakramai. He tells Mudmai to tell Phakramai that next time they meet, she does not have to wear a hood to hide her scarred face. Mudmai begins to admire him a little.
Ramil takes Mudmai to pay respects to four elderly relatives: Mae Kaew, Khun Pitsamai (Grandma Noi), and the twin sisters Khun Umaporn and Khun Arunji, who can barely say one sentence without quarreling three times but love each other deeply. All four already know who Mudmai really is, so they do their utmost to tear her down and insult her, then all get up and leave before Mudmai can even properly pay her respects. Mudmai is deeply hurt, never realizing that this is part of a scheme within a scheme created by Natasha and Mae Kaew. By Ramil’s orders, she has to stay overnight at the garden house, where she continues to face contempt and bullying from his four elder relatives. Atcharawadee keeps chasing Ramil every day, never realizing that the four elders are using her as a tool to test the love between Ramil and Mudmai.
Mudmai dares not admit that every word she says and every gesture she shows toward Ramil is driven by jealousy. Ramil likewise refuses to admit that his daily irritation is caused by his love for this “servant” Mudmai. Because he loves her and does not want her to leave, he finally tells her that he may have to accept marrying a woman of proper status, as his elders wish—but if she does not despise him, he will take her away to live quietly somewhere far from everyone, and will love and care for her for the rest of her life. Mudmai is furious, because that means she would have to become his mistress. She slaps him across the face.
While Mudmai is packing to run away from the garden house, Atcharawadee arrives and deepens her pain, acting calm and friendly. Atcharawadee says that Ramil has already told her everything—that Mudmai was hired to be his girlfriend for a fee of one million baht. Since she believes Ramil is the one ending the agreement early, she says she has asked him to pay Mudmai the full amount so Mudmai can go invest in some business of her own and no longer have to work as a servant. This time Mudmai is genuinely angry with Ramil—not just briefly hurt or sulky, as before. She asks Atcharawadee for a ride back to the city, and Atcharawadee is delighted.
Ramil then decides to visit ghost-faced Mudmai, partly to grow closer to her, but secretly also hoping to see the servant Mudmai, the one who truly has his heart. Yet the whole time he is with ghost-faced Mudmai, he cannot focus. He keeps looking around for servant Mudmai. Ghost-faced Mudmai asks what is troubling him, but he does not say directly. Instead, he suggests she consult a doctor about her disfigured face. But Mudmai says too much time has already passed and she does not want to pursue it. Eventually, Ramil finally talks about servant Mudmai. Ghost-faced Mudmai tells him that she has resigned. Ramil’s heart sinks. He then asks her what reason people should marry for. Mudmai answers: for love. He asks about social suitability. She still insists on love, but adds that circumstances and personal necessity can vary from person to person. Ramil says he cannot think clearly anymore, because even the people he thought he knew are not what he believed; it is as if everyone nowadays wears masks. Mudmai is startled, because she really is wearing a mask. Ramil is so confused that he does not even realize when he leaves Mudmai’s house.
Dhanuphan concludes that Ramil is in love with servant Mudmai and tells him to go find her. But Ramil says that servant Mudmai has a chance to meet good men, whereas ghost-faced Phakramai has no one except him. He has made his decision: he will marry Phakramai. Dhanuphan then tells Natasha everything—how Ramil loves servant Mudmai, yet says he will marry Phakramai—without realizing Mudmai is there with Natasha as well. Natasha urges Mudmai to tell Ramil the truth before he finds out on his own. Mudmai believes Ramil is sincere in the case of ghost-faced Mudmai, but she still wants to test his sincerity toward servant Mudmai further. On the other hand, Ramil himself cannot understand why he seems to feel almost the same way about three different women.
As for Matty, he can at least explain that by the fact that she resembles servant Mudmai. He calls Matty to arrange a meal. When she again mentions servant Mudmai, Ramil decides to ask ghost-faced Mudmai where servant Mudmai is. He tries to search for her, and only realizes where he has ended up when his car arrives at the gates of Montra Farm, the place where he first met her. There, a beautiful woman is riding a horse. Ramil is overjoyed and calls out to her at the top of his lungs, but she does not hear him. He honks repeatedly, and Tawan Saad Saeng, the horse Mudmai is riding, is startled and throws her. Ramil catches and supports Mudmai. She is not seriously hurt, but sulks at him for making her fall, while Ramil sulks at her in return.
Then a handsome long-haired young man rides up on another horse. Mudmai calls him YC. Ramil instantly dislikes this YC, and becomes even more jealous when Mudmai pulls away from him and goes toward YC, seeming to trust that man more than him. In his jealousy, he accuses her of deliberately falling from the horse just to attract attention. Mudmai argues back, but then falls into his trap when he taunts her for being weak and dramatic. She ends up getting into his car before realizing she has been tricked by Ramil’s cunning. He deliberately provoked her to separate her from YC. Then Ramil confesses his love to Mudmai.
At last, Mudmai has to confess her entire plan—and confess that she loves him too. Ramil becomes happier than he has ever been in his life.
Follow the drama “The Illusionary Hero, the Disguised Heroine” every Friday–Sunday at 8:25 PM on Channel 7. The first episode aired on Saturday, September 25, 2010.