Teodora Maria Bun and Menchilou Deo Antopina began watching “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” like clockwork, together each week after they met in Singapore.
For extra oomph, and sometimes with friends, they usually downed shots — including a mystery shot once mixed with durian, the notoriously pungent fruit — each time a drag queen on the reality competition show performed an amazing feat like a cartwheel, split or death drop.
“It’s part of our relationship,” said Ms. Antopina, 32, who goes by Mench.
She “super liked” Ms. Bun, 30, who goes by Maria, her very first time on Tinder one Sunday evening in July 2020.
Ms. Bun’s green eyes in a selfie blew her away.
“It shows her beauty,” said Ms. Antopina, who had arrived in Singapore at the end of January 2020, a few weeks before pandemic lockdown, to take a breather from her career as an accountant in Cebu, the Philippines, where she grew up.
For a change of pace, Ms. Antopina, who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Cebu Institute of Technology-University, got a job as a representative for a concierge service in Singapore. She is now an independent accountant providing corporate and accounting services to multinational companies in the Philippines.
“I ‘super liked’ her right back,” said Ms. Bun, 30, a lawyer, using the Tinder term, and invited her over that evening for some red wine.
