TL;CR MEME

[fullthottle]

1. Comment with your character.
2. Receive comments from others.
3. Reply to their comments with long ballads and explanations of your characters' relationship throughout the game.
4. Endure everyone else reading your comment like the vultures they are.

Comments

[dryeyes]

this fucker

So, Aizawa definitely hated him off the bat from their first conversation. He gets that what he was saying may have sounded crazy but- it was kind of his first clash with a world vastly different than his. And the fact he was immediately rejected and called delusional just sort of- he might have taken it personally when he shouldn't have.

From there, it advanced to "what a dick... but he's cute." There was definitely an aspect of physical attractiveness that he weighed- although it didn't balance out the dickishness. If anything, it gave him more reason to try and avoid Shiraishi because he's already unpleasant and then the attractiveness + the nature of this place made it... rough. And, again, Aizawa was kind of- mad at himself for being irrationally attracted to Shiraishi! And, as far as he could tell, Shiraishi couldn't care less about him.

then he was possessed by a demon!!!!!! and, again, the demon made such great strides in their relationship with aizawa was stuck watching from inside
and that made the feelings COMPLICATED because aizawa was able to assess the irrational value of shiraishi through the lens of interacting with the demon

But then he was dead. Now, being dead was a great time for him to overthink his feelings. He always knew, deep down, that if their goal was escape then a relationship was stupid. There was always a degree of emotional separation and then there was suddenly this very big physical separation to deal with, as well. Then you start to realize you might miss someone, you stop and wonder if you're idealizing them, you wonder if they're thinking about you- he was basically a mess.

then shiraishi was dead too and- suddenly being near him again + the school mission sort of slid the breaks on everything until The Truth came out and changed a lot of things

With the idea they might be stuck here forever, that suddenly made wanting to pursue something... more logical. So, he started slowly and delicately pursuing that. he also realized he did have an incorrect vision of shiraishi (so did half the game, it seems) and where he had bought into Shiraishi's knowing attitude he realized, like- wow you're possibly more emotionally stupid than I am- wild
That did make his pursuing a little more delicate because- with someone who knows that little about themselves- he really didn't want to force anything on him. He stuck to levels where he could be sure if Shiraishi decided he didn't like it, he'd plainly say so.

And at a certain point the more selfish view of love ("I want to be around this person" "I want this person to pay attention to me") turned into a kind of more selfless kind ("I want him to find out what he wants" "I want him to be happy."). He is entirely serious that- he wouldn't have tried to sabotage the Wish to keep them together. And if Shiraishi decides he can't ever like him romantically, he won't press it. Still, by endgame he has to admit that- he likes Shiraishi and that is an objective fact- even if it isn't really logical why he does.

... keep in mind that the fact he likes shiraishi is not exclusive to the fact shiraishi is kind of a jerk but he's- a jerk he likes! a cute jerk! who likes cats!! and he'd like to kiss!