Hayame is, of course, completely oblivious to it, but Issei is basically telling her how awesome he thinks she were at the park, beating up his friend and fighting for herself, his admiration palpable. Ironically, he falls for the most inherent and real part of her which she tries so hard to bottle up in order to be likeable to other people and, especially, to her husband. It’s amazing how Issei immediately sees right through her, wondering why she just left and didn’t beat her cheating husband up and kick him out instead.
It turns out Blondie Boy is quite perceptive and, in some ways, actually more mature than Hayame. His real life game hijinks aside, he often appears to be the adult in their relationship. The OTP dynamic and characters remind me of Majo no Jouken - almost the same age difference, the blond hair, and Maeda Gordon looks in some scenes like Hideaki Takizawa’s cousin, except for his height.
At 27, Hayame has no family, friends, job or home and the only person who actually listens to her is a 17-year-old boy. Maybe it’s the first time someone has ever listened to her ever since, well, her “prince”. The way Issei looks at her when she doesn’t answer him when he guesses there is something troubling her seems as if he wanted to look inside her and figure her out. He is interested in her on a visceral level.
I hate the makeover trope with the ugly-duckling transformation that spurs a character to open their eyes but not here because in Issei’s case, Hayame’s transformation doesn’t change anything for him. He found her bewitching dirty, homeless and in terrible clothes so his compliment means a genuine praise of her appearance. He is so endearingly shy about it, calling her pretty, and the best thing is the fact that his appreciation of her physical beauty follows only after his admission how awesome she were at the park so he feels attracted to her in all the ways from the beginning. Finally, there is no surprise or double take on his part seeing her all dolled up, as if he already knew she would look beautiful.
