I love how everyone, literally everyone but Senda, just knows that there’s something between Aoba and Kou that even they haven’t realized yet, or would rather not realize because of story reasons. Because the tension has been there since the start (or at least from episode 2), and we, the audience, can see it as light as day, and I believe, after watching this series numerous times, that at least one of them, meaning Kou, knows, or at least has a feeling, that there’s something there.
From the way Kou teases her and the way he would sometimes stare at her without her knowing, and the pauses he would have whenever he hears that she’s with some other guy, and how he would unconsciously go near her… He’s been in love with her from the start without his knowing.
The thing is, when you’re friends who have known each other since forever, the line between liking someone as a friend and liking them romantically often time blurs and you don’t know when one ends and the other starts. Not to mention there’s the fact that he was her older sister’s crush, whom he liked back, and everyone in the two families knows about them. Also the fact that that older sister died in an accident when she was 11, leaving everyone devastated.
But, Kou and Aoba were never friends to begin with. Kou was friends with her sister, Wakaba, and the two liked each other very much. Aoba hated Kou - still do - because she always felt that Kou stole Wakaba from her. And then one day, the person they loved the most in the world was taken away from them so suddenly that they couldn’t even begin to understand what just happened.
Kou and Aoba never had a smooth relationship. Despite Kou’s good relationship with the rest of Aoba’s family, their own relationship remains rocky as they grow up, because each is still haunted by the missing presence from their lives. Yet though Aoba remains mostly hostile toward Kou, along the way Kou probably starts to see himself as her brother. I can totally see him wanting to fill that void in Aoba’s life. Despite her grumblings and their constant bickering, he cares about her and he looks after her. He knows her best. He understands her without her having to say anything. He helps her when she’s in a pinch. He pays Azuma and Daimon back by striking out Azuma in their baseball match for putting Aoba through so much when she became their “pitching machine”. It’s these little things, that get just enough attention without dragging the story, that I love most about this series.
And of course, because everyone knows that there’s something between Kou and Aoba that neither wants to admit, we have Azuma saying
Because yes, they do have it hard. it’s only after a guy appears on Aoba’s side that may or may not become her boyfriend that Kou starts getting antsy and awkward and self-conscious, even though he doesn’t really show it. It’s only after a girl appears on Kou’s side that may just become his girlfriend that Aoba starts seeing Kou not as her childhood friend whom her sister loved, but as Kou himself, this talented boy that has always been by her side whom she herself has grown to love.
And this is why, episode 47, ‘Is A Lie All Right?’, is my favorite episode in the entire series. He’s someone who’s so used to lie to hide his true feelings, and it’s here that we finally have a glimpse of how he really feels toward Aoba.
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