If you don’t understand why it is important for Maomao and Jinshi to end up together, then you don’t fully understand Maomao’s character. Maomao’s character arc is built in such a way that accepting a relationship with Jinshi is a necessity for it to work.
It takes so long for them to be together because a main character’s arc resolution has to happen at the end of the story (which Natsu originally intended to be volume 12).
Maomao starts the story believing in the anti-theme, essentially the opposite of the main theme:
“To be loved, even just for a little while—that’s a wonderful thing. You almost… start to think it means there’s a place you belong.”
This is what Maomao ultimately needs to understand. Because of her ghost (an often traumatic event that gives a character their main flaw or incorrect worldview) so in her case not receiving love as a baby, Maomao grows up overly reliant on logic and repressing her emotions. This emotional repression is the anti-theme.
She can’t admit to Jinshi that she wants to help Xiaolan because Xiaolan is her friend.
She refers to Luomen as her mentor rather than her father figure in front of Jinshi.
This flaw creates her want, which we see in her goal: to maintain her life exactly as it is. At the beginning of the story, she has no plans to make friends, find a partner, or form new relationships. She is comfortable with the relationships she has always had with her sister and her father because they don’t challenge her emotional repression. And this is why she runs away about any clue related to Jinshi’s real identity, because she doesn’t want their dynamic to change.
For this type of character, who has a maintenance goal rather than an active one, there need to be other forces or characters who drive the plot. That’s why the story begins with her being kidnapped, and why Jinshi takes more plot-changing actions than she does.
However, what a character wants is not necessarily what they need. Jinshi already believes in the theme, which is why his main goal is to be with Maomao. But while his goal is correct, the way he goes about it is flawed. Jinshi needs to learn to be less possessive, which ties into another theme of the story: autonomy.
Jinshi’s possessiveness is rooted in his own ghost, having the toys he loved as a child taken away from him. As a result, he clings too tightly to the things and people he cares about.
This is why Maomao and Jinshi complement each other. Throughout the story, Jinshi challenges Maomao to open up emotionally, while Maomao’s emotional repression forces Jinshi to unlearn his possessive behavior. In other words, if Maomao were like many other girls who are immediately smitten with Jinshi, he would never have learned to let go. And if Jinshi were not so possessive and stubborn in his pursuit of her, Maomao would never truly open up emotionally, something that Joka herself acknowledges.
„Maomao, you’re very fortunate. This person is clearly very persistent, extremely stubborn, doesn’t know when to quit—”
„Gee, he sounds like a real catch,” Pairin interjected, but Joka ignored her.
“—and is good enough that even you were willing to let him win.”
In volume 12, Maomao is willing to give up her want: to maintain her life the way it is, for her need: to be with Jinshi, even though he is still the Moon Prince and, as she strongly suspects and later confirms in volume 13, the Emperor’s son. In other words, choosing Jinshi means abandoning the emotional safety of maintaining her old, controlled life and accepting love, belonging, and the complications that come with them.
In volume 15, Jinshi is willing to give up his want: to be with Maomao, for his need: learning to let go by prioritizing Maomao’s autonomy over his own desire.
Maomao moves toward connection by surrendering control while Jinshi moves toward healthy love by surrendering control.
