People do know the reason someone would be scared someone didn't love them even though they repeatedly said they did like with Mike is only because they have a specific secret, right?
Like- that that whole trope and reasoning is "you don't know the real me so how can you love me"? And that something has to be revealed and still loved to resolve it?
Like Darcy and Tara in Heartstopper. Tara says I love and Darcy loves her but doesn't say it back because Tata doesn't know they aren't out to their mom and they're worried if Tara knew they weren't the brave person she thinks that she wouldn't love them.
Mike needs a secret. Mike needed a secret.
I've said before, the ily speech was the truth, just not in the way you think. A rejection of him once he's told her the "truth she might not like", per 4x05, WOULD hurt more and that WAS what he was scared of and DID contribute to him not wanting to admit how deeply he loves her.
But he does have a specific secret that he's worried will change things. And he has not revealed it.
The entire basis of that fear is "how can you love me if you don't really know me". That is the only possible justifiable logic behind refusing to return an "I love you" that HAS been explicitly said by the other person. Not believing they mean it. And to not believe they mean it, there must be a specific fear, specific information you're afraid would break that image of you that they love.
For that to make any sense at all, he needed to have had a secret. Within the current plot, he didn't have a secret. He doesn't actually have any laid out basis for the specific fear required to drive his actions. His insecurities are fairly unrelated. "She can't really love me because I suck" is vague and also doesn't make sense for the suddenness of the change from his reaction to the same plot in season 3.
No. He needs a secret. He needs a secret he became aware of between his different reaction to the ily in season 3 and this one, because it is required for the basis of the trope "you don't mean it even though you say you love me".
Per his current claim...he didn't have a secret. There is 0 basis for his alleged fear because there was nothing he was keeping from her, nothing he feared would change her love. If he felt she actually did fully know him, even he thought the him that she knew sucked, it does not make sense for him to not believe her when she tells him she loves him.
In short, like everything he mimics of Lucas' straightness or sayings he's heard on tv, he gets it wrong. Because he doesn't understand the motivation behind it, only the outward appearance.
That "I've never felt this way before" isn't romantic to say to your first ever crush, it's supposed to mean "the experience I DO have doesn't compare".
That hugging a friend is normal.
That people don't believe their partner loves them out of fear, because they have a secret.
He goes with "the first time I've felt this is the first time I've ever felt this"
Shoulder punch
"I was scared of telling you I loved you because what if you didn't love the real me once you found out that secretly I love you even more"
He knows what to do. But he doesn't know why.
That's why people buy it. It all looks right. But the context is just...a little skewed. When you look a little bit deeper...it doesn't actually make sense anymore.
