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perfectmatch2025-06-29 10:17 am
marriagebroker) wrote in perfectmatch2025-06-29 10:17 am
Entry tags:
tl;cr meme
post your character, people reply, give them the deets. you know how this goes.
post your character, people reply, give them the deets. you know how this goes.
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Most everyone in the house met Edamura during his most "tryhard" stage of the competition. . . i.e. that first week where he was using honorifics and trying to be super polite while pretending to be a hopeless romantic. But I think Rom maybe got to see the most of it in their very first conversation, especially when he introduced himself as "Enigma Syndrome" and Edamura was just like. Smiles thinly. Yeah okay. That's not weird at all!! And then just continued to maintain his OVERTLY POLITE persona even though that first interaction totally left him feeling SUPER uncertain. Fortunately! By the second time they talked at spin the bottle, Edamura was not trying nearly as hard (was a little grumpy that his entire worldview had JUST BEEN UPENDED BY A VAMPIRE), so Rom got to see a more genuine version of him: a little sulky, a little overemotional, a little quick to react. I think that conversation really set the tone for their interactions going forward too, what with Rom's digging and Edamura's snappy responses. It was definitely the first conversation where Edamura thought "THIS GUY. . . GETS ON MY NERVES!!"
AND YET, DESPITE THAT. . . the mere act of keeping Edamura company while he was sulking actually left a pretty positive impression on him. Despite Rom's not-so-subtle needling, Edamura couldn't sense any actual malice in those teases, which means he likened them a lot to the ones he gets from his merry band of confidence men back home. Edamura may be fussy and easily riled up, but DEEP DOWN IN HIS HEART he actually does not mind. . . a little bit of (well-meaning) bullying, because it gives him something quick and snappy to banter with. And he is an intelligent guy who does enjoy a bit of quick-witted banter. It's a sign of affection!! . . . kind of! So even if he had clocked Rom as A GUY WHO GETS ON HIS NERVES, he did have a little inkling that there was more to Rom than what he could see at first glance. He had the impression that Rom was a guy who actually did care, and really was trying to lift him up a bit in the wake of his worldview being in shambles. Which is something he actually did kind of need in the moment. . . and despite his outward fuss, actually really appreciated. Even if Rom ruined ("ruined") it by joking about charging for pep talks!! Either way, by the beginning of week two, Edamura's views on Rom could be distilled to, "definitely a genuinely nice guy but I kind of want to yank his hat down over his stupid smug expression??"
Around week two is when Edamura started keying in on the things that lay beneath Rom's veneer of uneasy weirdness. He picked up a lot of it from the hot pot date in particular, what with how Rom admitted that he had never done hot pot before (because it is a group activity), and how that fact led to them briefly scratching the surface of how lonely their lives really are. He was being 100% genuine in wanting to give Rom the ~ultimate hot pot experience~ too, partially because he could sense that loneliness (though he had no idea how bad it really was at that point) and simply because! He loves hot pot?? Why would he not want to share that with present company???
But what really hammered it home was their conversation about their ghosts. Edamura's mom died happy and content, and he has had quite a few years to process her passing. . . but that doesn't mean he still doesn't have a bazillion emotions about the circumstances surrounding it. Which is partially why he had attempted to avoid her ghost entirely! Because he simply did not want to deal with something he felt like he should have gotten over already! He got a bit fussy when Rom pushed him to try talking to her, but ultimately Rom was pretty gentle and understanding about Edamura's complicated feelings regarding his family situation. Which meant quite a lot to him, and also solidified the impression he had of Rom as "a weird guy but very genuinely a caring one." But since at that point Edamura was still a bit combative (due to Rom still being sorted as "kind of aggravating" in his mind), he also was not going to let Rom get away with counseling him without being counseled in return. And part of it was out of a sense of "quid pro quo" almost. . . but part of it was also because Rom had been so genuinely kind to him that he really wanted to return the favor. To give Rom a bit of space to talk about his own feelings rather than just constantly shouldering Edamura's. And at that point, he kind of felt like Rom was doing most of the burden carrying. . . which is why he pushed so hard to be the one listening for a change. Even if he knew that he would be unable to truly comprehend the loss that Rom had suffered! This isn't the thread where Edamura first consciously thought "baggage for baggage," but it definitely built the foundation for that notion, since it was the first time Edamura had pushed back for them to be on equal footing. Knowing that Rom's savior figure had died trying to protect Rom also put a loooot of things into perspective for Edamura. It helped him understand why Rom kind of kept himself at a distance from people, and solidified the notion that yeah, Rom really was a bit lonely.
And those notions were what he was carrying with him leading up to their conversation after the week two match ceremony, which I think-- from Edamura's perspective-- was the single most important conversation of their development. That talk came on the heels of Edamura having two of his (logically deduced) "perfect matches" being proven wrong, which means he was a bit adrift! A bit uncertain about what he was supposed to be looking for! Not only that, but he was watching other people fall together in ways that felt so natural for them, when the most romantic ("romantic") inclination he had felt in two weeks was just. . . "I would take this person out on a date and have a good time with them." A lot of this was Edamura's own fault for being unable to lower those walls when around other people, and he kind of knew it! But it still made him a bit frustrated with himself for being so utterly incapable of doing so.