AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
🖤🩶🤍💜 💚🤍🩶🖤
🖤🩶🤍💜 💚🤍🩶🖤
🖤🩶🤍💜 💚🤍🩶🖤
🖤🩶🤍💜 💚🤍🩶🖤
"I don't look at her sexually."
"I don't love her either."
"Tachibana is beautiful, but I won't ever fall in love with her."
"My type? I don't have something like that."
"A type, huh..., I really don't have one, honestly."
"I don't get these sorts of things"
Some of these have plausible deniability, but combined?
⠀⠀⠀ABSOLUTE
⠀灬◞ ⠀⠀ ︵⠀⠀ ◟灬
⠀‾|‾ ⠀ ( ゚ー ゚)⠀⠀‾|‾
⠀ ╰–—| ̄‾ ̄|—–╯
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀|_____|
⠀⠀⠀ AROACE
Oof, left out a massive piece of context there.
"A type, huh..., I really don't have one, honestly."
>>> "They'd have to be someone I can get along with... Maybe "compatibility is the right word...?"
"I don't really get these sorts of things."
In that moment he is seriously thinking about what Noa asked him, trying to make her understand his own thought process when it comes to romance. She appears to believe strongly that it's a matter of
type. Categories such as "proper and graceful" and "gal". These are defined by
externalities - Tachibana's long black hair and her style of dress identify her as "proper and graceful", and Negi is Noa's gold standard for what a "gal" looks and acts like.
Given this definition of type (context matters!), Rihito replies to her honestly and accurately that he doesn't have one. But the next sentence immediately after that is about what Rihito thinks Noa
actually wanted to know - who or what Rihito looks for in a potential partner. And the key takeaway is that
he does have an answer - even if it's an incomplete one that he himself isn't quite satisfied with. All he can tell is that "type" doesn't enter into it, and it's definitely something that's missing when it comes to Tachibana - the very idea of being romantically connected to her, specifically, is like nails on a chalkboard to him. Whereas when people suggest that he and Noa are dating he not only understands why they might think that, he doesn't seem to mind them saying it - his only worry seems to be that it might cause trouble for Noa. (Noa, meanwhile, is worried it might cause trouble for him and the woman who will inevitably steal him away from her because she sucks. They worry...
about each other. That's Noa's saving grace, and why the romance will eventually work out, if it ever does.)
That's what we're meant to take away - that by Rihito's personal concept of romance, Tachibana misses the most basic requirement,
but Noa doesn't. Which means there's a chance.
So: plausible deniability is still very much alive and kicking, I'm afraid.