Heaving gone through such an ordeal, specially at this young age, would definitely make their bond much stronger! Especially for her! But since there's another girl in the group, seems like the author still didn't decide which one will be the actual love interest! If he even goes with romance, which will be very strange since they are at the age when hormones are running wildIts pretty alright, kinda wished they focused more on the eloping and maybe had some sort of actual character development between the two rather than a "lets just have kids" moment