Poor Gojo. He's a bit brittle, and has lived so long in a state of rejection. Hina dolls are what he truly is about, but he's been convinced that his devotion is abnormal or sick. He doesn't want to believe that, but it's made a mark on him. When we first see him, he lives in secrecy. Not just to avoid rejection, but in a way also to keep from being an offense to the people around him. There is a lot of self-loathing in him.
He has only just begun to gain some feeling of acceptance. He sees how the other cosplayers see themselves. Some of them had been very badly rejected by their families, and then were able to gain enough independence to be themselves again. Gojo sees some of himself in that kind of life, although at least he does not need to fear his family. His grandfather is very accepting and very much likes him and supports him which is great.
But now he's really confused. His relationship with Marin is unusual because a lot of it is kind of professional. He has a great devotion to finishing the things that he starts. And he becomes very emotionally involved and invested in the costumes that he is making. That intensity spills over into the way he relates to Marin personally, but he sees that relationship with the barrier of service. He does things for her at her request. He does them very well, and the two of them work together very well. But he uses that also to keep a barrier up so that he doesn't have to have a risky close and personal relationship with her. This is quite unlike the way Marin sees him. She is very personally honest with her feelings.
But the intensity that he just experienced has broken that barrier. And that's really threatening and frightening to him, instead of being a wonderful awakening. Because the personal relationship that he had back when he was a child made him vulnerable to being very badly hurt when that girl told him that he was a strange person for his devotion to the dolls. And now the possibility of a close personal relationship has come up again, and all that he can think of it is that it is a danger to him. Because that's all he knows.
This must be an intensely frightening time for him.
