Tasuku’s Love Revelation Epiphany when he learns that Aguri fell for him not because of his high school makeover, but because of the kindness he showed her in middle school. It kicks off the realization that he hasn’t been very appreciative of her in the six months they’d been dating, and from that point on he starts to value her as a person rather than only liking her appearance.
While it is short-lived, the quick Birds of a Feather bonding between Amano and Hoshinomori on their first meeting, connecting with each other on a level they’d only dreamed of being able to reach before. As Uehara notes, it’s only their stubborn prides over their disagreeing opinions on video games that makes them jump the threshold from love to hate, and even after coming to a disagreement they unknowingly display how compatible they are.
While Tasuku starts out trying to engineer a love triangle purely for his own amusement, he quickly comes to care for the feelings of everyone involved and gets invested in supporting their happiness, to the point that the romantic drama is less about Karen and Chiaki fighting over Keita and more about Tasuku feeling the need to support both of them in their feelings for Keita.
In the buildup to what ultimately becomes his confession to Tendō, Amano takes comfort in the knowledge that he has made new friends since meeting her and they will continue to be his True Companions even if she rejects him.
Despite their hostility to one another, Chiaki shows genuine concern for Keita’s emotional wellbeing when she’s led to believe that he’s in a loveless, one-sided relationship with Aguri and she’s cheating on him. Even though their disagreements on games usually lead to petty bickering, and she was previously irritated with what she thought was him shamelessly bragging about his girlfriend, Chiaki does legitimately care about Keita even before falling in love with him.
Karen talking about how much happier she’s been feeling ever since she and Keita began dating, and saying how much it makes her feel like The World Is Just Awesome. It’s a big step up from when she first fell for him and her life began falling apart.
The Odd Friendship that Amano and Aguri form and the lengths they go to for each other’s happiness over the course of trying to support each other’s love lives. As their respective significant others dejectedly note, they’ve become a strong positive influence on each other’s lives. By the latter half of the novel series, a cute Friendship Moment/pseudo-Ship Tease chapter dedicated to their Platonic Life-Partners bond is practically a Once per Volume occasion. Episode 10 in particular gives them two notable Friendship Moments that demonstrate how dearly they value each other.
When Sarina and the boys she invited to the cafe mock Aguri for associating with the Gamers Meet-up, she gets fed up and leaves, telling them that the nerdiest of the group is preferable company to them. When Sarina grills her about the outburst, Aguri asserts that Amano deserves respect, and stands her ground when Sarina can’t understand why Aguri would be so defensive of someone who isn’t even her boyfriend.
In turn, Amano rushes to her side without a second thought when she calls about Tasuku being Mistaken for Cheating. When Tendō asks why he’s there when he announced the day before that he’d be dedicating the afternoon to buying the newest release in his favorite RPG series and didn’t want to be interrupted, he casually expresses that Aguri’s wellbeing matters more to him than video games, which he is notoriously obsessed with. The playful back-and-forth between them after it turns out to be a false alarm further displays how comfortable they are together.
The light novel follows up this moment with a later scene where Aguri tries to assuage Tasuku, Karen, and Chiaki’s worries that Amano puts her on too high a pedestal over them by calling him up for a Batman Gambit to demonstrate that he would be just as concerned over any of them in distress as he was for her. Granted, it’s immediately followed by another cute display of back-and-forth playfulness between the two that reinvigorates their fears that Amano and Aguri are too intimate with each other, but it doesn’t change the fact that she proved he sees all of them as his True Companions and would prioritize his friends over his video games if things came down to it.
Keita giving Karen a direct and clear Love Confession, to affirm that his feelings for her are true and pure after realizing that both of them initially walked into the relationship on the basis of Poor Communication Kills. Granted, he still does it in a way that initially makes her fear the worst, but still.
The end of volume 6, when Chiaki finally confesses both her online identities and her love to Keita. Subsequently, the two deciding to maintain their friendship even though he can’t reciprocate.
Konoha has a poignant moment in volume 7 when she has the opportunity to completely destroy her Unknown Rival Karen’s love life and leave Keita available for Chiaki, or even potentially take him away from both of them and have Keita all to herself. Yet even when sorely tempted to make her move, Konoha’s better nature ultimately wins out and she instead decides to assuage Karen’s fears about her relationship. Notably, this choice seems to earn her a small bit of respect from her Sitcom Archnemesis Kōsei, who acknowledges her as his senpai with an Insult of Endearment after it happens.
When students are being grouped up for a field trip in volume 7, Chiaki is left without a group and is put uncomfortably on the spot by the student council president trying to find a group that will take her. Despite being insecure about having witnessed Chiaki’s love confession to Keita, Karen can’t bring herself to let her friend suffer and swallows her own fears to speak up and take Chiaki in.
Later, Keita quickly notices that Chiaki is feeling Alone Among the Couples and makes up an excuse for him to be at her side during the field trip, with the rest of their friends following suit to let her know You Are Not Alone.
Aguri and Amano plan on earning money from part-time jobs to be able to buy special souvenir gifts for Uehara and Tendō on the field trip. As they discuss, Aguri offers Amano to work in retail with her, a prospect he initially detests and vehemently refuses. Then Aguri sheepishly admits that she has the same social anxieties about working in retail as he does, but she wanted him to take the job opening with her because she feels that his presence would give her the confidence and motivation to overcome those fears. In turn, Amano pushes past his fears and agrees to take the job with her, motivated by The Power of Love driving him to be someone worthy of Tendō.
On the field trip, there is a moment where the Jerkass classmates in Amano’s group harass him and later Uehara, all while Amano simply takes their bullying without protest. While Uehara gets annoyed when they insult Aguri by saying he’s dating a whore, he decides that making a public scene out of arguing with them isn’t worth it. Amano on the other hand goes into a rage just like from when Uehara trashtalked the Game Club, and aggressively demands that they take back the insults. It’s this moment that eventually leads to Uehara deciding that his relationship with Aguri needs to be put on a moratorium until he can cherish her as much as Amano does.
For all of her Clingy Jealous Girl moments, Karen can’t bring herself to hate Chiaki after learning about the latter’s Love Confession to Keita. Like Tasuku, her reason for breaking up with Keita is I Want My Beloved to Be Happy, only for both him and Chiaki, as seeing Chiaki be a Hopeless Suitor is too heartbreaking for her and she wants Keita to be with whoever is best suited to him, not tied down to his first relationship built on misunderstandings. On a related note, Karen is worried that Chiaki might be truant over the grief of seeing Karen and Keita’s First Kissnote She’s actually just sick and checks up on her at her house and ends up having a heart-to-heart with her about what happened.
Moments from the Christmas party at the end of volume 8.
Keita and Aguri affirming their Platonic Life-Partners status, musing that they could easily be Happily Married to each other but ultimately have no intent of being more what they already are, remaining committed to the happiness of their loved ones. At the same time, neither of them consider it a remotely acceptable option to break off their Odd Friendship even though it would ease their love interests’ feelings of jealousy. When Konoha presses them on their relationship, both immediately express that they’d be overjoyed to see the other’s romantic aspirations come to fruition.
Konoha’s heart-to-heart with Keita outside, during which he realizes he’s in love with Chiaki, but doesn’t want to hurt her or Karen by picking one over the other. Seeing how purehearted Amano’s feelings for the both of them are nearly spurs Konoha to tears, but she prioritizes Chiaki’s happiness over her own and commits to I Want My Beloved to Be Happy even though she’s completely head-over-heels for Keita’s kind heart at this point, and she reveals that she arranged this discussion so his confession would be known to Chiaki.
