The FFF: Time for an inquisition. He perpetrated a felony by going out with a girl. Defendant, any last words?
Akihisa: [who's tied to a cross] Shouldn't my defense come before my last words?!
The FFF: Verdict is guilty. Death penalty.
In real life, two people dating can be met with a couple of "congrats" and some teasing, and that's it. Because over-reacting to the news of two people dating, even if you're close to them, would come off as weird and overstepping boundaries, right? Wrong! In fiction, it's a Matter of Life and Death.
Characters' reactions to their friends dating one another wildly vary, and this might even be treated as a source of gossip, especially if everyone around you is a Large Ham prone to Chewing the Scenery. The moment a couple is suspected, the friends of the couple would show approval and push the two lovebirds together. If the average-looking Generic Guy gets the cute/smoking hot girl, his male (or female if Even the Girls Want Her applies) peers would comically flip out in jealousy and throw a few "What Does She See in Him?" remarks while glaring at him. The same can go for the male character's jealous female peers. And if the "couple" aren't actually dating, but everyone around them just misunderstood and jumped to conclusions, expect one of the characters caught up in the mini dating "scandal" to be very annoyed at the unwanted attention, gossip, and misunderstandings this brings them. The way the character clears up the misunderstanding/stops the chaos would be as overdramatic and comical as the chaos itself. Cue a public announcement that they're ''not'' an item and it's Not What It Looks Like, or scaring the crowd into shutting up and minding their own business. The commotion would die out eventually, but the crowd would either be disappointed or relieved and overjoyed that nothing's going on, depending on whether they're rooting for the two or not. The male character would also be afraid of the seething hatred the other guys have for him and avoid angering them further. Basically, the "dating" revelation often, but not necessarily always, evokes a Universal Group Reaction (if everyone's reaction is similar).
If the girl is the focus of the story, many of the male, and possibly female, characters will hope to be the ones who claim her Sacred First Kiss and will react with violence and dismay that someone else claimed it, deeming that person "unworthy" of the kiss.
This is almost always Played for Laughs and Ship Tease material if the "couple" causing all this commotion isn't together yet. However, it can be Played for Drama if one of the two characters gets bullied by a jealous posse, or if the school forbids dating and some third party finds out about it; the third party using this knowledge to perform a Scarpia Ultimatum is a stock Netorare setup. It's also extremely common in Asian media, specifically in the Harem and Romantic Comedy genres.
Note: For an example to qualify, the reaction to two characters possibly being an item should be over-the-top. Throwing jokes, celebrating the couple normally, and one single character reacting or simply getting jealous/mildly surprised don't count (whereas fainting, for example, counts). It has to be an overdramatic response from multiple characters.
A subtrope of Serious Business and Comical Overreacting.
Examples:
- Up to eleven in Cupid's Chocolates. In the first episode, a girl named Zitong suddenly comes up to Haoyi at his university and tells him she's pregnant with his baby, causing an explosion in the background. All his peers start taking pictures of the two nonstop while calling him a "vile bastard." When she informs him that she's three months in, he replies, "who the hell are you? I don't even know you!" His peers get even angrier at him, so he escapes with the girl.
- Played With in Clean Freak! Aoyama-kun. Aoyama is a School Idol so it's justified that his fanclub and the entire student body would be invested in his love life. Interestingly, he has a strong aversion to physical contact. So, when the popular Odagiri is the only person he allows to touch him and willingly touches her, everyone jumps to the obvious conclusion that they're dating and the whole thing blows up, with Odagiri's male seniors threatening him if he ever makes her cry and Aoyama's fanclub being shocked and saddened by this, saying, "hang in there!" and "this might be the end for us."
Aoyama's fanclub in unison: Aoyama and Odagiri would be the ultimate couple?!
- Despite being a non-romantic Shounen work, Jujutsu Kaisen features a scene where Yuji mistakenly thinks Megumi is being hit on by a random girl (who was actually just asking him for directions), Satoru and Nobara, along with Yuji, instantly start running to where Megumi is, with Satoru ordering them to get in "Formation B!" like they're on a mission. Nobara and Yuji latch to him dramatically and disapprovingly inquire about the woman and ask him, "was it all a lie when you said your time with me was the most enjoyable of all?!"
- Downplayed in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War. There are several chapters where the entire school is shown to get very invested in Kaguya and Shirogane's perceived love life and a rumor that Shirogane was going to confess led to what was probably half the student body showing up to watch. The only one who actually obsesses over it on a daily basis, however, is Karen.
- Happens twice in Maken-ki!.
- When Celia first meets Takeru and takes an immediate liking to him, stating he should be her "steady boyfriend," his male classmates look and move like zombies out of envy and start fighting him physically.
- After Kodama gives Takeru a kiss of gratitude, everyone is seen in a crying or annoyed fit. The boys are jealous of him for stealing "Kodama-san's purity", promising that they'll kill him, whereas Haruko and Inaho are angry at Kodama and bothered by this display of affection.
- My Bride is a Mermaid has a scene where Nagasumi reveals that he's living with Sun, and it cuts to the world having exploded and all of his male classmates being pissed that someone like him is living with Sun that they get into a big comical fight with him... twice.
- When Junichi is forced to beg Yukana in My First Girlfriend Is a Gal to go out with him, she agrees after a long conversation and some teasing. The next day, she sends him a bed selfie with her boobs slightly exposed on his way to school. His three friends immediately tell him they aren't friends anymore right after promising to be his friends forever. Played With since they're the ones who made him ask Yukana out in the first place.
Shinpei [crying]: A man as fortunate as you is no friend of mine! I hate you! I'm losing my mind from the absurdity of the situation!
- Princess Resurrection: When the other students at Hiro's school believe that Hiro is dating Reiri Kamura (which Reiri herself gleefully encourages), the other boys shoot him serious death glares. And at one point, after Reiri had zipped up Hiro's pants, the other boys all greeted her the next day with their fly's open in the hopes of receiving equal treatment.
- Ranma ½: A good many of the stories of the martial arts rom-com are set at Fūrinkan High School. As such, the students are regularly witnesses to and sometimes participants in the hijinks of the Love Dodecahedron.
- In one episode, after Kunō learns of Akane's engagement to Ranma, he loudly and very publicly challenges Ranma, revealing the engagement to the whole school, all of whom are eager to question the affianced couple about their relationship.
- When Ryōga hears that Ranma has gained yet another fiance (Ukyō), he appears at the school to punish Ranma for "toying with Akane's heart." Ryōga is quickly interrupted in his bid by Ukyō herself showing up to defend her beau. The whole thing got started because Ryōga heard a couple of Ranma and Akane's classmates talking about the whole thing.
- The movie Sing a Bit of Harmony includes a scene where some female students see Shion kissing Gocchan (their lips didn't actually meet), and begin squeeing. They run to spread the news, making the issue blow up with everyone talking about it until Aya, who likes Gocchan, learns about it and gets upset, pushing her to confess to Gocchan at some point.
Some female student: Did you see Gocchan kissing the new girl?
A male student: The hot new transfer student?
Another female student: Isn't he going out with Aya?
Another male student: Nicely done, Gocchan.
A different male student and Aya: What the hell? - Taboo-Tattoo: When Fruesy transfers to Seigi's school, she greets him from afar, eliciting fury against him. Then after being asked what Fruesy's relationship with Seigi is, she vaguely answers with, "it's not your normal relationship," while holding him from behind, causing a furious mob to throw him from the window into the water.
Seigi: Y-you've got it all wrong! This is not funny, seriously!
Seigi's male classmates: Protagonist-type guys like you are supposed to swim in the sea, right? So off you go! - The moment Kiriha from Tsugumomo reveals that she and Kazuya live and even bathe together, the scene cuts to one classmate yelling "judgment time!", and they form a court-like atmosphere, then attempt to execute Kazuya for "cohabitating with a beautiful girl and engaging in lascivious activities" and sentence him to the "maximum punishment," that is tying him up to the ceiling and gagging his mouth.
- Urusei Yatsura: The students at Tomobiki High really hate that Lum is interested in Ataru, to the point that they try having him flogged by the school's "S&M Club". They then perform a chant on the school roof to try and summon Lum, but get a space taxi instead and land Ataru deeply in debt because of it.
- Witch Craft Works has Ayaka who has a crazed, obsessive female fanclub who get mad at the mere sight of seeing their sacred princess with another boy, specifically Honoka, whom she only cares about, derogatorily calling him lame and shooting daggers at him. When he tells Ayaka that he doesn't understand a subject, she leans in to teach him, making all the girls glare at him and wish death upon him. Played for Drama when the leader of Ayaka's fanclub along with her posse harasses and roughs up Honoka at school away from others' eyes just for "ogling [their] sublime princess."
- As Fate Would Have It: Given that the main characters are famous celebrities, with Nate being a superhero movie actor and Yancy being an Idol Singer slash TV host, their fans finding out at a Fan Convention about both of them going out together has them cheer at and congratulate the young couple. However, later in the story, a number of Yancy's more hardcore fans, who are Poke Maniacs, take offense to this development and attempt to battle and defeat Nate for stealing her from them.
- Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor has the scene where Re=L is introduced as a new student of the Magic Academy by her teacher Glenn, and the boys are instantly smitten with her. A male student inquires about their relationship, and Re=L says, "Glenn is my everything. I've decided to live my life for Glenn." Cut to the girls squeeing and the boys crying because they got "rejected already."
- Aria the Scarlet Ammo: A misunderstanding leads the class Kinji and Aria are in into believing the two are lovers. Unsurprisingly, the boys are displeased, while the girls are disgusted and disappointed in Kinji. Aria stops the noisy commotion by firing repetitively into the air, scaring them all into silence, then warns them not to talk trash.
- Played with in Baka and Test: Summon the Beasts. After Hazuki claims that Akihisa is her husband and that she's going out with him, the FFF somehow ties him to a cross and punishes him for the crime of "going out with a girl." The verdict? Death penalty. Then Mizuki gives him a lunch box, and the FFF decides to "torture him first, then kill him." They do this with every guy girls swoon over.
The FFF: He had two chicks make him lunch! Traitors must be lynched.
- Ben-To: When a security guard at Ayame's school believes that Satou is making advances on Hana (he's not, they're cousins, and not of the Kissing Cousins variety), he threatens to shove a D-cell battery where the sun don't shine, and later has his men pursue Satou with full body armor and firearms.
- Bodacious Space Pirates: Marika is asked to rescue Jenny, a former classmate and the president of the school's "yacht" club. note Marika's ship is currently being crewed by the yacht club, as her regular crew is in quarantine. When Jenny is brought aboard, she immediately embraces and passionately kisses Lynn, who's still a member of the school and club, revealing they're in a relationship to the squees of all their fellow club members.
- Campione!: Upon transferring to Godou's school, Erica proclaims Godou as her lover, much to the ire of his male classmates, which results in a Big Ball of Violence involving him.
- When Keita Amano from Gamers! (2015) visits Class A, he makes it clear that he didn't come to see Tendo, who's in mutual love with him and makes it worse when he announces he came to befriend another girl, which makes Tendo almost faint before he catches her. Tendo being a popular Dude Magnet, the whole class screams in horror like they witnessed a murder.
- Hilariously exaggerated in My Mental Choices Are.... After Kanade and his team win the orientation's Grand Battle, Seira, who just lost, makes a shocking Love Confession to Kanade in front of the whole school. The entire school is horrified and enraged, shouting "What" in unison, with the boys going "oh! my! god!, while girls go "nooo!" Then Chocolat says she likes him too, making the student body throw objects at him on the stage.
- True Beauty (2020) has Seojun and Jugyeong do a photo shoot in some compromising positions. The photos are later printed all across their classroom and on the shirts of Seojun's dimwitted friends. The whole class is in a frenzy celebrating the new couple (with balloons and banners and everything). Then Seojun enters the classroom, and they're asked if they are secretly dating and are pestered by their classmates for answers. In reality, Jugyeong is actually dating Suho.
Jugyeong: [claps to calm down the commotion] Okay, guys! We're just friends. Nothing more, nothing less. So please stop spreading rumors based on speculation.
[everyone makes noises of disagreement and disappointment]
Seojun: [to Jugyeong] Is this a press conference?
[...]
Seojun: [slams table] Guys! If I hear you talk nonsense, you're dead. [turns to Jugyeong] Happy?
- Bye Bye Birdie: In the song "The Telephone Hour", Hugo giving Kim his school pin is such a huge deal that all the teens in town jam up the phone lines spreading the news.
- SHUFFLE!: Every girl in Rin's Unwanted Harem has a fan club at the school, and every last one of them wants his head on a platter for going out with the girl they idolize, which often results in groups either aligning with or betraying one another so that Rin can end up with a girl other than the one they themselves want.
