Basic Trope: A character bullies someone to hide their true affections towards another.
- Straight: Alice picks on Bob, but she's really doing that to hide the fact she likes him.
- Exaggerated: Alice beats up Bob on a daily basis because she likes him.
- Downplayed: Alice insults and belittles Bob to shield her feelings for him.
- Justified:
- Alice doesn't know how to express her feelings in a healthier way.
- Alice hangs around a group of bullies. When she develops a crush on Bob, she only hides it to maintain her image with the group.
- Alice is sadistic. If also following Inverted, Bob is masochistic. A match made in heaven.
- Alice is a young child and doesn't know better.
- Alice is a Bigot with a Crush with prejudice against a social group Bob belongs to. She is so troubled by her feelings for Bob that she treats him with special contempt.
- Inverted:
- Bob wants Alice to pick on him because he has a crush on her.
- Bob pretends to have a crush on Alice to hide the fact that he hates her.
- Subverted:
- When Bob complains about Alice picking on him, his friends suggest that she might actually like him and is simply bullying him to hide her feelings. But Alice reveals that she never had a crush on Bob and hates him through and through.
- Someone mentions that Alice "loves" Bob, and she's later seen bullying him. But it turns out they're already a couple, and she's just kind of abusive.
- Double Subverted:
- Only because she's in denial.
- Alice doesn't want to admit it in front of Bob's friends.
- Alice considers them to be a couple. Bob is just baffled by Alice's alternating shows of aggression and affection.
- Parodied:
- Alice, a tomboyish bad girl who wears all-black clothing, is attracted to the scrawny and nerdy Bob and bullies him as a way of loving him. Bob instantly falls in love with her because of her bullying.
- Alice beats up Bob and then suddenly starts sincerely complimenting him without missing a beat. Bob is just baffled.
- Zig Zagged: When Alice finally confess, Bob rejects her, causing her to bully him even more as a revenge.
- Averted:
- Alice is a straight-up bully and doesn't have a crush on Bob.
- Alice pursues her crush on Bob through more normal means.
- Enforced: "I find it cute that Alice is tormenting Bob. She'll make a great love interest for him!"
- Lampshaded: "I think she likes you, Bob. Come on, there's no other reason for a girl to bully you that hard."
- Implied:
- Alice is constantly seen picking on Bob, though with some small hints of affection.
- Alice is seen being a bit lovey dovey towards Bob, but hints at a BDSM-esque relationship with him involving bullying.
- Invoked: Claire tells Alice that showing your romantic feelings for someone by bullying them is a social norm.
- Exploited: Daniel starts picking on Claire the same way Alice picks on Bob to see if he can get away with it. After all, Alice has set a precedent.
- Defied:
- Alice shows how she feels about Bob.
- Alice tries to think of a way to hide her romantic feelings of Bob, when Claire suggests bullying, her response is to laugh and smack her friend in the face for suggesting it.
- Bob stands up to Alice and angrily gives a massive tangent on how horrible she is and that he doesn't want to take her bullshit anymore. Alice tries to remedy this by showing her true feelings for him, but he turns her down by claiming she's only doing that just for him to change his mind and have him Made Out to Be a Jerkass to everyone watching.
- Discussed:Daniel: "Dude, I think that Alice girl has a thing for you."Bob: "If Alice really liked me, why didn't she just show it instead of picking on me to hide it?"
- Conversed: "The media seems to get a kick at characters who bully others because they like them."
- Deconstructed:
- Bob, after being tormented by her one too many times, scornfully turns her down when she finally asks him out.
- Bob, after being tormented by her one too many times, socks her in the face when she finally asks him out.
- Alice's bullying is based on lies and manipulation, and so when she tries to confess to Bob, he assumes it's just another one of her schemes.
- Bob develops a fear of Alice because of the trauma of her antics.
- Bob genuinely doesn't mind Alice's bullying, but she makes him a target for other bullies.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob turning down Alice so emphatically makes her realize how poorly she's treated Bob and how badly it hurt someone she loves. Later on, Bob gets targeted by Claire and Daniel but Alice comes to Bob's rescue this time by using the same bullying techniques on Claire and Daniel to get them to back off Bob. Alice and Bob eventually become friends, and though Alice will still pick on Bob verbally both of them understand Alice is doing it as her way of showing affection and Alice makes sure not to go too far. Bob may even start to get some zingers back at Alice, turning them into Vitriolic Best Buds. And it might even develop into what Alice wanted from the start.
- Alice suddenly comes to the realization that her antics might've been hurting Bob too much, and begins to become a better person.
- Then Alice beats the other bullies up, emphatically declaring that only she can pick on him. No one crosses them again.
- Played For Laughs: Alice shows her love for Bob by beating him up, and his peers find it hilarious and adorable.
- Played For Drama: Bob gives Alice a chance, but she turns out to be, in reality, a toxic person.
- Implied: When Alice is lamenting how she can never find a date, her friend Carla annoyedly snarks "Maybe you should not, y'know, be a total ass to them?".
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