Talk:Mayura Otomi/@comment-37635209-20181126195449/@comment-43547932-20190818211805

This might sound a bit rude, but so it's clear I don't mean any offense and I don't think you're stupid, I used to think and feel like that when I was 14 and had this ridiculous unrequited crush on a boy who never managed to see me as more than a friend. Yet this attitude is childish, it's immature, since normally people grow up and out of believing that first crush, the puppy love sometimes amplified by raging puberty hormones( if it lasts till puberty), should be "it" for their whole existence. Especially since eventually one might realise they were never truly romantically interested in that person they cared about since childhood.

They were still very young when she had this crush on Rokuro, they were 14 themselves, but ended up with adult responsibilities.

And Mayura, whom I like exactly for being a more complex character than the disregarded childhood friend with a not so secret crush on the male MC and who stubbornly won't let go of something that will never give her happiness, decided she wanted to be more than just that, she discovered she liked her supposed rival as a possible friend, she discovered she can make more friends, and that if she works hard enough and the right way, she can be an onmyouji and protect all the people she cares for, not just her crush. And two years later, she apparently realised that Rokuro was sticking to a path he and Benio had embraced for themselves, while she had a path open for herself. And as a smart girl, she took it. And when she needed a friend to help her figure out the ropes to her new life and Rokuro was too busy with his, Shimon was there for her. As a friend and mentor. And that's the reality of their current relationship even in the manga.

She hasn randomly given her heart to some new character, she's built a strong friendship with a guy she's gotten to know over months they kept interacting(while losing touch with Rokuro altogether) and she can't help noticing Shimon is very attractive(something that was never actually set up in her previous perspective of Rokuro), and is still in the process of falling in love with him, even though he's already in love with her, yet he's allowing things run their natural course since they have other priorities and Mayura has her own pace.

That's why I enjoy this ship a lot more than the main couple, because they feel like real teenagers who experience attraction, build their emotional bond on things they have in common and basically grow together gradually, organically.

It's unnatural and cruel to expect anyone to stick in a dead end situation like forever crushing on someone in an established pretty much permanent mutual romantic relationship while there are other people around who can actually match them, their tastes, their personality and on top of that to be emotionally available and open to them.