idk man i think when a character explicitly tells us that she sees dating as a downgrade from the deeply significant partnership she already has with another character, that she doesn't find kissing or sex intrinsically appealing unless it's for her partner's pleasure, that she finds romance both boring and oppressive and compares the concept itself to a gravity well that assimilates the unsuspecting, that paying lip service to it for the benefit of people outside her relationship makes her feel as though she'd been stripped of her free will, that being forced into its orbit provokes the same helpless terror as being caught in the web of an eldritch entity that actively drives you mad with fear--we should believe her. i don't think we should see her say "when romance is the only context people have for mutually exclusive relationships that are valued above others, they will force everything you say and do into the context of romance regardless of your desires and intentions, and that scares and upsets me" and then do that to to her anyway
