@wackylady
agreed from the get go I saw the way the author wrote the story and realised the relationships exist to have the other character give exposition about other characters ( because the cast of men that we have are hermits unless it's for fighting or medicine). Kayden is a cute cat ,even Jiwoo is tempted to pet him.
Again she isn't here for Kayden alone she actually likes being there with the rest of the gang. If you look at interactions between Jiwoo and Gestella they're comfortable around each other and like talking about things they find cute.
Also it's literally part of her character to help the victims of Awakener abuse, because she literally put herself in danger to rescue Pluton from someone strong enough to damage him to a critical degree. Which is repeatedly started as something even difficult for the top 10 to do. He was probably rescued when he was weaker, but anyone strong enough to damage Pluton, would have been a fight Gestella could have been injured in. Yet she still decided to fight to protect Pluton who she didn't even know. She isn't just going to sit there finding out the kid she rescued is still in danger.
Not every pannel of them talking is romantic most of the time they're just talking about their philosophies and the philosophies of other awakeners (actually this is just the authors way of doing word building, it isn't actually these two being romantic, the author just wants to use these moments to explain more about awakeners.) Her existing in the same panel as Kayden isn't romance.
There is no flirting it's only them having their dramatic shakespeare act let them monologue as dramatic theatre kids please. From the way the author started their relationships it was pretty obvious the romantic interactions were supposed to; be for the lols, lore dumps, power up excuse.
I don't take the relationships in action manhuas seriously.It's incredibly difficult to write a proper romance in an action manhuas. The best ways I've seen it is; Either you write in a gag romance style where the romance being a clown show is on purpose. (The greatest estate developer). The romance actually happens after the story ends in the epilogues (solo leveling). You make the story really long. Make the story give a plausible explanation of their relationship (SSS- class revival hunter since the couple are in a time loop)











