#aeothoughts

if you pick multiple, there isn't much of a reaction. when choosing a singular color, however, there are ones where qiu:

relates it to his house

relates it to his bike

relates it to his clothes

and each one has a speech bubble absolutely drenched in hearts. it's such an endearing way for him to connect with the mc, and he looks super excited in the process. it reminds me of tamarack, who i know claims your favorites as her favorites if you're friends/crushes.

of course there is a great reaction for gold, but i was personally really tickled by this scene:

seriously adorable lmao.

on the other end of the spectrum, there are some shades qiu connects to tamarack's clothes instead, like purple, pink, and yellow. this is a noticeable difference from the neighbor (and maybe friend?) route, where he doesn't seem to do this at all. more specifically, if you choose something like yellow or brown there, qiu just goes "well i guess it deserves to be someone's favorite" which kills me.

here's a fun little detail—if you're on "crush" with qiu during the prologue of step 1, and you choose to say something along the lines of "you should really focus on class stuff," he says this:

the text (and doll expression) slightly changes on a "friends" level:

and then on a "neighbors" level, that ending bit is completely replaced:

it's cool to see how we go from blatant flattery to more separated, polite reassurance. though step 1 qiu is kind no matter what, he's definitely super forward with his feelings towards the mc, whether it be platonic or not.

Basically, it's super interesting to see how they "clash" with each other early on. It serves to highlight how much the two change come step 2.

For instance, I'm fairly certain step 2 Tamarack (if you keep her on contesting), would still speak her mind, but definitely not in such a forward way like in the past. She's too careful of how she comes across. It's like she adopts some of step 1 Qiu's mindfulness and is bogged down as a result, just like how Qiu ends up.

As for step 2 Qiu, they definitely take on some of step 1 Tammy's bluntness. Though they've become more apathetic and wouldn't tackle things from a competitive standpoint, there's still that sense of individuality, which pushes back in a similar way to young Tamarack. Qiu goes their own way in spite of the group, yet risks isolation doing so.

What sticks out to me most is that, in a way, they end up growing into each other.

i read one of the asks on gb-patch's tumblr about when the boy's club first met each other. they said that renee and qiu in specific had been friends since they were toddlers.

so now i'm thinking, there's something tragic about how they're not as close as they used to be come step 2. i understand the reasons behind it, how qiu withdraws from others due to all the burnout, and that renee in general struggles socially while having her own life to deal with around that time. but consider having someone that you've known all your life suddenly not be there by your side anymore. it's not as if they dislike each other; they're still friends in their own way. however, it's not the same.

there's really that sense of emptiness where the person used to be. like, a leftover spot with their personal shape that can't just be filled out by someone else. and with that in mind, no wonder teenage qiu feels the way they do, especially in the assistance moment. their parents already misunderstand them, the connections with their peers probably feel superficial at best since everything was rooted in their accommodating nature, and then one of the few people they had a genuine bond with—one of the biggest staples of their childhood—is also not around. qiu feels completely alone. they feel like the root cause of their isolation. they're alone, and it's all their fault.

it makes qiu read like a dimming star.