Benji shippers (me included) seem to forget that Kenji is a very caring character, who doesnāt admit it, but heād die for his friends. Heād protect them all if he could, and he canāt live without them. Not being able to be there for them in crucial times makes him feel anxious. Showed especially in s2 when he was doing a lot of daredevil stuff.
The reason we think heās doing it (in both cc & ct) out of deeper love for Ben/Brooklynn is because the writers like to particularly put the B characters into near-death scenes.
(Ben ādyingā at the monorail, Brooklynn getting kidnapped by Wu, bumpy getting chipped by DK, Ben almost dying when trying to free bumpy, Brooklynn being ādeadā and undercover in ct, Bumpy teased to be dying in ct s1, Ben getting electrocuted in ct s1, Bumpy being taken by Biosyn, Brooklynn almost dying in 4x05 ā¦ thereās probably more.)
Sure, the others have gotten hurt too, but it never lasted more than one episode, ie Sammyās injury. Yaz went to get the injury cause sheās the fastest and obviously Yasammy ship building; but if Yaz couldnāt have, kenji would have for sure gone instead. (Okay, Yaz was disabled throughout many episodes, though the writers never teased her to be dying or in need of urgent help. Also there was a whole episode of Kenji helping disabled Yaz.)
Making it look like Benji & Kenlynn in a love corner thing at that point, cause kenji always cares the most about rescuing them. But heād for sure do the same if the other characters were in that near-death situation.
This is hinted in the episode in Senegal when they āleftā Yaz alone at night, and Kenji then hugs her first once sheās safe with them.
Like if Darius got stung in s4 instead, we mightāve not gotten a similar heartfelt conversation in the hyperloop simply because they are already close and talk a lot, and Darius doesnāt have the same uncertainties as Ben, but heād for sure have done the elevator scene to save Darius. If Brooklynn got stung instead, there would be no necessity for Kenji to be with her, cause Iām sure anyone is able to carry Brooklynn; Kenji however is the second strongest physically, so it was sorta necessary for him to stay with Ben.
He also proposed to go alone to the chicken farm, just so Zayna (and the others) wonāt be harmed. And we can all agree on that that was not out of potential romance.
The only reason why he didnāt go after Brooklynn to Malta, apart from not completely trusting her, is cause he got at his limit. Which he told Darius earlier in the car ride. Then why would he have played the hero for Ben in s4? Because he was there when it happened. For Brooklynn, heād needed to travel to Malta and then hope first that she wants to be rescued; there was no certainty, the whole rescue mission couldāve gone totally wrong/been useless. But Ben did need rescuing, needed to quickly get medical help, out of the dinosaur forest, and was very close to death. Big difference.
Iām not saying that romantic feelings canāt develop when someone plays a hero for another person all the time because that one person just loves being tortured like that by the writers. So, yeah, sure, Kenji (and Ben too) might have totally fallen in love during all that heroism action scenes.
But we do gotta keep in mind Kenjiās character and how much heās gone through in CT especially. He wouldnāt have been able to take another death (as he said in s1 when Bumpy was ādyingā), so it was moreso him making sure he doesnāt get another scar on his heart for losing a loved one, and not the fact that it was Ben injured in particular.
