#lil guys...

If we're talking about genuine love and affection. Yeah, they'd try to help you out here and there, they'd ask you to stay and chat with them a bit on the homescreen... but it has to be gradual. They've just gotten awareness, too, but they have the sense to know that this is weird, and they don't want to scare you, so they test the waters a bit. They say different lines when you finish a live, they wish you luck during the loading between the homescreen and the live or work screen, they say "Hope you get it!" when you hit the scout button... it's odd, but you can chalk it up to an update. They'll probably keep it up to small things like that, their idle lines will move on from "sad" more to things similar to, "I enjoy when you keep me company here" (or a roundabout way of saying the same for some characters, Shu'd hit you with a "It's not that bad when you stay a bit longer here").

And then comes an event that you wanted to grind for so bad! It's your fave, maybe even! Regardless of whether it's the character on your homescreen or not, they're noticing how sad you are about not having time to play, and you even have the dia to grind! So, one morning you login, and your BP is at 3/10, your work tickets empty, and you have less dia, but your points are significantly higher than when you went to sleep. Furthermore, your homescreen idol is... silent. They're sleeping leaning against the edge of the screen. You tap them, which scares them awake, and... they are no longer very subtle.

First they apologise for keeping it a secret, then they ask for you to hear them out and not freak out. But here they are explaining about how they spent the entire night awake grinding because they knew you needed to sleep and are going to have a busy week. You have to ask them to explain the self-aware business. They don't know either, they just ask you not to delete the game, that if you're bothered, they'll continue giving you scripted lines and stop playing in your place, but just let them stay alive. They've gotten attached to having a consciousness.