Saiteru/terusai has me in a choke hold. It's the best and only nonship ship out there that you want to ship by not shipping it. What strikes as unique about this ship is that Saiki from the get-go could have just solved his problem of being pursued by her by ripping the bandaid off and breaking her heart. How dare she have a crush on him? He needs to not stand out, and wants to go home anyway. He feels uncomfortable being projected on in that way.
But no, Teruhashi liking someone is not a sin, even if for shallow insecure reasons such as validating your self-esteem. He just happens to be the only guy that doesn't react to her shenanigans. By being authentic to himself, he accidentally makes himself stand out to her as a deficit of herself she has to fix.
He then goes from hanging out with her only when she inserts herself into his friend group, to hanging out with her alone purely out of pity.
But then we learn she doesn't just keep him around for status, in fact she gains nothing socially from being around him, and with her popularity it actually attracts conflict. Other girls compete with her, and at first its a source of validation to "win", but now at this point its more than that. At the mixer, Saiki gets to see what her feelings are actually composed of. Despite being a psychic, these feelings are more complex and take some digging to sus out. Turns out, she can't redirect those feelings of validation-seeking onto any other guy because its simply Saiki she wants to be around. For her, it'd be great to be the best looking, and it'd also make her happy to have the best relationship possible.
Once saiki realizes that teruhashi can infact value relationships not just for status but for their own sake, he connects with her. He goes out of his way to show his appreciation for her (anonymously of course- don't want to lead her on) such as VOLUNTARILY helping her brother buy her a present. Could she just have shitty presents? Yes. But... why not? He switches out her brother's terrible presents for something she actually likes, an animal mug that suits her taste.
He values her for her, even if he doesn't reciprocate the romantic feelings.
That's the warm-feeling good stuff that our favorite typical ships have, and the mushy gushy stuff is only a vehicle for expressing it in some relationships.
Its a direct call-out of fanonization, where because people irl have diverse sexualities that aren't often expressed in media, they project romantic love onto a canon friendship to create representation. Is this a bad thing? Hell no, stories deserve to be seen and shared through different lenses, thats what keeps them alive. If you want to romantically ship your saiteru/terusai, fuck it.
But having a deeper understanding of their base canon relationship will help you to better write in character, and even understand what makes relationships click in real life.
Its not about what you show, its about how you really feel deep down that matters. Everyone wants to be seen for their true selves.
P.S. if anyone actually reads this, I'm anime only and only halfway through season two. I have a hint of what's coming, but I hope what I've sussed out here gets delivered on later.
P.p.s. When I picture their relationship in a couple years, I want him to walk her down the aisle. Be the godfather of her kids (or cats) and play pretend as ciderman version 2. "Uncle" Saiki's house is lowkey goated cause they have a crazy (good) time every time they go there?
