i fucking love it when a girl who harbored intense jealousy towards another girl she believes is better than her in every way realizes that the girl who's the target of their jealousy loves her and then starts deriving her self worth from the idea that someone they believed to be so perfect and superior loves them
yeah but this type of thing is pretty hard to write and can't easily come across as average teenfic if not carefully enough
this dynamic is already hard to write when both of the parties have their own talent, I have seen the "inferior" character having the "superior" character admired and looked up to the "inferior" character, that doesn't make the "inferior" character feel any less inferior, they feel both at the same time, which is so wrenching and painful, the only good outcome is when both parties learn use their own talent to help each other
but now one of the parties is at the bottom lowest line, no matter how much the "superior" character love the "lowest" character, the "lowest" character gonna feel like throwing up because it's a long ass way to heal while the "superior" character becomes shiner and shiner day by day, any human would have dignity and that type of relationship will definitely destroy them
you want them together, either they are both already lowkey fucked up, obsessed with each other, and become even more fucked up, or they gonna have a very longggg and carefully healing journey to be together
nina admires mao's shiny side, and mao being a mess but still yearns to be loved, respected, and doesnt seem like she cares about nina that much, it gonna hard for them to go for the first route, and this story doesnt seem like a long series either, the only satisfying ending the author can go for is the break up after communicating and helping each other a bit