@mudaemaid I LOVE THIS SOOO MUCH IM LOSING IT IM GOING MONKEYYYYY

Aoi has been hiding her true feelings & distancing herself from others as a way to protect herself. I think a possible reason as to why Aoi behaves this way is because of something family related. We see a very VERY young baby Aoi and what I'm assuming is her dad's hand (2/10)

She has hid her 'true' feelings/self away from others at a very young age (3/10)

I think that Aoi 'used' to like Akane during elementary. She cried because she felt that she could entrust her feelings/thoughts to Akane but in the end, he ran. She couldn't take getting hurt like that again, hence why she shut herself off from him (4/10)

Akane realizes this and fell in love with her, not because he thought her crying was cute specifically, but he got to see a side of Aoi that she'd never show anyone. The 'real' her. This is why Akane speculated that Aoi liked him even if it was just a little bit. (5/10)