The Guy Falls First is a romance trope that will never get old. A guy may know exactly who he wants, but he will hide his feelings because he isn’t sure if his feelings will be welcomed, or he worries that his feelings will hold the person he loves back from what they truly want or need.
Sometimes, a guy love interest’s feelings are super obvious to the audience and everyone else around him except the person he loves. Or he may have fallen in love long ago without even realizing what the feeling is. Yearning and love at first sight can be some of the best elements of a top-tier romance.
10 Claude (I’m The Villainess, So I’m Taming The Final Boss)
Aileen may have “proposed” to Claude at the beginning of I’m the Villainess, but he’s the one who caught feelings first. Aileen gets flustered easily by Claude, but she doesn’t quite know what to make of him until he shows her more of his personality.
For Claude, however, there’s no doubt that he’s wrapped around Aileen’s regal pinky finger practically from the moment he laid eyes on her. When she proposed to him, he was intrigued by the idea of the bold lady having feelings for him, and he was disappointed when she cheerfully said that that was not the case. And though Claude develops feelings for the former villainess first, Aileen is not far behind.
9 Tamaki (Ouran High School Host Club)
Tamaki is plainly smitten with Haruhi practically from the first few Ouran High School Host Club episodes. It takes him a while to untangle the source of his feelings, but he definitely fell in love with her and wanted to be in a relationship with her first.
Tamaki sublimates his feelings as the kind a mentor would have for a mentee, and he often goes out of his way to protect her, sometimes bringing the rest of the Host Club with him. As Tamaki trips over his own tangled feelings, Haruhi finds him sweet but “obnoxious.”
8 Usui (Maid Sama!)
Usui is intrigued with Misaki first in Maid Sama!. Misaki misinterprets his feelings for her as a wish to blackmail her, and she’s worried he’ll expose the fact that she works in a maid café. But rather than outing her, Usui lingers around her and tries to be protective and helpful — at least, to the best of his ability.
When Misaki makes the male classmates in their school mad, Usui is right there to back her up. His interest in her may be possessive, which is distasteful, but he certainly does fall head over heels for Misaki before she even gets a clue about why he’s following her around.
7 Natsuki (Rainbow Days)
Natsuki is the lover boy of his friend group in Rainbow Days. The hopeless romantic has a huge crush on Anna. Luckily, Natsuki has a group of guy friends to help him connect with his lady love. Anna falls for Natsuki sometime later, but she doesn’t express it for a while longer.
Natsuki is earnest and incredibly sweet. Anna is a bit kuudere — she doesn’t express herself much, and she can be naive about love. It makes Natsuki want to find ways to make her smile.
6 Noah Wynknight (How Raeliana Ended Up At The Duke’s Mansion)
Raeliana may have approached Noah Wynknight first, but Noah is the first to like her in Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke’s Mansion. Raeliana entered the contract “relationship” to save her own skin. Noah says he’s “interested” in her proposition, yet he could have protected his reputation in ways other than agreeing to Raeliana’s proposal.
The Duke gives Raeliana many hints about his true feelings, but Raeliana constantly dismisses them because of their contract. But Noah is the first to make an earnest move with her. Raeliana may question their relationship, but Noah is quick to drop her clues about his intentions.
5 Leonhart (Sacrificial Princess And The King Of Beasts)
Sariphi isn’t exactly looking for love when she enters the Beast King’s court in Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts. Rather, she wants a chance at a different life — or nothing at all. Sariphi doesn’t value her own life, but Leonhart certainly does, and he shocks his court by taking her on immediately as his consort.
Leonhart reaches out to Sariphi first, elevating her status and protecting her from those who would trick her or challenge her place in court with a wicked vengeance. He constantly puts himself on the line for her sake and is the first to make grand gestures. When he gifts her a ring with healing properties, Sariphi naively marvels at it and how he put it on her left ring finger.
4 Yamato (Say “I Love You”)
Say “I Love You” begins with Yamato reaching out to the quiet and introverted Mei. Mei blushes easily around him, but she doesn’t let herself feel closer to him. In many ways, she doesn’t know what to make of Yamato’s overtures, and they both struggle to communicate.
It takes longer for Mei to trust Yamato enough to truly fall in love with him, and that mistrust stems (in part) from being burned so many times by friends she trusted. Yamato’s thoughts are always bent toward Mei from the very beginning, and they remain constant. He’s the first to tell her his feelings, and even then, she struggles to give him a straight answer about hers.
3 Takeo (My Love Story!!)
It’s love at first sight for Takeo in My Love Story!!. The moment Rinko shyly thanks him for saving her on a train, Takeo is down for the count. He needs some help telling her his true feelings, though, because he’s convinced himself that Rinko must want to be with his best friend, Makoto.
But Rinko hangs around them so much because she has a huge crush on Takeo. When Makoto “tricks” Rinko into confessing her feelings about Takeo to him, Takeo leaps at the chance to tell her that he returns her feelings. Takeo may have fallen in love with her in mere seconds on the train, but Rinko was only seconds behind in falling for him, too.
2 Prince Christopher (Bibliophile Princess)
Prince Christopher has ulterior motives for getting engaged with Elianna in Bibliophile Princess. He leads with a symbiotic exchange — an engagement deal. Elianna will marry him to act as a kind of advisor to the kingdom, and in return, she has access to the royal library.
But in reality, Prince Christopher’s intentions are far more emotion-based. Elianna believes his engagement ploy hook, line, and sinker — at first. Elianna believes she’s a “phony fiancé,” but it doesn’t take a genius to deduce that Prince Christopher is a little too excited to call her his fiancé to want a marriage that’s in name only.
1 Hak (Yona Of The Dawn)
Hak struggles with his feelings for Yona because she’s in love with someone else in Yona of the Dawn. Hak grew up with Yona and would tease her mercilessly, as well as protect her with his life.
When Yona’s betrayed by the man she thought she loved and would eventually marry, Yona’s shocked to her core, and Hak is further dissuaded from telling her his feelings. Though Hak makes some flirtatious comments to Yona, she thinks he’s only found a new way to taunt her. She’s so clueless about Hak’s true feelings for her that she thinks he wants her to take his temperature the first time he leans in to kiss her.
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