‘i love you dami’
Heated Rivalry is the ONLY show that has ever made the Miscommunication trope work for me because there's no bullshit, contrived "one character overhears something out of context and never clarifies" event, Shane and Ilya literally are communicating in vastly different styles while interpreting each other's actions through their own styles.
Of COURSE Ilya struggles to be direct and open with his words, he's been punished for it over and over and furthermore English is not his first language so he can't say what he wants to.
Of COURSE Shane struggles with indirect and implied subtext, he's autistic, and Ilya seems to change every single time they interact making him difficult to predict.
Neither of them are in the wrong for how they communicate, this is simply how they've learned to navigate the world, but you can still do a great amount of harm without intending to do so, as we see in the show, but the important thing is that they learn and grow together.
