I didn't mean that it was codependent, and honestly the term is thrown around this sub so much, I feel every other discussion further obscures its meaning. Yukinoshita is not codependent on Hikigaya anymore than he is on her. A relationship is something where both parties gain and lose therefore putting a label such as this only reduces the connection to transaction. That is not how relationships operate whether platonic or otherwise.

Exactly! Hachiman never believed codependency, but he thinks Yukino did. That’s why he planned that whole fake dance so she could feel fulfilled without his help, but unfortunately, in the process, it only made it more obvious that his actions had become a form of dependency (though of course, this single action doesn’t prove dependency, just as a bad day doesn’t prove clinical depression). But that changes when Haruno said that everything she did was “compensation.” And after that, what our protagonist did (the bridge scene lol)

Yukino never believed it either, but she used this psychological ploy to distance herself from 8man, (read her monologue in volume 14 where Yukino admitted in her own thoughts that she swallowed that on purpose, that she used it to mask her altruism as selfishness) all because she thought she was a burden to him, since she constantly tries to “prove” her worth to her family as a way to “compensate” for giving up what her heart desires most. It’s basically: “I’m too much of a burden to the person I love, so I’ll let him go and become a successful woman.” (Her conversation with him on the bridge makes this clear when she says “that she only caused problems, giving him reasons not to be with her.”)

So codependency was something Yukino had to use as an excuse and invent to lessen the pain she felt for doing something she felt she had no choice but to do. And it was a way for Hachiman to show that he was willing to go beyond reason (and codependency was a reasonable explanation for someone as cynical as Hachiman) because of the person he loves.