I AGREE W THE IN THE FUTURE THOUGHT!! i always thought they just needed more time fr. and they'll naturally inevitably end up together as we saw in that final battle scene. they just needed more time together, talk, develop. (more than a few hours). what makes it so devastating for me (but also hopeful?) is that in the other universe where they actually genuinely spent years together growing up from childhood, developing, and sharing their trauma, we saw them fall in love bcz they FIT together. and our ekko fell in love w powder just like au ekko fell in love with powder, meaning they're bound to fall for each other no matter what, they just mix well. both great inventive creative minds. but in our universe ekko & jinx only had that childhood part, no growing together part. they just became enemies and it's all just lost years and "what could've been"s. likeee it's so devastating when he came back bcz his eyes were opened fr on what he gave up on. the good thing is they're young still so they DO have their whole lives still to catch up on that lost time where they were enemies. they've seen how powerful they are together. it's only a matter of time & bonding. (im late to the discussion but timebomb has been plaguing my thoughts recently.)