information
Cloud Strife
Nibelheim's "weirdo down the street" had a crush on Tifa as a child and teenager, and secretly was her first and, most likely, only true love: her faith, her devotion, her
full care all converge to him. However, she let him slip a couple of times due to her
introverted, shy nature, and, at this point, Cloud is pretty much unable to feel properly, let alone love her back like nothing ever happened to him. Further details on their lives and the outcome of their relationship can be found in the
Story and Love sections, respectively.
Rude
Rude of the Turks
is the quietest, most introverted of the crew; he doesn't seem to be the type to
open up about his feelings at all: however, there's one time in Gongaga when you
can overhear a conversation between him and Reno where the latter is forcing him to say "who he likes"; after a long
while refusing to, Rude finally gives in and says "......Tifa". Whether he
actually meant it or was simply trying to brush Reno off, we'll never know, but
the truth is he will not attack Tifa during the fights in Gongaga and Rocket
Town, if you have her in your party, unless she's the only one left: and even
then he will hesitate a lot ("......" will appear at the top of the screen). Hey,
not even the Turks are immune to love; Tseng did have a crush on Aerith, an
"enemy", so Rude might as well like Tifa.
Johnny
Only after a few attempts at the game, and most likely never at their first try, do people realize who this "Johnny guy" really is, and in what ways he actually does relate to Tifa. Johnny grew up with Tifa and Cloud as the Nibelheim General Store's owner's son. You will find him often at several locations in the game (though I believe you'd die bored if I started listing them all, for there are proper walkthroughs for that elsewhere), but, as he won't properly recognize you or tell you much about himself, his life story is something you'll have to figure out yourself. If you read the letter at Tifa's house
(not Zangan's) during the Kalm flashback, you will notice it's addressed to her from "the son of the owner of the General Store"; at that time, Johnny had already moved to Midgar in search of a better life, but still hadn't gotten himself a job,
seemingly regretting not having taken over his parents' store instead. Telling
from the letter, Johnny was just another one of Tifa's many friends, and
probably one who had an unspoken one-sided crush on her, too; he says it himself
that she was idolized and loved by everybody else in town, so I'm assuming she
never noticed anything special in his treatment towards her: then again, Johnny
isn't, neither has he ever been, your typical playboy, and, if you manage
to find him often enough in the game (as he's a minor character, it is not
mandatory, so you may miss him every time), you will notice he does seem to have a
lot of trouble approaching women. Nonetheless, this one part of the letter
sounds explicit enough to me: "Everyone
likes you. But because everyone idolizes you, I couldn't very well stab them in
the back. I always acted cool, but actually, I was just afraid of being jilted.
Wow, if I keep writing like this, this'll become a love letter! So, I think I'll
stop here. Take care. I'll write again. P.S. Write me back, okay?". All the
information I've collected on this slightly cowardly boy seems to hint on him
being nothing more than a simple admirer of Tifa's, one she probably never saw
under that same light.
« Back