“Well, one of them was Cloud. I wish he would just turn us down, but most of the time he’d ignore us, which led to so many fights. They thought he was really a strange kid, that he was dangerous.”
This is interesting, because it rings just like the fake memory from chapter 1. Technically, what happened I think is that Nojima wrote it with the idea to show that Tifa never excluded Cloud, but the devs chose to transform it into a fake memory - however Nojima wrote this section clearly as a nod to this scene. One doesn't however exclude the other, the fact that when she was little she used to call him does not mean that this special memory isn't modified.
It also is a callback to Cloud fighting everyone - especially after Tifa fell in the mountain - and Tifa noting this herself in chapter 3 when they reconnect.
But, ever since Tifa’s mother passed away and her circumstances had changed, everyone began treating her as that “poor little girl.”
I truly think that Cloud got the same treatment since forever, since his father died when he was young, and that's why he was filled with rage and looked down on everyone but Tifa - I suppose because she was the only one who didn't treat him like that. This is such a rather short line, but it gives a lot of context of how things work in Nibelheim, and gives such context about how Cloud never really fitted there for good reasons.
Each one held onto his own separate dream, yet the message she heard was the same. There were promises to provide for her, to protect her… The pretty picture they painted of their future with her wasn’t any different. To those boys, she stood as a symbol that they had succeeded in life, as a victory trophy.
Interestingly enough all her three friends are lumped together. As I told Peko, the poor guys were friendzoned since a long time ago, since they always were together and friends since infancy. They also made promises to her, but none of the promises they made had any impact on Tifa. This makes Cloud's case stand out.
“Welcome home, Maru. Never thought Cloud even knew about you.”
Ah, here we get the first hint that Cloud... watches her. A lot. That he's interested in her. She didn't know he'd know about her cat - how would he know, the cat was a new pert.
The shortcut to getting into Shinra Company from the slums was through Soldier, and they wondered how likely it was for a Soldier to die.
This made us all think that she somehow knew that her friends had died, because aside one time, she hasn't gotten any news. Now think about how CERTAIN she is that Cloud made it into SOLDIER. She doesn't even think once that he could have died.
As she stood in the front of the store, she felt someone’s gaze on her back. She turned and saw Cloud Strife. Their eyes met.
Usually when that happened, he would look away and run off somewhere, but today Cloud seemed different. She saw his mouth move.
He said something but Tifa couldn’t hear it. She tilted her head to the side. The motion caused Cloud to dash over toward her, and she instinctively prepared to flee.
He stopped just as he was about to bump into her, and blurted out, “Midnight. At the Water Tower.”
“Okay.”
When he heard her response, Cloud took off running as if he was trying to evade her. He didn’t have to do that, she thought, since she, herself, was frantically running away from him to get home.
Honestly, this is just so cute~~ It just looks like a romance novel haha.
Maru was on top of the bed, and she picked him up and held him in her arms as she sank to the floor. Her heart was beating wildly. No, it wasn’t just because she had been running.
When was the last time they spoke to each other? Yes, that’s right. Maru went missing several times after his first breakout when Cloud found him and gave him shelter. It happened so many times after that that Tifa realized, if left alone, he would come back on his own after a few days. But, still, whenever he went missing, she went out looking for him. She wasn’t allowed to go outside much, but there were monsters roaming those mountains…
And... she gets high. Her heart is beating fast. So she starts recollecting the memories she has of him. And that's where we can see it; she has so few of them that t hey all stand out. She cares about them all because there are so few of them. Her friends are all lumped together, she has so many memories of them that none especially stands out. But with Cloud, it's different. Each memory becomes precious to her.
It's also when we realise that both already searched for her cat - a direct reminder of chapter's 3 sidequest.
When they were younger, she and Cloud used to play together a lot. Their houses were right next to each other, and it was easy to go back and forth.
We were robbed of cute memories with infant Tifa and Cloud playing :') really :') It also shows that Tifa treated Cloud normally.
“Cloud has such a beautiful face,” her mother once complimented him at the dining table. Did that happen when she was seven, or was it eight? For some reason that compliment made her feel happy and a bit shy.
Her mother had given her a knowing wink, which didn’t escape her father’s notice - he scowled at them. This moment became one memory she had of her family life before her mother passed away.
Yep, Thea has definitely picked up that her daughter crushed on the boy next door :') It's also an important memory that she kept of her family life, because it was before her mother died. These were happy times, and they included Cloud. Even if Brian disagreed :')
When did Cloud start to drift away from everyone? Did something happen between him and the other boys? What was clear in her mind was that it must have had something to do with that disaster incident that happened because of her mother’s death. But he stopped coming over to play even before then.
What is interesting here... is that Cloud stopped coming even before her mother's death. And I'm thinking it might have to do with his father dying really early. He felt the gazes of the villagers change on him, and that rage started building from there. Brian probably looked at him that way, which is why he stopped coming.
As she was choosing what outfit to wear, the realization came to her that this would be the first time she would sneak outside at midnight behind her father’s back, and with, of all people, Cloud Strife! This night was special. Her spirit soared. Sleep was the last thing on her mind.
And we can see how Cloud's invitation is already different from her other friends'. It gives her an adrenaline rush!
The moment she stepped outside, she took a deep breath. The sky was filled with stars, stars that looked like they were falling down around her.
Was Cloud waiting for her on that water tower, thinking of her with special emotions, emotions that were more than a friendship? Would he confess those feelings to her? If that were the case, how would she respond?
We can see the stars' motif that are one of cloti's themes...
Tifa is very well aware of the fact that this is a dating spot - maybe her friends also confessed which is why she wonders the same thing about Cloud. As she starts pondering though:
Did she even like him?
She held a hand up to her heart and thought it over. Yes, there was no mistaking it. She liked him. However, this “fondness” she had for him was different from just wanting to spend time alone with him.
Cloud has such a beautiful face. She recalled her mother’s words, and how her mother went on to say, “Well, I think he’s even more beautiful than your great hero, Sephiroth.”
Her mother compared Cloud to a Soldier from Shinra Company – who the youth in those days touted as the great hero, Sephiroth – as a way of complimenting Cloud. Tifa remembered thinking in her head at that time, “Oh, is he?”
Yes, the reason why her heart was racing now was because Cloud was unreachable, a thing of beauty. Like the stars.
Does she like him? YES. Undoubtely, Tifa recognises that she has a crush on Cloud, but she never let it transform into something else because she thought Cloud was unreachable - I swear those two kids - and we fall back on the stars motif. With a racing heart to boot.
Cloud was already there. He sat on the scaffold, swinging his legs to and fro. The last time she came to the water tower, they were still small kids. What tone of voice should she use to talk to him? Well, normal is best. Wait, how did she normally sound?
“Thanks for waiting!”
Was that too artificial?
The things Cloud told her at the water tower were nothing extraordinary. He told her he was going to leave town when spring came. That he was different from everyone else. All the boys said the same thing to her in the end. But even so, she wasn’t disappointed.
Was it due to some sort of spell cast on her the night of the stars falling down? Or was it perhaps the sight of Cloud seeming slightly enthusiastic that she found so endearing? That promise she suggested they make was just a simple idea.
Again, this is so cute. She is so hyper that she's worried about not sounding natural, which is something that girls expecting something really know. It's so realistic and cute~~
But when he says the same thing that her friends did, it's when she realises that he's not out of reach. However, there is a difference between him and her friends: they all made her promises, Cloud didn't. Which spurred her into having the promise with him:
“Hey, promise me something. When you become famous, and if I’m ever trapped or in trouble, promise you’ll come and save me.”
Just a simple idea, yet the moment they exchanged words, it became an irreplaceable promise. And it was that night that also made her see Cloud, whom she adored, as an ordinary boy. Tifa fell in love with Cloud. It was the kind of “love” where she wanted to be with him. That was how she felt.
The promise is as important to her that it is to him. And most importantly, it was the promise that they'd get reunited one day - which is probably why she never feared that he'd die. Somewhere, she knew they would get reunited.
It's also the moment when she truly fell in love with him, when her crush cristallised into love - she wanted to spend time with him. Even though we already knew it, the way it's described, we can finally say "ah, this is so romantic and so important to her". We know that this is the kind of love that's supposed to resist years of separation, and yes, that is why when Remake starts, we can recontext easily that Tifa is in love with Cloud. From the start.
When the weather turned warm, Cloud also left the village. She heard he had hitched a ride on a Shinra Army truck that came late at night. Due to some issues with his paperwork, his enlistment got delayed, and the helicopter that was supposed to come get him was engaged elsewhere, in battle.
They didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to one another, to make plans to meet each other again, or even just to hug.
Her predictions were correct. Tifa chuckled to herself. She smiled, and then the tears fell.
Once again, Cloud is different from her other friends; she could say goodbye to them, but she was not allowed to say goodbye to him. She felt sad but it left an indelible mark in her heart. Because of that, Cloud's memories became even more precious.
It's also interesting here that Nojima wrote Midgar's Blues separation there. The wonder if he read the English lyrics and approved them so much that he wrote them back in his novel will be permanent, I guess ^^