LOL I assumed this was gonna be about the anime with the octopus schoolteacher, which I was told by a fellow teacher is the best actual teaching she's seen on TV - but this sounds equally great :)

Also, yeah, I'm a big believer in the connection between love and attention. My shipfic often has a lot of the viewpoint character noticing tiny details about their love interest. And IRL I'm all about it. Maybe partly because I have ADHD, lol? Those states of intense interest in something, which can def be another person, are so powerful.