Gao and Paruko

This has probably been talked about a bunch, but has anyone ever felt a bit surprised by how Gao and Paruko ended up together? I should preface by saying I don’t have a problem with this, i’m just curious about the decision. If you’ve watched the OG anime then you’d know Paruko definitely wasn’t the “obvious” choice for a love interest if you had to think of one. I would have expected Kazane, Suzuha, or even Kuguru (although her and Baku make more sense). I know we see them have a few interactions over the course of the series (some of them being negative) but I wouldn’t have guessed they’d end up together. I know a lot can happen from childhood to adulthood but still. If anything I would have loved to see that relationship more if Ace ever continued.