>>57756656Emerald's story is about him growing up very isolated, even worse than other lonely characters in the series because he's too insecure to even trust pet animals (Pokemon) for emotional support. For juxtaposition (and to torture him I guess) he's later forced to team up with 2 people who are so close they're soulmates-tier, Ruby and Sapphire. Emerald hates them because they're obviously annoying, but it's not hard to imagine such a lonely kid is also envious of their close relationship, and the "closest" relationship
(as in an actual canon romance) between main characters in the manga up till that point no less. It was narratively rubbing salt in the wound on purpose. Between Ruby/Sapphire's closeness and trying to befriend Emerald, and Emerald's supposedly disposable rental Frontier Pokemon trying to befriend him too, it all pushes him to a couple breaking points, challenging his desire to remain alone.
This also means Ruby is so straight that his heterosexuality is a literal plot point in every canon story arc he appears in
