Squall and Rinoa first meet at the SeeD inauguration banquet, where he can be found, off to the side, leaning against a wall, waiting for it to end. Determined to find someone to dance with, Rinoa marches up to him and boldy states that he is "the best-looking guy there" before asking him to dance with her. Rather than flat out deny her request, he follows slowly as she drags him out onto the dance floor. With some bumbling around on Squall's part, he and Rinoa share a perfectly choreographed dance after which she takes her exit, leaving a mezmerized Squall gazing after her with the hint of a smile on his face.

Now tell me that that's not the perfect way to start off a relationship. Even this early on, it is clear that Squall feels something for Rinoa. Whether it be that he really did like her, or simply that he was taken back by her boldness, he danced with her; something that I don't believe he would have done with just anybody. And after that dance, he smiled. For the first time in a long while, Squall genuinely seemed to have enjoyed himself.

The second time they meet is a little less romantic, a little more formal, when Squall and two of his companions are sent on their first SeeD mission: to aid the resistance faction The Forest Owls; a group of which, surprise surprise, Rinoa happens to be a member. Regardless of their magical dance at the SeeD ball, Squall and Rinoa have frequent disagreements. While he prefers to think to himself and simply follow whatever orders he is given, she is constantly trying to get him to share his thoughts, and consults him often about what course of action they should take. On many occasions, he simply does not respond to her, and when he does, his responses are fairly cold.

Regardless of this, Squall is still nicer to Rinoa than he is to anyone else. Although he did not realize it at the time, Rinoa was slowly but surely wriggling her way into his heart. Of all of her attempts to get him to lighten up, her questionings of his beliefs, her confessions of being scared, she was doing something right. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, Squall doesn't realize just how much she means to him until she is no longer there.

"First time we met was the day I became a SeeD. We met again...in Timber...
We had a lot of arguments at first. But in time, things began to change.
You were looking at me... You smiled when our eyes met...
It made me feel calm, tranquil.
Rinoa... Give me another chance."

To put it into the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder". However, the King's Quest version of that quote expresses another aspect of Rinoa's influence on Squall; "Absence makes the heart go yonder", which is exactly what happens to him. For years, he had been building up a wall around his heart, putting on an act to scare others away so that they wouldn't get close enough to harm it. The loss of Rinoa causes Squall to act carelessly and irrationally. He doesn't worry about driving others away anymore, he just wants to get her back. He knows that he can't save her on his own, and learns to depend on his friends and the help that they have to offer.

By the end of the game, Rinoa has taught Squall how to love again, and he openly embraces her beneath a star-spangled sky.

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