It's been so long, I don't know what I would have called their relationship at the time, but now that I've grown up and experienced life a tad, I can say from what I remember that their relationship was more like co-worker friendship than real friendship. They are both kind souls and wouldn't want anything bad to happen to each other, and enjoyed each other's company while they were around each other, but I don't think either of them would have went out of their way to visit one another outside of the immediate party relationship they had in the game. I think they liked each other to a degree and appreciated each other's existence. And that might be a kind of friendship or close acquaintance, but I don't feel like they're anywhere close to besties or anything. They're just both polite caring people who can enjoy each other's company given the opportunity

Edit: Also, I flip-flopped on 12, but still hate 9. And while I called out the pacing in another thread, I've always felt the theme of the game to be very pastel. The look, the music, the story, was always too light and colorful for my tastes. And while I considered most of the game to be a chore, I wasn't consciously aware that there was a noticeable downgrade in content and pacing in the middle, but that could go a long way to explaining why that feeling of boring pastel content has stuck with me