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I wondered if (2) might be the case. The convenience arguments in (1) and (3) would apply to almost any romantic story in any culture.
Childhood friends are also likely to occupy a similar position in the class structure. Western romances often include a cross-class relationship between a (usually male) person of higher status and a (usually female) person of lower status. In these stories you have the "love conquers all" romantic plot with the woman ultimately whisked into the man's upper-class life and living happily ever after. Cinderella is a good exemplar of this type of story.
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