It's clear from the character's behavior that there was literally nothing going on or being hidden.
The 'reveal' only happened after the drummer pieced things together, told the other friend and that one confusedly and shocked asked "Are we dating!?". Nao casually and unfazedly replied "Oh, are we? I didn't realize.". Making fun of the situation and sudden statements. The mention of the liking was only done to further try to reason. There was nothing wrong about that as it clearly had no meaning to the character. Not in behavior or by visual hints (the latter of which are VERY important for this concern of your to matter or not.)
You have to remember that comics show more than reality. If there was anything to hide, the author would have made it clear by the character being nervous or otherwise having a 'reaction panel' as those words were said, which was not the case.
None of these situations can be applied to real life and how one should behave. Or to comics, vice versa. Since irl people do not exhibit clear nervousness you can pick up on, obviously, since it's not some drama with cinematic shots. XD
Don't apply reallife behavior and what should and shouldn't be done to comics. It simply doesn't work 90% of the time. They function differently than reality as they make it blatantly clear if something is supposed to be a secret or not. (Just wanted to mention this as a sorta PSA as a reminder, no hard feelings or such, since I know there are more people that do this, even in the most silly comedy manga moments. Often enough not realizing it's not a good thing to attempt.)
I do hope you stick around for more chapters tho and can enjoy reading it tho without putting in too much worry. :)
Yeah I'm aware of how to read lol. I'm also allowed to find things annoying, because this character is fucking annoying. Thanks for the explanation on how fiction works.
I know its not that deep but MC annoyed me so much this chapter bringing up "remember when you said you liked him?" like, what if he really did have a crush on his friend but was hiding it... why would you just say that to everyone. And then the drunk confession felt kinda forced/rushed as a way to start their relationship. But I'm still interested in seeing how it goes.