lol the MC is so dense that the story literally needs for the other character to die so he can finally be gay with Jinha. this story has such a weird pacing - I agree that the dragging out of the denial has hurt the plot.
Cut him some slack!! A normal person would have a hard time believing he is in some weird supernatural dream. Besides, at the beginning he only had dreams that connected both of them, and he saw memories. The only proof that this particular dream is supernatural and real is the stone. Plus it was a horrible dream!! Of course he would refuse to believe it until he sees the post for the contest. I would have acted the same way!!
thank you for the update
his reaction after he wakes up from the dream is just utter nonsense and the author needs to do better..enough already, stop stretching out his whole denial thing, it is no longer cute..he almost died and still that is not enough to snap this idiot out of it and confess. i am just about done with this series..i can only carry this frustration so far before moving on