Please he had plenty of time to answer that’s why there was a pause in that scene.Its not the MCs fault the ML is a ass.
I'm not saying he's not a dick cause he is but MC had a traumatic day that's why he even said that he knew he shouldn't be asking anyway but he did because he was feeling emotional and personally if a traumatized person came crying and begging me for something out of nowhere I'd need a minute caused I'd be more concerned about them then me so even if there was a tiny pause he still didn't give him time to jump in and defend himself
He literally could have said anything at any point. All he said was 'does that matter right now?' which is so dismissive and a stupid question. He wouldn't be asking if it didn't matter to him.
Let's be honest even given all the opportunity to say anything he wouldn't answer the question, especially not honestly. I guess he doesn't want to admit he likes him so he says nothing since he's not the charismatic type who could smooth things over easily without admitting anything. It's in character that'd he'd use this to push MC away, regardless of his feelings but he could have said something to deescalate things at least.
I kinda get what you mean, but if he wanted to say something he would have. At the very least he could stand up ┑(￣Д ￣)┍
fair fair
Bro didn't even let him answer, just keep going and then decided the answer himself. Even if ml said he did like him after that MC would just take it as him saying it to play with his feelings