I think they were intentionally going for that vibe...the awkward little brother who gets dragged around and can't express himself and the genius who doewn't care for the spotlight, they're very different so the awkwardness makes it even more real
Oh I get it, it's just painful for me to read haha. I'm not good with awkwardness
Trust me, you can't have it worse than me. For me, when I feel the cringe coming, I even skip a couple of pages just so I wouldn't see the character embarrass themselves and I would jump ahead to avoid that. The reason people don't want to watch stuff with me (anime, movie, drama) is because I speed up (or skip the cringe scene) and if it's on tv I would shut me eyes and put my fingers in my ears and queep squirming while saying to the other person "tell me when the cringe is over so I can continue watching". It's hell for me x')
This was such an awkward and uncomfortable first chapter. I couldn't stop cringing