beta
Regarding Takeo's feelings for Ao, I don't think he ever liked Ao romantically - not that anything would be wrong if he did. IMO it was Takeo seeing how serious Ao and Shingo were about each other that he realized he could seriously date men as well, that it's no different than seriously dating women. Up until then he only ever dated women and had never even considered men as an option. And this is shown when Wako asks if there's a particular reason for why Takeo can see himself dating men in the future, Takeo says, "Well, not really. It could be a man, it could be a woman, it could be anyone no matter where they come from. When you love someone you think about that person more than anything else. And that person will be the most precious to you. I don't want to miss out on something that could grow into a life long love."
He keeps talking about putting the one you love first above everyone else because this is what he witnessed between with Ao and Shingo during the whole thunderstorm drama in the previous book. Honestly, I think that he's taking relationships and love more seriously because he saw how serious those two are because it sounds like he never took it seriously until then. ALSO there would be no reason for Takeo to lie when he was asked again if he had liked someone that changed his mind into dating guys in ch. 5-6 if that was the case lol
I think he def had feelings for Ao, he was getting jelous and mad over Shingo and even was very close to tell Ao "be with me instead" if that is not attraction of some kind idk what was that then, ofc he took a step back when he saw that A) Ao and Shingo were serious and B) There was no place for him in that drama since the lovebirds forgot he was there during the thunderstorm.
He opened up after that expirience, now he is being more serious about finding love, and Wako took the chance, they ended up being compatible and now they are a couple.
Most of you are taking a very small part of the chapter and making it into a bigger deal than it is!
IMO you're projecting your feelings onto Akane, but in reality, both Akane and Yamada have grown in their relationship, especially since the whole Satsuki situation. Some of you are talking about how Yamada should be more sensitive since Akane was cheated on before, but we haven't seen her think about her ex and/or cheating since before she and Yamada got together. Furthermore, if she's uncomfortable she knows she has to communicate that to Yamada rather than letting Yamada guess what was wrong like he did before.
This moment was only shown to show the reason why Yamada wants to win so badly which is why the whole incident was only a couple of panels.
ikr. i saw a vid on tiktok abt the update and read some comments. made me panic tbh bc idk what was going on ㅠㅠ ppl just like to blow things out of proportion lol. but it made me run to read the update FAST