i wonder if at some point akihiko realized hiroki’s feelings for him but pretending not to. he tried to put himself in hiroki’s shoes and he wouldn’t know what to do with such information, that your friend was in love with you, if takahiro were to know his feeling.
i mean, this is the great and the ever sensitive usami akihiko we’re talking about. he even realized how people around him think of him (like how his brother or his mom never liked him), how can he not realize his best friend’s feeling?
that or hiroki accidentally slipped some of his feelings here and there. i’m sure drunk hiroki would do this. i mean he basically told akihiko all things about him and nowaki (that’s how akihiko got the idea for his junai egoist novel after all) and drunk-called him to have him listened to their steamy session on that one christmas, what’s stopping him from telling “you know what, before i met nowaki, i used to be in love with you”?
















