I agree. The premise doesn't really work as well when the protagonist is misunderstanding that the one he likes likes the clearly less popular/more awkward guy.
He's just like me I have childhood friend(male) which somehow handsome?!
And I didn't relized until years later when he get married lol because many girls said he's good looking etc
We have been together since toddler
So I didn't conscious about it until other people said it 😂