Incredible moment, love to see that hes grown accustomed to her enough to see through the bullshit (and actually look her in the eye).
Its a bit of a "the boy who cried wolf" scenario i think, vecause even if she tried to earnestly become friends with him after this, i doubt hell be all that open to the idea, given what shes already done.
Hopefully this will help hebikawa finally grow up too and bring her out of her frankly idiotic worldview.
Thanks dor rhe chapter
her growing up/mellowing out is likely her whole character arc, yeah.
I suspect, since I doubt the author wants to take a dozen chapters to make the timeline of her earning his trust realistic, some "serious situation" will come up that will put her in potential semi-danger or something (drunk dad danger? who knows), and he'll have to act fast to help her out of a big bind, and in a moment of true vulnerability he'll see that she's really making an effort as she's been slowly falling for him over the span leading up to whatever that incident is.
And that'll be what shifts his focus and assumption of her, bringing them closer together as a result.
Whether she maintains her plan of using him to get at Kusunoki, I do not know - I kind of hope not, if I'm honest, and that she earnestly actually tries to go for him.
And THAT is what pulls Kusunoki back into the story from where she's at, once she realizes she might actually have feelings for the guy that Snek-chan suddenly has a chance of taking away from her.
