Like most high school romcom protags, he's a wimp who fears ruining his existing friendships by getting rejected. The only difference here is, the love interests are also wimps too, lmao. Perfectly realistic portrayal of high school kids.
Gods. I've read most of the light novels, having brute forced my way using my beginner Japanese knowledge and a shit ton of MTL. There's a lot I wish to say that'd be spoilers, but in essence, some of you got some things right, but maybe a few more dozen chapters down the road. All I can say is...