Well, we are having solid progress
They put this love triangle, but it's more like a love triangle backstory, where we are seeing the losing heroine after she accepted and decided to move on, so (I hope) we will not have a lot of drama on that part
Totally, if he asked her out, she would have accepted (and was kind of expecting it).
Tabata have low-self steem so low that he needed to make an effort to call Sasaki his friend
But you know... I kind of get MC, I have a hard time calling someone my friend. I don't know if there is an equivalent word in English, but I generally call people "colega" (google translator didn't give me a good equivalent, maybe friend vs close friend?).
Anyway... I think friends have weight...
Do they think they had a chance?
Also, about the last chapter, I think MC took to the heart their first interactions where she explicitly said they aren't friends, also, he is the kind of person that overthink if he is crossing any border
To who is saying there is no progress
They are progressing even if they don't know, I even remember someone saying something like that.
A weird progress is still progress
Years later...
*They are sharing a house, looking lovely to each other, a children enter into the room.
"Mom, dad, auntie said that you are not married, it's true"
*They panic
"Nononono, we are just..."
"And that you are not dating."
"Ye- yea- yeah, we are just close friends."