Spoiler from the novel
Sensei saved Shiro when she was the spider in class from the hands of the bad, mean antagonist in the anime, like ya know, this pal that is a pawn of Sophia and wants to be the center of the world. To put it simply, Shiro wants to repay the favor.
Great introduction of both main characters and the story, seems like a great start for a romance to me! Just the actions of those friends of Mc seemed a bit unreal but it's really nice beside it!
Exactly, such a wasted potential. I am a bit of a writer myself and I must admit that such a plot twist would be a really nice suprise. With talks about her love for that guy, the ending was quite predictable, but if author decided to add such an romance in the end, it would be really...