This chapter reminds me of when this manga used to be good
You are so right. It got fucked up the moment they started the “fake dating”. It would have been perfect if it ended there with a confession around ch.40, but that did not happen and now we are stuck with this pain…
To clarify, what I truly dislike is the classic “self improvement arc” and “sports festival” combo. It is so overused that it’s just boring. Plus, the MC was presented as quite the smart one, so all his emotional distress about not being up to Miku’s standards is just mob character bullshit that I was not expecting.
Maybe after the hiatus the author gets back on track tho!