@Cesarean-Pizza I think in some ways she understands him better than he does himself. Which is why she knew he would probably chicken out if it was a date.
@So-chan Yeah, she seems to have enough of a grasp on his issues to know that if she tried to push it too hard he'd just retreat back into his shell even if he did feel the same way (we know for sure he does, of course.)
@Waffle321 No one's talking about it because that's not what happened. Reread chapter 46. Ichikawa actually tried to move "downstairs" from Yamada but she wouldn't let him. It's more like Yamada is standing a step below Ichikawa to seem shorter than him.
@Doomroar the funny thing is that when I was abroad learning English I encountered a situation similar to this one. Dude didn't know he was dating until someone teased them that they looked like a couple, the girl was yeah we are and the dude was like ,wait we are? And kinda just accepted it. It was funny listening to that.