Yeah that’s my suspicion. The author worded that statement carefully to include the brother in it - which is a bit odd, unless he’s setting up that exact twist. This story seems to like doing that “wholesome twist” trick ahaha
Yeah, that's what I was thinking. The way she said that was very ambiguous, there's really no reason for her to say it like that unless the author is setting up that twist.
On the one hand, I'm glad the author isn't doing the typical drama. On the other hand, wouldn't it make it bad writing for us to instantly know the twist as soon as the subplot is introduced because of the way it's written? I don't know. I don't really know how I feel about it. Who knows, maybe it's not as obvious in Japanese. Or maybe they are subverting the subversion.