This is so utterly unnecessary… What's even the point of this? Silencing the rumor about him dating Akane with the rumor of him dating Himari? What is this supposed to be, a hot potato game?
It's laughably clear that it's just a pathetic way for the unimaginative author to somehow ram in the romance between Saito and Himari into the manga without actually changing anything or committing to anything. This is just extremely poor writing.