@Axkmint No, I thought that was it, but looking at the names, they were talking about the manager guy with the wisp of beard on his chin, and it was because manager guy came down on him a bit about no fraternizing on duty, even though he'd shown no sign of doing so. So no manipulation happened.
As to the rudeness to Yao, he was certainly totally rude. But there's a side of me saying "
For once a protagonist in a shoujo romance notices the rival and serves them some fucking notice before things get out of hand". I mean, how many thousands of times have we seen it? Guy shows up, starts spending time with female lead, claims he's not interested in her romantically but sticks to her more and more, then decides he does want her and makes aggressive attempts to take her away from her current boyfriend aka male lead, often including pulling her into close hugs, stealing a kiss and so on.
And nobody ever tells him to back the hell off. And then they forgive him afterwards because shoujo female leads are supernaturally sweet and forgiving and everyone else has to go along with them. So even if he's pushing it a bit hard, it's kind of refreshing to see the male lead telling that guy if he makes any moves there's gonna be trouble.