I didn't expect his maternal grandfather to be the type to ask to meet him directly. I thought he was a pompous and cowardly schemer who'd send other men or pieces of paper to do all the talking.
I almost got disappointed again with Eiji stupidly trying to keep it all to himself, Aoi is truly a great girl for asking to share his burdens with her. She's got a fairly good idea how lovers are supposed to be, but I don't know about him.
"I won't take Aoi-san's help"
Geez Louise, whatever happened to "heavy luggage in halfsies"? It hasn't even been a chapter that he's been asked to share his burdens and here he is carrying everything again himself. What a nice way to say "butt out of this, woman" even though she's also directly involved.
inb4 he proposes something incredibly dumb which could have been avoided if Aoi also had a say in this, which is as much her problem as it is his because it's THEIR engagement on the line here. This isn't just Eiji's male pride thing or his family's problem. Aoi is literally one-half of the engagement and has the right to get involved. I get that he probably wants to shield her from what he thinks is a Nikaido family problem (or just shelter her from problems in general, which she does not like), but this ain't it, chief.