@undeadclown I've read them and still feel it was somewhat forced. Everyone in Kawamoto's family likes Rei. Akari likes Rei just as much and her relationship with him was no less developed than Hina's, while Hina actually had crushes which were never really resolved (i.e. last time we saw her with Takahashi, she was still blushing over him).
Eh... she had the same amount of blush regardless of who she was talking to back when they were saying their goodbyes to Takahashi. She had already stopped seeing him as a potential love interest, I'm pretty sure, and reverted back to 'childhood friend' status. By that point, I'm pretty sure she was already feeling stronger about Rei than Takahashi, but either didn't see it for what it was, or didn't dare to think he'd reciprocate.
To be honest, I've been reading from the start and taking note of the times they grew closer. It's been an ongoing process, and I didn't think it took that much effort to see it.
We back to this ship?
I thought we've already done with this ship and move on to the other ship?
What do you mean it's rematch?
The ship never happened in the first place. Hina is just hoping for happiness between two people really close to her, not realizing the truth. It was always Rei and Hina since nearly the beginning. I've taken note of it just about every time they had a touching moment together, and there were quite a few. The earliest distinctive moment was Chapter 6, by the way.
Akari and Rei's closeness has been stalled more or less where it always has been in the story. The only way it hasn't is in the imaginations of those that ship them.
I will note the Rei-Hina growth has been a very subtle thing for the most part, with rare moments of more overt things like the promise from near the beginning of the bullying arc, or the moment between the two of them in Kyoto along the river, or when she told him about everything that happened with the end of the bullying along the river by home and dancing while holding his hand... I mean what the hell. That wasn't just her being cutesy little sister type, there, in my opinion. Of course, it was amped up in the anime version of the scene, which I saw first before I read it in the manga.
So much was enhanced about this story in anime form, and I think highlighting those precious moments between Rei and Hina was one of them. I could really feel the developing feelings between them, you know?