@DrPavel No, she isn't dense. She was raising him like a son. Why would she even think he liked her???
It's stuff that is more obvious when you are on the outside.
Also, to be fair, he waited for 10 years.... so we are just missing all those years of MC not confessing.... we just skipped all that sh*t... that's all....
And even then, often, those MCs don't take that long to admit their feelings... it just takes a lot of chapters.... so it's longer for us viewers than for them...