i bet you bro is gonna collapse like a neutron star next chapter before kotoko explains it in a half ass way again... the only way we could make all of this throuple thing work is for the two girls to confess to mc at the same time
To be honest, you don't even need to be a manga MC to misunderstand that. If anyone I know pulled up and said they like someone, I'm going to assume they mean someone else other than me. It just doesn't make sense to say "I Like someone" instead of "I Like you" to the person you like and expect them to assume you are talking about them.
Ijichi, if you tell an introvert there is someone you like, he's not going to think you are talking about him, nor is giungla to be spurred to make a move before it's too late.
He's going to think that of course he never had a chance from the start and it was stupid for him to even entertain the idea for a moment. Worst case scenario, he might distance himself to it create problems with your crush.