Idk it feels a bit unearned to suddenly go "oh yeah he likes her too". The man has shown absolutely no signs of it so far.
And he has shown zero interest in her romantically. meh
You all must have jumped into this manga 7/8ths of the way in or something...
Some of the stuff this guy's been doing for Futaba, all the way from volume 1, has been nonstandard for coworkers and even suspect in the context of "friends". This guy didn't react negatively to her proposing she be his wife (instead of his stated hope of wishing to have a child like her), and that was in chapter
one-- all he could muster was a mutual agreement that the sake was getting to the both of their blushing selves.
IMO Kare Kano proves that it's best to just get it over within volume 1, so you can explore the more interesting, yet often ignored part of romantic relationships.
I have the feeling that said procedure's more standard for shoujo romances (which, I guess this one is, but still).