I know protagonist can be dense.
But how dense are you to not realize your childhood friend doesn't have feelings for you.
This kind of density is probably the only thing worse than the one we know where the love interest
does have feelings for the protagonist, but is clueless about it. Sure, still annoying as heck despite how obvious her feelings are at times, without a doubt, but even if the protagonist was a cardboard cutout, at least he usually has some standard of common decency.
Here, however, he's nothing but self-centered, only focusing on his own goals without any thoughts to those around him, probably with next to no sympathy/empathy for them. A narcissistic sociopath in the making.