Yuu: [Trained to be explicit in communication; is never given an explicit "I like you", and thus brain categorizes it as flirting/teasing or similar.]
Cocoa: [Trained to be indirect in communication; in her mind, she's being blatantly obvious because directly confessing would be illegal shameful or embarrassing.]
Well… The childhood friend initially lost, but then the love interest was isekai'd and the first half so far the ML spent his time biding to surpass neutron stars in density any time the childhood friend — now FL — was more direct. It's about time the plot received plot armour and progressed a bit.
Wait, so the mom didn't know Yuu?
Like, she didn't know her daughter's childhood friend, who Kokoa has presumably been friends with for at least like 5 years minimum?
Unless I'm misunderstanding, that makes the mom look really bad and neglectful.