@lightingcloud
maybe something like "l-o" for the first two letters and then pretending she pointed at different ones "v-e"?
so at first he'd have thought that she wanted him to say "l-o-s-e", but...
It's very clear that Nishikata is aware that Takagi is making him say something directly related to romance,
so this would be a huge departure from the original to add an additional layer of misunderstanding. Definitely not something we are comfortable with doing!
We considered adding another bubble to show that it was creating "ily" which is understandable enough in English, but not only were we also uncomfortable
with changing the art to that extent, but the way the chapter is set up makes it pretty much impossible to add more letters, or to suggest other letters were added off-screen.
This is definitely one of those damned if you do, damned if you don't situations.