If my memory serves me right, there was a scene after Giju first helped Senior escape from the drunk Blonde bun girlie confession, wherein they were talking alone together as they walked on the street.There, our fl cheered him up, saying he can reject girls if he doesnt even like them. ML was touched, and at the same time, a tab appeared on Haejil (is that his name?) that shows Giju's picture with a huge "TARGET" caption from below. Mc saw it and somewhat got weirded out, so she got another reason to avoid him from then on. And we all know what happened: guy kept approaching her and even helpimg her, until we got to this point
What im sayimg is that black haired ml mustve been interested with her from the start. But i also agree, as we were progressimg to the story, especially on the part where blonde haired guy asked him if he likes Giju in his apartment, his reaction was out of strange. He looked mortified lol. Or maybe we dont know cuz that was on the blondie guys perspective.
Tbh I read this a while ago and checked it again recently and I forgot about those parts but now that you reminded me it makes more sense (still not completely because of the black haired ml denying it to blondie) but I guess this is the way in which the author is hinting at it .Thank youuu so much for the answer

The way this was going made it seem like he has no interest in her other than friendship and the fact that she won’t confess to him cause she doesn’t like him. Isn’t it weird that he’s concerned about the ring being a couples’ one? And the advice he got was to make her like him (more than he likes her) but again, like wasn’t he interested in her cause she doesn’t? Didn’t he fake date her because he knows she won’t confess to him? So why? There’s the possibility that yeah even though she might start liking him she won’t confess but still? Wouldn’t he want to be safe?