Lol, i have the opposite reaction. To me Jiheon is just stalling because he doesnt have the guts to talk about his and Jaekyoungs feelings and using the competitiin as an excuse to not bring it up even though he obviously see Jaekyoung doesnt care if him getting rejected effects his performance. Jiheon isnt taking his feelings seriously and rather pretends they dont exist (the reason why hes annoying to me) which is why Jaekyoung would kiss him to show him the feelings are real, not that i really like when anyone kisses someone without consent, but the guy literally thinks hes gonna get beat up which just comfirms to me he has such a different image in his head of who Jaekyoung actually is.
Maybe for me is the fact that I'm not seeing a lot of emotions on Jiheon's side. It feels like Jaekyoung has in unrequited crush and instead of accepting the other person's wishes ("I'm not interested, I'm rejecting you") and being professional on the job, he's throwing a tantrum and emotionally blackmailing Jiheon with the fact that if the competition goes badly it's because he was rejected. Jiheon wants to push back the moment of rejection bc there's just no nice way to do it, Jaekyoung instead is so sure his love will conquer all that that he wants to talk about it now... And when he actually rejects him, Jaekyoung probably won't accept it and insist. It just reminds me of men who can't take no for an answer
Jiheon is expressive though. They've had a lot of conversations and it's clear he is very interested but is rejecting because he's trying to be professional
Maybe it's because I'm seeing things from Jiheon's pov but Jaekyoung is so annoying like... You know I'm gonna reject you so you corner me and kiss me, knowing I'm not gonna do anything to you bc I don't wanna ruin your performance? COME ON