Well yeah, it's obvious what he is trying to do, but the way he is doing it is wrong. He is throwing back every insecurity in Garam's face to prove a point, knowing full well it will emotionally harm Garam by doing it. If you genuinely love someone, you don't learn his/her biggest fears and then use them against the person later, no matter what the underlying reason is. He's only going about it in such a backhanded way because he was ticked off in the last chapter, and that anger is still present here. He flat-out insulted Garam in the middle (by saying he looks like he wouldn't have friends) as evidence of this.
oh yeah the author makes it very obvious / apparent
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he’s dumb but how do people not get he’s purposefully being obtuse rn he wasn’t actually being homophobic in that specific scene imo