Now I'm curious. If you could pls fill me in on why wasn't Hatano canonical in the beginning? Like, did the manga direction change?
Basically hatano only show up on bonus content where basically the mangaka made some AUs like typical omake on other manga. Hatano's first appearance on ch.0 in mangago (not canon, bonuscontent for vol 2) and reappear on ch 60 (canon/main story, vol 4).
The bonus content kinda varies depending on purchase, i never accessed said contents. But there's AU where MC is a mob in RPG game while Hatano is a hero who confessed to him (iirc its a bonus content from the recent volume), and there's also AU where MC, Mayama (BL mangaka), Mizumoto (mind reader guy) as a trio bestfriends while in main story they barely interact. It seems theres also a content explaining Hatano couldn't drink black coffee and a bad cook? But im at the point i cant predict if those informations are canon or popular headcannons..
This is kinda a fun fact but SSR-kun once shown as someone who confessed to hatano! But the canonical is kinda vague (hatano isnt a canon character originally as well). It seems the mangaka loves the design so much they decided to put him into a situation with MC and Hatano XD
https://x.com/kn_sousaku/status/1748005916606423465?s=20