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A REMINDER THAT THESE ARE TEENAGERS, THEY SAY THINGS THEY DONT MEAN AND THEY MISUNDERSTAND! Kana lied about how he thinks Naho isn't cute to his friends, because Kana has no interest in anyone else, so if Kana agreed that Naho was cute, his friends would become interested in Naho, because who wouldn't become interested in the person their uninterested friend became interested in? Also even if he said that, he had no way of knowing that Naho was there outside their classroom, and wouldn't have had any idea the impact those words would've had on Naho. It was a lie to his friends but a misunderstanding to Naho.
As he said in chapter 11, he's scared that one day they'll take Naho away from him. They've both loved each other since childhood and they're both just dumb idiots who got mixed up in misunderstandings.