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To be serious, I think that the main reason why Otani is so oblivious to Risa's real feelings is because he has come to consider Risa as his "buddy". The way they have interacted with each other is far more akin to the relationship between two male friends than that of a potential boyfriend/girlfriend. Even when they have done things together that would normally be thought of as a date, their mutual attitude seemed to be "I'm hanging out with my pal who also likes to do this". Once Otani has put Risa in this mental category, everything she does to show her interest in him winds up being interpreted as either "my buddy is supporting me" or "my buddy is acting oddly". And if Otani began having romantic feelings toward Risa himself he, like most guys his age, would be very reluctant to express them for fear of jeopardizing the existing friendship. In all likelyhood if Risa had started behaving the way she is now shortly after they first met Otani would probably have gotten the message fairly quickly. What DOES make me think Otani is incredibly dense is that while he and Risa have at least four mutual friends, he has apparently made no effort to seek their advice even though he knows that something is troubling Risa. The least Otani should have done is let them know he is concerned about Risa and ask if they thought there was anything he could do to help. I'll bet at least one of them would have steered him in the right direction.
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