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I guess for me, as much as I enjoy Kyon x Haruhi moments, it always seems like he appreciates the craziness she brings to his life while simultaneously being worn out by it. She gave him back his motivation to do something other than coast through life, and he no doubt values that. I don't think anyone in their right mind would contest that Haruhi has become dear to him: in her are invested many great hopes he'd previously thought dead.
However, I just don't see any implications of his feelings for her being stronger or more romantic than his feelings towards anyone else. Any kind of subtext reading you could apply to his moments with Haruhi also produces the same effects--with a different foundation, sure--when applied to his moments with Yuki.
The simplest answer to me, then, seems that he's amorous about Mikuru, but has a more cultivated, complex and confusing dynamic with both Haruhi and Yuki. Don't get me wrong, I like that ambiguity, because it yields interesting discussions like this that keep our minds flexible, and I get to see your ideas (and I hope you know that just because I'm prodding them for further discussion doesn't necessarily mean I disagree and I certainly respect your opinions since you're clearly using your head). It's also nice because without officially solidified 'shipping' in the canon, neither dynamic derails the other.
I guess I just see them as being at roughly equal points, even if Haruhi gets an exposure bonus for being more emotional than Yuki.
Edit: Also, I get what you're saying about emotional investment. I really do. All that really comes down to is personal reading style, though. I'm diagnosed Obsessive Compulsive, and I have a tendency to worry myself into the ground if I have an indication that I've overlooked something. I'm the kind of guy who beats himself up aggressively when he misses a detail. That being said, it's not so much that I'm apathetic to the romance of the story, rather that I try to enjoy every part that is well presented. So if, for instance, there's something really moving along Haruhi x Kyon lines, I'm a Haruhi x Kyon fan in that moment. If there's something like that in a Yuki x Kyon moment, I become a Yuki x Kyon fan. Kyon and Itsuki had an argument towards the end of book six that was just fascinating to me, and I wanted to see them argue more. Tsuruya mind-screws poor Kyon with her off-hand come-ons, and suddenly I'm wondering what it would be like if she meant the things she said.
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