Vexx, once again you bring the voice of wisdom to this beat to death conversation!
...and I agree with your point!
I'd also like to point out (as a non manga/novel reader), on my first viewing of the confession scene, I caught the subtext of Taiga's speech and I also felt that Kitamura
also caught it, thus he didn't feel like such a heel for rejecting her knowing that Ryuuji is there for her (even if she doesn't realize it yet!).
