[Twisted Reality]

Originally Posted by Mirrinus

Spoiler for a bit more Haruhi X Kyon:

Personally, I feel as though Kyon isn't clueless by any means as to his own affection for Haruhi, but he too absolutely refuses to admit it. It takes a cataclysmic world-altering event for him to give in to his feelings toward Haruhi, if you catch my drift. He's basically just like Haruhi in that regard; I guess you could say he's really a tsundere character on his own right. Those two are made for each other, aren't they?

Spoiler for Hmm...:

Perhaps my choice of words were poor... Kyon seems to want to believe that his affections for Haruhi are not at all unlike a Freudian fantasy. After the first closed-space experience, he went back to pretending that this was some sort of twisted betrayal of his sanity. He knows that he has these thoughts, he just refuses to acknowledge them as a rational or sane impulse.

I think Haruhi knows she likes Kyon, and goes from feeling stupid about it, to some sort of acceptance-of-the-fact...in her usual casual and cocky attitude. Kyon is busy trying to convince himself and everybody else that there's nothing between him and Haruhi. Koizumi's teasing and his reassurance to Mikuru seem to be evidence of this. Kyon basically engages in elaborate self-deception. Mikuru is the seemingly the most rational choice for a model relationship, and it's easier for him to accept his crush on Mikuru than it is to acknowledge the deeper relationship. (Hey! She may be physically attractive...but her personality still sucks...so I can't possibly like her.)

This is what I mean by clueless. Although it would be more accurate to say that he's more capable of self-deception than Haruhi is. Quite ironically, Kyon knows whats going on in his head, so he'll try to stomp it down. Haruhi really has no such compunctions and will act on whatever impulse pops into her head. She may feel dumb about it later, as she did when she pulled that "straw-drawing date" scheme, but she's not given to self-deception or introspection before-the-fact.