Hello, let's talk about Teru's confession~
Since Teru contradict himself in the very next panel, this confession is the most dismissed scene in the manga, but I do think there is value in taking a closer look:
Most people assume Teru is only claiming to like her to annoy Akane, but that doesn't sense, unlike popular belief Teru does not like to mention Aoi to annoy Akane, he does it to get his attention.
When Teru want Akane's attention he is very gay about it, he want his full and complete attention, always up and personal with Akane to mock him or reprimand him. Bro why are you so close when you talk to him? Do you need to on top of him to brag about your score? Why are you tugging at his tie with your leg between his legs?? None of that is nescesary??
But in this "I love Akane-san" moment Teru shows none of that desire for Akane's attention, by the time Teru say he is joking his back is turned. Why even say he is joking in the first place? It would be much more affective to smirk and not say anything if tauting was the goal. Teru knows that too! He is smart, that's why he did something like this before:
During his confession Teru is dodging the conversation. He never planned to confess in the first place, he literally walk out of the room right after his confession.
So what, do I think he is being real? That he does like Aoi? Yeah, that's what I believe.
The pose he is in when he confess is the exact same 'hand barely touches face and have trouble maintaining eye contact' pose he had in chapter 1, when it was first revealed he had a crush on 'someone' in the first place.
And when he say he is just joking, not only is the panel for that waay smaller than the one used for his confession (so aidairo deemed as less important), he also looks to the side and laughs awkwardly in the exact same way he did during mokke of the dead: A chapter where Teru was he one who brought an infected mokke to school and when confronted about how weird th mokke infection was he refused to say it was his fault, lying about it.
So he was lying in his confession chapter too: Not about the confession itself, about it being a joke.
The context of why we got a confession in the first place only further proves this because it wasn't a random "nice day today, btw i love Aoi" confession, it was an answer to Akane's question of "Why are you helping us?"
His answer? "because i love Aoi"
which is an important answer actually. I go over all the HEAVY implications Teru would not have been part of this rescue mission if Aoi wasn't the one in danger Here.
In hindsight it is no wonder Akane (person Teru is not normal about) teasing him with Aoi (another person he isn't normal about) makes him react like this:
