and he's scared out of his mind. not because it's another guy, he's completely fine with that, but because it's george, his best friend forever since kindergarten who he can't be sure is fine with that, and whom he'd be absolutely devastated to lose because of these horrible "gross" feelings

so he starts adamantly and deliberately avoiding george like the plague, thinking he's justified cause he's protecting george from those horrible "gross" thoughts, and this continues for weeks on end until george finally gets fed up with it all and forcefully confronts him about it, demanding answers.

and it's then that harold finally angrily Tearfully confesses the kind of deplorable thoughts and feelings he's been having all this time about the two of them (which are honestly not deplorable at all, just small benign innocuous things like kissing and hand-holding, and maybe getting married and living together and sleeping in the same bed someday)

and george just kinda. laughs quietly. and when he tells harold that he's not only not grossed out, but suspects he may possibly swing that way himself, harold is so overcome with relief that he just... has himself a good cry right there on george's shoulder

whether this ultimately develops into a genuine full-blown relationship between them or whether he eventually moves on from that momentary crush, it's an important and significant stepping stone for harold toward fully accepting and embracing his sexuality for what it is and not feeling bad or "disgusting" because of it