for those who dont follow him or the official account on twitter, he:

-has changed his pfp to his character on Most major platforms. his costar did not do this

-posted almost nothing but it since it was announced (with an exception to shout out one other show he has a bit role in and one picture of his dog). his costar is not doing this to the same extent

-owns every volume of the manga in physical form (not just like the first few to get into character. the entire series that has been released until now). he has shown proof of this. he also explicitly called it one of his favorite manga

-pioneered the ship name (which is 9239, the numbers said in japanese sound like the characters names put together lol)

-posts all the promo to rednote (chinese social media) himself

-likes and reposts EVERY post the mangaka makes on instagram. i have only seen some but my friend says its pretty much all of it

its a subtle way to make it clear to the audience that, that night meant something Special to both of them without it needing to be explicitly said until the very end, when kuji says he would never forget something like that

updated a little bit later to included photo evidence

ドラマスモブル | Life In Smokey Blue

kuji and azuma in episode 10: "you can think of it as a proposal" *azuma puts the fucking keyring on his ring finger*

we know that kuji doesnt want the house torn down. we know the memories there are more valuable to him than his brother. yet he's been stoic, to his brother, to himself, even to the audience. he feels like he's not even allowed to complain. "it's already been decided," he said, even though there would be no harm in expressing how upset he is

but not azuma. when azuma finds out, his first instinct is righteous indignation. demanding to know why. anger. drinking away his sorrows. crying for the house, for kuji. crying for when kuji couldn't. expressing himself in the ways kuji couldn't. he's only spent a few months in that house, but it's memories are as precious to him as they are to kuji

and when he's drunk, he tells kuji what he's wanted to hear the entire time. that he's been a good son, that he did right by his father and the house he left behind. all the love he put into that house wasnt in vain

(random aside for a fun fact: he is actually learning mandarin and a little bit of korean on his own time)