Was the hottest kiss in the manga a dream too? Bummer.
Kinda hard to say, but this chapter picked up right where that one left off and they both have that softer shading to them, so it seems like that might have been part of the dream.
Does that even count as Ecchi? NSFW certainly, but I don't feel like there was anything pervy to that.
I believe the Ecchi tag on this site is used to denote things that don't quite qualify as NSFW. Like nudity without actually showing any "naughty bits".