She basically took the "She said she loves me trope, but does she mean it the same way" and decided "Yes, she definitely does."
Also, did I read that authors note right? They were asked to write an ecchi manga, so they drew 50 pages of fluff and have another volume of (probably) fluff to follow it up? Also, also, they want to do another volume, set when the characters are older, with the actual ecchi? I'm ok with all of this and definitely want more.