After two years, you would expect some kind of reciprocation from the other person. But from all we can gather, Saho never treated him differently than any other customer. Two years and he never got across to her that he was serious about his flirting. After two years he had to keep saying “no, no, I’m being serious” when she would laugh it off, and he never picked up on the hint that she wasn’t interested. I’m not saying that he can’t confess to someone he likes, but he really needs to learn that waitresses that look and smile at him don’t also want to date him. He made this assumption with Tamaki as well.
Yeah it’s unfortunate she didn’t really seem the type to give a hard no, but she did treat him differently. She literally saw him come in and went, “it’s been a week! I haven’t seen you!” And “geez there you go again” with a blush when he flirted with her. Saho is literally giving POSITIVE vibes to Kenji. She clearly likes him as a person. Of course he’s not gonna give up after she reacts that way to seeing him and hearing his comments. Again like a previous commenter put it, it’s two uncorroperative mindsets colliding.
I’d even say it’s also an unfortunate framework as worker and customer mixed with unfortunate mindsets that perpetuated this soft flirting from his side and an “oh you” from her side for two whole years. They both use the boundaries as worker and customer to never do the necessary things to move their relationship forward, like for example having a proper conversation (which Saho and Tamaki do immediately). I think he was too afraid to solidly make a move, and also from her side she’s just vibing to a person being genuinely nice to her and complimenting her without taking it too seriously. I don’t want to condemn either of them. As far as I see it, there’s nothing wrong or harmful with their pre-confession relationship because it’s so low pressure and stakes and literally zero strings attached on either side. (Also someone brought up that it’s bad to persistently hit on service industry workers, and I absolutely agree. But I think in this case the author side stepped this by making it clear there was no problem on that end with the endlessly happy and positive coworkers and boss).
I wouldn’t say he’s creepy for the two years (I do think when he confesses he’s WAY too physical and the way he holds Saho is as if he owns her). The most it’s implies he does is talk with Saho and say “since I get to see Saho, I’d never get tired come coming here” and ordering stuff and sitting down for a while.
“I’m not saying that he can’t confess to someone he likes, but he really needs to learn that waitresses that look and smile at him don’t also want to date him.” I don’t get the impression he assumed Saho would’ve said yes. The way the conversation played out on his part is “I know you’re keeping your distance to not hurt the coworker who likes me, since you’re kind. But I actually genuinely like you.” None of that is him assuming a yes. Again I just have a problem with how physical he is once Tamaki entered the picture. That does give off entitlement vibes. Of course, he’s also being super heteronormative, but that’s also the case for Saho. Since they were both operating through a romantic lens during this manga and pair it with heteronormativity, it makes sense they both thought Tamaki liked Kenji.
No one here is a bad person. Everyone acted reasonably and as well as they could in this social context. Saho genuinely liked Kenji as a person. Kenji was courteous except when he got too physical. Good for Tamaki. Get it girl!
last edited at May 20, 2022 2:53PM
