I'd say something is happening behind the scenes
When the writing and characters aren't enough to carry the narrative of the arc or story you deploy the secret weapon to keep the audience "hooked"
It's either fan service, jelousy or rivals, cheap drama to no lose momentum
To be honest, this confession from Okarun...I get this is a battle manga first and little spark of romance it had died a long time ago, but this was cr**
It has very little impact, it came out of nowhere but I think it's very on-brand for the manga, it never did inter-personal relationships properly, it was always a spur of the moment that immediately gets left behind
I saw a comment either on Reddit or MAL, all the wrong places I know but it summarized everything perfectly
And then THIS happened, the manga
after all THE other comments I've seen....