The female main character is a sweet girl who can’t really understand her own emotions because of her surrounding environment growing up. The people around her feel like she needs to recognize these feelings herself which I can sympathize with all things considered. Her dynamic with Niihama is interesting all the way through the novel and the sugar that spills out of my mouth every time I read their interactions is worth every grain.

I only really did this during the latter half of the story. In particular the “Part-Time Job” arc was painfully slow and I didn’t feel that it was entirely necessary, but it still pushed the characters to grow a little in the end.

The only real example I can think of is that at one point the author describes the naive FMC recognizing the MC as a man. However, a few arcs beforehand, almost the same thing happens as a climax which kind of dulls the future narrative.

rich dude tells him to stay away from the girl and then tries to make a bet to stay away from her... to which the MC essentially says "no lol"

Yes, even after 100 chapters, they don't become a couple, so don't expect anything when further translated chapters drop.

work hard, study, help his mom, encourage Haruka that it wasn't her fault, be kind to Kanoko, etc..

So basically, he still doesn't go out with the heroine. There is a beach episode and one of these moments where the heroine avoids the MC, the MC panicks, uses his coorporate s*ave days and bows in seiza (OTL). Then it turns out that heroine had been avoiding MC because he said something to her when he was drunk; similar to that moment after the cultural festival, where he was extremely sleepy; heroine had been just too embarassed to face him, got resolved within three chapters, so it isn't too bad.

It still annoys me a bit that the story builds up this "will they eventually go out?" making me wonder if the story ends when they start dating, I'd hate that. It keeps the reader on edge by adding such events.