I adore a good 'chase him down and confess after trying not' combined with a 'i thought it could just friends with you but I can't' and a 'too painful to keep lying to you'. So this hit all the buttons.
my only resolution for 2024 is to count the times I've been caught unaware of some important information and only learned it from that Castiel saying "I love you" meme
Akihiko's polite speech during the confession scene is such a sweet detail in Japanese, especially given how Akihiko and Haruki normally speak with one another.
Asian languages tend to have polite versions of speech that sadly can get lost in translation when translated to English. Japanese is even one of those language systems that officially have so-called "polite speech" as opposed to "casual speech".
In this scene, Akihiko uses words and phrases like "ii desu ka" and "kudasai". "Ii" means "good" and is a neutral word. The "desu ka" part is formal/polite. "Desu" is something like the English "is" and can be used in casual speech, but "ka" is a polite speech question marker—that is, it tells you that the person is asking a question regardless of their tone (if the person is speaking) or punctuation ("ka" is usually punctuated with a period). The casual version of this question would have been, "Sawatte (touch) mo ii?" without the "desu ka" part, basically meaning, "Is it good/okay to touch [you]?"
Likewise, "Ore to (with me) tsukiatte (go out/date) kudasai (please)" is politely asking someone to go out with you. Technically, you can ask someone to do something in casual speech by dropping "kudasai" and just using the imperative version of a word ("tsukiau" is the verb meaning "to go out with", and "tsukiatte" is the form it takes if you're telling/asking someone to do that action) would be the casual version.
All of this is very different to how Akihiko and Haruki usually talk with one another. For example:
Here, Akihiko is saying, "Warui (my bad) ... kyou (today) omae'nchi de ii (is it okay if I go to your house)?" Note that it's in casual speech. In fact, Akihiko has a lazy way of talking so he tends to slur words together like "omae no (your) uchi (home)". He does this a lot with Haruki.
And here, Haruki is asking, "Akihiko, ocha (tea) o katte (bought) kureta (did do [for me])?" The question is also in casual speech.
And then their text exchange, Akihiko asks, "Mada okiteru (still awake)?" and Haruki responds with "Okiteru (still awake) yo", with "yo" even being like a casual/light/friendly ending to his statement. Politely, this would have been, "Mada okite imasu (awake still /polite form) ka," and "Hai (yes), okite imasu (still awake /polite form)."
Akihiko's later, "Tometekun'ne?" is once again like a shortened version of "tometekunai (won't allow to stay over) ne?" like, "Won't you let me stay over?"
Basically, Akihiko speaks very casually with Haruki. He doesn't even use honorifics with Haruki even when Haruki is older and a senior in the same university. (Likely he might have used one before? But at some point dropped it when he and Haruki became friends/bandmates.)
But during the confession scene, Akihiko had been working hard to be someone Haruki would approve of. He wasn't just asking out a friend; he was asking out somebody he admired, whom he hurt and who had every right to refuse him. He was on his knees, humbling himself in front of Haruki, and he was shaking with nerves.
In fact, Akihiko legit had an entire speech going, but Haruki spoke as usual—he probably found Akihiko and his tone to be too intense lol—and reverted their exchange back to something less formal.
Here's their full scene:
Haruki goes, "Ii yo" and it's his usual way of speaking with Akihiko (see: text messages exchange). Akihiko, surprised presumably by how easily Haruki agreed after everything that happened between them, dropped the formal speech and just goes, "Maji (serious)?"
Just thinking about when in the confession scene Cas pauses for a sec after saying he cares about dean ‘because you cared I cared. I cared about you….. I cared about Sam, I cared about jack’
This line will never not make me go absolutely feral. The acting. The emphasis. The tears. The eye contact. In that moment the only thing he was focused on was dean and making sure he knew he was loved. Misha put his whole heart and soul into this scene 🥲✋