WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Sasaki and Miyano Episode 10, “Love”, now streaming on Funimation.
With an episode title like “Love”, one would think Sasaki and Miyano fans would finally see some actual love confessions, but not so. This more likely means Miyano is finally realizing what love means to him -- which is actual character growth -- but one also has to wonder if it is really necessary to take this long. It's not like Miyano is completely oblivious to romances since he reads them all the time, and he even admits he used to like a girl. So why is this wait happening?
Even within Episode 10, Miyano struggles to come to terms with his own feelings, wondering if his “like” is the same as Sasaki’s “like”. This thought even comes right after Sasaki puts his head on Miyano’s shoulders and they hold hands like a couple. It seems odd that Miyano can be still unsure at this point because it's already obvious to everyone else, even Sasaki.
There are two main explanations to Sasaki and Miyano's possible hesitation. First, as Miyano says, he is not quite sure if his feelings are the same as Sasaki’s. Since he did admire Sasaki first as a senpai -- and as someone who saved him and his friend from bullies -- he is trying to be sure out of respect for Sasaki. The second possibility is that he still has a great deal of self-doubt he's been carrying for a long while, and it's not so easy to get over.
Miyano tells himself the first explanation but it doesn't make complete sense, because he clearly feels differently about Sasaki compared with everyone else, including other senpais like Hirano and Hanzawa -- and there are so many instances where it seemed he had an epiphany. It could also be related to his fudanshi identity, since he is still trying to reconcile his interest with his sexuality. He could be over-compensating just in case his fantasy clouds his judgement. In that sense, Miyano is being quite selfless and careful about how he treats Sasaki.
The second explanation, however, makes less sense when examined more closely. On paper, Miyano might still have a ways to go in terms of being confident enough to accept that another person could love him this much. Even so, his action is actually the opposite of having any self-doubt; if he really lacks the self-assurance, he should probably assume that Sasaki would have given up and moved on after half a year with no response. In fact, Miyano is so sure about Sasaki’s feelings that he doesn’t even seem to be in much of a hurry after he is sure about his own.
This actually shows that Miyano is secretly quite selfish. He is willing to leave Sasaki high and dry for half a year, still acting ambiguous and even flirtatious without giving him a proper answer. It isn't until Miyano sees Sasaki with another woman (his sister) that he starts to get more anxious. Miyano likely does enjoy the feeling of being pursued by Sasaki more than he cares to admit, because it helped give him the confidence he lacked in the first place. He also doesn’t want to make an active move since he's always been the passive receiver in this relationship.
Can both explanations be true at the same time, making Miyano simultaneously selfless and selfish? This was discussed in Sasaki and Miyano Episode 8 when Hanzawa talks to Miyano about what it means to love someone. The feelings of wanting to do things for the other person (selfless) and wanting that person all to themself (selfish) are not mutually exclusive -- they are all parts of being in love.
