Responses
I totally get where you are coming from.
And yes, Hayato should come clean but I can see he's very scared of being hated, and with that more classmate there he is going to ruin his relationship with Souma... *sigh* just when he started to realize that despite at the beginning he reached Souma for his own benefit, now he's slowly falling in love.
I think Hayato is a coward. That IS NOT necessarily a bad thing though. Like, at all. Right now he's using Souma as a way to heal himself, but so is Souma (using Hayato to heal himself as well). The relationship is actually quite good, In my opinion. The only thing is that Hayato should come clean. I have a feeling the other guy (the one that Hayato feels guilty about) is going to shame/blackmail him (Hayato) or something.
I think this its a really realistic manga, because I can totally see myself being in Hayato's shoes. Comming from a pretty Homophobic country myself, I used to be very immature and discriminative towards homosexuality. It was just what that crowd was doing. Thankfully I'm older now, and have matured and learned to think for myself (and about others for that matter).
I think the mangaka is perfectly allowing readers to empasize with Hayato, as I feel kinda confused about the relationship with him. I think it would be good for him to figure out his own feelings before progressing. It would be better for him and Souma. AnywAys, I'm loving it