She tells him once, over coffee, why she never asked about what happened with Mays. "I knew something wasn't supposed to," she shrugs, lazily stirring her drink with a silver teaspoon. He pretends to stare embarrassedly into his milk tea. "I didn't push it. I trust you, Atsuki," she tells him, and the sincerity in her voice is the most painful thing for him, because she loves him dearly; they all do--
And so that's why he doesn't realize until later, after they're all in his past and he's alone- just him and his memories, now- that he wanted them to.
Desperately.
So it takes him a while to love them back.