My Best Friend Was Expelled From the State-Selected Party, so I Decided To Leave Too

Came back just to comment. So now we will never see Aiden win an oscar or a Grammy

The writing is solid, the characters are well-developed, and the world-building is impressive, but I can't help feeling misled by the tags. Maybe it's too early in the story, but I specifically looked for the romance tag and filtered out "dense MC." However, once again, the main character (MC) is both dense and extremely self-deprecating, despite the absence of the "dense MC" tag. His friend is fantastic and deserves all the praise, and it’s good that the MC acknowledges his past misbehavior. However, he isn’t making any effort to change; instead, he keeps saying he doesn’t deserve happiness and will spend his life watching over his friend from a distance. He constantly thinks, "They hate me, and they’re right," "My friend should be the one adored" (even though he already is), and "That girl loves my friend, of course, he’s great, so I’ll make sure they have their space" (despite her clearly following him and saying she was looking for him). I’m not saying he can’t feel this way, but I insist that the "dense MC" tag be added.

"Zane! Hello?!" she huffed about half way through lunch. "Are you even paying attention to me?"