'He really likes you' is enough to pull a faint blush out of Shinji, a slight touch of red coming to a rest as his cheeks as the tips of his ears. Ah! Well! It's not like that's untrue! Just something about the phrasing summons up an extra dokidoki. Time to play it off as smoothly as possible, nothing to see here.

"He really is like that," he says, nice and fondly. "He works hard on his own, though, and I am really glad it's paying off. It would be nice if he could take the credit he's owed."