Japan was a very strange country. When people communicated, they often hid other meanings in their words. If you couldn't decipher what they truly meant, others would think there was something wrong with you. For example:
"I've been eating boxed lunches every day lately, boxed lunches, boxed lunches... Ah, I'm practically developing a phobia of them."
What they really meant was that they wanted you to treat them to a meal...
If you cluelessly went along with what they said, hehe, congratulations—you'd lose a friend.
"I just don't have the time to deal with complicated interpersonal relationships..." Utaha Kasumigaoka had said that before, and Yukino Yukinoshita deeply agreed. It wasn't an empty claim; interpersonal relationships in this country really were that complicated.
Because everyone was subtle. Or rather, most people wouldn't plainly tell you what to do. Instead, they would constantly guide you through their words. If you couldn't understand, then you'd end up all alone...
"The moon is beautiful tonight"—most people considered that a subtle confession, even finding such subtlety rather poetic. But before someone exposed it as meaning "I like you"...
Girl: "The moon is beautiful tonight."
Boy: "Huh? There are so many clouds—how can you even see the moon?"
That alone showed that if you couldn't figure out what "everyone" meant, then "everyone" would think you were terribly boring and completely unromantic.
In short, when listening to people in this country, you needed to make all sorts of mental leaps to understand what they really wanted to say. And when answering them, you had to be subtle too. For example: "The moon is beautiful tonight."
If you simply followed their meaning and said, "Yes, it's beautiful."
Of course, they wouldn't immediately change their expression. They'd just blacklist you in their hearts. The proper response was: "The wind