Akane is a popular kid, arguably the most popular student outside Aoi and Teru, at least in his own class, so let's talk about it!
In his introduction, we are told the basics: how Akane is a childhood friend of Aoi, dutiful, obsessed with her, and so on. During this exposition, we get this small panel of two guys looking at him with a positive opinion of him:
It's important that the stripped shirt guy is the one who says "Akane is so nice" cause it is implied he has a crush on Aoi, or at the very least, that he considers her really cute, blushing when she is just living her life.
So even people who should consider him one hell of a romantic rival don't think badly of him. I would go as far as to say that they are invested in his obvious crush on Aoi because of the amount of attention he gets after being enchanted by the confession tree.
In an arc where everyone starts to get together, is hard to notice or even care about new couples.
But the whole class stops when Akane and Lemon claim to be dating. They surround the boys and talk about it, openly staring at them. (shout out to @bpzau-d-r-a-w-s for pointing out this crowd)
Which I would have assumed is homophobia if it wasn't for how many guys confess to Teru on the daily without being spared a single thought, or the way no one is trying to comfort Aoi.
If he was only known as 'that dude that follows Aoi' the class reaction should be "Great! Her bodyguard is not in the picture anymore! That's my chance!" but they don't spare Aoi a glance. No one cares that "our calm and composed popular queen is crying in the middle of class." right now. They are just... focused on Akane, too shocked by his change of heart to care about much else.
I know is Akane getting this attention instead of Lemon because the class reacted the same way once Akane started studying like crazy to win 'Teru's challenge' in chapter 59.
People don't dismiss his behavior as "hum, weird, well whatever" like when Nene talks to 'herself '(talk to Hanako) in class, they keep crowding and talking about Akane, they are invested, aware of the context of the situation (so they asked him) and familiar enough to take a guess that his behavior is related to Aoi.
So they care about what this weirdo is doing, he is a soap opera to the class! Just look at how invested people get when he says no to Aoi, even the background crew are open-mouthed or confused.
This idea Akane is a boy people pay attention to is everywhere in the manga.
Even for a class representative/council guy, it is ridiculous the number of people who want his help. He is always surrounded by people wanting his help.
I personally can't see that many people approach someone just to take advantage of them, he makes others go "Oh it's Aoi! I can trust Aoi to be of help :D" but I acknowledge that can be seen as a sign of how incompetent his class is or just people wanting to take advantage of him, so I'll talk about the cases people run to him that are nonrelated to his duties, is just his vibes:
Tiara gets super attached to Akane in no time, literally clinging to him out of everyone in the room, running to his side whenever there is an opportunity for it.
Hanako, who is apathetic towards most humans and supernaturals alike, loves his guts. Even if the admiration is not mutual.
Teru and Aoi are prideful people who have the whole school paying attention to them. They look at Akane the most.
Girls especially seem to like him.
We don't see him interact with many girls considering Aoi's jealous nature, but enough to tell the boys in his class call him 'Aoi', and the girls call him 'Akane-kun.' (shout out to @iamhereinthebg for pointing that out)
I am convinced the reason he doesn't get many confessions is because he brutally shuts down anyone who tries.
He isn't like Teru and Aoi, he does not believe in "I'll let them down gently, give them a cute smile to soothe the pain of rejection" he just crushes their hopes without hesitation and makes it clear they have no chance.
The one girl we explicitly see confess to him only ever hoped Akane would accept her chocolate, having no hopes her feelings would be returned but caring enough to let him know anyway.
And Akane still rejected her chocolates.
He seems to be relatively used to confessions, to the point he panicked when Nene said "I've meant to talk to you for ages" and immediately assumed she wanted to confess to him.
His answer is so quick, almost scripted "My heart belongs to another. I'm sorry." it makes no sense if he isn't at least somewhat used to getting love confessions.
Considering how... Unpleasant confessing to a guy who everyone knows has been madly in love with someone else for more than a decade must be, I am not surprised almost no one is brave enough to even try to pursue him. His blunt, borderline rude, way of expressing that his suitors are not welcome probably doesn't help either.
Bonus:
He is no idol, people do not trip over themselves when they see him like with Aoi and teru, but I do think he is considered a 'pretty boy' in canon.
Maybe I am reaching cause I am biased af, but I do find it wild that he is drawn super pretty in other's people pov when he is being playful or flirty, and the person always blushes about it.
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The Chief Engineers
(I realized that I never actually explained what a chief engineer is and who they are, so here it is lmfao)
The chief engineers are the trio that lead the creation of their faction's Titan and are considered to be the person to turn to when it comes to their Titan's maintenance, status and resources.
Before the invasion, each were formerly an engineering officer, a rarer, more specialized model of an engineer hardware that were made with the purpose of leading other hardwares in a team.
They ended up as leaders of their faction's engineering crews due to their several years of skill and experience prior to the invasion and literally programmed-in leadership skills.
The Chiefs are considered "elites", higher rank than most hardwares. They have the last say when it comes to the health and battle-readiness of their Titan, but are below the authority of other elites and have little say in strategy and what happens when their Titan is out in the field.
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There we go :D
I came up with these guys ages ago when I had a thought like:
"hey what if there was a non-combat elite similar to Plungerman or TVwoman?"
and thus 3 silly guys were created
I'll talk about each individual one in depth tomorrow 'cus I'm about to go to bed lol
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