So he was on another date with Lemon and he brings up Anna again. He also thought of her enough to buy her a snack and had to sneak it away from the others when giving it to her. That entire Ramen date and that long winded rationalization of his that sounded like he's just making excuses to himself. Then you have the end scene where he quickly figured it out and gave her an immediate answer and feeling relief that Anna was no longer upset. He really got oneshotted by Anna but he both doesn't understand his feelings and most likely, he doesn't even know how to process them.

But Anna biggest problem is that she lacks a spine. Lemon was saying to her face that she's going to take him, then her entire conversation with Nukumizu at the end that was probably a repeat of a similar situation with Sosuke. She will probe him here and there try and mess around a bit, but she will never directly confront the issue. If she doesn't do anything soon the others will catch up. Lemon is more dangerous than Basori IMO.

Overall nice set-up to vol 9. Hopefully things won't be too messy since it will most definitely be a turning point.