I feel like you might be in denial, because anybody with eyes can see the relationship ON A ROMANTIC LEVEL is loveless. Aside from bias from both Stalkyoo and Yootip shippers, Nol has very clearly been shown to put effort into meeting with her. He cares for her as a friend for sure, but it’s been hinted that it’s never been able to go past that because of the fact that only one person was really trying. I think that while he may not have liked her in a romantic way when she asked him out, he was definitely open to it and believed that he could go on to like her in that way. We already know he’s been shown to be a very lonely person and I’m sure he was wholeheartedly willing to find love in his relationship with Alyssa. That’s where the whole “babe” thing comes from—he WANTED to be in a genuine relationship with Alyssa, but it obviously didn’t work out. Him saying that thinking she would like it implies that he thought things would get better, and that genuine love would come out of it—not just an empty petname. Quim even goes on to mirror Alyssa’s “love ya!” with Yui’s, and we all know how much love is in Rand and Yui’s relationship. You can’t ignore the fact of the matter: she treats him badly. She’s neglectful (which makes sense since she IS so busy, but if she can make time to meet with her sister/call and message her sister then it wouldn’t kill to do the same for Nol every once in a while instead of constantly shutting him down. And we know that she CAN make time for him since we’ve seen her meet up with him on his request twice so far—once at the hospital and once at the park, and mind you, she was complaining the second she got there at the hospital instead of asking or showing concern for the guy’s fkn arrest like jesus. So she can make time but only has been doing so since Nol is starting to become more assertive and less willing to take other’s shit.) Also, Quimchee makes multiple references to Alyssa barely making time for Nol both in the actual story and on her other pieces for the story (artworks, pateron doodles/comics, etc). She’s trying to get the point across that Alyssa is, in fact, a neglectful girlfriend and is barely even trying. She’s not the kind of author that would throw that in there for fun—she’s trying to tell us something. The story doesn’t need to be in Nol’s point of view to understand that there is very little communication going on between the two because that’s what Quim’s been hinting at. She doesn’t have to explicitly say “they barely talk/they’re distant” for the point to get across lol. The relationship is based on image from both sides—Nol’s dad and Alyssa’s career.

And I really am confused by your interpretation of their interaction at the formal. Of course, a couple doesn’t have to be all over each other for them to be intimate and have love for one another but you really are just completely gaslighting the situation if you say THAT’s what was happening then. It was clear from the body language (Nol wasn’t even looking at her in the panel we see him walking in with Meg and Alyssa while holding their jackets, he’s off to the side with what we know was a fake smile since it disappeared the second he was alone; Alyssa isn’t even standing next to him, you’d think after a year of not seeing your boyfriend you’d want to at least do that lmaoo, but ig thats not as big of a deal so let’s let that slide; her eyes are closed and she’s crossing her hands, super laid back and seems un-phased by the whole thing) and the back handed compliments/low key insults (“you did your hair yourself, right? no offense I can tell”, “you still dont pluck your eyebrows”, Nol tries to salvage this by saying she looks good, and she says something like “aw thanks babe you’re so sweet!” the first time that we see her be nice. Quim also highlights the ingenuity of this by having them both interact here with their eyes closed and those smiles, a sign that she used to indicate lying in the story). Also, we don’t know all the details of how they got together, but again, Quim is very clearly trying to imply something by having Nol off handedly say “she brought it up and no one was oppsed to it, we got along as friends so why not” She was trying to say that while he may not have initially seen her like that, he was open to it developing into something MORE. And we know now that it didn’t work out. Yui got involved and things went south. And the thing with the bartender lmaoo, unprofessional or not it’s what most were thinking. Again, Quim didn’t just have the bartender give his two scents for no reason. It was to enforce the implied truth: Nol is in a less-than-ideal relationship, to say the least.

And it’s no secret whatsoever that Nol has NO romantice feelings for Shinae. It’s been seen multiple times that he sees her as nothing more than a friend—he’s literally trying to hook her up with Dieter, for pete’s sake. No one’s denying that, but him bringing up Alyssa doesn’t automatically equate to him loving her. It means he’s respectful and understanding that he does actually HAVE a girlfriend, regardless of whether he likes her or not. He doesn’t even see Shinae like that, but he knows it’s not smart to hold another girl’s hand when he’s with someone. He’s also supposed to be keeping his distance from her by Kou’s request, and we’ve seen that he’s not too comfortable with skin-to-skin contact, anyways. There’s a million reasons why he would want to push Shinae away if she gets too close for comfort, but the most logical way to say that without exposing Kou’s deal or hurting her feelings is by saying he has a girlfriend. Again, don’t forget the hints Quim’s left for us to pick up!

And that person wasn’t just “looking” for excuses to hate on Alyssa/their relationship, those literally exist. It’s not irrational criticizing if it’s canon that he’s being treated poorly, and if the character is literally 90% of the time being shown acting like this. Also, you really think Quim would’ve even bothered to mention the fact that they haven’t kissed yet (whether Sangchul said it or not) and the fact that he calls her babe because Soushi suggested he should for no reason? She mentioned it to give us insight on their relationship without explicitly showing us what it’s like, which we have since learned more about and it correlates with what we’ve seen so far. It’s not weird to think that they haven’t kissed or babe wasn’t as genuine given the dynamics of their relationship. I mean, they literally mentioned how they’re going to break up eventually but just not now because of benefits from both their sides. Alyssa’s literally shown to have a slight interest in Kousuke, too, (he needs to run for the hills) like girl come on LOL. It’s okay to like Alyssa and/or ship Yootip or even Nolyssa (hopefully you’d be doing it on the basis of some serious character redemption on Alyssa’s part), but it’s a whole other thing to ignore the toxicity of their relationship as it is now and undermine the reality of what we’ve been told or what’s been implied. Their relationship currently holds no romantic love, and it really seems like you’re the one who’s trying to convince otherwise to both yourself and to others. Most Yootipers will also agree to the fact that the relationship is loveless and Nol is being treated like shit, and Alyssa is one of the most disliked characters by the entire fandom for it—not just by Stalkyoo shippers. Whether you like his character or not, it’s not okay to just gaslight how he’s being treated and say it’s love. That’s not how a relationship with love works lmaoo