what i was trying to show in his actions around the fight in okumura's palace is that he IS trying to sow discord between goro and the thieves ("the last thing i'd want to do is get between you and your leader", haha...) but he also doesn't want any of them to catch on or even suspect that he's doing this deliberately. so he's pretty unflattering to them alone with goro, trying to alienate him from them in the guise of being concerned about him as a friend, but when it's apparent that that isn't working this time the way it did during the oft-alluded to first fight over okumura, he does a 180 because it's more important to him in the moment that they all believe he's on their side. it's too quick, though, and goro even notes that he might not being honest there.

...that said, he is a very lonely person at heart and part of him does wish he could have been friends with the thieves for real, so i feel like them trying so hard in that scene to reach out to him does actually move him too. (hence the blushing! he's touched even if he doesn't want to admit it!)

and he was indeed doing his other job :) i was going to get to it in my commentary thread but i'm a little worried about continuing that on twitter right now, but while being caught by paparazzi wasn't specifically his plan, akiren isn't making any effort to hide that he's at the crepe shop WITH someone and even shows that off in his instagram picture on purpose, even if he doesn't show goro's face (including the bit about him swapping crepes with goro because he feels like his actual taste in food doesn't fit his image.) it was meant to not add up that he gets in so much trouble for being seen with a friend after he's being very open about being out with a friend, as a way of hinting, though goro doesn't catch it, that akiren might have been lying about what was going on with him that night.