Telling a friend the hard truth kindly is the kind of friendship most people never get.

Most people will not tell you the true thing, because the easy thing keeps the evening pleasant. A friend who does it well has decided your actual situation matters more than your comfort for the next ten minutes, and has accepted the risk of you being upset with them. That combination is rare enough that people remember exactly who did it.

Be that friend once, carefully. Privately, about something they can change, with the affection audible in it. And when somebody does it to you, notice what it cost them before you react to the content.