What can be inferred about Genes feelings towards Phineas in his usage of "shocking" on page 16?

From the text, we can infer that Gene finds Finny to be surprisingly candid... honest and self-confident.

He was my height—five feet eight and a half inches (I had been claiming five feet nine inches before he became my roommate, but he had said in public with that simple, shocking self acceptance of his, “No, you’re the same height I am, five-eight and a half.