No problem, I really like it when people get excited over things like this.
The Research quota required to develop a territory goes up by 3 with each successful development. Since the current quota is 15, if we meet it and tried to develop again, we'll shave off 16 from the next quota of 18, leaving a mere 2 RES left to go.
I'm not really sure exactly how much affection Chats give. But there's really no hurry, as any character we'd be using for a long time will probably get enough from battles to ever need the Chat bonus. Using Chats at this point is really just to get us those stat bonuses faster; in the long run, it doesn't matter either way.