im thinking it either queer bait or a common occurrence where the novel author originally did want to create a shounen ai story but publishing company wouldn’t approve and the author will have to make do with shounen ai disguised as bromance cause the audience they can target if it’s just shounen would be larger than shounen ai or bl
Tbh I don't see a problem with that? It's not like we are not baited with Riette too... and we also get the same feeling from harem and reverse harem too... even if the end game love interest is very clear we still get a lot of flirting and interest from other characters no?
Personally I wouldn't mind if they ended together. The story wouldn't be more or less interesting depending on mc's orientation. To me it would be a lot worse if they pushed romance with the high-school girl or even his brother... because yeah those would be disturbingly bad and even then still possible to exist.
And let's be real... at least their relationship is cute and interesting. Better them 95% of most male mc comics I've read... if their female leads and their interactions with mcs were half as interesting as theirs we wouldn't see so many comments wishing for no romance on them...

hear me out... tbh I smell some shounen ai from this manhwa. don't get me wrong with though "you just can't see two man be friend" the thing is friend don't do things like that blonde guild master and MC do. like... they're dancing, they act like a prince and princess in rescue, ect.
I never see a real male friendship do things that they do, even as a girl I never do that shit with my friend, they're too... sus... tbh... is it author's strategy to yaoi bait like narusasu or something?