There's a lot of people here forgetting that same sex marriage was only legalized in the USA for all 50 states back in 2015, and that in South Korea - this work's country of origin - it is still illegal even now. So of course gay relationships in mainstream Korean works generally aren't text and are left to subtext. By insisting that the only legitimate queer representation is textual you are ignoring the possibility that the author intended the characters to be gay but chose to censor their work in order to find a wider audience. Moreover, in a world where heterosexuality is widely reinforced as the norm, by attempting to police other people's interpretation of the story you are perpetuating that bias. Let people have their damn ships. There's not enough queer joy in the world; let people find it in what speaks to them.
There's a lot of people here forgetting that same sex marriage was only legalized in the USA for all 50 states back in 2015, and that in South Korea - this work's country of origin - it is still illegal even now. So of course gay relationships in mainstream Korean works generally aren't text and are left to subtext. By insisting that the only legitimate queer representation is textual you are ignoring the possibility that the author intended the characters to be gay but chose to censor their work in order to find a wider audience. Moreover, in a world where heterosexuality is widely reinforced as the norm, by attempting to police other people's interpretation of the story you are perpetuating that bias. Let people have their damn ships. There's not enough queer joy in the world; let people find it in what speaks to them.