I've felt 100% confident this was intentionally textually intended as gay since all the way back in chapter 43, from four years ago. Since then we've had explicit confirmations of gay relationships, gay kisses, every other character shipping Komichi and Erika, and Komichi explicitly saying that her feelings of love for Erika expressed in the video they made are real, not acting. Anyone still afraid they're getting baited is way too paranoid, we're long past the point of no return to denialability lol.