This is like a romance with the language tweaked just enough that they have plausible deniability. Itd be one thing if this was produced 20 years ago...but why do they need to dance around the "LOVE" word now?
Isn't this the one where the author said they didn't consider it romance or something? So like, that's why, because the author is a bit of a coward.
I can't remember the exact quote, but I'm pretty sure it was something like she didn't consider it GL at the time (of the interview) and was just gonna let the story flow how she thinks it naturally would.