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I don’t think people realise that this story was never explicitly tagged as shounen ai, that was mangago’s mismanagement with the original uploader.
What I will say is there are subtle hints of it. The manga obviously has a greater story to tell than “two teenage boys fall in love UwU”. People are too hung up on gender and sexuality labels that people are failing to realise that their genders barely plays a role. Because of that, it isn’t being made explicit. We know the black haired boy had some affection for Hikaru that surpassed “normal” like. The creature now inhabiting Hikaru also has showcased an attachment to him.
But Hikaru is dead. There is no “romance” in the sense we’re getting confessions from a mythical revered god like creature inhabiting the mc’s best friend’s body. That isn’t gonna happen. If you guys were reading it for the shounen ai tag hoping there would be proper romance, what have you been doing… The art, atmosphere, and deeper story have been so amazingly done that it’s kind of an insult to boil it down to a shounen ai (which if really isn’t). So, just enjoy the story! If we get more hints at the romance plot, which is priority zero, then cool! And if we don’t? You’ll live.
PS: This is for the people complaining, not the people genuinely curious (but I mean come on, we’re on chapter god knows what and you didn’t notice the lack of bromosexual love)