I don′t have much context for why all of the shipping hate may be since I binged through the series just as it was ending, but reading their relationship as romantic or strongly platonic are both perfectly valid. The present chapter works equally well if they are simply friends, or have budding feelings of something more. As I personally like the ship, I interpret them as having the beginnings of feelings for eachother here, but not consciously recognizing them. Maybe there are romantic feelings intended, maybe not, but even if there was unambiguous denial of anything romantic between them, there′s no rule that says headcanon cannot directly contradict what was written.
As for those who say it is practically confirmed gay, while I don′t agree it is an understandable stance to have. There′s a long enough history of subtext being used to incorperate homosexuality among other things that would otherise not fly that it′s little wonder many people have learned to pick up on the subtle cues. Of course, such conventions could be used unintentionally by those who don′t know about them and by design a lot can be read into something seemingly inconsiquential. Still, unless someone is looking for a fight, you could at least drop the subject rather than fight over canon and interpritation.
On a mostly unrelated note, I would like to know where Kaberu × Laios came from as I haven’t been able to figure it out myself.
