Rather than bromance, it just has a loooot of subtext so most of the times you have to read between the lines. Reki and Langa act like a couple without even being aware of it.
And in no way, shape or form I can look at the relationship between the antagonist and his secretary and say "Ah yes, very platonic, especially the pet play and the entwined hearts they engraved together on the pool's floor"
Well i agree that it wouldnt look platonic, but that's what happens in many stories with bromance. The teasing is very strong but theres no romance even though it looks like it.
I do agree though that a story doesnt need the "shounen ai" tag for the MCs to be into each other.
But theres always atleast one clear sign that its romance when it is romance. And then theres stuff like Free where its platonic all the way.
Yeah, at its core it's a fun and wholesome story about friendship and skating. But the characters have such genuinely sweet moments that calling them just teasing makes me feel like I'm doing a bit of a disservice to them. Ah but please don't take this the wrong way. It's fine if people only see it as bromance. Like you said, romance isn't the focus at all. But to me it's more of a "you can think what you want and no one will deny it" type of thing.
Well technically the teases is meant for you to ship them. And i bet sometimes the authors think "its for the readers to interpret what they feel for each others". But i dont like these kind of stuff. Just like i dislike open endings. Because i want only the truth said by the author. Anything else that we have to interpret, i dont consider it a part of the story.
And even though drawing hearts normally means love, but in manga life is special
It surely is a matter of taste. Stories like No.6, i already knew the ending and because of it i refused to read it. This is the best example of open ending that i dislike.
And for me if the feelings between 2 characters is meant to be left for interpretation, for me it means its not canon aka its not BL. Thats how i will interpret it.
But i have nothing against endings that are like "this isn't the end, but only the beginning" or similar. That, i wont consider open ending as long as all the mysteries / issues that were brought up in the story had a closure
But SK8 did leave me with a "this isn't the end, but only the beginning" kind of feeling. Again, I don't expect the creator to explicitly state "they're in love" in an interview or something. I'm already happy with what I got in the anime. I don't need to see the characters kiss or say "I love you" on screen to know there's more than meets the eye between them. If the creator wants me to read between the lines, no worries, Utsumi, I gotchu. Fiction is meant to be interpreted anyway.
Its just that the way i see it, i believe it is only a tease if theres no explicit sign. Not because im unable to read between the lines, but because that's how i feel mangas are like for romantic relationship in stories that arent about romance.
Like Natsu x Lucy from Fairy Tail. It was very possible they would end up as friends or lovers. There seemed to be signs to point towards lovers based on the values of average people, but characters' values in mangas are often very different, especially on the friendship vs love line.
Maybe I just have different expectations but to me some scenes were pretty close to being explicit lol. And I'm not talking only about Reki and Langa. Imo Adam and Tadashi are the most in your face compared to the rest. Their whole backstory belongs to a classic victorian romance or some old school shounen ai from the 80s lmao
Anyway, if you think it's all just bromance with a lot of teasing, I won't try to change your mind or anything. That's your interpretation and it's fine. I just wanted to share my take on this
I read somewhere that Langa is in fact gay, but I don't think Reiki is gay or see Langa anything else than a good friend!!!
Also, Adam's secretary, I suspect he being interested in Adam, not sure if it is love or obsession, but there something there and how pasive he is frustrates Adam!
In the anime they show how Adam is crazy for Snow (Langa), but I don't feel it is in a romantic way, even though it looks like that, I admit I shipped Adam/Langa at the begining of the anime, but I can see there is no love there!
In fact, I don't see romance there and if there are feelings, those are urequited, in other words, one love the other but the other is not interested or don't see the peeson as a potential love interest!!!
Langa being gay was a fan made in wiki by the Fandom is not canon. Most probably Langa is bi and Renki straight as renki is the cheerful type of person and he consider Langa his friend.
I get worked up by queerbaiting because is a way to sell more. I prefer clean ending too. I don't like authors that let bro romance to go nuts. Make it lgbtq or clear that they are not.. pfff
Sorry for rambling just hate those endings and as someone said about N6 the author said that the characters are not gay but they are not sure if they are straight too... like wtf..
Or the author from mha that is not clearing out that Deku is straight.. is just because they don't want to loose readers

I saw some comment on youtube and i thought this would be BL but i dont see "shounen ai" tag. So does that mean its just bromance like in Free?