The way the lack of romance prevent ppl from reading rotbb is one of the saddest thing around. Like I crack ship as much as the next person (SosoIseol is adorable and I personally find CMxJG particularly funny even if I feel bad for inflicting CM on JG) but the lack of romance is part of why the narration is often so we'll balanced. Romance as a genre usually requires to make an Us and Them wall that often creates a narrative gap with the other characters (whether bc the romance is proper up or the FF is propped in which case the addition of romance was unnecessary and both case often leave a bad taste). Like...it can be well done but I don't see the point of adding it this far into the story.

Also if anything happened in canon I'd probably rage quit it because romance not being important is one of the things that made me appreciate this series so much (I hold instances of AroAce and/or celibate-who-don't-care protagonists near and dear to my heart). I might make an exception for SosoIseol 'cause it wouldn't change them that much and TBxCM because it'd just add to an already existing pathos -which would have even less of a narrative impact but for the same reason I really don't see the point to have them in canon. (Fanfictions and fanarts are our friends u.u)

Also I think there should be an "I want to both punch and roll CM into a burrito blanket consecutively and with no in between" Club, I feel he deserves it (the canon version is the alliance + the 5 dumbasses)

RIGHT SO TRUE SO TRUE like and even if there is no romance and yallre exclusively not reading a novel cuz it doesnt aligns w yalls yaoi criteria, it shouldnt even matter cuz i see the way some of yall crack ship the most incomprehensible nonexistent made up ships in other media ive ever seen so why is it a problem now all of the sudden...... when i say theres no romance in rotmhs im not saying there arent things 4 yall 2 ship in it if yallre that desperate for face sucking, my own biases being yu iseol & tang soso and tang bo & chung myung who are, for all intents and purposes, straight girl / boy best friends but do i gaf???? NO? THEYRE YURI YAOI PARALLELS

as u said.. the fanart and fics that make up the fandom are more than enough to keep people who want to ship sated im being so serious