Byler happening is inevitable, even if it never becomes canon on screen.
Mike knows Will is gay now. That alone changes everything. And the most important thing is this: Mike never actually finds out that Will is in love with him. The best friend scene is not a rejection. It’s Mike accepting Will for who he is, without ever being told the full truth.
Because now that Mike knows Will’s sexuality, the door is finally open. Open for Mike to recontextualize years of intimacy, devotion, jealousy, and emotional reliance. Open for him to question himself in a way he never allowed before. Open for the possibility that what he has always felt toward Will was not just friendship after all.
There is simply too much subtext. Too much narrative weight. Too many loaded looks and deliberate choices. Byler cannot be dismissed as nothing, even if the show leaves it ambiguous. Even if it never says the words out loud. Some stories do not need explicit canon to exist. They live in implication. In subtext.
And they have barely even begun their lives. They have just graduated high school. Their world has finally slowed down enough for them to exist outside of survival mode, to breathe, to imagine a future that is not defined by fear. Of course nothing is resolved yet. Of course everything still feels unfinished. Coming of age does not end at eighteen. For many people, that is where it finally starts, when feelings are given time, when truths are allowed to surface, and when the one constant in your life finally becomes your forever.
