I love it when the relationship develops/starts organically and not artificially which is usually the case in romantasy and romance books like the whole story revolves around the two leads, and you know they will, eventually, end up with each other one way or another.

Meanwhile I prefer to actively ship people because they have very good chemistry! Not because she is the female lead and he is the male lead (in straight books), thus romance has to happen between the two.

This is also a huge reason why I sometimes prefer the side couple over the main couple, because their relationship feels more natural and more interesting. I feel like stories that have another element besides romance make more room for the characters to develop into their own person, and because of that, it's interesting to see the dynamic between full fleshed characters! Furthermore, I prefer to be kept in suspense about whether the characters will end up with each other or not. And when the characters have their own motivations it's more difficult to know for certain whether they will become a couple or not lol