After Maya and Leo stood side by side at the national team press conference, smiling calmly and answering questions like nothing was wrong, the media didn’t back off. They just changed tactics.

Instead of asking directly if the two captains were in love, they became sneaky. News outlets started zooming in on their eye contact, writing stories about how long Maya looked at Leo during the press event. They counted how many times Leo smiled in her direction. "Was that a loving glance?" one ...