Nothing wrong with a little term of endearment! Romance rumors have been swirling around Dancing With the Stars partners Hannah Brown and Alan Bersten since season 28 kicked off in September — and they aren’t necessarily going out of their way to put the speculation to rest.

Brown, 25, revealed during an Instagram Live session with Bersten, also 25, on Monday, November 18, that the professional dancer calls her “babe.” Later that day, after they made it through the semifinals of the ABC dance competition, Bersten told Us Weekly and other reporters, “We say that all the time.”

“I’m like, ‘Babe, come on!’” the former Bachelorette explained. “We are, like, so close at this point. So he could … say anything, and I would be like, ‘Whatever.’ Like, we’re just really at that point where we’ve spent every single day [together]. He’s had to become my best friend. It’s been great.”

The choreographer echoed that the pair have developed “a level of trust” over the past two months, to which Brown interjected, “Yes! That we definitely have.”

Despite the Alabama native and Bersten’s insistence that they are just friends, some viewers have been pining for them to become a couple. They continued to fuel speculatoin when Brown brought the So You Think You Can Dance alum as her date to the 2019 CMA Awards on Wednesday, November 13.

“He was great because my dress was, like … I think people think I’m joking when I say it was 50 pounds,” the former pageant queen told Us on Monday. “It was so long. … It was a lot. So, he was awesome and very supportive, and we had a good time!”

The duo went through an emotional roller-coaster on Monday’s episode of DWTS after judge Carrie Ann Inaba paid them a visit in rehearsals and left Brown in tears. The Bachelor alum later apologized to Inaba, 51, for being “dismissive,” saying, “I didn’t handle my emotions well, and I know you’re trying to help me.”

Brown explained to reporters on Monday that Inaba had arrived at the rehearsal studio “right after” she had an emotional conversation with Bersten about her difficult year on reality TV.

“It was a very vulnerable state for Hannah to talk about and tell me exactly what happened,” the Minnesota native said. “In order to put those emotions in the dance, we needed to open that can of worms and really talk about it in detail.”

Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.

With reporting by Kayley Stumpe