Oh hey, that's me in the background haha

Then adding in the "meet your new roommates" right after further solidifies that it was introductions

It's the framing. I thought that they were being introduced as they were listing them off because you have a portrait of them in front of each one. That's a classic way to introduce people, especially in comics. Like listing all the members of a team with their portrait to represent

Mine is a very simple and probably unhelpful answer, but the visuals. If I see something that is appealing at a glance I usually stop to look (this is true whether it is erotic or not)