Designing Relation field, where to place it?

When deciding on where to place a relation field, is it better to have it on the Item or the User side?

for example. I have a many to many relation between Items and Users.

Would it be better to have a “users” relation field in the Item class or to have an “items” relation field in the _User class? Or have it on both classes and maintain both?

As I foresee myself querying from both sides, sometimes I would need to see what Items are related to the User, and sometimes, I’d like to know how many users have “liked” or are related to the said Item.

Would love to hear your thoughts.

thanks,