How to retrieve the ordered result using @OrderColumn in hibernate

I'm using @OrderColumn in a many-to-many relationship:

@Entity
@Getter
@Setter
@SuperBuilder
@NoArgsConstructor
public abstract class BaseClass{

  private UUID id;

  ...

  @ManyToMany
  @JoinTable(
      name = "joint_table",
      joinColumns = {
          @JoinColumn(name = "base_id")
      },
      inverseJoinColumns = {
          @JoinColumn(name = "item_id")
      }
  )
  @OrderColumn
  @Builder.Default
  protected List<Item> items= new ArrayList<>();

...

The order column is being recorded as expected. So persisting is not an issue. However, when i try to read the list with the getter:

myBaseClassInstance.getItems();

I can see the generated SQL is not including an 'ORDER BY' statement.

What am I doing wrong? How ca I enforce the ordering column to be used while retrieving the list?

Thanks in advance