This comment section is exactly why

I leave the comments that I do for stories where characters say explicity, in officially translated English: "No." "I don't like this." "Wait." "Stop" With clearly drawn expressions of anxiety, of distress, of coerced physical response. And readers who swear on their ancestors graves and their favourite soda that "This is just fiction" and "Everybody knows what they're reading" will reveal the exact opposite. So here we go. This is long.

In sexual relationships, consent is present when it is *clearly* communicated: whether that's vocally, in sign language, however the parties involve best communicate. When anyone communicates "No" and the partner does not stop, does not check in with their partner but continues to have sex, the experience has become *nonconsensual*. It's not dubious. Where is the doubt in "No"? You are not a psychic. You are not a god. You do not have access to the partner's inner thoughts. It does not matter if their genitals have turned into the largest waterfall or the biggest mountain in your country. No means no, *unless* the partners involved have agreed to a sexual relationship in which they role play dubcon/rape scenarios and have a safe word that either will use if they want to stop.

Even *if* a partner involve changes their mind after they rejected another's sexual advances before *at best* the situation is a coerced sexual encounter and still a violation. Why? Because the person tried to assert their agency, their will, and was ignored. They were rendered powerless and any decisions made in a situation where you feel you cannot control what happens to you because the other will not listen is *compromised*. It is violence.

We know there are dubcon stories out there but *key aspects* of evaluating those stories is a lack of a "No" or similar rejection of the advance AND the reader having access to that character's inner thoughts. In thise case we would know know exactly what Woo Won is feeling, his uncertainty, hesitation and so on. None of that is present in chapters 59 or 60. What we get is Seo-An's thoughts which automatically put the reader in *his* position and makes us more sympathetic towards him rather than Woo Won. Some comments here play into another big myth: that partners in romantic relationships can't rape each other or there's some kind of higher threshold they have to meet. If they are already in a relationship and love each other if someone says "No" he doesn't really mean it, they must mean something else it, it must be maybe, not now or 5 minutes later, or let me shower first. In chapter X Woo Won was into it so he has to want it now no matter what.

All of that? It's rape logic. It's rape culture.

Look. It's okay to read fucked up stories. It does not make you a bad a person. But it is critical that we understand what we're reading. If you refuse to recognise it in a webtoon on a screen you're reading in private how the hell are you going to do so IRL?

BL is filled with stories where characters say, "No" "It hurts" "I don't want to" "Stop" and then the couple falls into a happily ever after with no consequences. Or the characters, say "No" and then later "Oh, I didn't mean it, tee hee" without the writers showing the couple having a discussion about what they're into sexually, how they get off on dubcon, and so these are the terms. These are unrealistic normalizations of dysfunctional abusive relationships, for the most part. Some writers are good at writing these taboo situations because they understand the dynamics and what gets readers gagging. But most of the time, imo, indulge in a careless romanticization of rape and an erasure of trauma in a world where sexual violence is not taken seriously, especially when partners are in a queer relationship.

Please search for resources on this issue. There is nothing wrong with being "rape-sensitive" ffs. Everyone should be!