I agree with you
I think the factor affecting his choices of not setting his boundaries properly is that he likes/love the top.
Yes, that's exactly it. With the way his relationship is going with the ML, you'd think he'd be less ambiguous with his boundaries and set the record straight with the ML. On that note, I like that he expressed that he wanted to go about their sexual relationship a bit slower. It just doesn't sit right with me when the comments are all "oh poor MC, the ML is such a manipulative as*hat" when MC has all the agency to extricate himself from the situation and go back working with the cool gangster bro (if the ML does some underhanded tricks to prevent that from happening, well, that's another matter).
Tl;dr I just dislike how readers are infantilizing the MC, when he's clearly a full-grown adult who could make his own decisions and break the ML's bones if he so wants to.
Hahahahha. Right? Dude can break bones if he wants to. He’s not being manipulated by anything but because he loves the top he’s willing to go along and be pushed and pull. Communication is the only thing lacking here. *le sigh
Ngl I know the top has Issues with a capital I, but why is no one talking about how the bottom is so poor at setting his boundaries? He clearly has his mental faculties online, and he can definitely protect himself... Theirs isn't a case of an ab*ser and his victim, there really isn't anything that would indicate a deep trauma with the bottom (the top, on the other hand...). I'm just not really empathizing with any of them at this point of the story. I hope we could see something more exciting from the both of them (not smut--though that is also welcome, the consenting kind). If only they could sit down and actually talk with even a smidgen of honesty lol.