Come on...

I agree with all characters except big bro. I mean come on you can't expect everyone to act in a similar way in that situation right. Maybe he was afraid of how his father would react or whether anyone would believe him and given the recent chapter and the way in which the father didn't even come to his help I wouldn't blame the big bro. Also it depends on how the society views victims of rape. So there's a lot of factors and blaming him without even considering them would be kinda wrong.

He kind of invited it. His actions led his bro down this path. To take responsibility he should stay with him.

That's sick asf. He may have agreed initially, but he didn't “invite” sh*t. Bullsh*t he “led” the little brother down that path. The little brother, who hated females, was treated nice by his older brother and developed an obsession from an early age. What, the older brother should have treated him like shit? You don't lead someone to being obsessed with or raping you. There's something in THEIR brain that's faulty. You can be bothered by the older brother's initial agreement to do sexual things before it escalated. But placing the little brother's psycho actions on him is pure victim blaming.

U are not the only one i hated everyone i thought the big brother lover was going to help him with his crazy brother but instead he left him WTF and now the only one the big brother can turn to is his crazy brother and now I'm frustrated that the big brother just taking it Σ(っ°Д °;)っ

I'm actually afraid to comment on this thread. I'll incite war if I don't pick my words correctly. But seriously???
> Senpai: He's human, too. He can get hurt and he was hurt. I don't know exactly how long he and Haruki were together but it seems he enjoyed his relationship with him and that Haruki was looking so much better, THAT Senpai forgot that he was supposed to find what the problem was, it was all supposed to be a plan to make Haruki rely on him and spill the beans. He only realized he loves Haruki when they broke up, meaning he forgot his mission because he fell in love. He got hurt because he is in love.
>Big Bro, Haruki: Please do not blame the victim. Every victim has a different way of reacting to rape. Trauma can paralyze people. And to ANON, you need to learn about "blaming the victim 101".
>Mother, Haruka: Uhm, she doesn't know that his son is a rapist? How can she conclude that his son rapes his brother just from seeing gay porn? BTW, @Giota_p, you are gay when you have sex with a man (but this is not true all the time) but I think I get what you mean. Hikaru has a major psychological problem on drawing conclusions that I don't think she could anticipate that her sexual activity would incite such behavior from Hikaru. She's just having sex, she's not a fortune teller. BUT she should've known there's something wrong with her SONS, but too dense to see it.

With all the victim blaming on Haruki it's surprising you hate Hanabusa.

As I can get by the plot, Haruka's mother let him abused by another man. I don't know why and under which circumstances this happened, but it's a fact. So yeah... she is a shit as a mother. She turned her son to be a gay... and a rapist. And if we want to see Hikaru as a victim, we have also see Haruka as a victim. If he hasn't be traumatized, he probably weren't going to be like this now.
And I can accept that we are not all the same and that every person reacts in different ways, but can on...
- The one you love (hypothetically) says that he is a rapist's victim. It's a sock, a huge sock, but as a human being, you can't just let him suffer. Even if you don't want to be with him anymore, or fuck him or whatever, you have to do something to help.
- Haruka is the old brother. Hikaru the younger one. As an adult, the first, should have to protect himself after the first time. But instead of that, he delivered over and over again to the dark side, now he is the one that let Hikaru break him in even smaller pieces. He doesn't have the will to fight for his life, from the start, and this is frustrating.
But if you think about all these a little better, the worst one is the father!!! He lives in his oooown world!!! For God's shake, man... Open your eyes and look at how shitty your family is. :p

And to be clear... I don't blame Haruka for being raped from Haruki. Come on... I never told something like this. I blame him because he choose to stay the victim here and he doesn't do anything to change the situation. After the first time, he should have take action and do something to protect himself. But at this point, he choose to destroy his life even more!!!

Just letting you know, what you just said is the textbook definition of victim blaming.

I cannot go as far as to call Haruka a shit because I've read another mother who is FAR WORSE than Haruka, if you have read Yatamomo by Harada, you would hate the mother there, she's the real shit. Haruka is actually the typical mother here who is satisfied as long as her child does well in school, attends cram school, etc. She is not actually overbearing unless the routine that she expects Hikaru to follow is ruined. Having that personality, she's not going to intentionally harm Hikaru, it would be out of her hands if Hikaru was molested. I'm not sure if Hikaru was molested by either his father or her previous partner, AS WELL, or by a woman. Could be both because 1) Haruka hinted that Hikaru had a bad experience with older women, and 2) Hikaru hinted his mother is taking away someone from him AGAIN. So you could be, at some point, right, Kashio should reveal that in the following chapters.

I'm speechless. Age has nothing to do with coping with rape. And probably, Giota_P, as much as I do not want and to avoid judging people in the world of internet, I can't help but think that maybe you have always been a strong person (good for you) or that you have always been surrounded by strong and encouraging people. You have never felt devastated and defeated in your life or have anyone close to you who went through hell. Whenever you are struggling, there are probably people to support and cheer you on. Thus, probably this is why you can't help but blame the victim, Haruki. After all, we can never know what rape feels like till it happens to us. Empathy works effectively when you have experienced the same or similar events or feelings the characters experience in the story. Without prior knowledge, understanding and empathizing to the characters would be difficult. I'm trying to understand you here, so sorry if I have offended you.

I don't think so... Blame victim is to believe that the victim wanted to be raped in the first place, and that he/she had done things to "seduce" the rapist. But it okay to have another opinion than mine! :)

I've been through a lot of shits in my life (not rape, thanks God), but as anyone else, I had difficult times. The thing is, not to have a perfect life or be strong enough to never experience something that you don't want -and you didn't cause it-, but to be strong enough to say: "I don't want my life to be so rough or shitty anymore", stand up and do your best. Hikaru is totally surrender to Haruka's wills, and this is a disaster. He is a grown up adult, with a life that he has to protect it. If you can't do it alone, and I understand it, ask for help. It's not a bad thing. And ask it from the right persons!

p.s. I have read Yamamoto and God... Harada is seriously playing with my nerves EVERY-TIME!!!

Well, good for you for having such a positive outlook in life and actually act it out and make it happen. Even if you fail, you can still find a way to be optimistic about them. Unfortunately, not everyone is like you. We don't exactly know how Haruki was raised but from his behaviour he was not raised to be a strong, empowered adult. There are expectations to adults, even more so that Haruki is a male, but it cannot also be helped that adults do not conform to that expectation.

Victim blaming is faulting the victim, in any instance, because of something they did "wrong" leading up to their victimization. Hikaru is the aggressor and the only one at fault for Haruki's rape. Saying Haruki allowed it to happen or that being the adult he should have protected himself better if he didn't want to get raped is victim blaming. He IS a victim, at no point did he "choose" to be a victim.

Haruki's behavior is actually a very realistic portrayal of a rape victim. He did try to get out of the situation but Hikaru overpowered him, which broke Haruki mentally. The manga also gives some social factors that make Haruki reluctant to get help. He trusted Hanabusa to help him but that didn't work out so he no longer trusts anyone to help him. Knowing a bit about threat and stress responding as well as some long term effects of trauma would help you understand Haruki's behavior.

He choose to stay a victim! But this is my opinion. I'm not trying to make you change your mind.
And overall... Hanadusa is a JERK that only cares about how he feels! All his problem is that Haruki fucked with his raper before going to see him, and not that the man that he likes (?) or maybe be in love with, is abusing and raping and all these shits.
I hope that Haruki is going to find a way to be himself again, stay away from both Haruka and Hanabusa, and be a brave, strong man that leaves the past in the past, and only look forward.

I agree with Jaz. When you say someone "chooses" to continue something, it's not just the physical aspect of it, of rape, but it is also what the mind is thinks. In Haruki's case, he wants an end to all of it.

I've also had this theory, since forever, that those people who have difficulty to give their trust even to the closest people in their lives and those who have weak personalities have experienced being betrayed, big or small, by an adult when they were younger and/or has always disappointed adults for not meeting expectations, thus lacking in self-confidence and esteem. Even though Haruki is so close with Hanabusa, he couldn't disclose anything to him, he does not truly trust Hanabusa and is afraid of disappointing him. Same goes with Haruki's dad, who cannot accept disappointment when Haruki resigned from work.

"Being an adult" differs from one person to another because every person takes their own pace in mental, social and personality development, it is not only true for infants and kids. True there are ideal accomplishments in each age level but it varies from one individual to another. Haruki seems like he hasn't reached the stage where he is confident in being an adult and exercise on being one.

The reason I said it was surprising you hate Hanabusa because your reasoning for blaming Haruki isn't much different than the reasoning Hanabusa had. In your first post you said why did Haruki behave that way. I figured you were more open-minded to understanding the psychology behind Haruki's behavior.

But Hanabusa does not have a fucking idea that Haruki is being raped nor that Haruki does not like the guy he just had sex with. Yes, I agree that Hanabusa should have pried more to find out who that guy was, or whether Haruki loved the guy he had sex with before calling it quits BUT at that point, Hanabusa already loves Haruki and, of course like any human would feel, was hurt that Haruki cheated on him. I think it is also important to note that since he and Haruki started dating, Haruki looked so much better and can fake whatever problem he's having. So Hanabusa forgot why he even started dating with Haruki, to find out what happened after that vacation. He was actually shocked when he saw the Haruki from before but too overwhelmed with his own emotions to figure out what to do.
It's also frustrating when someone does not trust you whatsoever to confide and ask help from you after all the time you've spent together, thus clouding his instincts on Haruki's behavior.

Haruki now starts again to want to escape from this situation. And I hope that he can do it. As for Hanadusa... Haruki didn't cheat on him. He was raped by another man, and as long as he likes Haruki, he should have the calm to see this as a violated event, as it is, and not as a good time sex.
Anyway, I don't believe that Hanabusa is going to be part of this story ever again. He had his chance and he screw it!!! Furthermore, Haruki deserve to be with someone who can understand and love him completely.