For eastern media, yes, it is normal. There's a cultural background there about the denial in sexual relationships, and while it can be sometimes uncomfortable to western values, that's what I'm signing up for when I decide to read shit from other cultures.
Of course there are discussions about consent in this culture, and tbf most stories are downright violent rape rather than just the cultural denial.
My point is that this one doesn't seem to exceed the line of the cultural "no" and SA.
i thought a while about coming back and replying to this because your whole take is so absurdly insane to me personally, but in the end if you or anybody else actually reads my response and takes something away from it, then i guess... why not.
first off, i find it concerning how you bring up culture to argue that what happens in this story is not sexual assault, since sexual assault per definition (and per sane mind) is NOT about the denial in sexual relationships from a cultural standpoint. the denial for sexual contact stemming from cultural upbringing and sexual assault are two separate circumstances that can co-exist at the same time in the same scenario.
sexual assault is, in the most basic sense, a violation of personal boundaries. the definition as per RAINN: "sexual contact or behavior that occurs without explicit consent of the victim". what does the top do in this story? he touches the bottom's nipple without explicit consent before immediatley bending down to suck and bite said nipple—again—without explicit consent. i can go on. he takes off his clothes, sucks his dick, and penetrates him with two fingers without explicit consent; all the while being told "wait a minute, why? huh? wait, no fingers, what the hell are you doing?" and not saying, asking, or explaining a single thing.
i know the bottom's obvious denial doesn't mean anything but disguised agreement to you, the author, or the top, so i won't comment any further about it. as established earlier, it doesn't need the bottom's denial to make the top a sexual assaulter, because he already crossed that line by deciding for himself that he is allowed to get handsy with a guy he just saved from an impending gang-rape.
in conlusion: this is definitely sexual assault.
the sad truth is that this world has a problem with enough men who think they can take what they want at the cost of their victims' emotional and physical well-being and it hurts and frustrates me every time i see someone defend or downplay sexual assault just because it's two hot dudes fucking, or because they think it has something to do with... culture...
This is a short story, only 7 chapters.
It's one of those stories that had the potential to develop in more chapters to address a few things, but the author kept it simple and wrapped it up quickly.
Now if you want spoilers:
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The ML used to be the MC's bff in school, and loved his singing voice. It's implied he was already in love with MC.
But the ML was kind of a book nerd with a weird vocabulary, and one day MC heard him use a word to describe his singing that caused a misunderstanding (The ML said smt along the lines of his voice being terribly good, and MC though he was saying his voice was terrible).
This caused MC to freeze up and fuck up an audition for smt big. After that, MC ran away, ML couldn't find him again until that night we saw him.
The misunderstanding is cleared up when MC runs into an old classmate who ends up mentioning it in a convo, MC then runs to ML and they live happily ever after.
And for those wondering: No, he doesn't SA MC. MC gets horny when ML is wiping his sweat up and brushes his nipples, and ML takes advantage of that. There's some resistance from MC, as it's usual in BL's, but he very easily gives in to pleasure.
I wish the scan uncensors this one tho, the lightsabers on this one were kinda intrusive.