Like I suppose even without necessarily labeling it correctly or labeling it differently a discussion can still be had, but at the same time it’s like, there’s going to be a huge gap in how we then interpret him as a character and what various things actually mean and say about him depending on if we see the sex Jaekyung has as being consensual or mostly nonconsensual.
For example I would say Jaekyung is sadistic and feels outright entitled to sex, based off the way he treats Dan before, during, and after their first time together (and of course many of their interactions afterwards, even outside of sex lol). I’d even say he’s quite cold and clinical about not only sex but probably relationships in general. But I don’t know, someone who thinks everything he does is consensual and thinks it’s Jaekyung’s god given right to treat someone any type of way so long as he’s paying them, or sees his Jinx as good enough justification for him to do that, or simply thinks that Dan would otherwise have little to no real issue with the sex he’s having with Jaekyung probably might not interpret Jaekyung’s actions and dialogue and actions as being sadistic and entitled. To them, he may simply be being pragmatic. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
(Mind you, nothing’s wrong with being a sadist—the issue is subjecting someone otherwise unwilling or unenthusiastic to your sadism without consulting with them first, of course. I just think it’s interesting that Jaekyung specifically gets off on hurting Dan and making him cry.)
I think there’s a lot to talk about re: how Jaekyung goes about having sex with people and his attitudes around it and what broader implications they have about his character and his values and how he thinks about other people and relationships and what it might say about the type of environment he grew up in or the spaces he’s occupied and all that, genuinely. I think these are all much more interesting questions than whether or not what he does to Dan, at least at first, is rape—in part because that question in and of itself is such a non-question to me. But it’s like how can we even get there if we can’t even get past what is essentially square zero. Sheesh. How are we meant to ask what [x] means or what [x] says about a character if we don’t even know what [x] is.