I liked it somehow, but...

I liked it somehow, but...

This mess isn't the uke's fault, and to blame him for everything is just dishonest. The uke makes his expectations and desires 100% clear verbally throughout the story to both guys. Also there is way too much emphasis being put on the physical act of "cheating" in the story and not nearly enough on the situation, the emotions, and the emotional manipulation going on around that time/event.

Basically, everyone in this story did unsavory things to put themselves in this situation, but the uke shares the least blame here. How could that possibly be? Well...

(spoilers) (warning -- this is LONG)
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seme = Touji
uke = Homura
jerk = Kyouya

If you don't like deep-dive narrative breakdowns, stop here, because that's what this is, and it's LONG.

First off, let's talk about Homura's and Touji's status/rank within these mythical yakuza groups. Touji is the only son of the Karasuma group's leader, and thus the heir. His dad ended up dying in the story, and so Touji becomes the head of the group. The whole group. Think of him as the former crown Prince and now the King of his country. Homura, meanwhile, is the eldest son of one of the Tanno group's subordinate families. Homura's family has been responsible for running some of the Tanno group's side-hustles for a few generations. While Homura's family has been and currently is important to the Tanno group, it's not like someone else from another family within the Tanno group couldn't take over the side-hustle stuff if it came to it. In fact, that is exactly what is discussed in the previous manga to this one, "Zettai Unmei Houteishiki". Homura's dad proposes ending their involvement in the yakuza, to which Homura respectfully declines, saying it is of interest to him to continue running the Tanno group's side-hustles. So think of Homura like a seneschal appointed to the Tanno King. His father was the seneschal before him, and his father before him etc, but it's not like they couldn't find a new seneschal to replace him if they needed to. It's just his job. The biggest take-away here is that Homura's family line is expendable and Touji's isn't.

Which means... there will be an expectation for Touji to get married and produce heirs. Heirs can only be produced with women, barring omegaverse, and adoption is usually reserved as a last-ditch option. Homura and Touji both know this. Touji's wheels are turning while he keeps a cool exterior, but Homura is completely beside himself about what to do about this event that is looming in the future. It's not "if" but "when". They both know it.

Which brings us to Homura's and Touji's relationship before all this went down. Homura is a serious guy who prides himself in being thorough and precise and prompt, good at his work, etc. He's stuffy-shirted, proper, and got a stick up his butt. He wants things to be properly defined and with a plan in place where they can remain in a stable state for the foreseeable future. Touji, meanwhile, presents himself as a kind of charismatic, lazy guy with a flippant attitude. Kinda like "oh, it'll work out somehow" towards his relationship with Homura. This attitude isn't going to fly with Homura, and Homura constantly refuses to fully commit to Touji because of it. This is why Homura won't say "I love you". He wants Touji to have a plan for keeping them together before he's willing to fully commit his heart.

And Homura isn't wrong about the things he's worrying about. He is allowed to have expectations for their relationship that must be met for him to continue being in the relationship. He stated in a very direct way several times that he doesn't wanna be just the mistress. He wants to be the wife. He wants Touji to be his and his alone before he will commit fully. But given their relative statuses within their organizations, it's Touji that would have to make the plans and take the steps to get their relationship into a permanent state. Touji is the one who is going to be pressured to marry. Homura can't force Touji to do what needs to be done to keep them together. This is the sort of rocky state they start in at the beginning of this comic.

Well, it's no surprise everything falls apart when things start going sideways, because Touji wouldn't communicate his plans to Homura. They are in rival groups, yes, so Touji can't let Homura know the details of his plans, but things could be told to Homura in a vague enough way that Homura would get the gist, and know to wait while Touji does some sly maneuvering. If they trusted each other, this wouldn't even matter and Touji could just tell Homura directly beforehand. But Touji wants Homura to commit before he'll trust him enough to tell him what he's planning, and Homura wants Touji to tell him his plans before he'll commit so he'll feel reassured that he won't get his heart trampled all over. It's a chicken-and-egg problem, and no one caves, so things break down.

Buuuuuuut... instead of cluing him in in even the slightest way, Touji lets Homura believe he (Touji) was getting married to some strumpet. The proposition to marry that Tanno girl was completely real and legitimate. If it hadn't been real, Touji strong-arming the Tanno group's truce wouldn't have worked. So it wasn't untrue that Touji proposed marriage to that girl. He did. What was kept on the down-low was that Touji was highly confident it would fall through, and was counting on that happening. Homura would never have had any chance of knowing this due to the crunched time frame and no hints that things were not as they seemed. Touji allowed him to believe this was real. He planned all this out without reassuring Homura beforehand that the situation was handled.

So of course Homura is going to think they're done. If you suddenly found out your boyfriend proposed marriage to someone else, what would you think? Finding out about it and having it confirmed at his group's meeting was basically a long-distance break-up. What choice does Homura have but to believe that Touji either chose or was forced into marrying that girl? Again, Homura has always said he refused to be Touji's side-ho. It was all or nothing with Homura, and Touji knew that from the beginning. Touji dropped the ball by not saying anything beforehand and caused Homura to think they were done/finished/broken-up.

One could ding Homura for not picking up the phone the zillion times Touji called. But you know, when something like this happens, the last thing you want to hear is a bunch of excuses. Homura, being the stuffy-shirted perfectionist nerd that he was, knew deep down that marriage was the best path for Touji, being the group head, even if he would no longer be in Touji's life. It's hard to have the resolve and self-awareness to remove yourself from a situation you desperately want, but where you know your presence is just dragging the other person down. This is why Homura didn't pick up the phone. Because talking to Touji would shake his resolve in giving Touji up, when he knew giving Touji up was the right thing to do.

Now, let's talk about the elephant in the room, Kyouya. Kyouya is the biggest, worst piece of crap in this whole story. He is exactly that sort of guy you would get a restraining order against, if you were a girl. He is an unrepentant stalker. I don't know how many times Homura told Kyouya "no" and to eff off, and he kept coming back to nag Homura. The author made it plainly, PLAINLY clear that Homura was not interested in Kyouya in the slightest. Like, you can't even dispute it, it's made so clear. Homura is under no obligation to prove his love of Touji to Kyouya to get Kyouya to stop pestering him.

And in regards to "cheating", first off, it isn't cheating if you're not in a relationship. Homura believed his relationship with Touji was over at that time. Touji getting married (Touji initiated the marriage proposal!) means that Homura parts ways with Touji because he refuses to be Touji's mistress. It was a break-up. Now, Homura shouldn't have slept with Kyouya, but not because he was under any current commitments with Touji (he wasn't). Homura shouldn't have slept with Kyouya because he doesn't and never did like Kyouya in that way. In general, Homura merely felt sorry for Kyouya's financial situation, nothing more. Homura allowing them to have sex was the result of him not caring about anything any more, which was misinterpreted by Kyouya, leading Kyouya to believe they were in a relationship (as evidenced by Kyouya blurting "i stole him!" out at Touji later, like a big idiot), when they weren't in a relationship at all. It's crummy to string someone along like this and get their hopes up. Homura should've refused him to prevent this confusion from happening. (However...)

That said, Kyouya is such a huge turd for preying upon Homura in Homura's big moment of emotional breakdown. Kyouya (who works at Touji's club now) tells Homura that the guy Homura has loved for years, whom he's been dating for years, is getting married. This information is independently confirmed at the Tanno group meeting, and Kyouya acts before any clarity can be injected into the situation (Touji SHOULD have told Homura beforehand, dammit!). Kyouya, lacking morals in a big way, takes this juicy opportunity to pounce upon Homura while he's in a tailspin. Yes, Homura should've refused him. But on the other hand, when you feel dead inside from an emotional blow like this, you start not caring about anything anymore. Kyouya is a terrible person for preying upon someone in an emotional state like this.

I really hate how the author tries to make Kyouya look like a poor little nice guy all the time while giving him the actions of a crazy stalker. It's not acceptable. His sad financial situation has nothing to do with his unjustifiable actions towards Homura and his constant interference with Homura's relationship with Touji. Homura has told Kyouya he's not interested in him so many different ways that I don't have enough fingers and toes to count them all. Just what could Homura say to get the point across finally? This is not even a case of "tell me plainly", Homura has in fact told Kyouya plainly to eff off many, many times. Just because you "love" someone doesn't mean you get to force yourself into their life against their will every chance you can get. What Homura needs is a restraining order on Kyouya or to put a hit out on him, I don't know which.

In the end, a single, firm, "no" should have been enough. Kyouya's just a bad person.

The dumb part is that Kyouya could be completely removed from the story and the whole plot about the marriage/proposal/etc wouldn't have changed a bit, only Homura would look less bad, having not been presented with an opportunity to sleep with someone else when he and Touji were on the outs. Kyouya basically contributed nothing to the story other than making Homura look bad when he was emotionally devastated. Lame.