Honestly I think this particular take on the "it's not real" mindset is so interesting in like a good way like going out of his way to reaffirm to himself that this is a game and the people around him aren't people and are subject to the whims of some code or whatever to the point of not just emotional distance but physical destruction is so interesting especially when its in such stark contrast to his actual feelings about people which we can see when he declares stuff about loving or missing his brothers he both does and doesn't treat the people around him as real it's almost like he's telling himself this is just a game specifically in order to cope with something probably his fear over this idea that he and those around him have no free will
I also think it's funny to compare his reactions to his brother's forbidden love route with his reaction to the evil Ilya route
I think the reason I don't find this story super frustrating is because it's very obvious Hongyun does genuinely have feelings for Heewong almost to the point of hilarity and Heewong is also very aware of this (because it'd be so hard not to notice it) and that's where his persistent has been born from in these last ten or so chapters that and it's obvious that there's something really eating at Hongyun and not just in how he handles relationships but in how he interacts with people in general from his "friends" (which if we're being honest he doesn't really have) to even how he interacts with his family (I'm even of the mind that he's autistic but that's a conversation for another time)
Honestly a lot of my annoyance with Heewong initially was because he was pursuing someone who said they weren't in to him but currently Hongyun's actions so blatantly contradict this that Heewong would be a fool to not have noticed and he has which is why he continues to act the way he does
I personally don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with not being able to put a label on something yet (or ever) trauma is weird and responses to trauma are weirder I was only really irritated with Hongyun for never taking initiative it felt like Heewong was giving more to the relationship than he was but that seems to slowly be changing so it's clear that was an intentional characterization
Currently my only remaining frustration is with the fact that us as readers don't know Hongyun's backstory yet which I think would curb a lot of people's disdain for this relationship