I'm getting more and more vibes that ML is in the closet even inside his own darn mind... Like, at least, have some guts and come out to *yourself* already, man... Mr King of Mixed Signals. The mc should just be straight with him and force him to make a choice, if only to get rid of this emotional leech. (he needed to be slapped a couple of times or sth, to make him wake up of self-delusion limbo, make a darn choice, and stop clinging to the mc and weighing with his own indecision... darn emotional leech, I tell you)