beta
I’m not gonna comment on the red flags that have always been in this story that require heavy doses of suspension of disbelief, I just wanted to say smth i always found funny. That being, it’s teased somewhat carelessly whether the detective guy actually cares about his friend’s grooming a little boy or not, but what really gets me is the fact that iirc, they straight up “test him” to make sure he won’t report the fact that he’s getting statutorily raped by kousuke . Like if you’re gonna make an unethical fictional age gap romance, at least stop reminding ppl of the fact that you know it’s wrong??? Self-awareness is NOT the kind of look you wanna be going for when you do it so half-assedly (by trying to play it off and writing any personal sentiments into the characters as a stand in) and for the sake of (I assume) deflecting criticism. At least have the integrity and balls to be properly honest about what the story is or don’t mention it at all. Having a character expressly question the actions of the ML but not actually have him face the consequences and take accountability for it just means it’s a pointless plot point that just serves to add drama. It serves no narrative function (in terms of character development) other than make-up rape (i don’t really consider it sex tbh that man is like 30 ☠) and padding out chapters. Again, I don’t want to go into yapping anyone’s eyes out but I still think its so funny to ‘test’ a minor and be like “but you won’t tell anyone, right?”
Last little side note: The beginning 2 volumes were so wild… (so was the whole series but) Kousuke behavior is so crazy bc why is this grown ass man gatekeep girlboss GASLIGHTING a teenager into believing he’s in love with him like brother has NOTHING better to do. As I’ve gotten older, it’s become kind of a turn-off that a man that age is THAT emotionally immature, and don’t get me wrong, I like my men ***pathetic***
Anyways: certified loverboy certified pedophile