This is a short story, only 7 chapters.
It's one of those stories that had the potential to develop in more chapters to address a few things, but the author kept it simple and wrapped it up quickly.
Now if you want spoilers:
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The ML used to be the MC's bff in school, and loved his singing voice. It's implied he was already in love with MC.
But the ML was kind of a book nerd with a weird vocabulary, and one day MC heard him use a word to describe his singing that caused a misunderstanding (The ML said smt along the lines of his voice being terribly good, and MC though he was saying his voice was terrible).
This caused MC to freeze up and fuck up an audition for smt big. After that, MC ran away, ML couldn't find him again until that night we saw him.
The misunderstanding is cleared up when MC runs into an old classmate who ends up mentioning it in a convo, MC then runs to ML and they live happily ever after.
And for those wondering: No, he doesn't SA MC. MC gets horny when ML is wiping his sweat up and brushes his nipples, and ML takes advantage of that. There's some resistance from MC, as it's usual in BL's, but he very easily gives in to pleasure.
I wish the scan uncensors this one tho, the lightsabers on this one were kinda intrusive.
For eastern media, yes, it is normal. There's a cultural background there about the denial in sexual relationships, and while it can be sometimes uncomfortable to western values, that's what I'm signing up for when I decide to read shit from other cultures.
Of course there are discussions about consent in this culture, and tbf most stories are downright violent rape rather than just the cultural denial.
My point is that this one doesn't seem to exceed the line of the cultural "no" and SA.
i thought a while about coming back and replying to this because your whole take is so absurdly insane to me personally, but in the end if you or anybody else actually reads my response and takes something away from it, then i guess... why not.
first off, i find it concerning how you bring up culture to argue that what happens in this story is not sexual assault, since sexual assault per definition (and per sane mind) is NOT about the denial in sexual relationships from a cultural standpoint. the denial for sexual contact stemming from cultural upbringing and sexual assault are two separate circumstances that can co-exist at the same time in the same scenario.
sexual assault is, in the most basic sense, a violation of personal boundaries. the definition as per RAINN: "sexual contact or behavior that occurs without explicit consent of the victim". what does the top do in this story? he touches the bottom's nipple without explicit consent before immediatley bending down to suck and bite said nipple—again—without explicit consent. i can go on. he takes off his clothes, sucks his dick, and penetrates him with two fingers without explicit consent; all the while being told "wait a minute, why? huh? wait, no fingers, what the hell are you doing?" and not saying, asking, or explaining a single thing.
i know the bottom's obvious denial doesn't mean anything but disguised agreement to you, the author, or the top, so i won't comment any further about it. as established earlier, it doesn't need the bottom's denial to make the top a sexual assaulter, because he already crossed that line by deciding for himself that he is allowed to get handsy with a guy he just saved from an impending gang-rape.
in conlusion: this is definitely sexual assault.
the sad truth is that this world has a problem with enough men who think they can take what they want at the cost of their victims' emotional and physical well-being and it hurts and frustrates me every time i see someone defend or downplay sexual assault just because it's two hot dudes fucking, or because they think it has something to do with... culture...
I HAD TO MTL THE RAWS AND OMG THIS IS SO SICK
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SO we all know that Heewon is Hyesung's real soulmate. We also know he fell for Hyesung's brother.
In future chapters, we'll get a glimpse at the past and Hyesung's brother will reject Heewon under the pretense that Heewon doesn't actually like him, he just envies his family.
At the same period, that shaman who owed Heewon is going to tell him in a roundabout way that Heewon's real soulmate is Hyesung, and that he only likes Hyesung's brother because he's similar to his real soulmate. He's also going to play Heewon with the promise of a normal life and a family - it becomes evident that Heewon's character journey is about getting a family and a nirmal life.
The shaman will tell him that the only way for him to get what he wants is to sever the thread between Hyesung and the person who's tied to him (Eunhan), and that Hyesung's going to meet this person in 12 years. Once they meet, he has to sever their thread by any means, so his own thread can heal.
We are led to believe that Heewon is going to accept Hyesung as his soulmate, but the shaman tells him that his thread may not join Hyesung's, but someone else's... The brother.
It's shown then that Heewon never accepted Hyesung not did he give up on the brother - he explicitly says he's gonna show the brother just how much he likes him, and it becomes clear that he's only being that protective over Hyesung so he can kill his soulmate (he doesn't know that's Eunhan yet).
Next chapter, when Hyesung gets home, he cries on Heewon's chest and they get closer, and Heewon starts hanging around him way too much, even on set!
And that starts to bother Eunhan! On the last released chapter, Eunhan is playing it cool and arrogant on set, but it's obvious that he's watching Hyesung's every move. He's even deluding himself that he can get him back whenever.
But Hyesung gives him the cold-shoulder on set, and worse - finds himself in a situation where it looks like Jutak helped him after using the ghosts to act!
Eunhan is already starting to spiral down and regret everything, and I'm living for it!
Jutak is actually quite nice? The misunderstanding happened bc Hyesung started feeling the effects of using the ghosts, so he went to hide on the dressing room where he thought he'd be alone. But Jutak followed him and asked to talk to him.
Then it jumps to Eunhan noticing he's feeling the effects of the ghosts and then deciding to follow him to 'lend him a hand' and thinking what a big favor he's doing (he's pretty delulu here and thinking he can do whatever he wants w Hyesung).
But when he gets there, he finds Hyesung all flustered with Jutak, and when Hyesung sees him, he invites Jutak out to eat and ignores Eunhan even when Eunhan tries to grab him. And Jutak follows him, so it seems like they are on good terms.
As for Eunhan, it's been mentioned by Hyesung and by the narrative bubbles a few times over these chapters that he seems to think he can do whatever he wants, so I'm guessing that's going to be the focus of his development now.
I need this back so bad!