No, he actually didn't fall into the whole rape equals love thing. If that had been the case, Kei wouldn't have left in the first place. Secondly, he wouldn't have waited until Kaiya told him that he loved him to believe him, if he had fallen for that line, in any way. Thirdly, he didn't immediately ignore his other relationships to focus on Kaiya once he, Kei, realized his, Kaiya's, love for him. If he had fallen for that cliche where rape equals love, I'm pretty sure his first response would have been to fall back into the pattern he had had with Kaiya, before, NOT basically ignore him and go on to confront his ex lover, anyway, who basically turns on him and holds him hostage. If you didn't like that behavior when Kaiya did it, I have to ask, though, why you ignore it when the ex lover does it? Fourthly, if he had fallen into that trope trap, wouldn't he have fallen back into love with his second ex? That you ignore this makes me wonder if the only problem you had was actually with Kei and no one else, unfortunately....
Which all leads me to the final question I feel is important to ask, are we reading a different manga?
Good lord I have a lot to respond to. I'll just pick a few.
So you said I didn't like Kaiya but I was OK with the lover for doing it. I didn't ignore the lover. In my comment, I said I didn't want the lover to be with Kei. That's me implying that I did NOT excuse what he did.
Also you say it's not rape=love because he tried to get away at first. My response is: so what? He still fell in love with Kaiya, even though Kaiya raped him and forced him into a sexual relationship. Maybe it's not EXACTLY rape=love, but it's something similar. And I already addressed the topic of Kei initially leaving Kaiya. I said that I appreciated him for it, but I lost respect when he gave up on his lover so quickly when Kaiya came back into his life.
And wtf do you mean, are we reading different manga?
If you meant that you lost respect for Kei because he gave up on his lover rather than that you lost respect for him because you think he is associating rape with love, I honestly would not have reacted in such a manner if I had known. There are a couple or more reasons why this was most likely lost in translation, though. I'll list them, but since I don't want to force you to read them, I'll put them at the bottom*.
I strongly urge you to go back and respond to all of my points. Because, otherwise, you will absolutely continue to misinterpret what I wrote, as I can only understand is what you're doing, here. For one, I would like to point out that there is a reason there are two halves to the first part. So, then, let me clarify that the second half: 'in the first place'...; was said precisely because there's a whole lot more going on with his whole leaving than you seemed to realize, which is also what I, then, go on to clarify with my following points. And which, in turn, is why one should realize this has nothing to do with rape equals love or anything even remotely similar. Because what I was trying to show was that Kei is actively DISassociating rape from love. Meaning he is doing the complete opposite of what you think he is doing. And if someone is doing the complete opposite, how can that be similar in any way to the rape equals love theme, at all?
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This next part is the list I talked about, above. If you don't feel like you want to read this, please use the preamble as an opportunity to avoid doing so. For anyone who does read further, the reason I am putting this list, here, is to hopefully gain consensus that my interpretation of events was also valid. So, yes, I admit, somewhat for my own satisfaction.
A. there was no clear correlation linking the loss of respect and Kei not choosing his lover, b. the very next premise you stated after that, argued that you would not have liked it if the lover had stuck with Kei, either, which I thought implied a stronger correlation with the whole rape equals love cliche making you lose your respect for him rather than Kei not choosing him as his lover and c. you did imply a more immediate causal link between losing your respect for Kei when you used the phrase 'right there' almost immediately after you claim he fell for the rape equals love cliche.
Look, I read this a long time ago, and I remembered I didn't like the characters. I read what you said, but I don't wanna waste my time arguing over a manga that didn't leave any impression on me.
To put it simply, I didn't like the manga (specifically the characters), I wouldn't read it again.
And don't analyze my responses wtf, I'm just a regular reader and I said what came to my mind, not some renowned critic who chooses my words carefully and with purpose.
I thought the same things like you tooooooo~~~~
I'm sorry, I loved the story but I couldn't like the characters. I liked Kei at first because he was strong enough to leave Kaiya (unlike most ukes), but then he fell into the whole rape=love thing that is simply irritating, and I lost my respect for him there. Kaiya, despite having lost Kei for 5 years, doesn't change his character and still uses force with Kei. The lover I actually liked. I didn't want him to be with Kei, but I thought he was a good person, and I appreciated that he was willing to let Kei go.