now i’m just wondering if the “ML” actually likes her, or if he just likes to tormen...

I think he likes her in the way young boys will torment the girl they like. I think this story is actually a social call out. A lot of stories lately have been a social call out about bullying or politics or anything hot topic-y. This one seems to be about “boys will be boys” and patriarchy culture.

you make a good point

Yeah omg, "boys will be boys"... aka "boys will be boys who'll never ever truly become men"...
Aka, "snivelling, immature azzholes who'll never make themselves liked by a woman aside from their own mother"

Given what he is (in the spoilers) he's the only being from whom I'll accept the excuse "I was bored"... Dude's like literally the only one of his kind, and the few who know who he is are not even close to his level, so they only ever obey his every word or avoid him altogether... Boredom must be massive (not an excuse if he was human, I know, but key word is "if" he was human... which he's not: not even close)

Yes but that doesn’t negate the fact that he does single her out. I have adhd and I am perpetually bored to the point that I have stared at my own hand counting the wrinkles in my palm before. I have never ONCE thought about harming others for fun. And I get that he’s an eldritch horror and that’s kinda their gig but when you make abuse your personality, it’s not a quirk, it’s a problem. Like to an ant, we probably look like eldritch horrors and to my cats, I probably look like a god who can control the rain when I turn on the shower or that I control the sun when I turn on the lights but I don’t plan ways to harm them. I don’t infiltrate their world and play mind games with them. And besides, I’m pretty sure this is a social commentary on abusers and specifically “boys will be boys” culture that ignores and enables this behaviour. Also someone pointed out that it might be a parody about romantasy ML behaviour. I don’t think being “bored” is the thick and thin of it.

Lol, but you and your cat are not the same as an example, because even though you live with your cat, you still coexist with other humans like yourself, unlike this guy... It'd only be the same if you were the only human in a world of cats, for all eternity. This, at least from what I thought I could understand about the original Lovecraftian character that he's supposed to be (or, entity, or whatever he is...). But I agree that turning this entity into a FL's romantic partner can definitely work like the expression, through fiction, of some social fear, same as Count Dracula did when that story was first written.

And, now that we mention it, maybe that's just the thing: it's not that I have an appreciation for his way of reasoning, but rather than that, I think that what I feel is more like an appreciation for this author apparently respecting the few basics about the original character that they borrowed. I don't think you can preserve the original character (at least, not as it was originally conceptualized) if you take away his "being evil" as one of his defining features. You can't have this entity as the evil overlord it was originally created as, in Lovecraftian lore, if you take away his (initial?) inability to understand humans, etc etc... like I don't think Count Dracula is still "quite" Count Dracula if you take away his blood sucking, his threatening aura, and all the killings he did and all the evil things he did that inspired fear and such... (and NO, I don't think all modern vampire varities are anything close to the original).

this is actually such a valid theory explanation, i didn’t even think of that but once you said that it makes complete sense if that’s the case

that is another good idea too, i can so see how boredom might be his motivator if the other theory isn’t the case — or it might just be a mixture of both.