i really like the note the author included about how this should not be taken as an introd...

then honestly what what was the point of the ending then? Granted it's fiction so the author's ending doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, because almost the majority of plots similar to this end with victim falling in love with their manipulator within the BL genre. How is this story even remotely different than any other? Nor why should the author pat themselves on the back for these words of wisdom, but still infer that this sort of manipulative love is valid through the conclusion of a "HEA" derived from it?It's such a hypocritical message if you acknowledge the toxicity but profit from its romanticization .

because sometimes we as humans like to read stories about shitty characters falling in love, and i should hope that most of us are able to discern that they are fiction and are not things that should be admired in real life

i read a lot of fucked up shit but i'm not about to start running around IRL claiming that it's good

I mean that’s the point. Why then even have to voice that for readers if were not already an issue within the community, more so as you’ve said since it’s clearly common sense not to encourage this sort of behavior outside of fiction. If that was case then the same argument should apply for similar situations but it doesn’t. Take for example Killing Stalking the ultimate toxic story. It’s not even a romance story and Koji as expressed this, but regardless readers have romanticized and endorsed a serial killer and his hostage victim falling in love and now because of this should you stumble across plot of a similar nature involving two men you’ll be sure to find the comment sections reference to such coupling as applicable to other characters creating a sort of standard for comparison. Its similar to the issue with “shipping” and “fanfiction” and it’s application to real life that has proven toxic beyond digital platforms. There are blockbuster movies made from people’s badly written fanfictions at this point. Its great to read stories that has diversity within its plot and characters, but the thing is there’s actually not a lot of it in this genre in recent years and that’s actually in general for a lot of content directed towards women. Regularly reading about romantic toxicity, watching it, and hearing it doesn’t mean wanting to go and try it, it means becoming desensitized to it, having it come closer to normalcy, or eventually having it become the standard. So for the author to make the point yep this is a story you shouldn’t try at home boys and girls isn’t exactly charming when they’re writing a plot that is within the majority more so than the minority, when whoever’s reading this will finish this story and go on to read watch listen to something exactly the same soon afterwards.