I think this would work better as an explanation if Minato was still caught up in the bad crowd/whatever shady shit he was in. However, he said he got his hands clean. He somehow got out, and he seems to be fine. It seems unfair that he got out of the bad crowd, and his only consequence of the gang rape is being single. Why couldn't he have gotten out earlier with Nanase?
We don't know what happened to him afterwards outside of "I washed my hands clean of it all." I have friends that are still alive after leaving their gangs but that don't mean they weren't hospitalized for a while afterwards.
And I was never sticking up for Minato. If anything it was more of a "yeah it's shitty but the ultimate outcome was better for Nanase in the end." Nanase is happy and is working towards getting better with a partner that actually cares for him. Kei probably realized this which is why he didn't beat the fuckin' brakes off of Minato when he met him. Gangs/mafias/yakuza are dangerous.
I didn't want to drag my dad through this shit but we actually lost contact with him for 2 years 'cause he got tangled up with a girl that was running with a notorious gang. We weren't able to contact him at all or know where he was for nearly 3 years 'cause we were also in danger. He managed to pay off whatever was happening in time but the situation was real and the danger was real.
I know this is fiction or whatever but in my head the repeated refusal only leads to Nanase getting kidnapped and becoming a sex slave and drug addict. Being sold in a sex trafficking ring or killed from either OD or abuse. There's no excuse for rape but at least in this story there's hope for Nanase in his recovery and relationship with Kei.
To the people saying Minato should've run away or told Nanase about what was going on during the time of his trauma; most gangs/mafia/yakuza don't allow members to simply just leave. From what I've witnessed from friends even leaving with permission leads to beatings and sometimes even death.
If Minato tried to leave with Nanase, someone who was coveted by someone in power, he more than likely would've been killed and Nanase would've been reduced to a mind broken sex slave. Even if they tried to hide for the rest of their lives a big target would've been placed on their backs and the same outcome achieved eventually.
Not condoning what Minato did, he should've stayed away from people like that in the first place, but simply thinking in fairytale ways like "the prince and the princess ran away from the wicked witch and lived happily ever after" with a manga that is dealing on a more realistic level doesn't sit right with me either.
Granted, most people don't know what goes on in gangs since a good majority live sheltered lives but I've lost childhood friends and family members just for simply wanting to cut ties and become an upstanding civilian. The ones who ran were eventually found and before that lived a life of paranoia, constantly looking behind their backs and never staying in one place for more than a month.
I know this is BL and we tend to think "oh it's yaoi so anything goes" or whatever but if you think on a more realistic level, unfortunately, what Minato did was probably the best outcome.
All other options look like they'd lead to Nanase being kidnapped and if that happened then he would have never survived.
I realize this is gonna be a hard pill to swallow and I'll probably get some sort of backlash for this shit but I thought enlightening you guys on something that really happens would've been better lol