The art.

Such eye candy! (▰˘◡˘▰)

His expression and mood swings are still beautiful and for the love of all Yaoi, when did you finally realized that you were reading a rape plot? Because you act as if you were fooled into believing you were reading something else. ... A thriller plot like KS ? LOL.
You made up a story in your head and, despite of all the neon, big fucking letters that this was a rape plot that is meant to have the MCs as pairing, you act as if you thought this was not what you signed for?
What exactly did you miss? The countless official art from the author clueing, very explicitly that this would be a romance? The obvious signs that they author was writing the MCs falling in love?
This is over chapter 55 and you just now realized you entered the wrong forbidden room of a rape plot ?
Let down for whom? You ? The clueless reader who has been reading a rape plot for two seasons and didn't get what they were reading? LOL.
Sorry but you are trolling with your whining in here chapter after chapter and now you troll every shipper post with your nagging.
You are an adult who chose to read a rape plot and despite the story following all the milestones of what you knew it would be, you chose to hang around, mostly shaming readers and shippers because for some reason you think that if you are not enjoying a story --- that you fucking knew you wouldn't enjoy it -- you feel like you need validation.
You choose to read a rape plot and the fact that you can't enjoy the story but also can't stop reading shouldn't be a hassle for anyone else but you.

First of all: you don't need to keep up with the author's social media to stumble on POTN official art. Being one of the most popular title right now, it's nearly impossible to be a reader -- what you are because you are here forever with the same nagging -- and not seen the official art, including ... here. So, I call this bullshit because it's a lie that you don't know that they are officially marketing the MCs as a couple since the beginning.
Second of all: you don't even need to have seen all the 'coupling' official art to know right away and then chapter after chapter the kind of subgenera of Yaoi you picked to read:
- A hot, mean, promiscuous seme who forces a naive innocent virgin to paint erotic paintings for him? check
- The innocent naive painter having erotic dreams about the lord? check
- First sexual experience of the repressed uke is the lord ? check
- The bad wolf rapes the innocent little read hood? check
- The only other possible love partner for the lamb is a conniving dude who doesn't care for him? check
- The big bad wolf starts to providing and protecting the cute uke? check
- The two MCs start sleeping only with one another? check
- The seme is given humanizing traits like caring for the uke? check
- The uke starts feeling attached to the seme protection? check
- check, check, check....
And even if you have the nerve to say that you still was waiting for more confirmation that this was a rape plot, this last chapter should be your exit door then because it's clear the relationship picks up from here.
Then you admitted you knew this was a rape plot 'early on' but at the same time you whine about a 'potential' you assign to it. Which way is it? If it was clear rape plot so what is the excuse of 'oh, it had so much potential' why? because you imagined so? ...so at what point it had the 'potential' you are talking about?
Never mind that 'having potential' is pretty much the same level as the 'let down'.
You created a story in your head and just because the author didn't bend herself pleasingly your idea, then it didn't meet YOUR potential. Clearly, however, the story is pretty much reaching the potential for a lot of readers, mostly the shippers.
It is an interesting story, so much so that even you who are nagging and whining in here since the start can't stop following. It's laughable seeing the very same people who were nagging at the cliche story at the beginning are still posting the same shit clearly showing that they can't stop reading this... the so not 'interesting'.
As per 'unique story', I really have to laugh because the lack of awareness is too much. Yaoi as a genre, with their 'uke' and 'seme' and infinite choices of tropes will never be the place to find 'unique' stories for the very same reason that Yaoi is exactly the opposite of it --- YAOI is a trope on itself. You can have variations to a certain range but pretend you are a serious reader of breakthrough social justice stories in Yaoi is too much of a lauch.
You know what you are going to read when you venture yourself in Yaoi, certainly you can't claim not to know what you are signing up for when you start reading a rape plot.
You can't start reading Shotacon or omegaverse or whichever niche reserved for a specific taste and then whine your way to end about how you knew from early one that it was shotacon but somehow you think it had the potential to be something else. Same goes for incest, rape plot and every other section.
You act like you went to a restaurant, you knew the menu that it would be served and that you wouldn't like the food but even so, just because it was popular or everybody else was in and you didn't want to be left out, you choose to go the restaurant and then complain that you are not getting the food you like.
Does the story doesn't meet your potential? Isn't interesting to you? We are on chapter 55, you endured two seasons of this... at what point then would you put some action on your words and just move on to something you find it's interesting and meets your 'potential'?