“don’t smile in front of anyone but me” is. is this supposed to be romantic.
i mean like admittedly i do hate the way so many stories portray abusive tendencies or sexual assault as cute romantic things completely genuinely.
moral policing would be me saying “you aren’t allowed to like this” “anyone who likes this is a bad person” “the author shouldn’t be allowed to write this” etc.
if you think any criticism of this nature is moral policing you really need to take a step back.
I appreciate the clarification! That’s good to know.
I have a lot of problems with Ash’s behavior throughout the story tbh.
The main story culminating in a scene where Lyle is begging him to stop while Ash brutally forces him (and reveals he was actually in his right mind during his rut/was in control and knowingly forcing lyle) kind of ruined it for me, so I was hoping the side chapters were better, and this rubbed me the wrong way.
But I’m glad this is not, uh, the case here/just supposed to be lighthearted!
that is the scene. lyle spends most of it either asking ash to wait or stop, ash fucking him unconscious multiple times, and then knots him while lyle screams that it hurts (and then lyle faints shortly afterward). afterwards ash clarified that he not only meant everything he said (which would, unfortunately, most certainly include lyle begging to stop) but also that he had no regrets knotting lyle/fully intended to.
One of the sadder things about this story is how like... the omega MC kinda forgives everyone? Is friends with them still? After all of the boys very very deliberately went through a ton of effort to trick him into playing a game with his eyes covered so they could make precise molds of the key to his collar to have a competition on who gets to rape and mark him. Like. That is a fucking insane thing that the story sort of glosses over way too quickly?
Okay so like. It’s a tragic, uncomfortable, psychological work. We’re not supposed to be happy or endeared by their relationship. At least, that’s the vibe I got. Especially with the ending reveal that even everything “good” he experienced in the last two chapters was just more manipulation by ML. To me, we’re very clearly supposed to read this as a shocking and horrifying revelation that even MC’s recovery, him reclaiming his life, was controlled and created by the ML.
I have some additional thoughts that I gotta work through but I think chalking it all down to, “it’s bad,” because of the MC’s suffering like, misses the point entirely. Since the epilogue takes place in an alternate universe, the ending is completely open as to how the relationship with MC and ML goes after reuniting.
It’s definitely more clumsily done than some other psychological works depicting abusive relationships (Harada my beloved), but… yeah, idk, I don’t wanna fault it for doing what it actually wants to do (make the reader uncomfortable by portraying an extremely abusive relationship).
Basically, it’s a sad story with a sad ending.











I have a feeling he is literally going to just sleep in the same bed but still!!! Progress!!!!!!
I’m curious where his memory starts like. Does it start when we see him in the prologue? Bcus he remembered enough to be like “I’ve always wanted to live in a house like this!”