beta
saw the drama on here so i had to join in.
first of all, yeah this one's really iffy. author could have easily aged up the male lead, maybe made him eighteen when they met *or* make the mc closer to him in age. they still chose to go down the weirder route, and criticizing that is valid.
i don't think it's grooming though. HEAR ME OUT FIRST. we're literally given insight into the main character's thoughts, and at no point does he ever harbour any such feelings for the mc when he's a child. it would be weird if he thought of him sexually, but he doesn't. since we're given access to his thoughts, we also know he had no intention of grooming the kid or anything like that. hence, it's *not* grooming. (imo)
it's still weird as fuck though, idk why authors choose to write stuff like this, plot could've been decent without this one aspect, but calling it grooming would be wrong. just call it disgusting, weird, fucked up, whatever else that's totally fine