beta
TBH this is probably one of the few times I don't have an issue with the author claiming a character is 100% straight and that's because of sports and specifically hockey culture.
While most people would acknowledge 2 men messing around with each other is at the very least on the gay spectrum, it's actually crazy common for men specifically hockey players to mess around with each other and it's because of p*rn. A lot of these guys are p*rn addicts or grow up in a predatory sports environment where they essentially remove all emotions from sex and see it as something completely physical and something done to someone else. This is why you hear about 'straight' men participating in threesomes, orgies, g*ng bangs, etc and claim they are straight because there was someone else in the middle (they often view sex as them doing it to someone else and with unequal power dynamics). Also because there's the myth that 'true sex' only happens when there's insertion, a lot of men will 'help' their buddy out via hand jobs and think nothing of it (heck we even see the myth that as long as you aren't 'taking,' you aren't truly gay). It really falls down to a variety of issues some being the lack of or cr*ppy sex education, p*rn addiction, the predatory environment often found in men's sports, r*pe culture, homophobia, etc. But knowing the MC grew up in a hockey environment and knowing hockey dudes personally, it's actually not surprising to see him view himself as straight despite messing around with men.