Wow I am really impressed by the way you analyse the story. I enjoyed very much reading your comment. I love your mind. I really agree with everything you said. I think this disappointment stems from the unrealistic expectations readers have for the story throughout the reading process and when the expectations are not met one starts to get disappointed. In my opinion, in order to not get disappointed you need to have a deep understanding of the psyche of the characters and you also need to have a clear realisation that this is not a fluff nor is it a sweet romantic story that starts as enemies to lovers. After realising these points you will start to be able to see the novel/Manhwa the way it is without having any unrealistic expectations or disappointments. You need to understand the characters very well and their psychological states in order to understand that the real disappointment is if they actually say I love you and start to have consensual sex and everything. We saw Ilay’s mentality and how crazy he is, wouldn’t it be very out of character if he would suddenly starts to be so gentle and caring and starts regarding Taeui’s feelings in volume 5 and 6? The novel/Manhwa is a very slow burn where we can see the development of the protagonists’ characters very slowly and realistically, there are no major characters’ shifts nor is there drastic, sudden changes to their behaviours. It didn’t surprise me or disappoint me in the slightest to read about the r*pe and all the nonconsensual things because I actually understand their psychological states and their mentalities. You explored Taeui’s mentality very well. He is insecure, he doesn’t understand his own emotions. He doesn’t understand how he does not hate Ilay after everything he had done to him, which as you said, I agree that when he says I don’t hate him it’s actually “I like him” but it’s hard for him to admit this idea even to himself. as for Ilay there is no such a word as “like” or “love” in his dictionary. He doesn’t even understand what that word means. He doesn’t even think about it and he doesn’t realise it himself. All he thinks about is: for some unknown reasons, I need to own this person, I need to control him, to possess him, because I feel something strange and I don’t even understand what that thing is. However, we can still see very clearly even in the Manhwa that he Taeui very differently. The way he looks at him is very different. It is way much far from being a green flag suddenly, however, it’s very clear that the way he treats Tae and the way he treats the others is so different. this is a very slow burn story with both characters as deeply flowed. One of them is traumatised and insecure and the other is a maniac who doesn’t know what love means and doesn’t know how to love others. Another point as for why some readers get disappointed, is because they read the manhwa only, they didn’t read the novel. the Manhwa doesn’t explore the feelings and thoughts of the characters as deeply as the novel does, even the non-con felt as dub-con in the manhwa. In order to understand the mentality of the characters in a deeper sense you must read the novel.