Couldn’t had said it better.
Thisss, when I was reading this shit at first on some other website, I was like “?” Bitch weren’t you an adult figure in his life, kinda weird so basically, it slipped out my mind diva was a proper adult and just read through after turning off my brain
So far it follows a kind of weird dynamic where ‘oh this is how he was when he was young’ as if to remind, and then comes scenes where ‘this man used to take care of me’ and ‘I was a kid’ and im frothing but at the same time, they’re whole ass adults so I’m kinda just like.. okay, honestly, case of being parasocial since not my life and nothing much really went besides the initiative being riding the man while drunk and he acts like the stereotype but still continues so yes that’s weird but I wouldn’t call it grooming
In my opinion, no, it's not grooming for a few factors. Hojin has been infatuated with Giltae since he first met him as a child. From what I gather, is that before the day they had sex, Giltae never made a move before on Hojin and has never altered Hojin's mind to want him, plus he's never isolated him, and I don't think there's any manipulation going on. Also, I'd like to mention that yes, the bottom is young, but in fairness, he's twenty-three, not a teenager (19 & below), but twenty-three. He's an adult at the end of the day. Grooming is a matter of conditioning, manipulating, and exploiting someone, and Gilate hasn't done that. At best, you can say their age gap can create an unhealthy power dynamic, but without everything else, it's not grooming. HOWEVER WITH EVERYTHING BEING SAID - I would more so say the dynamic of their relationship is very weird. I think this is why a lot of people think it's grooming, but it's not necessarily the term for it. It's a complicated and grey area in a relationship. It's very weird and questionable that Gilate would sleep with his good friend's son, whom he watched grow up. It's weird and questionable that he's dating him when he and his children are around the same age, and they used to play together. It's weird and questionable that he had sex with him while he was under the influence, even if it was Hojin who initiated it because imo a drunk person can't consent. It's also questionable that Giltae knew Hojin had feelings of infatuation with him, but he hadn't set boundaries with him earlier, which can make people wonder if Giltae developed feelings at any point and just kept them buried. It's weird because he's always going to, in a certain regard, see Hojin as the kid he first remembers, and we kinda see it when he calls him 'kiddo' and other subtle things like the campfire chapter or even the chapter where Giltae gives him candy. Regardless of all that, my opinion is no, it's not grooming, but the relationship is a very complicated and morally questionable one.