I wanna assume it’s that too but knowing his past, I think he just doesn’t have any regard for anyone else’s wishes but his own and rn he’s just a lethal dog with a prong leash and a strict owner (her) so he’s playing ball and staying put. The second she lets her guard down and gives him slack to do whatever, I bet he would go right back to being that person again.
I don’t think he is but only because he would have shown that the very first second he woke up and a woman entered the room. He didn’t. His first instinct was to kill the assassin and not fuck the whore who entered his room. That being said, I don’t think murder is that far from SA in terms of personal regard for others. If you’re the type to kill someone who didn’t have it coming to them and just do it for sport, humans aren’t people to you. They are just another animal in the forest and you’re the apex predator. People who SA others tend to feel that way about themselves too only difference is that people who kill for sport truly ARE the apex predators and people who SA are no better than pigs and ducks since the true apex animals don’t SA their partners to get them pregnant. Tigers, wolves, lions all don’t SA their partners. Male tigers are aggressive but the females are more aggressive. Same with wolves and same with lions. It’s uncommon to find a female being pinned down by a male if she didn’t want that. It’s very bottom of the barrel behaviour in the animal kingdom and the two intelligent species who do it anyway are the psychopaths of the ocean (dolphins) and us. ML may be a killer but I don’t see him on par with a dolphin.
He kills people. He doesn’t believe in consent because he shoved knives and bullets into people’s bodies without ever caring if they wanted it or not. It doesn’t even cross his mind. He cares about her not hating him because without her, he’s 100% isolated. When you lose your memory, you lose your connection to the whole world because you don’t know who you are. Thats why he’s clinging to her so hard. He has no memories and here’s this person giving him the gift of company and memories and a sense of identity. Even if she’s lying (which she is), she’s giving him his place back in the world. If he pisses her off, he will be alone again. He doesn’t know about his brother but even if he did, he’d question why he never met his brother at all this whole time and not trust his brother. He’s not scared of her hating him. He’s scared of being alone with no idea who he is. Also, he literally needs her to sleep next to him for him to wake up the next morning. He would be in a coma again if she ever decides to stop sleeping next to him in bed. It’s not about consent. He doesn’t care about that. Not once did he ask if he could kiss her or touch her and he just assumed he could on multiple occasions because “we’re married”. In fact, he thinks he abused her in the past AND STILL believes he can touch her and she wont/cant reject him. It’s very much on brand for him to say something like that. It’s just that until now, he’s never said anything out loud or in his thoughts about it.

That consent line was quite disappointing. It was soo out of nowhere, especially considering how Chae woo has behaved so far and has been mindful of how he approaches her sexually. But idk