holy unreliable narrator

so it turned out that the mc was the one getting severely bullied ??? im confused on how he switched himself out in his memories for the ml and thought he was the one getting severely bullied when it was really him, maybe false memories or repression as the brains way to protect itself from trauma? the way he also lied ab not even liking or thinking ab the ml much for 13 years when they were deeply inlove and the ml leaving tore up the mc so much that 13 years passes by in a blur because he was so heartbroken and all he could think about was the ml and their time together. seeing the backstory between them actually shocked me bc the way the mc was speaking made me think their past was nothing, but they got deeply involved with eachother so ig he was js lying? MAN THE MCS FALSE MEMORIES GOT ME SO MF CONFUSED UGH