His affection is deep. He saw him grow, then they grew apart, then they reunited again. His feelings are very parental from the start, then because of the confession, he felt guilty and pressured himself that it was wrong for him to stay with him. For me, his reactions are really realistic. Not everyone is willing to accept affection so blatant and so pure yet all you feel is guilt about the age and situation. But for me, what he did wrong is assuming the ML's feelings for him. Which we can all apparently see how it hurt him and made him become distant.
But just because he is feeling guilty doesn't mean that his actions are reasonable. Like how he let him feed him knowing his feelings. So yea
im very sensitive so forgive me… but that answer and just how he just thanked him for answering— im just sad for him. this slow burn is getting too slow for me, im not exactly feeling like his so called feelings are even affection atp :/