It’s fine if the story is not your cup of tea but Gyeol has always been a bad/morally flawed person. This was always where the story was heading. And I can’t agree that he’s not painted in a bad light. He’s a scary dude, he’s shown being unreasonable and obsessive, the people he’s close to comment on it. There are times when Yesung is clearly scared of him. Part of the reason he hates Yesung’s boss so much is that they’re parallels to each other. They have more in common in their relationship with Yesung than he’s able to admit.
We’re shown and quite literally told that Gyeol always ends up hurting the people he loves more than he helps them, due in part to his selfishness and impulsivity. Gyeol was never going to save Yesung. He wants to own him.
There’s a line in Romeo and Juliet where Juliet says if Romeo were a bird she fears that in her love she would end up literally smothering him to death. And how does that story end?
If (and it’s a big if) this story does get a happy ending, things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.
With Gyeol’s father telling him sometimes the best thing you can do for someone you love is to let them go, it’s probably going to have to be just that.
I really hate where the author is taking this. It would be another thing if the ml was painted in a bad light, but he's not. Gyeol is written as if he wants to save Yesung and that he loves him, but as soon as he shows signs of trauma bonding with the older man, he gets jealous and fucks him? You set up a whole traumatic backstory for Yesung, showing that he has an unhealthy attachment to the older guy because he was groomed and only found worth in being praised by him, and then the next moment there's no heart to heart, theres no crying and confessions just constant smut..? Trust me I love smut as much as the next person, but make sure it's placed in the story correctly because it just undermines the whole plot.