beta
“He could have hurt you worse” (╬￣皿￣)凸. Seme wasn’t hitting him to injure him, but to overpower him. By making the victim feel physically powerless and vulnerable, the abuser ensures their obedience. Many abusers deliberately avoid anything which can leave lasting marks or hit their victims in places that aren’t usually visible to others. It’s not about reducing harm, but reducing the likelihood of other people noticing, or recordable evidence.
The SA was for a similar purpose of establishing dominance. He wants to start pimping Sihyeon out, so he’s likely trying to desensitize him to sa towards that end. And let’s be honest, most so called redemption arcs for characters like this are
1. Tragic backstory to explain/justify abusive and toxic behavior
2. Them suddenly catching feelings, leading to an abrupt stop of the anbuse/violence
3. The victim also catching feelings and magically forgiving everything to be with them
I’ve barely ever seen a character arc where an abusive character legitimately realizes that they were wrong, repents in any way, takes responsibility for their previous actions, or respects the wishes of the victim after the fact. Authors think that if the victim forgives everything (no matter how little sense it makes objectively, or inline with their personality), so will the readers.