I get what you're saying and mostly agree, but the ML did not win at all.
You can see from his face in the last panel in the side story that he is not happy with this. The "evil" wins, but not the villain, all he wanted was love, although twisted. All he is left with now is carnal desire that the MC can't push away. The love and happy dream the ML wanted will never happen (unless the story is not done and it involves Stockholm syndrome).
Nobody wins in this ending, karma got to him trhu the MC finding out, trhu the MC closing his feelings, and it's eating the ML from the inside.
I like your insight of the story. I was talking about it in the literal sense. You are talking in the spiritual sense. The " win" can be interpreted in many ways, more like we can say he did what he wanted, he got to DO what he wanted. What consequences did he even faced beside not being truly happy?
Sure he may not like the results but he never thought about any consequences either. He wanted him, he got him, he may not be truly happy with what he got but he never let go either. He fixed nothing and even ruined it even more. His "will" won at the end. MC was complete destroyed. He is the victim who did not got his justice. The villian did won even if he is not happy. Anywhere where the justice is not served is the win of the predator.
You're completely right in that sense, I really really like what you wrote at the end "anywhere where the justice is not served is the win of the predator", but I still think not achieving happiness is the biggest consequence he can get. Anything else, he could escape trhu his familly as it shows they have the power and money to do so. The police found out? He probably already has enough connections there, he has no friends that could find out about this lol and his social status can always be rebuilt or the dirt on him could always be washed away trhu his connections/familly. Other than death itself, I think this is the most the ML could suffer (unless the mc kills himself, and even then, in your vision I think that won't be considered "justice")
Still as you said this is more on the spiritual sense, but I think due to the ML being troubled only spirituality there can't be much justice to serve. The mc in this story could never win in my vision.
Anyway this is I think all my thoughts on this story, I'm glad I found your comment and that you responded, it's interesting to talk about this
I completely agree with you! And thank you for your comment as it also made me realize that I can consider him not being "truly happy" as the biggest loss he faced. And YES! You got it right lol xD I really hate it when people wish for MC's death like he already has not suffered enough and now you want him to die just so that ML could "suffer".
I do wish to see more of the side story though, seeing the ML suffocating with the version of MC he got is quite entertaining to watch xD
And yes! It's really interesting to talk about complicated human emotions and analyzing a story and it's conclusions so thank you for your comment :)
I love psychological stories because Stories like these shows a really dark side of the society that sometimes, the bad guy actually wins. Sometimes everything goes his way and karma doesn't bite his ass. That sometimes a bad guy gets a happy ending even after destroying innocent people lives.
That's why we HATE ending like these because we cannot fathom the idea that evil can actually win. We want to see him suffer for what he did but alas you also deep down know that he will get away with no consequences like so many people you know irl
What I loved about the ending is how the uke did not gave in. It not a happy ending he is still head strong and doesn't accept him. Something that I wanted to see in sadistic beauty bl but nvm
Anyway, congratulations to the author for making lima syndrome one of the well know psychological story in bl fandom with only 7 episodes. I heard about it so many times and I thought it would be a long story and was really surprised to see that it has only 7 episodes and 3 side stories lol