That's a very valid observation and an interesting critique. Indeed from the beginning there was the oxymoron of the gentle/cruel dynamic that the story posed. At times I had the idea of portraying Cassie as an actual psycho in a yandere/Stockholm syndrome styled story, but the first wasn't going anywhere and the later didn't work because Leon was supposed to still be in love with her. At the end of the day I think Cassie is a good person with very dark aspects mixed with bad decisions because of her comming of age and desperation. 

Then I sketched Leon as a self insert in which he is completely on board with it almost immediately, but the story lacked depth and drama, and I wanted to explore the conflict and regret of her and the grief of him. You are completely right about how this is not supposed to be an all-gentle all-pink story, I wanted something more morally complex that could serve to create drama that explored their multifaceted feelings, power-dynamics and destinies as the story becomes more mystic; however the way I see it the story is about the process of fixing their problems, of Cassie to amend her mistake and of Leon and growing up to forgive her; that being the «gentle» part of the story, but one could argue it is more of a tsundere story.

Thank you so much for taking a moment to give me your thoughts, I appreciate it a lot.

Thank you so much for your support. Chapters 4 and 5 are here! 

I love gentle interactions as well, keep checking out (;