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okay so here is my interpretation of the whole familial bond thingy. caleb and mc met way before they were adopted by josephine. their feelings stem from the past they have before they were even adopted. the adoption was a bound by circumstances thing that neither of them could really escape, meanwhile caleb was ready to take any role as long as it meant he could be in mc’s life. they were basically bound together by fate in the most twisted way and trauma bonded. for me, their familial bond is more of like they only had each other as their everything. they don’t have parents or even a proper upbringing. they basically did not have anyone but each other. now the role of everything expands in a romantic sense as well. again not in a fucked up incestuous way that a lot of people are fetishizing it as, but like the roles they were forced into were a barrier for them societally when neither of them were even aware of what they were getting into in the first place. naturally they became confused and scared of how they can even cross the line, because the roles imposed on them later on didn’t exactly reflect how they felt, which is btw reciprocated by both sides. they are both insanely possessive and protective. because to them it’s just each other and the rest of the world.

the whole baby sister thing imo bastardizes the whole complex relationship that they have. the asian languages can handle the nuance but not English. and imo the closest we have to that in english is a childhood friend. you simply cannot equate this to normal adoptive siblings because of the past they have together before they were even adopted. they did not start off as siblings, later were labelled as such which also caused both of them confusion and guilt