It's definitely one of those stories where the author is either doing something very cool or very stupid and you can't really tell yet because part of the cool thing is making you think the stupid thing might happen.
Like I could see the author using shoujo tropes to sorta mimic the part of an abusive relationship where things feel awesome and fixable. Which would be cool, especially since a lot of stories don't depict the parts of those relationships that suck you back in.
