I don't get why people treat WN versions like they're sacrosanct, especially with instances where a LN exists that goes away from the WN.
Dude, the manga and LN can be changed and people will accept it if it's well done. In this case is a bad one and that's why it makes people mad, why? Because in the original story the childhood friend is not a rapist, mangaka made a drastic change on his personality with this rape attempt to the point it lefts a bad taste and might ruin the story with a poorly made redemption in the future (if this manga goes that far in the story, which I highly doubt and sadly will get axed soon).
In the OG story Childhood friend just thought he had his place secured with her, then when he saw how she moved on with life since he didn't do a move in years and got interested in another man, he became desperate and tried to get even closer to her too fast (to the point he low-key became a stalker) BUT HE NEVER TRIED OR WANTED TO HARM HER, in fact, he was worried our gigolo MC would hurt her in some way and tried to get her away from him to "save" her. Later, he accepts the change after seeing how happy she was and even got himself someone else to be interested in.