He didn't know she loved him. There was the diary thing that hinted at it, but he was 14 and I don't think he ever really put it together, because the moment he realizes the problem is after the kiss with Mallory.
You're mixing two different things. MC knew about Jaye's feelings from the diary when they were 14. The kiss with Mallory is more of a "it just hit me that she
still likes me after all this time" moment. This is important because during the separation, MC traveled around and banged girls left and right. So he didn't think that Jaye would still have any feelings toward him as he clearly had forgotten about his feelings toward her.
Ummm, sorry for interjecting here but I would like to ask a question - acting cold but cordial for 10 years is considered a relationship?
Please don't be semantic. Relationship is relationship. They are still family.
Can anyone remind me why am I actually in love with Jaye, because the author certainly did not waste any time explaining it to me?
You are not in love with Jaye. MC is in love with Jaye. The story is about MC, not you. You have options in the game to make MC not like Jaye if you choose so.
Just you want to see a sweet loveable Jaye that can be easily saved and just made a few mistakes and you prefer to blame MC fully for those, since he was not perfect or reacted perfectly to the difficult situations she and him placed themselves in.
Please do not put words into my mouth. From the very beginning, I have repeatedly and consistently said that both MC and Jaye are at fault because of misunderstandings that is caused by their lack of communication. The reason why I kept on mentioning MC's fault is to show that Jaye's fault was mostly a reaction to something that is instigated by MC's action. The reason why I had to do so is because there are so many people who would lay the blame on her as if she was
the only problem. Just look at the person I quoted above asking for any reason why MC should love Jaye (as if she was the only one with fault while MC was a fine faultless person) without being able to question the opposite of why Jaye (or any other female character in the game) should love MC (who technically banged wives behind their husband's backs, but hey this is porn game after all so it's ok?).
Actually I have way more experience with that broken part, since I have the same broken parts as Jaye has so she is very easy to recognize. Trust me, as long as she does not work on whatever it was that happened emotionally to her at 8 yo she is unmendable at least for MC since he is the reason of her trauma and reawakens it every time and with it also reawakens those emotions she felt then with all the force she had then. It is not a surprise she has been shutting out MC all these years, he hurts her if he wants or not.
First of all, sorry to hear that you had to go through such things IRL. But this is where I think you're wrong when it comes to Jaye. She didn't get hurt by him whether he wants to or not. There is actually a reason for her hurt:
1. As a child = because MC made a one-sided decision to shut her out (misunderstanding with good intent)
2. At around 14 years old = because MC read her diary (100% MC's fault)
3. At graduation party = because MC made the second one-sided decision to announce to the whole party that she was almost raped by Christian (100% MC's fault despite the good intention, but also note MC's fault of snooping through her phone as if her privacy still didn't matter after reading her diary years ago)
4. After graduation party = because MC made the third one-sided decision to leave the family (Jaye wanted to talk about it, but robbed the chance to do so, 100% MC's fault despite the good intention)
5. At George's office #1 = because she thought MC didn't come to the funeral and didn't call (Jaye acknowledged her fault and apologized once proven otherwise, but MC drove away on Uber and randomly decided to go to Aspen uninvited to rob her the chance to talk yet again)
6. At George's office #2 = because Mallory kissed MC (not MC's fault as Mallory randomly kissed him, misunderstanding because it appeared as if MC had time for Mallory but not for Jaye)
If you believe that she got hurt whether he intended to do so or not, please give example where Jaye got hurt (or angry at MC) when MC did something good to her (the one-sided decision made by MC with good intent doesn't count because one-sided decision by itself is a bad thing for her). I don't think that happened at all in the game. So I disagree with the idea that she was traumatized and that MC is the cause of the trauma. IMO, she was simply behaving based on what's happening to her. She was angry when there's a reason to, she was apologetic when she was at fault, she was happy when things go her way (ex: if MC replied to the text kindly, she was really happy about it).
The other part that I disagree with is your claim that she has been shutting out MC all these years. If she had been shutting out MC, she wouldn't have bothered coming to his football games, taking sports that didn't clash with his, giving him birthday gifts, etc. She was also the one who reached out and texted to apologize while MC went to Aspen. While not explicitly mentioned, it was also clear that she wanted MC's help the day when she was almost raped (but unfortunately yet again, another misunderstanding that led to MC thinking otherwise so he shut himself in the room instead). It doesn't make sense to conclude that she was shutting him out.