Hibernate: ManyToMany links are being deleted without CascadeType.REMOVE

I have such database tables:

And these are the foreign key constraints:

-- If current variable is being referenced by another variable, restrict deletion
ALTER TABLE variable_variable
    ADD CONSTRAINT variable_variable_variable_id_to_fkey
        FOREIGN KEY (variable_id_to) REFERENCES variable (id)
            ON DELETE RESTRICT;

-- If current variable reference other variable, delete its link by cascade
ALTER TABLE variable_variable
    ADD CONSTRAINT variable_variable_variable_id_from_fkey
        FOREIGN KEY (variable_id_from) REFERENCES variable (id)
            ON DELETE CASCADE;

So, if I have references like:

1. Other Variable -> Current Variable, then Current Variable deletion has to be prohibited
2. Current Variable -> Other Variable, then Current Variable deletion should also remove link from Current Variable to Other Variable on cascade (links are stored in variable_variable table).

Here is my Hibernate entity for variable table.

@Entity
@Table(name = "variable")
@Getter
@Setter(PROTECTED)
@NoArgsConstructor(access = PROTECTED)
@DynamicUpdate
public class Variable {
    @EmbeddedId
    private VariableId id;

    @ManyToMany(fetch = LAZY)
    @JoinTable(
        name = "variable_variable",
        joinColumns = @JoinColumn(name = "variable_id_from"),
        inverseJoinColumns = @JoinColumn(name = "variable_id_to")
    )
    private Set<Variable> variables = new HashSet<>();

    @ManyToMany(fetch = LAZY)
    @JoinTable(
        name = "variable_variable",
        joinColumns = @JoinColumn(name = "variable_id_to", updatable = false, insertable = false),
        inverseJoinColumns = @JoinColumn(name = "variable_id_from", updatable = false, insertable = false)
    )
    // this collection is readonly and never updates
    private Set<Variable> inverseVariables = new HashSet<>();
    
    ...
}

So, ManyToMany relationships are on the owning side and I have no CascadeType.REMOVE. But if I call EntityManager.remove(variable), those SQL statements are being invoked:

Query:["delete from variable_variable where variable_id_to=?"]
Params:[(7fbbf360-74a0-48db-a1e2-d3b1ab0a869f)]

Query:["delete from variable_variable where variable_id_from=?"]
Params:[(7fbbf360-74a0-48db-a1e2-d3b1ab0a869f)]

Query:["delete from variable where id=?"]
Params:[(7fbbf360-74a0-48db-a1e2-d3b1ab0a869f)]

Hibernate deletes links from variable_variable prematurely. However, that's not the behavior I need. It breaks the whole idea of complex database constraints in variable_variable table I described earlier. So, I don't want Hibernate to delete anything from there on its own basis.

I managed to solve this problem with native query:

em.createNativeQuery("DELETE FROM variable WHERE id = :id")
            .setParameter("id", variableId)
            .executeUpdate();

Anyway, I'd like not to introduce native queries. Is it possible to tell Hibernate not to delete variable_variable rows on Variable removing?

I managed to solve the problem with mappedBy inverse reference. Look at the code snippet below:

@Entity
@Table(name = "variable")
@Getter
@Setter(PROTECTED)
@NoArgsConstructor(access = PROTECTED)
@DynamicUpdate
public class Variable {
    @EmbeddedId
    private VariableId id;

    @ManyToMany(fetch = LAZY)
    @JoinTable(
        name = "variable_variable",
        joinColumns = @JoinColumn(name = "variable_id_from"),
        inverseJoinColumns = @JoinColumn(name = "variable_id_to")
    )
    private Set<Variable> variables = new HashSet<>();

    @ManyToMany(fetch = LAZY, mappedBy = "variables")
    // this collection is readonly and never updates
    private Set<Variable> inverseVariables = new HashSet<>();
    
    ...
}

Now when I call em.remove(variable), those SQL statements are generated:

Query:["delete from variable_variable where variable_id_from=?"]
Params:[(7fbbf360-74a0-48db-a1e2-d3b1ab0a869f)]

Query:["delete from variable where id=?"]
Params:[(7fbbf360-74a0-48db-a1e2-d3b1ab0a869f)]

Only Current Variable and references Current Variable -> Other Variable are being deleted. If there references Other Variable -> Current Variable, then deletion fails due to database integrity violation. Just what I need