passes him by and is like WTF?? Why are you lying in the middle of the stairs with your nose bleeding? MC desperately tries to downplay it and wave him away as if it would be ok to just pass him by in that situation lol.

MC's friend moved to Seoul,

the guide was the top instead of being the bottom like in other guideverse stories.

As an example of it lacking tr*shy enjoyment, take the ending. It's a missed opportunity for simple power fantasy gratification. As a reader, you can see the reawakening coming for a few reasons. But when it finally happens, he uses his new ability to freeze a monster to save his guide—and that's it. It time skips and summarizes that he was really impressive cleaning up after that and was obviously S class. It's underwhelming in that and in several other ways. His regeneration ability was thematically meaningful, but his new ice ability feels ordinary. It seemed like it teased that he might become the first person with a healing ability, but nope (though the authorities would probably take him captive so that's good). It was also mentioned that some rare people have dual abilities, so only having one also feels too basic. His ability itself was already S level. The unnamed esper used to foreshadow reawakening had their ability rise in strength by several levels. The MC just swaps his out. Finally, in a side story, it shows the strength of his ice ability in action, but since we never see any other external S rank power to compare it to, it still feels rather bland with the writing.

self-harm, panic attacks, su*cide ideation and attemps, dub-con bordering on r*pe (that actually makes sense in the context if the story), and a genuinely tragic past that was a lot sadder than I was expecting

the MC was dying and the only way the ML could save his life was to have s*x with him. While he was unconscious, bleeding, and in pain. Now I am the FIRST person to drop a story with dubcon/NC or a red flag action, and I detest that the author put this into her otherwise great story, but in the context of the story and how the guiding has been set up it makes complete sense even if I hated it. In this world however that's just how intense guiding works and the MC was never mad and he understood it was an absolute last resort so YMMV

I just feel that the relationship needed some balancing. I would have liked to see more of Heo Do-kyung POV or just anything. I would have liked the MC going to therapy. Maybe even couples.

Government mandated therapy for all espers and guides would make sense. I honestly find it so weird that guides aren't therapists. Like is the government really not keeping track of the mental wellbeing of people that have superpowers and not restricting their movement. Like I would think they would have monthly mental health exams. I feel like the whole government system could have been more refined.

I also would have really liked for them (MC and ML) to be more like friends before they became lovers. The romance felt a bit rushed but not by much. After all, empathy is the beginning of many relationships.

On a side note the non-con/dub-con scene was handled well. It portrayed Heo Do-kyung desperation and self loathing while guide/raping Kang I-won. His terror and fear that the MC was gonna die was written well. But I would rather not have it at all. I quick consent from the MC would have taken only a second and would have been for the best.

I think I mistook the top and the bottom...... umm....I really did not expect this tho. I always thought that was other way entirely. ummm......

Anyway I do not wanted this to adapted into Manhwa cause Manhwa artist will totally spoil who the top is and who the bottom is.

The MC isn't automatically cured when the ML confesses to him. He also isn't automatically cured when he realizes that he likes the ML. His depression is so intense that he would rather prefer to die than to get together with the ML, who he has feelings for. All of which are very true to life.

For example, the ML proposed to be boyfriends and was rejected by the MC. Then the ML didn't bring it up again out of respect for the MC. Then the MC spiraled into questioning maybe the ML was tired of their relationship bc he never brought it up again, instead of asking a simple question and bringing it up himself.

Yes, he did eventually end up stepping up to ask the ML to be his boyfriend, but the entire scene was frustrating because all of the misunderstandings between the ML and MC happened in a similar way where the MC would spiral, not say anything to the ML, call his friend, get advice, then eventually time skip later, do the advice given by the friend.

Because this is a novel, when the same plot point happens for the nth time, it's no longer "realistic" and encroaches on "annoying" territory.