do you know where to continue from the novel? ╥﹏╥
around chapter 110-120 ig? I'm not so sure, sorry
hey Babao ig you finished reading the novel unlike me who stopped cause I'm not ready to read that specific chapter where our baby Hyoseop is about to be abused
（/TДT)/ I need time to prepare mentally
I don't exactly remember the details so I do not think it was that graphic to begin with, however, if I could teleport a gun through my screen and shoot the bastards who abused Hyoseop, I would. But I definitely understand your sentiments.
On a good note, Ren appearance! He made Hyoseop's life feel more than just a tool. 10/10 would reread those chapters just to see their interactions again.
wait, wait, wait! who's Ren?? shoot I guess I'm gonna continue reading it tonight... I just had to pause it cause the build up was alarming that it made me think it's gonna be so detailed. and I'm already so sad and just stressed about what's happening to baby Hyoseop I had to breathe in some fresh air, touch the grass and hug a tree... it's hard to believe but such ugly things happen irl. it's maddening. fck you to all bastards
Oh! My apologies, my entire text was a huge spoiler, so I mistakenly assumed you had an idea of other spoilers.
All I could say is that he appears in Hyoseop's past. You'll see eventually what role he plays.
I love this explanation, it made me understand Hyoseops intentions. I cried while I realised
Gurl I love you!!! Every fking time I see people be like "just communicate, omg so annoying, why can't they just talk?" Bullshit... I just wanna throw hands and fk them up because bitch this is not that shallow it is so much deeper than that ... and the fking Manhwa also fk it up
im reading it till finish like a bible, love ur explanation!! ヾ(☆▽☆)
I still dont understand what hyeoseop wants, i feel dumb even after reading all of this
He wants andante to genuinely love him and care for him as human being, wether he is an guide or not... Right? How does that translate to actions? Hasnt andante been a good partner? Im so confused... Thank you for your extensive explanation
I still dont understand what hyeoseop wants, i feel dumb even after reading all of this
He wants andante to genuinely love him and care for him as human being, wether he is an guide or not... Right? How does that translate to actions? Hasnt andante been a good partner? Im so confused... Thank you for your extensive explanation
I liked your summary I couldn't have said it better myself. Although towards the end he does get a lot better at trying to communicate... That and you get bottom Adante as well which was a nice bonus.
Essentially I believe Hyseop has alot of trauma from his younger days of being a guide because he was brainwashed to be useful as a guide and I think that followed him into adulthood. He wants to feel secure and reassured about Andante's love for him. Which let's be real Andante has not been doing especially in the beginning where he says he's using Hyseop because of his usefulness as a guide.
I love your take on this. I am confused about the Hyseop going from guide to association arc? I read the novel but I forgot what that arc intales can you elaborate?
Your observation is correct, however, let us try to take a deep dive into human behavior and developed patterns. As user Hopelessromantic have said, a lot of this so-called miscommunication as well as a lot of readers' misconception of Hyoseop, is primarily due to trauma response.
Picture it this way: a dog was taken away from their deceased parents at a puppy age into a breeding house. This puppy was 'adopted' by an owner who wanted to use that puppy for future breeding. Because the puppy was so scared and too young to understand, the owner would force the puppy into sexual coercion with other matured dogs solely because the puppy was made for breeding. One day, this puppy escapes, but this puppy doesn't know what it means to be loved because all his life he's been abused. The only thing the puppy knows is how to use his body to survive and keep people think he's not useless.
There are a lot of unspoken trauma that Hyoseop needs to be resolved. To put into simple words he wants:
1. To feel like he belongs somewhere
2. To overcome his idea that guiding isn't inherently sexual, forced, transactional
3. To find someone who would love him, save him, in a way that Ren once did.
Piano/Onaip easily breaks the first one. They distance themselves from him, treat him as an outsider, and don't really delve into creating a more meaningful relationship with him. This is not applicable to Coda, however. He may be a quiet member but he does show his concern for Hyoseop in his own discreet way.
Piano/Onaip AND Andante breaks the second one. Andante explicitly has said he only wanted Hyoseop for his guiding because they re compatible and because Hyoseop is someone gullible enough to be used by Andante. Because of this, Hyoseop is desperate to keep his place as a top-tier guide because ehe's scared to lose his one chance of redeeming his life.
Andante breaks the third one. When Hyoseop sees how radiant Andante is, I suppose it would somehow remind him of Ren. Andante was one of the few who always noticed how Hyoseop was so guarded and alone, the same way how Ren saw how solitary and lonely Hyoseop was as a young teen. Hyoseop naturally would end up falling for Andante even if it meant he was just a tool or a pawn in Andante's plan. Nevertheless, Hyoseop still tried hard to fain Andante's recognition and love by becoming an irreplaceable guide. He thinks his only worth is through guiding and maybe if he's worthy enough as a guide, then he's worthy enough to be Andante's lifelong partner. Let us also not forget that Andante has multiple times commented how Hyoseop would be a good fling.
I'd say there would probably be more intricate details that Hyoseop wants that is never explored in the manhwa and novel, but that is my observation and the best way I can write down a ccording to the given novel scenes.
As for your inquiry on being a 'good lover', that is a huge vague term that cannot simply be determined or quantified through physical acts and some lovely words. Again, we are dealing with layers of human behavior and patterns. Both Hyoseop and Andante have their flaws. One has an avoidant approach while the other has a utilitarianist approach. And we also must take into consideration to see the fine line between "being affectionate" to outright "love bombing", in which Andante does the latter to Hyoseop who Andante knows is weak to affection, praise, attention, and such.
Andante does get better though later in the novel! It takes a while, but he does realize that his continuous denial of his actual feelings has snowballed into a huge predicament of losing Hyoseop's trust and loyalty. Because Andante has been so used to keeping people at a distance and simply using them, he never quite realized that Hyoseop meant more than that, inadvertently causing the already existing rift between them to grow even bigger.
I hope this explanation helps a bit! I might be giving this manhwa a bit too much credit, but it is a decent read.
Sorry if this may come off pretty vague. I do not recall the exact details or how the plot went, but basically it was the arc where Hyoseop teams up with Haechan.
I found it lackluster in writing. It could've been better. But the way it is now in canon, I wasn't very impressed.
I'll pop in. In that arc(since it follows the chasing arc) What ends up happening is One of the kids awakens and is tested. Haechan ends up recruiting him so he can hide/protect him from Adante. It also entails that he might be losing his guide abilities and dropping down a rank( Haechan actually wanted to label him a SSS rank guide(first ever)) so Adante wouldn't have a claim on him. It really is kind of lackluster and it just shows that they long for each other and him being with Adante actually boosted his guiding from S to SS and he reawakens(hence him bleeding randomly after he first sleeps with Adante)
Thank you for the extensive input i summarize this into: they both need to be in couples therapy ╮(￣▽￣)╭ lol i enjoyed reading everything you shared, you are good at writing
It really is which is why I believe the chasing arc NEEDED to be that long because Hyoseop needed to his own self reflection time and Andante needed to that time to understand what it really means to genuinely care for another human being and not just how they can benefit him.
So I am not insane and I am not gaslighting myself, there was a LOT of subtle details ommitted in the manhwa. Which, frankly, pisses me off more than Andante's manipulative and greedy ass.
There was a somewhat more profound exploration on Andante's shock when the stone reacted to his advances, as well as the build up on Hyoseop's fear at that moment. To be honest, it's been a while since I read the novel so I almost feel as if this manhwa adaptation is gaslighting my memory. But I am quite certain that the actual progression was not this rushed.
This may come off as a hot take, but Hyoseop's arc with Andante is not as shallow to be defined as a 'Miscommunication' arc. It is a more intricate and complex set of circumstances wherein emotional and psychological manipulation are in tandem. Hyoseop's presentation of his gullible and hopeful self is what was caught in Andante's spiderweb of ambition, in fact, Hyoseop's naivety and steadfast belief that 'things will get better' is what only made him fall deeper into hopelessness. Picture yourself panicking while in quicksand. The more one moves, the faster you sink. Hyoseop's impatience and his anxiety is what made him sink deeper which is why pulling himself out took a harder and harsher pain on him, and in the same respect, a greater sense of relief would wash over him is what freed him.
Hyoseop knew he was being used, and it does not help that, from a literary perspective, this Manhwa continuously emphasizes and presents Andante's inner dialogues of admitting his motivations and intentions to use Hyoseop. He is being painted with that one sole image of Hyoseop, like an unreachable wallflower. Andante desires him because he knows he is the only one capable of making the intricate and exclusive wallflower bend to him. His morphed idea of love is exactly what Espers experience towards their guides, /Obsession/. What Andante feels is the primal instinct of possessing a guide that complements him almost perfectly. It is not exactly love, it is merely possession, but the desire to possess, too, is a form of affection that leads to love. Unfortunately, it is what broke Hyoseop completely.
I cannot, for the life of me, wrap my head around people who would pin the blame of Hyoseop's indecisiveness and lack of courage when Andante himself is the one who defined their relationship. They are exclusive partners, yet Andante never once made it evident that Hyoseop had place in Andante's future. He only perceived the usefulness of the present. Moreover, his utter /complacency/ in Hyoseop's loyalty is not love. Andante was certain and confident because he had placed a collar and leash on Hyoseop. He leveraged in Hyoseop's vulnerabilities and used it against him and labeled it as unwavering loyalty and affection, without realizing that it was more closer to a noose around Hyoseop's neck than a collar. It was killing Hyoseop by the second, and Hyoseop only has himself to blame because he willingly placed himself in that position.
Miscommunication? No, Andante just doesn't and has never seen human beings beyond their use aside from his own brother. He is an SS Class esper whose power and mind works in a completely different realm. He has never known how to love Hyoseop for the reason that he has never loved anyone like him before. He is logical, he is calculative, his actions are measured and he keeps people at a controlled distance.
Miscommunication? No, Hyoseop has understood at face value the nature of their relationship and Andante's motives he simply clung into time and hope. If he had met Ren, after his years of solitary confinement and abuse, later in his life, then it is very likely possible he will be loved too the way Ren had seen him beyond a human guiding machine. Ren saw him as a young child who wanted to live amidst That Esper's abuse, Hyoseop saw hope and the goodness in humankind in Ren. It was that belief he clung onto the movement of time that, eventually, Andante would trust Hyoseop and welcome him in his life.
Just talk? Well, let's see how to verbalize one's years worth of trauma, abandonment, and confinement in order to show their vulnerability to their 'supoosed lover'. Andante has such grand goals, to what extent would a replaceable guide's dead past would concern Andante? That ex Esper is long gone, why must Andante concern himself over the dead?
Just talk? Let's see how to plead for affection when one's eyes are telling enough of how much distance exists between them. Andante sees Hyoseop no more than an object to display in his grasp, whereas Hyoseop revers Andante as a bright symbol of heroism and affection - after all, Andante love bombs him, and a child so deprived of affection would welcome something so sweet and warm.
Just talk? Well... Let's see how to confidently word that you were a child taken in from a human trafficking monastery to be groomed by adults of much greater power than your child self. Hyoseop has been living his whole life used, that one would wonder why he has yet to be dried out of love. It is because people like Andante exists. He is so bright and warm, that Hyoseop could only fall harder each time he dares to step out of his league and reach for the sun.
I personally appreciate the novel dragging it out. I enjoyed reading through the micro expressions and details, I also enjoyed the tidbits of inner monologue, the anxiety of it al and the back and forth decisions. It really shows that there are individuals who should never be trusted to be in a relationship, and Hyoseop never should have fallen for Andante. But he still does because he's just human who has that much trust in the world around him, and even if it was snot his fault, he learned the hard way that when things fall apart, the blame would always fall onto him.
HOWEVER, I would say that the novel, if compared to other novels, is quite mid. It is good on its own, but not as impressive to be on par with plenty other novels. For anyone who would like to read the novel from scratch, please do so but do not expect top-tier plot arcs and development. It is more simple and straightforward, if I had to describe the novel. It clearly highlights the pivotal points of the protagonist's life, as well as some deeper aspects of his indecisiveness, but it is not as revolutionary when it comes to exploring one's psyche or in terms of introspective writing.
The novel is something you can appreciate if you like digging through a focused character psyche, and it is a novel you would appreciate reading if you also enjoy imagining future scenarios and possibilities through reading between the lines. If you take the novel at face value, you will not appreciate it and will only notice the length of the so-called chasing arcs. If you take the novel at mere reputation/image of being the miscommunication brand, you will not appreciate nor notice the themes of power imbalance being subtly referred and narrated in this story.
Again, the novel is not revolutionary, but it is a decent read. Personally, the Hyoseop's switch from a guild to the association arc is something I also do not agree with, I think I found it a little lacking in terms of development and perhaps it could have been written better or executed better, otherwise it crossed my mind that it may be better to have never existed in writing in the first place. But the rest of the arcs were quite valid to me and definitely felt justified.
Anyways, with how the manhwa has adapted the story, I'll let this marinate a bit and look forward to seeing Andante's frustration, anger, realization, and guilt in visual form! I also can't wait to see Hyoseop smile comfortably too.