none of the kissing/smex happened in the novel. and the ml admitted that what he felt for ujo hyung wasn't something romantic. he just felt grateful and wanted to repay his kindness. and it is such a huge contrast to the adaptation. in the novel it was all in the mc's head (that the ml loved ujoo hyung that way) and was all like "well, there is nothing i can do abt it. best i could do is ease his pain"
the changes are not necessary. us, bl readers, aren't smut hungry as they make us. i personally think that the original novel had more depth and the feelings of frustration made more sense.
he's the mc. there was an incident and he fell into the cliff in that same place they are in rn (the maze dungeon thingy, i forgot what they're called) and somehow went like 10yrs in the past. because of the injury he sustained from said incident he was beyond recognition, his voice got raspy, he was now weak, and had a scar on his face. he would sleep so long that it would sometimes last for days.
he didn't rlly wanted to tell ml who he was and that they were gonna meet in the near future (for ml) because he would ruin the 'reality'. it's kinda funny too since what he tells the ml of the past about the dungeon, all that knowledge was from the ml of the future, so in a way it's kinda paradoxical.
the answer to all that question leads back to ml. he returns to his present because the ml rescued him. to mae it easier to explain lemme just summarise it a bit.
the mc and ml fought w someone (the incident), both of em where injured and in order to save the ml from killing himself (cuz of overexertion), the mc plunged himself along w the person he's fighting, to the cliff leaving the ml distraught as he saw the whole thing.
that's when he went back in time and became the "ujoo" hyung that the ml remembers. the ml did his very best to track and rescue mc, and in his last resort he went back to that same place (the maze dungeon thingy) and jumped on the very same cliff the mc dived in. then the ml also went back in time, just in time before the mc gets killed (rmmber from ml's backstory how "ujoo" tricked him into going to the center people to "get help" when they where being chased by bad guys).
the ml then sees mc, with his ragged form, raspy voice, and scars and realize that "oh shit it's him all along" then they go back in their timeline (where the mc then seeks healing from healing espers to heal his injuries through multiple session). the past ml tho, when he came back to the dungeon "ujoo" is no longer there and traces of him disappeared. i was trying to summarise it all into one small paragraph but it's rlly difficult since there's a lot going on in the novel
they had an okay climax, the problems are too and such, but the ending was a flop. he just dropped "i love you" and then it was now okay? like in what realm? he could've at least explain why he did not want to commit, his dilemmas, but no. it would've been a great if dealt with the top's concern i.e. the bot's past especially w the other guy... shame











that sunbae looks weird af, I felt sorry for Ivan when i called the ml an Ivan lookalike on steroids. It was ignorant of me.