[15+ Age Restriction Notice]

This work contains material inappropriate for readers under the age of 15.

Someone licked my earlobe, then gently nibbled on it. There was only one creature who would dare do something like that.

“Woong-ah...”

My pet dog, Minwoong, had a habit of waking me up like this every morning.

“Hngh, Minwoong-ah, let hyung sleep just a bit more...”

Without even opening my eyes, I wrapped my arms around Minwoong tightly.

Hm? Something was off.

The skin was smooth. Minwoong was a mutt with short fur, but not this smooth. And those tightly packed muscles on top of that... too firm.

Minwoong might be a bit of a pig, but he wasn’t some kind of gym bro...

Wait—this wasn’t the issue! Never mind fur or body fat—this wasn't a dog at all.

My eyes flew open.

“Ah! What the! Aah! Aaaaagh!”

And in the span of a single second, I was shocked four times.

First, because the creature in front of me was not a dog, but a human.

Second, because that man was absurdly handsome.

Third, because the absurdly handsome man was completely naked.

And fourth, because the completely naked, absurdly handsome man was Joo Seunghyuk.

Everything was shocking, but the last one was downright horrifying.

“Why...?”

Why the hell was the obsessive maniac from the original novel lying in my bed?!

***

I awakened as an S-rank Guide at the age of fourteen. For a brief moment, I was full of hope that my life would now be paved with flowers. But suddenly, I realized I had ended up inside the world of a BL novel.

And not just any BL novel—but that hopelessly dark and twisted piece of hell: The Swamp of the Guide.

Oh, and just to be clear—I am absolutely not into this kind of stuff.

In my past life, I was just an average young guy who loved wholesome, healing stories full of dreams and hope.

So how did I end up reading this hard-tragedy BL crap? Blame my cursed need to survive.

After joining a publishing company, I was suddenly assigned to handle the BL genre.

Before I got the job, I didn’t even know what BL was. So to get up to speed, I binge-read the highest-ranking titles—and that’s when I encountered The Swamp of the Guide.

Realizing I had fallen into a novel world wasn’t that traumatic in itself. But when I realized which novel it was, I was hit with utter despair.

Do you know how many books I’ve read?! Of all the ones out there, it had to be this one?!

To sum up The Swamp of the Guide in a single line: “A bottom who gets on the wrong side of an obsessive top has his life completely ruined.”

The F-rank Guide, Kim Jun, barely manages to enroll in the national institution for ability users—the “Republic of Korea Ability User Academy”—thanks to a recommendation from his old high school teacher.

He’s excited to have gotten into the top training school for ability users in the country—but that joy is short-lived. Because he’s only an F-rank, Kim Jun is relentlessly bullied and ostracized.

Still, he endures every hardship without breaking. That’s when Joo Seunghyuk, an S-rank Esper and third-generation chaebol heir, takes a strange interest in him. That curiosity eventually twists into full-blown obsession.

Kim Jun tries to run, unable to bear the destructive and violent fixation. But the more he tries to escape, the more possessive Seunghyuk becomes.

In the end, Kim Jun is locked away in Seunghyuk’s house like a bird in a cage, cut off from the world for the rest of his life.

Out of five volumes, four are basically just scene after scene of torture and smut. But after reading it, nothing erotic stuck with me. All I could think was: “God, the bottom’s life is tragic as hell...”

Even though I was born into a story with no hope or happy ending, there was at least one ray of light.

I wasn’t the main character!

I wasn’t Kim Jun, the F-rank Guide who gets bullied and ends up the victim of an obsessive maniac. I wasn’t even Joo Seunghyuk, the psycho top who lost his mind from a rough childhood.

It wasn’t an ideal situation, but at least I hadn’t drawn the absolute worst lot.

I had reincarnated as Lee Yeonsu, the villainous sub-bottom.

Lee Yeonsu was Joo Seunghyuk’s exclusive Guide.

There were fewer than ten S-rank Guides in the entire country, so despite being young, he’d managed to sign an exclusive contract with Seunghyuk.

Lee Yeonsu had been an average citizen before that, but once he became Seunghyuk’s Guide, his life turned upside down. Still, that wasn’t enough for him—he wanted more. He wanted a deeper relationship with Seunghyuk.

If he could form a bond and get married, then Seunghyuk’s power and wealth would all become his.

But Seunghyuk despised him.

Not only did Seunghyuk look down on him, but when he chose Kim Jun—the F-rank—over him, Yeonsu was consumed by jealousy.

Yeonsu tormented Kim Jun, even orchestrating a kidnapping. He committed every villainous act possible... and in the end, Seunghyuk killed him.

A fittingly tragic end for a proper villain.

Now that I think about it, maybe Yeonsu had an even more hopeless fate than the main character...

Still, thank god I remembered the plot right away.

If I’d been even a little slower, I might’ve gotten excited and signed that exclusive contract with Seunghyuk myself. Without knowing that guy was an obsessive top in the making.

“I decline the exclusive contract with Esper Joo Seunghyuk.”

The day I realized I was in the novel, I rejected the exclusive contract with Seunghyuk.

Sure, I had to give up a fat signing bonus and the luxurious life of a chaebol family, but I didn’t regret it.

Being the exclusive Guide to an obsessive maniac would’ve only led to disaster.

Just like that, I veered cleanly off the original storyline and started living my own life—completely unrelated to Joo Seunghyuk or Kim Jun.

Since there were so few S-rank Guides and Espers in Korea, we sometimes ran into each other at national events or Gate subjugations, but we never had a personal conversation.

I avoided him. And Seunghyuk didn’t care about me.

Thanks to his overwhelming power, Seunghyuk was called “S-Rank of the S-Ranks,” and he graduated from high school a year early.

He and I entered the Ability User Academy in the same year.

That part followed the ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) original story.

Since I was top of the Guide class and he was top of the Esper class, we ended up encountering each other dozens of times more than before. But I desperately avoided him.

To him, I was probably no more than a pebble on the ground. Still, this was the novel’s main setting—I couldn’t let my guard down.

For all I knew, the plot might yank itself back on track and send Seunghyuk to kill me.

You might think I’m overreacting.

It’s not like I was throwing myself at him like in the original. I wasn’t tormenting the main character either. Why would Seunghyuk suddenly attack someone completely unrelated?

But as someone who’s read the novel—I can tell you with 100% certainty:

Joo Seunghyuk is the kind of guy who would kill someone just because they rubbed him the wrong way.

For the past year, I tiptoed through life, terrified of upsetting him, terrified of making eye contact.

Forget a romantic campus life. My only goal was avoiding Joo Seunghyuk.

I planned to keep my head down and survive like that until the end of the original story.

So why the hell was the obsessive top from the novel in my bed? Naked?!

I scrambled backward off the bed.

“Why, why...?”

Words burst out of me in a panicked jumble, barely forming proper sentences.

Then Seunghyuk’s gaze flashed coldly.

“Why? Are you disappointed it’s not Minwoong?”

We were the same age, but since we weren’t close, we always used formal speech.

And yet suddenly, he was talking down to me. But this wasn’t the time to get hung up on rude speech.

“Huh? Aagh!”

Before I could even register the question, Seunghyuk yanked my arm. I stumbled straight into his chest.

As our bodies touched, I could feel his body heat vividly.

Even though I’d only fallen slightly against him, the moment I wondered why?, I realized something else:

I was naked too.

Why the hell was I naked?!

But fear overtook confusion.

I bowed my head in a panic.

“A-ah! I-I’m sorry...”

He can’t think I hugged him on purpose. He just can’t.

He already looked pissed. If he thought I had feelings for him, I was screwed.

I tried to pull away from him, but Seunghyuk gripped my shoulder tightly.

The S-rank Esper’s raw strength pressed straight into my bones, and I let out an involuntary groan.

“Ugh...”

“Who’s Minwoong?”

“Huh?”

“Who the fuck is that, that you’re calling for him before you even open your eyes?”

“T-that’s...”

“You spent the night with me, and now you’re looking for some other bastard. How do you think that makes me feel?”

Spent the night?

I didn’t know what was going on, but one thing was clear: if I said the wrong thing here, Joo Seunghyuk might actually kill me.

I had underestimated the original story. I didn’t expect to get slapped with a death flag without even the faintest buildup.

I felt like a horror movie extra who gets killed off in the first scene.

Fear gripped me, and a tear slipped down my cheek. But even as I cried, Seunghyuk’s gaze only grew icier.

“Lee Yeonsu. I hate repeating myself. I’ll ask one last time. Who is Minwoong? Who the fuck is he?”

The air around him churned like it was about to kill me right then and there.

Frozen with fear, I forced my tongue to move.

“...A... A dog.”