FuckedMyWayUpToTheTop

...This could've been a regular ass office romance. Where's the guideverse in this? They're called espers and guides, that's about it. Apart from that, just boring plot and characters overall. Underwhelming in every possible aspect and again, the guideverse setting was unnecessary given the super little immersion into the actual guiding, fighting, espering, etc. Where's the threat? Where's the action? Not even proper guiding visuals or espers abilities, nothing, nada. I read guideverse for the esper/guide part of it all, not just for the administrative office segments lol. This manhwa in its entirety felt like the office breaks in other guideverse in between all the action and the major plot progression.

Wow, I'm impressed with the detailed realism here. The setting feels so well researched - from the world and lingo of sports management and marketing to the theory and practice of competitive swimming, the engagement on social media down to the comments and different opinions, even the details of how elite endurance athletes like swimmers need to consume up to 8,000 (or more!) kcal (I googled and, indeed, that's correct) or the build up of lactic acid and what that means for an athlete, all of these things add up and make the story very believable, so it sucks you in like a current (heh). Even the doubts, passion and inner monologues of the athletes related to their sport, struggle, and ambitions felt so real - almost as if the author themselves has experienced it all. The dialogues also felt so organic and compelling at the same time. It truly feels like the characters are active participants in them - like how the MC is actively calculating each and every move based off the constant predicting or reading of the ML in various situations, how the ML's expectations are so clearly communicated and how he reads the MC as well, or how contradictions immediately get called out or recognized. The characters feel so alive and aware, so their interactions make sense, there's flesh to them.

I think the ML truly understated what the MC meant to him as he confessed after the competition (which is totally in character for him, he has a hard time truly expressing deep emotions and sentiment) as we learn more and more about how the MC was an idol to him, not just a swimmer he found cool, hot, etc. The MC is very guarded, but I like how little by little, the ML is growing on him and he's finding it more difficult to set boundaries or justify their relations as purely a work dynamic. The more intense it got as the MC came to the conclusion that he wants to do anything in his power to never let the ML make his mistake of quitting to soon, which meant he had a convincing enough reason to abandon his established professional distance and cater to the ML's need to get close. I love how the set up for that closeness happened! So in character, and with believable motives. Touching ones, too, the MC is a sweetheart in how he wants to ensure the ML doesn't regret anything like the MC himself did.

The fresh take on the omegaverse with pheromone blockers for alphas (in omegaverse, it's always on the omegas to control their own pheromones instead of the alphas controlling their perception of them), the alphas who get imprinted on by pheromones during their own manifestation and pheromone control through hormonal control implants (reminds me of birth control patches) is also cool to see. It's an interesting concept that only omegas emit pheromones, not alphas, and I'm curious to see how that will play out later on with our protagonists. The omegaverse part was just present enough to add another layer to the story, and of course it was super appreciated during the sex (loved it!), but it didn't break out of the realism. The author pulled it off, it just feels like realistic af omegaverse with common sense pheromone and birth control.

I also love the water visuals here. It's not easy to draw so much water and to make the reflective light and blues look good, but the artist nailed it - I can almost smell the chlorine while reading. Beautiful art, great writing, so far very coherent and interesting plot, and so much tension that makes this feel like a slow burn, but not too slow to the point of dragging it on. Great pace so far. I'm excited to see how this goes on!