Cut his contact with the only place where he could get decently reliable info about his guide status, and cut of his (currently) only guide friend? No. Is the guide friend and association supremely suspicious?

Been swindled into a hack of a contract (twice. He gets threatened by the ML to sign a contract he can't break, and the original contractor doesn't give him any time to process the information he gets for his original contract (before the ML illegally changed it :/) and then throws him to the wolves; Been injured by the ML (ML grabbed him for an emergency guide with no care whatsoever) and forgiven him for it; Been blackmailed by the ML if he had tried terminating the contract (this doesn't matter later on guys <3 he forgives him for this too implicitly [or as I suspect, it's just no longer relevant later on]) ; Apolgizes to the ML because he got caught not wanting to be a guide, and thus felt bad for the ML and felt that he shouldn't wish for that (which is so!!! Hggrgrrgrggr??!!?? The ML already pushed you into a contract you didn't want, and now you feel that the ML is justified in disliking the fact that you want an out? He [ML] has every right to be upset about it, but he can die mad. MC shouldn't feel guilty for wanting to get out of the contract).

He locks you in a house for months, and you feel like you did wrong for going out for fun and not schooling??

So, I MTLed up to chapter 120. Around 110, MC's trust in ML is completely broken and he becomes terrified of the ML. ML tries to "fix" things by erasing MC's memory, but that doesn't work and MC becomes more terrified of ML. Poor MC can't guide ML like before and MC believes that he'll be killed if he loses value. He believes the ML wants to kill MC and all ML needs is a flimsy excuse to do so. MC becomes afraid of even breathing loudly and considering ML has super senses + surveils MC 24/7 + confines MC to his home, MC is absolutely miserable and terrified all the time.

ML tries to regain MC's trust in 2 ways:

#1 ML invites the MC's friends over. Except that they're not the MC's friends--the MC finds out they've been mind controlled (or something) by ML.

#2 When #1 doesn't work, ML has the MC say "I love you" to the ML over and over again as the ML r*pes him.

Because I'm dumb, I didn't get what the author was trying to show us until MC runs away. I think the author wanted to portray to us the "world" of espers and guides and how twisted it is compared to normal human society and that's why MC is the way he is--for better contrast between "normal" and not.

If you're interested in that aspect, I'd recommend Necromancer Survival. NS's MC is like the MC in this novel: naive, weak, s*upid. NS's MC has slow character growth but it's there and it's beautiful when it finally happens. The MC's kindness (really, it's just general polite/empathetic behavior...) is his weapon and weakness both because the "not normal" world just sees it as a weak spot or as foreign or as someone looking to take advantage.

Haeyul was traumatized when he discovered the truth and the true face/feelings of Jaewoo and other people around him. He nearly died because he tried to kill himself. He also became crazy for half a year, barely maintaining his sanity. Even when the time he recovers, just the name of Jaewoo suffocates him.

Jaewoo is in the border of being crazy because he has a memory about how his parents died since he was a kid! One of the reasons why he's twisted.