"Not the point. The fact that she decided to stick around is—surprising, honestly. I mean, I don't think Lucid or anywhere else would offer such generous terms but my read on her is that she's not doing it for the money. And, I mean, let's be real, who amongst us is, you don't go into hell dimensions every other day—or multiple times a day, as the case may be—for money."

"She's doing it for Hunny Gunny. She could tell how strong his backlash was."

"...huh. I knew that, but... I'm surprised that was enough?"

"That just makes it worse, you know? Her heart is in the right place, in a righter place than lots of other espers I could name. And now she's here, in a new country, without friends, and she won't even let people who could be her friends in because they're associated with me—"

"Prez, that's really patronising."

"She's an adult, she's an A-ranker, she doesn't need us to have friends. That's not how any of this works." Sigh. "Don't blow it up out of proportion either, okay? It'd be great if she worked out, with sunbae, and it'd be great if she could be one of our people, but we weren't hurting for people last week—"

"I mean..."

"—okay, yes, we're shortstaffed, but the entire world is, one extra esper isn't going to make or break anything and the important thing there is dungeons getting closed and people getting rescued, whether she joins us or not isn't that relevant.

"Point is, it didn't work out. That happens. And maybe something will change, maybe it won't, only time will tell, but if literally all we got out of this was a powerful A-ranker helping Korea out and maybe someone who can give Tae-gun-sunbae a little bit of respite? That's winning, already. If someone rejects you because of your fuckup you say sorry, you learn not to do it again in the future, and you move on."

"...alright, and if it doesn't work out with Tae-gun?"

"Then we're still no worse off than last week. Arguably better, because this might shake us into trying to actually fix the problem."

"How do we fix the problem?"

"I don't know, prez. I really don't know. But whatever the solution is, it does not involve throwing an unsuspecting Tae-gun at an unsuspecting stranger and hoping for the best. That's unfair to her, and unfair to him."

Zzzzgirl: our new fire princess had a meeting with prez.
Zzzzgirl: at 6:30!!!
Zzzzgirl: she just showed up, went in, met him, and left right after.

Tconnoisseur: does that mean you're more of a zzzz girl than usual today, if you were up so early staring?

Zzzzgirl: absolutely.
Zzzzgirl: the most zzz.
Zzzzgirl: actually hold on.

Zzzzgirl has changed their nickname to ZzzZZZzzzgirl.

ZzzZZZzzzgirl: there, that's more accurate.
ZzzZZZzzzgirl: worth it though! no regrets!

yoo-min-max: you know who was also up and has two thumbs? this guy!
yoo-min-max: she was there for like five minutes tops
yoo-min-max: you think prez had been sleeping in his office to wait for her or something?

gangnag: why were the two of you up so early

yoo-min-max: had an assignment at 4
yoo-min-max: the dungeon in gwangjin
yoo-min-max: was on my way back

gangnag: damn that was a big one, congrats to you and @SenSoJoo

SenSoJoo: zzzzzz

nomu?: who you talking to @gangnag?

gangnag: ?
gangnag: wdym?

nomu?: just now, it looked like you were talking to someone

gangnag: @yoo-min-max and @SenSoJoo

nomu?: ah, ymm... taken from us so young... such promising talent, we'll never see anyone like him again

taegun fan no. 1183: F

qt patoo t: F

yoo-min-max: wtf?

kitkatcat: F. a hero to the end.
kitkatcat: died speaking the truth and came from beyond the grave to close a dungeon, too
kitkatcat: that's dedication.

ZzzZZZzzzgirl: sometimes it's like I can still hear his voice.

yoo-min-max: what are you guys on about

ha-genie: do none of you have work to do, do you just spend your whole day in this chat

nomu?: half of us are risking our lives every day and the other half are enabling us, let us have our entertainment, man

taegun fan no. 1183: tru
taegun fan no. 1183: anyway anyone got a bead on when the new girls running her first dungeon?
taegun fan no. 1183: inquiring minds want to know

ChoiBokBok: have her scheduled for a date this evening.
ChoiBokBok: with a dungeon, I mean
ChoiBokBok: hunny gunny will be there too I guess.

kitkatcat: you used that phrasing just to mess with us, didn't you.

ChoiBokBok: and you make it so easy!!!

nomu?: which one is it?
nomu?: bet it's a big one, two heavy hitters like that

qt patoo t: I don't know, their first run together, might not be that big?

taegun fan no. 1183: you doubt hunny gunnys prowess?

MODERATOR ANNOUNCEMENT: Please do not use terms of endearment for other members.

taegun fan no. 1183: @do-not-jin chill

do-not-jin: I'm just doing my job, someone has to keep this chat PG so HR doesn't come at us.

taegun fan no. 1183: its just a nickname
taegun fan no. 1183: you didnt say anything when @ChoiBokBok said it

do-not-jin: If I ever see him thirsting over sunbae the way you do I'll give him mod warnings, too.

ChoiBokBok: you know my strict no spoiler policy.

ZzzZZZzzzgirl: think of the power of this chat if we were allowed to go full XXX. we'd be unstoppable.

kitkatcat: more like none of us would get any work done.

ZzzZZZzzzgirl: but think of all of the hilarious raunchy in jokes we'd make! it'd be glorious!

discountraidcaptain: if any of you see them before they head in, send my well wishes, I'm still out of town.
discountraidcaptain: but whatever it is, they got this. that dungeon's going to be so confused about what temperature it is.

kitkatcat: lol!

yoo-min-max: you can still make hilarious raunchy in-jokes if you're willing to take the tempmute for the team

taegun fan no. 1183: this is bringing me back memories of ymm
taegun fan no. 1183: i can almost hear what hed say abt this
taegun fan no. 1183: sth abt how you should never be afraid of sacrificing urself... so brave......

ZzzZZZzzzgirl: truly the greatest of men. we will miss him always. there is no way to fill the void of silence that he left
ZzzZZZzzzgirl: except maybe with constant pen clicking.
ZzzZZZzzzgirl: now I can't even listen to a pen click without tearing up. It just reminds me of him!

yoo-min-max: what the fuck are you guys on

MODERATOR ANNOUNCEMENT: User @yoo-min-max has been muted for ten minutes.

Their first mission together actually happens to be in Seoul. It's a small dungeon, relatively speaking, at least compared to ones Lee Tae-gun often goes after—it doesn't even have a name—but given that it'll be his first dungeon with a new partner it's good to start small, so thinketh Quasar. It appeared behind a shopping mall and started spewing low-grade formless monsters which would be individually not a problem but which were numerous enough the Guild thinks there's probably something bigger inside. After a couple of C-rankers were dispatched to the scene to deal with the small fry they isolated the area so that the dungeon could be fully dealt with.

When Hye-jin accepts the teleport request she will find herself behind the yellow tape, a hundred meters away from the dungeon portal, near a couple of fabric canopies where the support team is gathered.

Lee Tae-gun appears nearly-simultaneously with her, and flinches for a fraction of a second before schooling his expression and body language when he senses her. And she can, of course, sense him herself.