She could get to her aunt's house the usual way, but she has suspicions about what's going on with the media right now, and so she doesn't want to be available to be cornered for any kind of interview or paparazzi. Teleportation it is.

So.

It turns out that there are memes about her and Tae-gun.

How she learns about this is her youngest cousin asking her for details about what he's like in bed.

If she's getting a day off tomorrow, she's definitely going to be getting a different place to stay, even if she has to sleep on the floor in a shitty shack in a shittier neighborhood. She doesn't think she'll have to, but. Still. She needs her damn space.

Okay. It's the day after the very stupid dungeon race, and Park Eun-ji still has no way to directly contact Kim Hye-jin. It's fine if she doesn't want to make a statement, but living eternally in limbo is doing no one any good, and she suspects from context and knowing how her cousin works that this is entirely his fault.

This is unacceptable. She will be fixing it.

Eun-ji checks with his secretary to make sure that he's not in the middle of a meeting, and since he's not, she storms in.

"Oi, oppa!" she says. "What the fuck is happening with Kim Hye-jin!"

When she gets to his office the sight she'll see is her cousin holding his head in his hands, elbows on his desk, gripping his hair hard enough to turn his scalp red.

"Eun-ji, I'm really really happy with how this company works, you know," he says, and his grip tightens. "I fucked up big time, made decisions when I should instead not have made decisions, and now she thinks Quasar is a pile of toxic waste just like every other fucking guild out there and nothing we say can be trusted and everything we try to do is just more strings we want to attach to her.

"So that's what the fuck is happening with Kim Hye-jin. I don't know how to do right by her and I'm hoping someone more qualified than me will show up to yell the solution at me."

"... So why's she working with us at all?"

"Because she took pity on hunny gunny. ...that's dismissive. Because she saw how much Lee Tae-gun was self-destructing at a glance and wanted to help. Please don't let it spread that he's self-destructing but he is and he really needs a partner and she's a beacon of shining light for him and she obviously thought we just wanted to use her for that."

"Already knew he was self-destructing, I have eyes, thanks. I only pretend to think he's invincible and perfect in chat. So she's basically a freelancer working with us with her nose held, and. ... We have not given her any kind of direction or resources to alternatives to Quasar assistance. Oppa."

"Are you here to yell the solution to my problem? Please yell the solution to my problem, I'd love nothing more. Her contract says that she wants nothing to do with us, she told me as much with her mouth, I have no idea how the guild could send her any resources without her thinking they're poisoned so I've been just waiting for her to ask for stuff and giving her everything she asks for."

"Oppa, the solution to your problem with optics with the new recruit was getting the cousin you hired for literally that exact job to help. Instead of just, whatever the fuck this is. Ugh. You're such a dumbass. Okay, you're going to explain to me what exactly the contents of her rightfully yelling at you included, and what stupid fucking shit you said back, and then I'm going to see about not leaving an A-rank esper using the fucking subway or whatever the hell she's stuck using as a freelancer in a country she just got to!"

"Are you insane she's being teleported—right. Fine. Yes." It's been a week and he didn't record their conversation but the meeting got seared into his memory so he can recount it well enough if not in every particular.

Eun-ji takes notes on her commscreen, and looks like she wants to strangle him several times during the recounting.

"Okay, so, she has lots of money to throw around, but probably has no idea where to aim it at all. Because she just got to the country. And she's basically a freelancer who's just here for her partner. Okay. You know what? I can fix this. I'm going to need Jo Ji-min and Yu Hyunwoo on this, clear their schedules and have them come find me. First priority is going to be looking through independent companies that provide esper support structures and getting a list together to send to her, which she can pick from, or not.

"I also need literally any way to contact her - if you're going to flinch at contacting her, like I know you're about to, have Tae-gun do it. He's the one she's here for anyway. If she's smart she has a burner number for this kind of stuff that she can mute, we should have that. If she doesn't then have him recommend she gets one of those. Clear instructions that you can work from?"

He looks like he's about to cry. "Yes Eun-ji thank you Eun-ji I don't know what I'd do without you Eun-ji."

"Shrivel up and spontaneously combust, after losing like, half your espers and suffering for a year or two first. Get me sooner next time, baka."

Right then! On to work.

Jo Ji-min's and Yu Hyunwoo's schedules are cleared, and the president messages Tae-gun.

...? Okay.

The guild wants to know if they're allowed to contact you to send you information packets about freelance esper support companies and agencies.

Yeah, okay. This number's fine, it's my work number.

Okay.

They also told me to suggest getting a burner phone of some kind that you can mute to contact only them if you want.

I think they would probably buy you it if you wanted? But I guess you might not trust it?

Work phone can be muted and is separate from my personal phone number for that reason!

Thanks, though.

If you know, what changed? They'd been ignoring me before.

I don't know, sorry. 

Woo-young might?

I'll ask, thanks.

So did I terrify Quasar with the dumb race stunt, because I'm very confused about suddenly getting assistance to find non-Quasar esper support alternatives.

Not turning it down, mind, but. ?????

the short answer is that someone competent finally showed up to hit prez with a mallet and take over relations with you

the long answer involves some quasar internals that aren't like secrets or anything just I'm not sure how much you want to know

... Wow.

Gotta say that if that's what it took I'm not sorry I'm keeping Quasar at arm's length tbh.

Anyway thanks I'm good, I will accept my notes on how to get outside help and I will only mildly distrust them as traps.

competence in this Guild is very noncentralised

has its perks but also its down sides

you can let whoever know if there's any other things you do need or want btw

Can do.

Might not, but I will be aware I can.

Thanks though, really. ^_^

yeah 'course