"Oh, yes. There would be, wouldn't there."

Hye-jin is perfectly amenable to going forth and finalizing the contract. Well. In her own way.

"Sorry, I think there's a problem with this, actually," she says after she's sat down with the paperwork and a pen in front of her. Casually as can be, she picks up the contract and then incinerates it. "The relocation to Korea has been more stressful than I'd anticipated, could I request a larger salary and housing stipend? I'm going to need a little bit more than I expected to get properly on my feet."

"—oh?" asks the bureaucrat she's dealing with, looking kind of baffled. The concessions already present in the contract are... pretty generous already.

(Woo-young, on the other hand, has to cover his mouth to hide a smile.)

No. They aren't. They should be more generous. By a large margin. But she understands if Quasar can't manage this, she can just go back to Japan. She's sure they can find someone else who is compatible with Lee Tae-gun-sunbae that he's directly agreed to partner with. Despite his history of, you know. Not having any partners for years. And how he's so against having a partner they had to secretly set up his meeting with her. Definitely easy to find another compatible esper replacement, right? Right.

She apologizes for the inconvenience. While smiling like some kind of carnivore. Seoul has just been such a cultural shock, see.

"I... I see. I can pass the request up the chain of command, then," as well as the report that she set the contract on fire what the f—

(And the count of people prez has fucked over with this mess goes up by one...)

Please. An amateur would 'set the contract on fire.' She totally incinerated it, there's not even ashes left of that contract, and the fire was so efficient it didn't even set off smoke detectors. There's a difference.

"I also worry that the cultural gap between Lee Tae-gun-sunbae and myself might be more vast than I expected, and I would hate to put him in the awkward position of having a partner he's uncomfortable with." Therefore: both parties can dissolve this, at any point. No fault, at all. She will owe Quasar nothing, they will let her walk at any time, and they will like it because it means she will still work with them. Quasar will accept this change, or she will give her deepest, sincerest apologies and take the financial hit for reneging on the contract, for what is clearly an incompatibility, on her end.

But they will accept it. Won't they.

"Ah, would you be willing to write down your requests, Kim Hye-jin-nim? That way we have no misunderstandings and we can verify what's feasible—"

(Woo-young makes a throat cutting gesture at them, subtly, from where he's standing behind Hye-jin.)

"—I mean, we can get it formalised to the satisfaction of all parties," she amends quickly.

"Of course," she agrees, sugary sweet.

Her demands are extensive. They are not merciful. She is not making friends here, anymore. Quasar will pay her through the nose to get to work with her, in a capacity where she can walk at any time if she ever feels like it, and it will thank her for the privilege. Won't it.

That's up to people higher up the hierarchy than she is! She's definitely not cleared to authorise changes this extensive to the contract.

They'll get back to her on it, if that's alright?

Yes, of course. They have her phone number and email? Good, good. Then she'll be going now. Have a wonderful day, she'll be in touch.

And then she'll take her leave.

Woo-young would feel kind of guilty drawing from the guild's storage of his power for this, but he's perfectly willing to spend his own storage to get to prez asap. He might be unable to walk when he gets there and he'll absolutely be completely immobile when he comes back but snuggling his partner Tae-hwan when he does will work well enough. He is in any case certain enough that this is worth the backlash. 

So he calls prez to make sure there's a chair waiting for him and teleports.

"You fucked up," are the first words out of his mouth after he collapses on the beach chair next to prez, in fucking Hawaii.

"Hello to you, too, Woo-young, how are you doing?" he asks, sipping from a fruity drink.

"No. Just no. You do not understand how much you fucked up."

The kind of informal—and even rude—speech that he's using with the guild president would probably be grounds for being fired from most other companies, but prez wants them to be buddies? He'll be buddies. Buddies who are pissed off at each other.

"Relax, it's fine. It's working out, right? Hunny gunny accepted, didn't he?"

"You fucked up with Kim Hye-jin."

"—oh?"

"Are you just completely unaware of what happened to her?"

"She had a falling out with her partner—"

"She and her partner looked like the dream couple, except for how he kept talking like he was the main contributor to their work when anyone with eyes could see she was clearly the powerhouse.

"And then, suddenly, they separate, he does the Japanese equivalent of venting in public, she immediately fucks off to Korea, the gossip mill is filled with people calling her a fire princess."

"—okay?"

"How do you think White Star Guild must've handled that, for her response to be that extreme? How do you think she's feeling right now about bureaucracy?

"Then she gets here, her welcoming party is me, a rescue esper whose only qualification is being Tae-gun-sunbae's best and maybe only friend—"

"Hey, come on, now—"