"She did what?"

"And you know what? You're going to give her them. All of them. If she asks for a butler you give her one, if she asks for a helicopter you give her one, if she asks for a summer house in the Maldives and a winter house in the Alps you give her them, if she wants to set you on fire for half an hour you take it and thank her afterwards. You'll do some research and find the humblest, most demeaning bow they have and you'll offer her it while you apologise and you'll pray to whatever gods or spirits you worship that you haven't ruined our professional relationship with her forever.

"Do you understand me?"

"Woo-young I'm the Guild president—"

"Then act like it! It's all well and good if you want us to be a big happy family like that's a real thing but she's an outsider who has no reason to overlook this disaster of an introduction. This may have been a hiccup that sunbae will get over soon but to her it's all she's seen of the Guild."

"Alright! Alright! I get it! I fucked up! I'll fix it!"

"Anything she asks for. Anything. We can repair third degree burns but I'm not confident we can repair this relationship. But you have to try. Not just for sunbae, for her, because she's not just here for sunbae. Grovel."

"I will, I will! Geeze, Woo-young, I haven't seen you this mad in a while."

"And I've never seen you fuck something up this thoroughly. I know sunbae is special but that doesn't mean you get to treat other people as unimportant."

"I didn't—" Pause.

Sigh.

"You're right. That was what I was doing, wasn't it?"

"Yes it was."

"I just—you know how hunny gunny is, you saw his phys reports, he won't last two more years at this rate, I just..." He runs a hand through his hair, and he can't hide the note of pain in his voice.

Woo-young sighs, too. "I know. I know. I'm worried about him, too. But that's no excuse. Do it right. You're still the company president and you need to act like it regardless of how worried you are about sunbae."

"Yeah. You're right. I get it. I'm sorry."

"I'm not the one you need to apologise to."

"I'm sorry for putting you in this situation if nothing else. I'll... figure it out. Or I'll do my best to."

Woo-young successfully imparted on him that it may not in fact be possible to fix it, but he's gotta try.

"You're forgiven. For the part that involves me. 

"...now get me something cold and alcoholic to drink, I've got a headache and my legs are throbbing and Tae-hwan won't be available to catch me for another two hours."

Kim Hye-jin gets settled in to her aunt's guest bedroom. She'll go apartment hunting, at some point. That's really much more comfortable than living out of a guest room, and if she's going to be working here, which she probably will, she's going to want it sooner rather than later. She's tempted to pick another city to apartment hunt in, just to make that fucking guild foot the cost of constant teleports, but. That would probably just end up as inconvenient for her more than anything. Not the proper twist of the knife that she wants.

She excuses herself from her family with how she's very tired and still has some work to get done - that last part is even true, considering her contract's still up in the air - and closes the door to her tiny, pathetic living space for the foreseeable future. Quasar offered her lodgings on the guild's dime, she could have accepted. The places they'd offered seemed nice. Spacious. Quiet. Lots of aesthetic options and room to breathe and make whatever place she chose hers. She's glad she didn't, even if she feels like she's suffocating in this tiny room that it's painfully clear she doesn't belong in.

Then she sits on the bed, and very quietly, stifling herself so that no one else in this house can hear her, she sobs.

Stupid girl. Why would you think any of it would be different just because you fled the country?

The only reason Tae-gun doesn't immediately collapse when he gets home after that meeting is because the pitiful amounts of guiding he got from just being near Kim Hye-jin for a few minutes are still carrying him. 

It doesn't last long, though. He manages to stumble into his room, barely, breathing hard and flushed from head to toe, but he loses his ability to stay up halfway into taking his clothes off.

It's ridiculous. He hasn't used his powers—the opposite. He shouldn't be feeling any backlash right now. But he knows that what's happening is a sort of rebound reaction, like drinking a small sip of cold water in the scorching desert and realising once again just how hot you are.

Hot, and in pain, pain that he's learned to ignore but that eased a fraction for a few minutes.

Hot, in pain, and exhausted, exhaustion he pushes through every day but that got momentarily lifted, while he was in Kim Hye-jin's presence.

It's been four years since the last time he had a partner, the last time he had anyone compatible like that, and it was a disaster. And, really, "like that" isn't true, because he's never met someone this compatible, he wasn't aware it was possible to be this compatible with someone. He'd heard of people who could guide each other from a distance like that, but he thought that was exaggerations, he's certainly never met anyone who claimed to have ever gotten a partner like that.

He's overheated, and in pain, and exhausted, but above all, he's...

Tae-gun hates it. He hates himself, and he hates his backlash. He hates that the opposite of "cold" is hot, and that it means that, means that, means that he spent that entire meeting picturing increasingly-implausible ways he could get her clothes off, could get her to touch him, kiss him, bite him, fuck him, ride him for hours like there's no tomorrow. Even now he can still see her face, clear as day, and he can imagine what she'd look like in all sorts of situations.

Does she make noises? What faces does she make? What would she look like when it's just her and him? What does her body look like, what will he see when he strips her naked, what does her skin feel like, taste like—

His house doubles as his silo, and there are protocols for preventing him from leaving, from requesting a teleport, because his ability for rational thinking goes out the window when he's like this. When he's more possessed of self-control he can easily navigate the security systems to let him through, but in his state he can't think of anything but touching himself and her.

After about half an hour, though, he's managed to calm himself down enough to reach for his meds in his bedside table's drawer. He takes them dry, chews and swallows so that they'll take effect more quickly, and waits.

He doesn't want to wait, he wants to keep touching himself, he's already had several orgasms, he wasn't counting, and his motor is still going, but he knows that the meds will soon work the way into his system and then he'll be. Fine. Better, at least. More in control. In possession of his faculties.

More like himself.

qt patoo t: OMG
qt patoo t: I think HunnyGunny has a partner now???

taegun fan no. 1183: what r u talking abt

qt patoo t: I saw him going into a meeting room that Kim Hye-jin had gone into earlier
qt patoo t: then I saw her go to legal??

taegun fan no. 1183: ...r u forreal?

kitkatcat: there were some strings pulled because Woo-young teleported off to talk to prez right after.

Zzzzgirl: I saw her and she's gorgeous. Full marks, would want to be in that room between both of them.

nomu?: Kim Hye-jin, like, the fire princess?

qt patoo t: yeah! her!

taegun fan no. 1183: fire princess? what's the T?