A man emerges from the dungeon portal. He's wearing a plain white T-shirt, black slacks and a long black jacket, and heavy-duty leather boots. Blue ice shards follow and surround him, floating with the same purpose his steps carry, but one by one they start melting away into nothing. At the same time, new ice shards appear, as big as skateboards, forming a set of floating steps he climbs down to reach the floor from the portal, and then those, too, disappear.

He has a calm, serene look on his face, and when he spots the TV helicopter with a camera crew filming him from above he offers them a smile for a second.

"...wow."

    "I know, right?"

"It's one thing to see him on TV but—"

    "He's gorgeous, right? I'm so jealous."

"I think I'm in love."

    "Are you taking pictures?? Take pictures!!!"

"—right! I will!"

After a few more seconds he lifts his right hand to eye level, index and middle fingers pressed together and pointing forward, and slides them down in the air, which causes a holographic screen to appear floating before him. He taps at it, gives the cameras another smile and a wave, then presses a button that makes him disappear in a flash of light.

    "Does he really look that perfect from closer up?"

"It's like he walked out of a magazine or something. Aren't espers meant to get, like, super messed up after using their powers, if they don't have partners? He went in solo, didn't he?"

    "That's Lee Tae-gun for you. Backlashes are for other people."

"Seriously. —anyway, the plane is going to be late, obviously, but I'll be there soon."

    "Cool, see you!"

"See you, unnie," she says, hanging up and watching the portal to the dungeon slowly dissipate into the air.

Lee Tae-gun appears in the foyer of his isolation site, his forced smile melting away with his composure, and he doesn't make it to his bedroom before collapsing.

Kim Hye-jin is resolutely not reading any news articles, at all. None of them. They are all off limits, because any one of them might be about her, and even some of the tabloid-like headlines are enough to set off her already extremely frayed temper. Best to just swear off the whole thing for the next month, or two, or three, and tolerate being a little bit out of the loop while she puts the pieces of her life back together. This will not be made better by setting anything on fire, even if she might feel better afterwards. While she's a good enough esper to not endanger anything or anyone with any totally justified fiery outbursts, she - has some habits she needs to break, because the consequences of backlash are now actually a real concern for her.

She's got a contract with a Korean guild that's supposed to maybe fix that, but even they are a bit dubious about this being something solid. In fact, she's not convinced the guy this guild wants to set her up with even has backlash, which leaves her kind of in the lurch, doesn't it. Apparently the man has also avoided any and all partnerships with anyone in the past half decade. So. He's probably some kind of alien, and she shouldn't expect it to work out. She'll try anyway, out of sheer professional integrity, but if it fails, she won't be particularly broken up about it. It's mostly an excuse, anyway. They're offering her transportation to Korea from Japan, a generous salary, a neat little not-at-fault exit clause for if this doesn't work out (which they really seem to expect it to), and if she likes the guild itself she can get a new contract with them after. That makes it the best way to stop sharing a country with her previous partner as fast as possible.

So she'll attempt to make it work with the some-kind-of-alien, and if this means she has to tank her own backlash for the next year or something, fine. She'll live.

The foyer of Quasar Guild HQ is clean and professional but not bare or too utilitarian; they have an image to uphold, after all, and it wouldn't do to look anything but welcoming.

One of the walls is taken over by a cute small café with a few sitting and standing tables, while the center is dominated by a beautiful fountain with pretty karp swimming in it, surrounded by benches. The doors outside are glass set on glass and the reception desk is across the hall from them. The last wall has four elevators sectioned off from the rest of the room by swing turnstiles which require either a visitor's pass or registered biometrics to pass through, and heavy-duty security people stand at attention by the turnstiles. The floor is marble and the walls are polished steel, and there are two muted TVs hanging behind the reception showing two different news channels, one of which is showing a section on Korea's only S-ranked combat esper, Lee Tae-gun—a.k.a. her prospective partner.

The area is moderately busy, with a few groups of people having coffee or standing around chatting or just sitting by the fountain admiring it.

The teleport she accepts does not drop her immediately into any kind of social situation. Which is good, she's pretty sure everyone involved would hate that. She has a courtesy half-hour before they are going to put the espers in the same room together and see if they can successfully make nice. So she checks in at reception, gets herself a cup of coffee and a muffin from the café, and munches it while she informs her aunt that she made it safely to the appropriate country. Apparently there was some kind of something at the international airport? Anyway, she was teleported, it's fine. Thank you for your hospitality while I get my feet under me, looking forward to seeing you tonight, etc.

Once she finishes with her muffin and coffee (both pretty good, actually, having an in-house café is nice) she heads up to the office the meetup is supposed to happen. She's early, of course.

She's intercepted by a man with long green hair tied in a ponytail and brown eyes behind large, thin-rimmed glasses. "Kim Hye-jin-nim? My name is Min Woo-young," he says, offering his hand to shake.

Oh, a handshake, that's - okay, sure, yeah, she came prepared to handshake today, if admittedly not with this person. This is going to be the first of her cultural hiccups, isn't it. Well, she wanted to not be in Japan anymore. "Pleasure to meet you, Min Woo-young-shi. I'm not too early, am I? I can wander around the headquarters a little while longer, if that would be better...?"

Min Woo-young is also, it seems, an esper, but they are so not compatible it's not even funny. Whatever his backlash is, it has nothing to do with hers.

"No, no, you're great, it's great that you're here early, actually. Tae-gun-sunbae will be here soon, too, so I can introduce you two." He starts walking to lead the way to the meeting room.

Yep, see, this is why Japan does bowing instead of handshakes for most circumstances. That wasn't physically uncomfortable, exactly, but wow it sure is a thing to get a blatant 'not at all compatible.' Sort of like walking up to a closed door, or maybe a sidewalk abruptly ending in front of her. She supposes she'll have to get used to it.

"Sounds good, thank you." She will dutifully follow. Look at her, so easygoing and not at all like the fire breathing princess the Japanese media portrays her as.

"So have you just arrived in Seoul? Anything you're looking forward to?" he asks, conversationally.

"Just arrived, yes. I mailed my luggage ahead, it's safely arrived at my aunt's. I'll be staying with her for the next little while, and one of my cousins is excited to show me the sights, so I'll be letting her lead me around."

"You're not staying at any of the guild lodgings?"

Nooooope, she wants a life outside of your guild, thank you, she has already experienced some major downsides to letting professional and personal lives intertwine! She's not saying that.

"I haven't seen my father's family in years! I couldn't pass up this opportunity to reconnect," she demurs.

He can read between the lines well enough. "Will you be using a guild-provided silo or your own? —I don't have any sort of official interest, to be clear, I'm just some guy."

"Depends on how things work out with my prospective partner, doesn't it? But I'd had my own, in Tokyo." And boy did that turn out to be a good idea, didn't it, that she could just lock Fujita Hideyoshi right out and have no one able to do a damn thing about it. No pressure or 'what happened' or 'well have you tried talking to him again' or anything that might make her set anything on fire. An isolation room that is actually isolating! Imagine that! No corporate meddling to speak of.

She's trying to be casual and friendly, but: yeah this is in fact a sore subject for her, so please stop pushing.

He didn't mean to push! He was just curious. 

"Yeah, that makes sense."

"So, Tae-gun-sunbae can be a bit difficult."

Yep. She got that from how many prospective partners he's gone through, how much they're paying her to be here, and the very generous no-fault exit clause on the contract. Not to mention the teleport. That is not normal guild recruitment behavior.

"So I've heard." Well, surmised, but same thing. "Anything I should be aware of?"

"Just... don't take it personally? He's not gonna insult you or anything but he's... very guarded."

Guarded honestly sounds so great to her right now, though? After everything. Yes, keeping each other at arms' length sounds fantastic, sign her up. She doesn't say that, either.

"I'm fine keeping our relationship strictly professional," she says, instead, which is almost the same thing.

"No, umm..." This is awkward. "He might—probably will—outright refuse to work with you at all."

Yeah, she figured that, too.

"... So, even if we don't do the typical esper partner thing of mutual backlash reduction, working together can nonetheless reduce it for both of us even if we never touch? From an efficiency of power used standpoint. Magnification of each other's strengths and covering each other's weaknesses and whatnot."

"Oh yeah, but prez—I mean the guild president is calling in a favour to ask him to actually work together. ...backlash management might be harder but we'll—ah we're here." Here's a door to a nice meeting room with some comfortable chairs and a beautiful table. "Anyway, we'll figure it out?"

This guy doesn't seem to understand that she's well aware she's on a doomed vessel heading off a cliff. The point of being on this doomed vessel is that it is A: not in Japan B: has a cultural stake in seeing her as more than just the vindictive celebrity girlfriend who turned crazy and broke up with her partner for no reason, and C: is paying her a lot of money and giving her a lot of freedom, contractually. Her plan is to do her best, obviously not be at fault when this situation explodes, and collect on the goodwill she'll have earned by trying very hard to be a saint to an obvious weird alien that doesn't have backlash and doesn't care to try to work with anyone else ever. Gotta think long term with these things.

She just nods, and steps inside to sit at a comfortable chair.

"Right, I'll be right back." Pause. "He's a good person. It's a tough, uh, he'll. He's spiky. But he's a good person."

"Okay," she agrees, still a little bemused.

"Right-o. Be right back."

And off he goes, slipping out and closing the door behind himself.

Okay. She'll just, uh, wait here, then. And play games on her phone while she waits.

"Sunbae! So good to see you."

"Woo-young."

"Any missions today?"

"Not until the evening."

Which is weird, usually HQ has his schedule jam-packed.

"Oh! That's rare," he says. "In that case, mind coming with me a bit? There's someone I want you to meet."

?

"Sure."

"Excellent. So how's, ah, recovery going?"

Eyebrow twitch. "Fine. It wasn't a hard dungeon."

Which you solo'd.

"Good, good." Ahh how does he... He doesn't, actually. If he just stays quiet, Tae-gun isn't going to care. He can just lead the way.

Indeed.

Walk walk walk here's the lift oh there's a star-struck newbie there that Tae-gun is ignoring cool cool here's the room. 

"...don't be too mad at prez?"

"...why would I—"

But Woo-young doesn't wait for the penny to drop and pushes the door open. "Kim Hye-jin-shi, sorry for making you wait. This is Lee Tae-gun. Tae-gun-sunbae, this is—uh?"

Tae-gun is frozen in place, and Hye-jin will know exactly why.

It usually takes touch for espers to get a good read on each other, but as soon as the door opened she could feel his presence. She wouldn't need to touch him to tell: they're more compatible than Hye-jin has ever been with anyone.

Well, they were going to pretty obviously be compatible, what with being literally fire and ice, and all. But. Uh. Wow. It kind of makes her want to run immediately, actually.

But she's a grownup, so she'll stand up and - she's supposed to shake his hand probably but he's staring at her like she's the most horrifying thing he's ever seen, so she'll instead just do what's comfortable and bow.

"Um. Hello," she says, a little lamely.

He follows suit, saying, "Nice to meet you," mechanically.

"—right, this is Kim Hye-jin, she's transferring over from White Star Guild in Japan."

He straightens up. "Woo-young."

"So the guild was thinking—"

"Woo-young."

"—that since you're probably pretty compatible—"

He looks at Hye-jin again. "Apologies, Kim Hye-jin, but I'm afraid there must have been some confusion."

Blink blink.

".... Of... them not telling you, and. Just springing me on you out of nowhere. Yes, that. Would be very confusing, wouldn't it."

Is that a hint of anger from the fire esper? Why, yes! Yes it is!!

"I'm not sure if it's been discussed with you, though I can't imagine it wouldn't have, but I don't take partners—"

"Sunbae—"

"—so I'm afraid you may have wasted a trip—"

"The guild president is calling in his favour," says Min Woo-young with an expression that said he had been really hoping he wouldn't have to bring it up.

Tae-gun stops talking and looks at him.

"He would like you to really pretty please try to work with her?" he says, dropping to casual speech.

"Woo-young."

"Look, frankly I'm not comfortable working with a guild that attempts to stealth teleport in potential partners for their people without their -" no, bad Hye-jin, do not start yelling, you are trying to be a nice fire witch. The way his backlash is already pushing against her from this far away says some things, like this maybe actually being that kind of emergency. Even if it's personally distasteful, to the extreme. ".... Could you just. Give us a moment, please? Outside?"

Her smile is slightly terrifying. She may or may not back up this request with fire. It depends on how she's pushed.

He straightens up further and says, "Yes, of course. I'll, uh—" The president is going to be unhappy about this. "I'll leave you to it."

And he vanishes in a flash of light.

Tae-gun stops talking and pinches the bridge of his nose.

Yeah.

She gets out of her chair and very carefully and deliberately relocates to the other side of the room, as far away from the door as possible, to give him the most space she can.

"Okay. Uh. I wasn't aware you didn't know, so. I apologize for my part in surprising you like this."

"...it is certainly not your fault. I'm the one who should apologise for the situation the guild is putting you in."

"It's fine. I've been in worse guild politics, actually. Honestly, getting it out of the way early means it's much cleaner and easier. Less entrenched and personal." She looks away from him, anxiously tapping her fingers on the table. So, uh, try to head West, then...? Her English isn't great but maybe America's guild culture is a bit less, uh, this? Maybe??

... But that backlash is really fucking bad....

"How... long have you been doing this?" she asks, still trying to digest the. The thatness. That is contained within this man.

"...'this'?"

"I can feel the storm of backlash from here, dude, I'm not sure I could live in the same city as you and not eventually notice. How long have you been doing this to yourself??"

That last part came out with a bit more bite than intended, and she winces. "Sorry. Just. Look, I almost understand where your guild is coming from, you're going to give yourself an aneurysm or something like this."

"I can manage it," he says, shuffling uncomfortably.

"Right up until your aneurysm! Or stroke! Or heart attack! Or... I don't even know what flavor of backlash you get, but whatever it is. You will, until it kills you, and it's going to. And you know it, and your guild knows it, and, fucking hell, what kind of fucked up partnerships do they have here that it's better to do that to yourself than - sit next to someone regularly. Forget holding hands, sitting next to each other would probably help you at this point!"

Tae-gun would really like to argue but actually he cannot. Just being in her presence is... helping. He's not acutely backlashing right now, he doesn't go out in public when he is, but the mounting pressure is...

...for someone as compatible with him as she seems to be...

"I don't work with partners," he repeats. "I—"

But he's interrupted by his phone ringing. When he looks at the caller ID he closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. "Do you mind if I take this?"

“Go ahead.” If it’s your guild president, tell him to shove up his contract up his ass. And, oh, she quits.

She doesn't say this, but it’s perhaps obvious from her expression.

Yeah.

He doesn't actually step away, but the phone's volume is low enough that a regular human wouldn't have been able to use it at all and Hye-jin can't hear the other side from where she is. "Guild president-nim," he says, adopting a much more formal tone of speech than Min Woo-young had been using earlier.

"...yes, I've met her. Yes. Yes, obviously. Yes—"

"—yes. I know. I—"

He stops talking for a second then closes his eyes again. "No. No, of course not."

Another pause. "...I see. And that's—" Pause.

A much, much longer pause.

And a defeated sigh. "Yes, guild president-nim." Pause. "Yes, guild president-nim." Pause. "No, guild president-nim." And a final pause. "Yes, guild president-nim." Then he hangs up.

Yeah. Yeah, she thought that was the guild president.

“Let me guess. Telling you to make nice with me for at least a little while, so you live long enough to make it to someone you like better?” she asks, looking, uh. Like she wants to burn this building to the ground a little. Because she does. Arson is unfortunately a crime, though.

"Yes. Something like that."

“Mhm. Didn’t seem to occur to him that this little stunt might piss me off, though, did it.” Her? Bitter? Yes. Yes she is. Same old games. New fucking country. She looks away, and consciously clamps down on her urge to make a little mote of fire to properly express herself. She’s being responsible with her backlash.

“Look. If you want to kill yourself with your powers in the longest, most indirect, and painful way possible, I won’t try to make you stop. I think you’re being a dumbass, but that’s your business, really. I’m not… whatever thing your guild is doing, I’m not a part of it. If you want me to stay and help you, I will, but because you want me to. If you don’t? I will absolutely burn every single bridge here on general principle.”

"It's complicated."

“Okay. Then I am going to stay here in this chair for now, and you can explain the complications to me, or not, or leave, or not. And you can decide what you do. Sound good?”

"No. Let's just," sigh, "get this over with. I'll work with you."

She doesn't love the lack of enthusiasm there, but, well. She was never expecting enthusiasm from him, and that sounds like actual consent. This is a step in the right direction, probably? It's hard to tell. She wants to leave Korea and put this guild on her blacklist forever and never have to think of this again. But also, she doesn't want to leave this poor man to kill himself. So, yeah. It sure is complicated.

"... All right. Then what does working with me look like to you, ideally?"

"We go on missions together. We stay in range of each other. We do not touch. We do not share an isolation site. We are not friends, and we definitely do not," a flash of irritation, quickly smoothed over, "grow closer."

"That sounds perfect," says Hye-jin, nodding. "Strictly professional."

Yeah. Hopefully.

"Have you been assigned any missions yet?"

"No. I arrived in the country about an hour ago."

He nods. "Then I will see you when you are." And he doesn't wait for a response before summoning a holographic screen and pressing a button that makes him disappear in a localised flash of blue light.

That seems like a horrible waste of the teleportation reserve, but she supposes she just met the likely candidate who is responsible for keeping it topped off. She can understand wanting to tweak his nose a little. If admittedly very indirectly.

She'll instead use her legs and go tell... someone... that, yep. She is compatible with Lee Tae-gun and is looking forward to working with him, and she will bottle up her anger at being dropped like a tactical bomb on a man who did not know she was coming without any kind of heads up. That'll come out later, when dealing with someone responsible for this fiasco, probably. But no, seriously, what the fuck, guys.

When she opens the door out of the room Min Woo-young is out there, looking like an anxious bee, leaning against a wall. He's not literally by the door but given esper senses he probably heard... most of it? Unless he just teleported there, which is also likely.

"...hello," he says, looking awkward as hell. He was probably just caught between the higher-ups and Tae-gun and was almost certainly not involved in any decisionmaking, especially given that he called Tae-gun "sunbae" earlier. "How... did it go?" he asks, suggesting that he didn't actually eavesdrop.

She stares at him. It's hard to tell, from here, if he's one of those people responsible for this fiasco. But it's not hard to tell from where he's standing that: oh, yeah, she's. She's pissed.

"We have agreed we're compatible enough to work together in a professional capacity," she says, downright frostily. "So. Success for Quasar, really."

He winces and looks at his feet. "...I'm sorry. For the, for this whole—I swear we're not usually like this. It was—" It would not be a good look to blame it on prez even though it was prez's idea. It would also not be a good look to make excuses even if they're true. He can apologise for his own mistakes, though. "I'm sorry for not telling you in advance. I didn't mean to hide it from you, it just—slipped my mind." Because he was so frazzled and worried about sunbae.

Damn it, Woo-young, you're usually a lot better at this.

She continues staring at him.

"In the future," she says, still in the same frigid corporate tone, "I find it much easier to work in a professional capacity when I know what I'm getting into. This should have been explained to me at the contract level, before I met you." A last minute 'oh by the way, he doesn't know you're coming,' does not cut it either.

Another wince. "I know. I'm not trying to make any excuses, I'm just... apologising. This was a huge blunder on our part." He straightens his back and bows to her, really really deeply. "I hope we can have a productive partnership and make it up to you," he says, without rising from the bow. Why is he speaking on behalf of the guild again? But clarifying it would once again sound like excuses.

He's going to yell at prez so much augh.

Usually one would say the mirrored version of this, something something, productive partnership, let's all work together, something something. She doesn't.

"Is there anything else Quasar needs from me for today, before I get to settling in?"

Woo-young finally stands up again. He was about to say that he doesn't actually know, which is half-true, but that'd make the guild look even more incompetent.

Maybe we deserve to look incompetent.

"I believe there was some finalising of the contract needed?" he ventures, that being the part he does half-know.

"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—"

"And he gets dropped on her unsuspectingly because you couldn't afford to tell him in advance—"

"You know he would've said no and avoided HQ for two weeks—"

"But you could've told her, let her know your reasons and reasoning! You can't just hope dropping a lot of money on someone will just smooth over anything! Especially when she's already feeling jerked around by bureaucracy! And now she's feeling jerked around by us too because it looks like we only want her to appease our star boy."

"Are you joking, she's an A-ranker."

"And how many lines of her contract are spent on that versus on managing her relationship with sunbae? And what was the very first thing you scheduled for her before she'd even signed her contract? How do you expect her to feel valued for herself after this? I'm honestly surprised all she did was incinerate the contract and ask for more concessions."

"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 on Japanese culture 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 haven't seen you fuck something up this thoroughly in a while. 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 and a cigarette, 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 been carrying for years and 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 five 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 hunny gunny 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?

kitkatcat: fire a-rank from Japan, had a falling out with her partner. apparently she was a massive pain to work with?

💤Zzzzgirl: okay but like, how sure are we that he's not just mad he lost that, because I'd be mad I lost that.

kitkatcat: idk, my japanese isn't great and all of the articles don't have korean translations

🍵Tconnoisseur: she totally set her contract on actual fire, I just heard Seo-Ah bitch about needing to redo a bunch of stuff and basically rewrite the whole thing.

🍸nomu?: that's not gonna last

taegun fan no. 1183: hey, if she set the contract on fire to ask for revisions it means she wants to stay, ye?

yoo-min-max: how's that copium supply going, need some more?

taegun fan no. 1183: look a girl can hope that people she looks up to will get nice things!

yoo-min-max: you sure you're not just trying to live vicariously through her and get a piece of hunny gunny's @$$?

MODERATOR ANNOUNCEMENT: Please do not use vulgar language or make sexual remarks in the group chat, and do not use terms of endearment for other members.

kittykatcat: omg did she really???
kittykatcat: @SeoAAAAAA, hey, hey did she actually set the contract on fire, like, in front of you???
kittykatcat: because wow we really did pick up a fire princess didn't we.

💤Zzzzgirl: you could say she's....
💤Zzzzgirl: hot.

🍵Tconnoisseur: why do I give my hot goss to this chat again, I don't do this for the bad puns.

💤Zzzzgirl: cmon on that was funny!

🆘SeoAAAAAA: you guys know i'm not allowed to talk about it
🆘SeoAAAAAA: even if, hypothetically speaking, it had in fact been the case that a new recruit had somehow managed to set a contract on fire so completely that not even ashes remained and yet somehow not trigger the fire alarm
🆘SeoAAAAAA: i would not be allowed to tell you guys about it

🐣qt patoo t: holy wowers so it's true

🍸nomu?: maybe she can deal with sunbae's backlash

taegun fan no. 1183: Tae-gun-sunbae doesn't have a backlash

yoo-min-max: no one knows what his backlash is like

taegun fan no. 1183: Tae-gun-sunbae doesn't have a backlash!

🍸nomu?: i bet @youngwoo knows

🧋youngwoo: Tae-gun-sunbae doesn't have a backlash

🐣qt patoo t: omg you're here didn't you go talk to prez
🐣qt patoo t: what happened?

kitkatcat: tell ussssssss. is our boy going to be okay with her. is his perfect face safe from any burns??
kitkatcat: do we need to avoid the new girl for fear of her fiery wrath??

🍵Tconnoisseur: found a video of her fiery wrath

💤Zzzzgirl: omg!!!!!!

🧋youngwoo: you don't need to worry, she's cool
🧋youngwoo: prez though is in hot effing water

taegun fan no. 1183: honestly he deserves it

🐣qt patoo t: what'd he do?

taegun fan no. 1183: what didnt he do?

🍸nomu?: preach

yoo-min-max: hey though that video is rly cool
yoo-min-max: is that limp blob next to her her old partner?
yoo-min-max: good riddance, our hunny gunny is way cooler and hotter

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

💤Zzzzgirl: ymm died a hero
💤Zzzzgirl: F

🍵Tconnoisseur: F.

kitkatcat: f

🛡️discountraidcaptain: okay but she moved all the way from japan, can we try to be really nice to her guys, I bet she's going through some stuff.

taegun fan no. 1183: legit, esp if she gets on well with sunbae

🍸nomu?: no, dude, just regardless, she's not here to be tae-gun-sunbae's emotional support esper, she's her own person

taegun fan no. 1183: sorry, mb, thats not what i meant

🍸nomu?: what did you mean?

taegun fan no. 1183: just that since their partnered if they get on well shell be here a long time probly

🍸nomu?: oh
🍸nomu?: yeah legit

🐣qt patoo t: we gotta give her a warm quasar welcome!

kitkatcat: yeah for sure, if nothing else I love her style!

💤Zzzzgirl: the warmest welcome for our warmest esper!

🍵Tconnoisseur: why are you like this.

taegun fan no. 1183: sunbae has a mission tonite ne?
taegun fan no. 1183: think theyll be together?

🍸nomu?: mission on the first day? unlikely

🧋youngwoo: you guys realise that sunbae's in this chat, right?

🍸nomu?: yeah but he never reads it

Tae-gun sighs and closes the chat app. He should, actually, start preparing for his mission; his meds have stabilised him but he has research to do on the dungeon.

The next day, Hye-jin gets an email saying that the guild president would like to meet with her at her earliest convenience, no need to schedule in advance.

Mhm, mhm. So, she doesn't have any openings until tomorrow. So sorry. She's very busy, see. Her lawyer should have contacted them about the contract revisions? Are they acceptable?

Yes, they most certainly did receive the revisions, and they most certainly are all acceptable. No rush, though! He'll be here whenever.

Of course. She'd hate to burden his no doubt busy schedule. She thanks him for his consideration and time.

(She is going to get a tour around Seoul from her delighted cousin! And throw lots of money at buying nice things for the both of them! They will be having fun and she is not thinking of fucking Quasar at all for the next twenty four hours.)

Quasar will wait. Patiently.

It had better.

The next day, she shows up at 6:30 AM in spotless and expensive business attire and heels. Hello! She's here to see the guild president, is he available right now?

They've been told to expect her. "Kim Hye-jin-nim? He's available, yes. Would you like to be shown to his office?"

"Yes, please, if you would."

It's slightly disappointing that this doesn't seem to be outrageously annoying to him. Damn it. She should have made it 5 AM instead, but that would have been too obviously hostile. Sigh...

So this receptionist will themself lead her to the top floor of the building then all the way to the end of a hallway to the president's office. They knock, then open the door. "Guild president-nim? Kim Hye-jin is here to see you."

"Ah, yes, please invite her in."

The receptionist steps aside and opens the door further, showing an office that is... normal? Not really that ostentatious at all. It's perhaps not the most utilitarian, and it's large enough to have two sofas and a center table before the desk, but for all that it's not huge and doesn't have pretentious paintings and sculptures or anything showy like that.

However, perhaps most relevantly to Hye-jin will be the fact that it does look like the guild president was bothered by the early hour. He has bags under his eyes and a hot cup of hastily-bred instant coffee and his shirt is slightly crooked where it goes into his trousers. All in all, it looks like he was woken up the moment she arrived and rushed to become minimally presentable at inhuman speeds. Beyond that, he looks like a pretty unremarkable middle-aged man, with dark hair and a clean-shaven face.

"Welcome, Kim Hye-jin-nim," he says, which, as the president: damn. "Would you like anything to eat or drink? Coffee? Tea?" He's using extremely formal language and honorific verbs for her, just a step below what a humble servant would use when talking with nobility.

Oh, good. That makes her feel better. She looks completely perfect and professional. Also: hotter than hell itself, but that's normal for her.

She sees he has begun the groveling early. It pleases her, but it's not going to change a damn thing.

"No, I'd hate to waste any of your no doubt precious time, Park Yeonho-nim."

The way she says it is perfectly polite, humble, and... exactly as calculatingly distant as work colleagues. She does not sit.

"What did you wish to see me about, sir?"

"Ah, yes." He clears his throat then gives the receptionist a look that they correctly interpret as asking them to leave and close the door behind them.

Once that's done, he gets down on his knees, then bows until his forehead is touching the floor. When he speaks, it's in Japanese. "I wish to humbly apologise for the way I have treated you since your arrival in this country. It was thoughtless and careless of your priorities and feelings, and very insensitive and poorly-thought out. I do not have excuses. I am truly, deeply sorry, and you would be in your rights to want nothing to do with Quasar ever again. I only request that you not blame the people I got involved in it; the fault lies entirely on me, and it would deeply shame me for my mistakes to be reflected on the people who count on me to lead and provide for them."

Yeah, no. Good, but no. She inspects her nails.

"Apologize for my treatment?" she asks, faux innocently, still in Korean. "What treatment would that be? I was under the impression that the way my transfer went was ordinary Quasar policy. Was that not the case?"

He remains where he is, but switches back to Korean. "It was most certainly not. From our first contact to the moment you met with Lee Tae-gun, including the way your contract was structured, you were treated as lesser and as someone whose contributions and emotions and individuality don't matter. That is not how Quasar is, nor how it should be; you should be valued for who you are, you are valued for who you are, and that I made such an inexcusably poor showing of it does not make it less true. I understand these words may ring hollow, but I mean every one of them. I would not wish you to leave under the impression that we just want to use you, or see you as an accessory to someone else, or as a replaceable pawn, because of my mistakes. Nothing could be farther from the truth."

She hums, thoughtfully. "You know, from where I'm standing, I think you've just found the truth uncomfortable. Or possibly just that you're experiencing consequences and don't like them.

"Either way, you should be ashamed of yourself and your whole company. Do not kowtow there like this was a singular accident and not a series of them in favor of your primary concern. You have made yourself very clear. I would not be working with you at all if it were not for the state Lee Tae-gun-sunbae is in, which you are also accountable for. How long has he been without a partner? Who was in charge of setting up his last one? Did he get as much input there, as well? How did that go for him, to twitch like he does at the mere idea of a damn handshake? How much have you been treating him like he's not valued for who is is, hm? Sending him off on mission after mission, all by himself, while he's like that?"

"...I cannot share... Lee Tae-gun's reasons for his choices. I can promise that I have tried to stop him from taking this many missions and he has not allowed me to. I do not wish to try to absolve myself of blame for that, either, but I care for him a great deal and do not, from where I'm standing, know what to do to help him—" He cuts himself off, but the emotion was getting strong in his voice there. "I'm sorry. I can't share more.

"If there is anything I can do to reassure you that I mean everything I say and that this was a mistake, I will do it. And if it is your wish that your relationship with the guild be limited to going on missions, then, that is your prerogative also. But there are many people here who would like to get to know you, if you'd give them the chance, who had nothing to do with this blunder of mine, and those doors will always be open to you regardless of what formal relationship you wish to have with the guild."

She scoffs.

"So you and they can care for me as you did him? As you did me, the foreigner already once-burned by another guild that didn't treat me like a person, out of her element and uncomfortable and alone and -" she stops before she starts actually spitting fire. "No. I want nothing to do with you. Any of you. I'm here to save a man's life from your incompetence. That's all. You want to make it up to me? When I find another guild, which I will, you will give me a glowing recommendation. That's it. That's what I want. Certainly nothing to do with any of you."

...well. That's that, then.

"I understand. I will not take up any more of your time, then." He finally pulls himself up to a kneel and then to his feet. "I have the contract here. If you wish to review it in your own time or with a lawyer we will wait until you are done to finish everything."

He fucked up. He really did. At this point he's probably just a CEO to her and nothing he says will be believed. Actions speak much louder than words, after all.

They really, really do. He really is just a CEO to her, and all of his people are just - strings he could use to drag her back to use her some more. Risks that she will not be taking. Not for them.

"I'll take it and review it with my lawyer."

She gives a somewhat ironic bow, and then turns and departs. The clicks of her heels echoes through the office, and then the hallways, as she leaves the guild's HQ immediately after this meeting. No lingering, no getting coffee. Fuck you all.

The contract includes all concessions she requested—no-fault dissolution by either party with no necessary advance warning, no accommodations to be provided by the guild, full control over her work hours—plus a monetary bonus in excess of what she asked for.

Yeah, they are pretty fucked without her, aren't they. Makes sense that they'd pay her more than what she asked for, especially since she didn't buy the CEO's paper thin sob story when he realized how fucked his company would be if she went full scorched earth. Because that would be bad. If she takes what's been happening to Lee Tae-gun to the media? Yeah, they're really really fucked. She didn't and won't do that because the main person who would suffer from that is Lee Tae-gun, but. She could. It's an option. A horrible, awful option that would suck for everyone involved and ultimately not be worth it, probably, but an option nonetheless.

Anyway, fine, she'll sign it now. And then go apartment hunting.

"...so?"

"So that was a disaster," he sighs.

"If it had been a disaster you'd be in full-time war room mode dealing with the media fallout," he points out.

They're in the president's office, and Woo-young just came back from a rescue mission so he's in a wheelchair, while the president is sulking at his desk.

"...yeah, fine, not that bad," he concedes. "She signed the contract. But that was all. She wants nothing to do with the guild, ever, at all. We are to assign her missions with Tae-gun, pay her, and that's that."

"Can you blame her for it?"

"Well—I mean—"

"Prez," says Woo-young warningly.

"What do you want me to say? Obviously I understand she'd be pissed and traumatised but it's—it's letting my mistake hurt my people, Woo-young."

"Prez, she doesn't owe us shit. She could've gone to some other guild, she could've gone to Lucid—"

He makes a face.

"I know Lucid woulda been worse, you know Lucid woulda been worse, but she doesn't. It's, like, if you're bar hopping looking for someone to spend the night with a minor negative sign from someone will get you to keep looking, you won't insist on someone who gives you bad vibes just in case they might be your soulmate."

"...do you do that, Woo-young?"

"Don't change the subject. What do you want? Really, really? No bullshit, full honesty?"

"...I feel like you're fishing for an answer."

"Okay, then, I'll start for you. You want sunbae to not die—"

"Obviously."

"—and you also want him to be happy and healthy. You want all of your people to be happy and healthy, obviously, but the one you're failing the most blatantly is him."

"Why does everyone insist on saying I'm failing him? It's self-inflicted!"

"I know that, you know that, sunbae knows that, but you still feel responsible for it and it eats away at you and you hate it when it's pointed out."

"Can we go back to last week when you didn't talk to me like this?"

"You're the one who decided to get me involved, prez, so lie on the bed you made."

Grumble grumble.

"And obviously the fact that he's the face of the guild, Korea's most powerful esper, plausibly single-handedly responsible for over ten percent of the lives saved from dungeons in the country, is weighing heavy in your considerations, too."

"...Min Woo-young. No."

"No?"

"No. If I treat him differently, it's because of who he is as a person. He is not a tool and he is not just 'the face of the company' or 'the most powerful esper in Korea'."

He pauses and scrutinises prez's face. "Huh. You mean that."

"If only Kim Hye-jin could see that too!"

"Aaand you feel guilty."

"I see we're back to stating obvious things."

"No, I mean... you were considering her one of our people already, weren't you? That's... that's why. Huh. You'd... just already bucketed her in your head as one of us so you acted like she was. And so the fact that she refused is..."

He flinches at that. Being read like filth is not pleasant to experience.

"...man, that sucks."

"You should've seen her, Woo-young. She looked... sad. It felt like I'd stabbed someone in the back. And it, it was such a small thing—"

"Prez, she wasn't one of our people. She isn't. She's a stranger, we're strangers to her, and such a small thing will definitely colour her impression of us, and when you meet a stranger who treats you callously especially in a way that rings so close to something that just happened you go to the next bar and try your luck again."

"Okay, seriously, do you—"

"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 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-djinn: 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 Tae-gun 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, 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 Kim 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.

Hye-Jin was bracing for his presence and the uncomfortable heat of his awful, awful backlash, so she doesn’t flinch. But: it’s so bad. It’s so, so bad. The poor, poor man. Part of her wants to just reach out and hold him for a while so he can stop being in so much pain, but… well. That would cause him to run. Besides, she doesn’t much feel like cuddling on its own merits right now, she’d be tolerating discomfort to try to fix him. Like he’s not an adult who can make his own damn choices.

Instead she just gives him a cordial nod.

“Good evening. Do you have any preferred strategies for this sort of dungeon?”

"...I am unaccustomed to working with others. I usually just go in and... deal with it." He frowns at himself.

…. Ooooookay.

“I’ll handle the large and weak crowds, you cover any holes I leave,” she won’t leave any, but she will play pretend that she might, “and watch for an opening to take down the center of it as we get closer?”

He nods. A big part of the reason to do this at all is to see how they work together and try to get a sync, but... Tae-gun honestly feels like if they want to do that they shouldn't send Kim Hye-jin and him after small fry. If either of them could take the dungeon solo without breaking a sweat that won't do much to help them coordinate. 

Well, whatever. He'll deal, like he always does, and he'll try to ignore Kim Hye-jin to the best of his ability. "Do you want to go in first?"

Nod. And then, in she goes.

She really, really could just handle this herself, though. It’s transparently obvious. She has really a lot of fire, with a lot of accuracy and control, and methodically burns the way to the thing they’re looking for.

Yeah, see, he thought so. Does he even need to be here? What's the point? 

He spots a medium-sized formless over there that her fire didn't quite reach, perfectly aware that if he just waited for it she'd deal with it too, but he's really bored and feeling useless so he sends a small ice spear flying at its small glowing core, almost lazily.

...except the spear he ends up actually throwing is about half again as big as he meant it to be, and when it hits the monster it shatters into several mini-spears that fly in all directions. 

The fuck?

She’s surprised by his surprise.

Was. Was he not expecting and compensating for the power up working with her would give him? Was that a surprise to him? Because it’s not a surprise to her. She was expecting it. It’s still a little scary, how easy it is to make there be fire with him here, compared to what she’s used to, but she was prepared to compensate for it. And has practice with this phenomenon, if not quite to this degree of magnification. He… doesn’t. Huh. That… is probably something to work on. Or, well. Give him space to work on.

“…. Do you want more room to practice?” she offers, a little awkwardly. “I can tone it down a little.”

The way he's flushing to his neck is a trick of the light. That, or his backlash. A tiny amount of backlash from the tiny nothing he just did to that monster. 

That's his story and he's sticking to it. 

"It's fine. I'll deal." He's ever had a partner before, he's just gotta remember.

...not remember. He'd rather not remember. He's gotta practise. Just a bit should be enough.

Uh. Okay.

She gives him a bit more space to practice in anyway, though. See, there are now holes for him to cover for. That’s definitely an accident and not clearly deliberate, you can tell by the… systemic and predictable pattern of where she leaves openings, where they wouldn’t be particularly dangerous or debilitating. Yes. Very accidental, those. So accidental.

Well if he ever needed more reason to think that he's a pathetic excuse for an esper who can't be trusted to do anything on his own, he's got some. 

It doesn't take him very long. The thing is just that they usually measure power expenditure by the amount of backlash it produces; there aren't any other measures. So espers get used to gauging, constantly, how much backlash they're accumulating, and what this means for how much more they can do and what that accomplishes. And Tae-gun is good at this, probably owing to the fact that he's always carrying a decent amount of backlash. He has to pay attention to minute changes in it and adjust for them, to manage his energy levels very close.

But he hasn't had a partner in years, and hasn't had to compensate for the passive backlash reduction they cause since, and the way his backlash heat fuels his partner's active fire while their backlash cold fuels his own active ice. He's having to recalculate and relearn it on the fly. 

With an audience.

In summary everything sucks and he wants to die.

Hye-jin is actually impressed by how quickly he adjusts, but she doesn't say that, because it would probably seem patronizing. And she, for one, hates being patronized, and suspects that Lee Tae-gun is a similar flavor of 'too prideful for his own good' to her own. So. She'll just leave it be.

Fortunately, the dungeon's cleared up very quickly. It's really not a difficult one for either of them, much less both of them, even when practicing. But it's pretty clear why Quasar wanted them on this one, anyway. Along with the practice, they have more of a feel for each other's strengths and weaknesses. In short: he has more range and precision, she has more flexibility and firepower. It's a bit more complicated than that, of course - for example, she can achieve range similar to his if she works at it - but she's not as fast or as effective as he would be.

Before they leave, though, his partner awkwardly offers her hand and asks, "... do you need, um..?"

"No touching," he replies immediately, taking half a step away from her.

She might... notice he's trembling, a bit. Just a bit.

"Right. Sorry."

It's just his backlash is barely even chipped away at?? Like taking a bucket of water out of the ocean. It's better than literally nothing, but... well. It's really, really not enough.

But he won't let her do more to help, so. They can just leave the dungeon. That's fine.

No no it's helped a lot. For someone who is tracking every bucket in his ocean. Also, his flush now is in fact backlash.

He takes a deep breath and prepares himself to pretend that everything is fine. Like he always does. It's a very well-exercised muscle, and the fact that it's being tested more than it's been for the last while is immaterial.

The support staff is waiting for them when they step out but they know better than to hover around Lee Tae-gun. Not that they'd be inclined to hover much, they're professionals and are used to this and only hover if the espers actually need help, but Lee Tae-gun never does.

There are, also, onlookers on the other side of the yellow tape. Actually a lot of them, much more than would be expected from such a small out-of-the-way dungeon, even accounting for the fact that Lee Tae-gun is the one closing it. Actually, it's probably in large part because Lee Tae-gun is the one closing it—with a partner. He ever goes into dungeons with other people, but it's usually teams, not a single other person, and the implications are implicative.

Right. Public face on.

Yep. Hye-jin has one of her own, and on it goes.

Hello, onlookers and media! She definitely doesn't hate you all with a passion and feel like she's in a fishbowl! No, no, she's honored to be so well liked!

(This is why he leaves via teleport, right? Can she do that too? Because she really, really wants to.)

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Actually, when he makes a teleport request on his commscreen, she gets pinged with an invite to be teleported with him.

Yes absolutely let's not be here right this minute. See! They're such a good team! Synchronized teleportation!

Vvvwoom and then they're in a quiet resting room in HQ dedicated for exactly this. It has sofas, a stocked mini-fridge and kitchenette, coffee, backlash control meds, a TV, and an ensuite bathroom.

(An ensuite bathroom that is rather larger than it strictly needs to be, with a rather larger than it strictly needs to be bathtub in it.)

Tae-gun makes a beeline for the meds, grabs three pills, and swallows them dry.

Now that they're under corporate lights, she can see the sheen of sweat and the flush much more clearly than in the dark dungeon or under the glaring sun in public. She can also see the way his hands are shaking, the way he's having to still his arms to not drop the box of pills. He's not looking at her, and he's tense like a violin string.

Yeah. She's seeing them, but she's trying to pretend she hasn't. She'll continue doing that.

Physically, though, she would have preferred the glaring sun, if not the public crowds in it. This backlash isn't particularly bad - not with a partner she's insanely compatible with right there the whole time, not for such an easy dungeon - but she is kind of unhappy about now being in carefully air conditioned environment. She carried the brunt of that dungeon, and therefore brunt of the backlash, and now she's kind of chilly. It's not bad, she's had worse, just usually her after dungeon care is... better than this. Because there are no space heaters in here, she's sure as hell not getting cuddles, and she does not want to take a fucking bath at Quasar HQ. Fine. She'll just. Get coffee. And if she curls around her hot cup of coffee a little more than is normal during this time of year, well, that's nobody's business but hers, isn't it.

He sits near her. Not right next to her, but just beyond arm's length. And if he's not close enough for his actual body heat to reach her, his metaphorical heat is pretty close, and that is after all the source of the physical one, isn't it?

"I can switch the A/C to heating," he murmurs, looking down at his feet rather than at her, squeezing his hands into white-knuckled fists.

Aw. That's actually very sweet.

He's way worse off than her, though.

"I'm okay. But yeah, I'm going to need to get my own silo with specialized equipment, probably." Is she going to hold it against this guild that no one thought to ask 'Hey, what's your backlash and how can we make things easier for you in your high risk, personally demanding job'? Yes. Yes she is. Again: what the fuck, Quasar. Yeah she's been avoiding the HQ itself, but you have her phone number and email.

"...if... that's how you prefer it. I figured you might want to get some guiding, even if just a little, but if it's not enough then I won't bring you here with me."

He would honestly prefer that, he'd much rather be alone in his silo than around someone whom he's having thoughts he really shouldn't be having about, but it's... part of the point, isn't it? And he can't say that being around her isn't helping substantially more than these meds.

...that only makes it worse, though. He swallows dryly and tries to push his thoughts away, both the ones caused by the backlash and... the other ones. Their mixture makes his stomach churn, and he's ready to bolt, but he's staying because he promised he'd try.

"It's - you're fine. This is fine. This place just. Makes me really nervous. I don't... like... impersonal silos controlled by other people."

He blinks at her a few times, and then remembers that people who have stable partners usually have a shared silo and do not end up in one of HQ's.

Tae-gun does not want her in his silo.

...he probably wants to be in her silo even less. It's probably not rated to hold his backlash-addled self. It's almost certainly not rated to protect Kim Hye-jin from his backlash-addled self. Right now he's fine, but on a busier day with more dungeons he will absolutely not be fine at all.

.......and he doesn't want to be in an environment controlled by someone else like that, either.

"I feel the same."

"Yeah. I'll. Get something sorted out in the next week. I've been apartment hunting, but honestly, it might be better if I just went and got a house." Considering how much she's being paid.

Oh. She doesn't have a silo yet?

He opens his mouth, intending to offer her help with that, then clamps it shut. He himself said they're not friends, they don't get closer.

This is why he hates his backlash!!! It keeps trying to insidiously (and sometimes not-so-insidiously) mind control him into doing things he doesn't want to do. Like spend more time with his partners. Like doing—things—that he didn't want to do—

But it's his turn in this conversation and he thinks it's been too long for him to say something but he should say something but he doesn't know what ahhhhhhhhhh.