"No. We're both straight."

He shrugs. "Guiding is guiding. I guess you could say I'm bisexual and heteroromantic and Tae-hwan is heterosexual with an exception."

"That means I don't think I could date guys and Tae-hwan won't fuck any guys other than me."

"...I know what it means."

"Then what's the confusion about?"

"Aaand your cake! Enjoy!"

"Thank you noona!" He immediately gets a bite of the cake and makes a delighted noise. "I love your cakes, noona."

"They really are very good," Tae-gun agrees, putting his coffee down to get a bite of his.

"Oh, stop it, you two," she says, ruffling Woo-young's hair. "Let me know if you need anything else?"

"Yeah, will do."

He puts his fork down and lifts the coffee to his lips, then takes an experimental sip. "You two just seem really close, is all."

"Well, we are close. Just—not romantic."

"What does that... mean. In practice. If you're... close friends who, uh."

"I suppose you could say it's almost like dating? But he might get a girlfriend, or I might, or get married someday, have kids. Though I am far too young to be thinking about that."

Yeah, yikes, he does not want to think about that, either.

"Mind if I smoke?" Woo-young asks, reaching for a pack in his trousers pocket.

"No, go ahead."

He lights a cigarette and takes a drag, then blows it out and hums thoughtfully. "It's comfortable being around him. He's fun. He's got absolutely shit taste in movies, and correct opinions about pizza and tteokbokki. I want to stay his friend. And I don't... feel any butterflies in my stomach about him? If he gets a girlfriend and we can't fuck anymore, well, I'll miss that, we've got a good thing going, but I'm not going to cry about it, you know? And occasionally we go bar-hopping together and make out for attention and get some girls who are into guys who are into guys, that's fun, too."

"If he gets a girlfriend who objects to us snuggling for guiding that'll be a lot harder, though, our backlashes are super compatible, finding another esper who works well with me would be hard." Another drag of his cigarette. "So I guess in that sense I also feel some trepidation about him dating someone. And if I start dating someone there'll definitely be some ground rules there. So, you know, that's why espers will date their partners so often, I guess. But this isn't news to anyone."

"Yeah. I know."

"Was the question apropos of anything, or...?"

"No."