"Is Lee Tae-gun's guild considered generally reputable? I do owe him my life, and it would be a good position from which to address that, even if he would presumably be my senior."

"Yes, Quasar Guild is the most famous and widely considered reputed guild in Korea, though that is at least in part due to hosting Lee Tae-gun."

"...is he particularly noteworthy?"

She blinks several times. "Yes, Lee Tae-gun-nim is the most powerful esper in Korea, its only S-rank esper, and considered a good candidate for one of the ten most powerful espers on the planet."

"And still he smiles like a bank teller."

She shakes her head vigorously. "Tangent. How would I reach out to them, please?"

"We can get a representative here right now, if you want; they also have one of the most versatile teleporters in Korea, and a system they can use to store his power for automated use. You used it to get out of the dungeon and here."

"Oh, nice. Perhaps they can make a power plant out of me, as well... yes, the sooner this moves forward the better."

So Kim Ha-yoon summons a holographic screen just like the one Lee Tae-gun did yesterday and, after tapping at it a little bit, stands up and says, "They'll be here momentarily. It's been a pleasure to meet you, Marza-nim." She bows and takes her leave.

"You as well, Kim Ha-yoon. Thank you for everything."

She actually means that. It's rare, in this country, for a stranger to outright tell her she's being an asshole. It was a valuable diagnostic tool back home, and she can make do without, but it's really nice to have available.

Aaaaaaand now to think up more chuuni bullshit to say. It's a lot of overhead.

A few minutes after that there's a small localised flash of blue light and a tall, fit man with silver-green hair and pink irises shows up. "Hello hello, good evening, Marza-nim, I've heard you hate honorifics, can we drop those?" is the first thing he says, and even though he does use the honorific the rest of his language is informal.

"Oh my God, yes, please. Is this an invitation to not think about my formality level either? Because I am prepared to do so if it will achieve my goals, but it won't actually convey the information I want to convey. Also, I would be very bad at it."

"Sure, go crazy." He flops down on one of the comfortable chairs. "We never got to meet! I was in the dungeon earlier today, too. I'm Park Yoo-min, one of the few espers in the guild who can take a lighting strike to the face and end up no worse than naked. Maybe the only one other than Tae-gun!"

"It's my pleasure, Yoo-min. I don't intend to denude you but you know more than I about how much it's on the table anyway."

She inhales. "I want your guild to use my powers and skills in whatever way is most efficient toward the ultimate goal of destroying dungeons. If that means breakneck training until I can go out and inflict the wrath of a storm god on S-rank dungeons for the five years before something eats me, great. If that means cleaning up D-ranks and giving Lee Tae-gun lifesaving neck massages, fine. If that means dumping electricity into big magic guns in the basement eight hours a day when I'm not doing the lifesaving neck massages, I won't like it but I'll do it if it's really for the best. If that means, I don't know, fetching coffee for your boss, I will know that you don't care about saving lives and look elsewhere."

Exhale. "I have one priority. Everything else is extra credit."

"Wow, that's kinda hot," he thinks but doesn't say.

"We can get you that!" he does say. "Honestly from what Tae-gun said it might be the first one, though there aren't that many S-ranks around, you'll last more than five years I'm sure. Wow, I'm going to be so jealous, though, another lightning esper stealing my show and getting S-rank while little old me is just B-rank." He doesn't sound particularly jealous. 

"Anyway! Forgive me if I miss things or don't explain them in order, the literal only reason I'm here is the lightning thing and the fact that Tae-gun is too busy to do it himself."

He manages about a second of a straight face before he sporfles at the idea of Tae-gun giving a new esper their briefing. "And also Tae-gun would spontaneously combust if he had to do this," he adds for the sake of transparency.

"He did look like he was having a hard time with me in the first place," she laughs. "...I should probably stop sexually harassing him if we're going to be coworkers, but the faces..."

"He makes such amazing faces when you harass him and he's so gorgeous too, but if you're a coworker it'll take some practice to figure out how to do it in a fun way rather than a way that gets him to just run away. 

"But that's all theoretical, anyway, Tae-gun doesn't take partners."

"I was under the impression this was because no one was sufficiently compatible with him."

"Oh, maybe? His backlash is secret, like, I've been his sunbae for almost a decade and I have no idea what it is! But I think it's just that he doesn't want one."

"He is one of the most powerful espers on the planet. He is working under half a decade of accumulated backlash. From the information I have been given, his bones should be melting. And he does not have someone keeping him alive, because he doesn't want one."

"That is as I understand it the long and the short of it!"

The air pressure is rising.

Marza notices this, lifts her left hand to her mouth, and bites down hard on her knuckle.

The air pressure goes back down.

"I will share my opinion on this with Lee Tae-gun," she says around her finger. "At a later date. When I am confident that I can say it, with words, rather than blasting him into the nearest wall."

Park Yoo-min makes a thoughtful hmming sound, adopting a slightly more serious expression for a moment.

"You know, in terms of power testing and control, it would be useful for you to share your opinion on this with me, here in this facility, where the worst you're going to do is set the chairs on fire."

"...you asked for it."

She breathes in and out.

"You take a job because you want to do it," she says first. Then she shakes her head. "No. You – sometimes you take a job because not doing it would be worse than doing it. But if you do that, you – it matters. What you're doing matters. You are making yourself important. You are making people rely on you. People will need you. The longer you do it, the more they need you. And – if you're strong, or worse, if you're indispensable – that job might be saving the world. And I'm taking that job because I want to do it. But you can take it because it would be worse not to. If you're someone who it would be worse for, knowing you could be doing it and you aren't. And you can be miserable doing it. I don't like it, but you're allowed to hate your life.

"But if you want to die? Either you fix it, or you kill yourself. You kill yourself now. Before people need you. Before they rely on you. You kill yourself, or you get really into drugs, or you move to Mexico and farm soybeans. Because you can't do both. You can't – you get one priority. You get ONE. Anything else is extra credit, and dying is not extra credit. You can't die for bonus points. You want to die, everything you want is poison. Because you want it so you can die better.

"And... the one thing I can't tolerate. That's a lie, everything pisses me off, I can't tolerate shit, but – the thing that makes me a fire hazard. Is somebody who isn't doing his fucking job.

"And I don't care how many lives he saves, if your Tae-Gun won't let somebody keep him alive, he's not doing his fucking job."

The pressure went up for a minute there, but it's dead air by the time she's done.