Yoo-min claps at the end of that. "Bra-vo, I'm not even singed. And, hey, that might be an argument that convinces him! Who knows? But f.y.i. if you call him 'my' Tae-gun to his face he's going to make quite a lot of faces. From experience, though, they'll be the fun kind of faces rather than the 'he's running away' kind of faces, so I'm all for it."

"Anyway! Uhhh what does a responsible guild recruiter say here. We're going to need you to explode some things or whatever it is you'll end up doing so that we know your range and just how likely you are to fuck up, and there'll be a contract because this is a job, and there's probably, like, logistics about housing and siloing—do you know about siloing? Espers have isolation sites, sometimes but not always their homes, and we go there after missions to decompress, deal with our backlashes, fuck our partners, that stuff. —you don't need to fuck your partner, to be clear, though I gotta say fucking someone who can guide you feels amazing. Is that TMI? That might be TMI. Let me know if I'm overcalibrating, I'm so used to Korean culture that I have no idea where the prudishness ends and where the genuine being too much starts."

Marza chokes a little on the transition, but she's laughing by the end.

"If you say something I hate, I can just tell you to shut the fuck up, it goes both ways. Are we guide-compatible, can like guide like? -nonsexual curiosity, you're not masc enough to be a good sub and you're not pathetic enough to be a good dom."

"...wow I feel like I just learned a lot about you. And—it's the backlashes that really say how well we can guide each other, not the powers necessarily. You and I are not so compatible we can feel it from a distance, at least, and I already have a steady partner and we're super compatible, but the best way to figure this out is touch." He offers her a hand.

Pinky-finger poke?

It doesn't feel literally painful but it does feel uncomfortable in a sort of physiological representation of "tab A does not go in slot B" way. Yoo-min does not flinch and pull his hand away because he is used to this kind of sensation but it very much is the kind of sensation that would make one feel the instinct to do that.

"No go," he concludes.

"Yeah, gross." No more pinky finger. "...obviously this isn't what happened there, but if it turns out guiding with Lee Tae-gun has ruined me for other espers forever because he's the only one whose metaphysical dick can give me transcendent awareness of the fabric of reality, I'm going to be annoyed with him for slightly more reasons. Which would be completely unfair to dump on him but I might bitch about it once I've badgered you into getting drinks with me. Fair warning."

"Oh I'm very very easy to badger into getting drunk with. Maybe we could get Woo-young and Seungjoo-ya, make it a party. —that's Tae-gun's best friend and my partner, respectively.

"Anyway, what else, uhhhh... Do you have any questions, I guess?"

"...can I have visitors in this facility-whatever? My roommate should probably know I'm not dead."

"Oh I can't imagine someone wouldn't have let her know. But, uh..." Neck scratch. "You're still not, like, confirmed safe around civilians? Is the problem."

"...yeah, that's basically what I was asking, if there were... bulletproof visiting rooms? But I guess I'm just too badass for that.

"Can somebody let her know that if she worries about me I'll kick her ass. That's all. Otherwise she will, is the thing."

"I mean, you can video call her if you want," he clarifies. "And the problem is just that, like, we don't know how bulletproof the rooms have to be? We don't even really know what your powers are, they looked lightning-themed and I happen to be resistant to a wider class of things than just lightning so I'm a good shot for who could take the majority of things you could throw at me but, like, if you can turn me into a red smear on the wall that'd be bad for civilians too.

"Sorry."

"Oh. Video is fine, actually, I chuuni-angsted myself into the 19th century and thought I needed to send her a message by courier if we couldn't be in the same room."

"No angst! You just got superpowers, man, you should be happy! Just, you know, uncle Ben stuff, great responsibility." He summons the commscreen then swipes it in her direction. All of the major communication apps are listed on the folder he opens for her as well as a regular phone app. "If you give me access to your phone we can connect it so that if you call her it'll show as your own number rather than some random government thing."

"Oh, no, that is actually literally the only angst I had about it, was thinking Mi-cha would be annoying about thinking I vanished. Everything else about leaving my human life behind me is fantastic."

She removes her phone from her pocket and... squints, rubs it with her sleeve, and taps on it several times.

"Apparently soaking your phone in blood and then calling down divine thunder on your own location does not have positive effects on its lifespan," she says, tossing it on the table. "Whatever. She'll take random-government-number calls."

"Ah, yeah, I suppose that would be a problem. Well, it's just like a touch screen except, like, not solid. ...do you know her number or would you like me to look it up?"

"I've got it."

She doesn't have a great memory for phone numbers, but it's one of the only ones she actually uses. You can remember one of just about anything.

She starts frowning the second it's picked up. "Mimi, you look like – shut up I'm fine – they let you leave looking like that? Go shower! Go – Yeah I'm fine, I have lightning powers. Uh, Lee Tae-gun touched me while h- Jesus, Mimi, you cannot make that noise when I ruptured my eardrums last night. Lightning powers. Yeah, so – yeah. Oh my God, Mimi, I don't know if he's cuter in person because I don't read your – ugh. Yes, he has a fantastic ass. Obviously. Go shower and eat something with protein in it before you hospitalize yourself you dumbass. Yes. Really. I'm fine! Bye!"

Huff. "Like I said. She worries."

Now that the call is over Yoo-min's wheezing laughter doesn't have to be silent anymore.

"What's so damn funny."

"Tae-gun's fantastic ass," he says, trying to get his laughter under control.

"I'm not going to lie to her," she drawls. "You've seen the man."

"Alright, well, in that case I think first order of business is getting you any of your belongings you might want plus a new phone, then test what you can do with your powers, and then it's bureaucracy."

"Yeah, sounds good. I'm gonna want my jewelry box... the embroidered combat boots, probably, those are the only shoes that matter..."

(She'll have to go back on her own to pop the seam on her mattress, but that's what paranoia gets you. It's not Yoo-min's business.)

Cool, cool, they can get all of that.

This is exciting!

Tae-gun gets a text from Park Yoo-min to meet up in one of Quasar's meeting rooms. This is irregular, and Tae-gun is almost certain he knows the reason, which makes him kind of nervous.

Still, he's there, waiting for Yoo-min.