"I looked hot anyway," she scoffs. "...but I do like the color palette. Anyway, Tae-gun has had partners in the past? I'm not trying to be a stalker or anything, just... I'm curious and it might be job-relevant information."

"Oh, yes, five of them. The first three lasted a few months each, then Kang Jaeha was like a year and a half or so and then there was someone else but that one barely got off the ground and that was a bit over five years go."

"Huh. Picky... scratch that, if I make fun of him for not getting along with people well enough God might actually personally smite me for my hypocrisy."

Yoo-min laughs and shakes his head. "He's good people. Lots of newbies get intimidated by him but he's a sweetie, really.

"So! I think it's, uh, I guess signing a contract next? This is when you can choose to pick another guild if you want but Quasar is the best guild, really."

...then he turns a bit more serious.

"I do actually think it's the best guild in Korea," he continues more slowly. "And I can tell you why I think that, but you might want to hear pitches from other guilds. I don't know. There are penalty clauses to these contracts, usually, so I don't want you to walk into it blind. The government agent from the other day can get you in contact with some other places, and they're supposed to be all neutral and stuff, so you might also want to hear their more, uh, objective, I guess, assessment of each guild?"

"...is there any other guild in Korea that will have the leverage to use me properly, and also put up with my bullshit? Not the bullshit like my honorific allergy, I could work on that if I had to, but – from what you've said, it seems like you guys take someone caring about the job more seriously than, uh, someone maybe calling your boss a little bitch to his face. And I don't want to say I'm gonna be doing that once a week, but. It could happen. And I don't think there are that many guilds who would put up with it happening even once."

He rubs the underside of his nose with his index finger in the standard weeaboo smug gesture. "Quasar is the only guild in Korea that will let you yell at its president."

"Then... it's not that I wouldn't try to make it work with another guild. But I'd be risking more. And it's not like Korea's only S-rank would stick with a bunch of slackers. And I do still owe him my life, and it's still going to be more convenient to do something about it from his own guild even if he doesn't let me guide him."

"I feel like the responsible version of Yoo-min would insist here but I also feel like you might punch him and honestly the responsible version of Yoo-min is imaginary at the best of times so whatever, he can stay in his corner. Let's get you to HQ and have you sign some documents."

She can do paperwork! It's an annoying but very real consequence of living in civilized society instead of an anarchic hunter-gatherer commune, which she has already accepted is not going to happen!

They teleport to the foyer, because Marza is not authorised to teleport directly to anywhere else in the building until she's actually signed that contract.

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 Lee Tae-gun.

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.

"Oh my god, it's a yuppie ~workspace~," Marza mutters. "For superheroes. This is fine."

Glance at the TV. He really is cuter in person; the camera keeps you from seeing the tells that he's faking his entire personality.

"Espers have enhanced senses, by the way," Yoo-min murmurs as he leads the way towards the reception without looking at her, at a volume she almost certainly wouldn't have been able to hear as a non-esper.

"Ah. It is very pretty, I just have an allergic reaction to built-in cafés," she says at similar volume.

He grins but turns to address the receptionist as they get there. "Jaehee!" he greets her as he leans over the desk to grab a pen from one of their pen holders and start playing with its clicky button. "Get my girl Marza here a badge so she can get in and sign some documents?"

"Sure! It's a pleasure to meet you, Marza-nim. May I have some ID?"

Marza presents a Philippines passport, containing her full legal name and an assertion that as of two years ago she was seventeen years old.

"I really need to get local ID," she mutters. "I'd been getting by with my university card, but that's going to stop working."

Well that's going to be difficult to type in, but she'll do her best.

"...wait, are you the esper Lee Tae-gun-sunbae awakened in that dungeon?"

"Yes, I am. I also very nearly electrocuted him, for bonus points."

Baek Jaehee is much too professional to squeal in public like that but she has some tea to share with some people later.

"That must've been scary," she says, reaching for inane things to say as she tap tap taps and then she offers Marza a plastic card. "Welcome to Quasar!" she says, smiling.

"Actually the dungeon didn't manage to scare me more than, like, a mid-grade American slasher film? And I certainly wasn't afraid of electrocuting T- Lee Tae-gun... sunbae... because I had no idea who he was. Thank you though, I do feel very welcomed." She knots the lanyard around her wrist in such a way as to have easy access if she needs to scan it for things.

No... idea... who...

.......wha.

Clicky clicky he drops the pen back into its holder, gives Baek Jaehee a two-finger salute, and leads her past the turnstiles and to the elevators up. "Tae-gun is a stickler for the honorifics, by the way. We've known each other nearly a decade and he still just calls me Yoo-min-sunbae. At least I managed to get him to drop the Park and to not call me sunbaenim anymore, so that's progress."

"Oh, this is how I die," she mutters. "Icepicked by the K-pop man. Can I just call him Sunbae to his face and... try very hard not to slip up when talking to anybody else?"