To the highly regarded Kim Hye-jin-nim,

I trust this missive finds you in the most agreeable of spirits and in good health. Pray, allow me to intrude upon your day with a matter of no small significance.

It is with an unyielding sense of occasion that I extend to you an invitation of the highest esteem: an evening dedicated to the timeless and exalted art of communal song. I speak of none other than a Karaoke Night—an event which I assure you is no mere frivolity, but a noble gathering where voices may rise in harmonious splendor, and the unspoken bonds of fellowship may be fortified through the medium of music.

The proceedings of this assembly shall unfold on this Friday-tide, within the venerable halls of Snack 'n Art Karaoke. The hour of commencement is set at 8PM, a time chosen with great deliberation to ensure both punctuality and propriety. Libations and refreshments will be provided to sustain the vigor and vitality requisite for such a momentous situation.

Your attendance, attired in a manner befitting the gravity of this event, is not merely requested but earnestly sought. Your participation would undoubtedly elevate the evening to one of unparalleled grandeur. This event shall also be attended by my colleagues and close confidantes Choi Seungjoo, Min Woo-young, Seo Tae-hwan, Kim Da-eun, Yun Minseo, Baek Ji-woo, and of course our mutual friend Lee Tae-gun, all prepared to receive each performance with due reverence and enthusiastic acclaim.

I entreat you to convey your intentions regarding attendance with all possible haste, that I may make the necessary preparations. Should any queries or concerns arise, you need only dispatch a reply, and I shall endeavour to provide immediate and satisfactory resolution.

I have the honour to be your obedient servant,
Park Yoo-min

To the strangely formal Park Yoo-min-nim,

Okay, but do I have to sing?

Your mildly amused coworker,
Kim Hye-jin

To the most pleasant of coworkers Kim Hye-jin-nim,

While this company would be delighted to pay homage to your undoubtedly sublime skill with song, you are by no means obliged to partake in any activities you find disagreeable, as the evening is to be one of merriment and joy to all present.

I have the honour to be your obedient servant,
Park Yoo-min

P.S.: I'm definitely making Tae-gun sing though. I can just see his face, I might need to take pictures of it to keep forever.

To the whimsical and well-spoken Park Yoo-min-nim,

Well, who could turn down an opportunity like that?

Your dungeon obsessed coworker who does actually know what fun is, no really,
Kim Hye-jin

And here she is, at the appointed place and time, dressed up more than usual in a clingy black blouse and deep red skirt. She's trying very hard not to overthink whether this is the sort of thing a certain someone might leverage against her! She has a mic on, she will not set anything on fire even with extremely good reason, it's fine. And... she should really get out and do something fun. Tae-gun will be there, as will Quasar's sensor esper, which makes it a probably dangerous outing for anyone to crash.

(Also: this way if Tae-gun does sing, she will have a recording.)

It's the sort of karaoke bar that has booths—they're all of them celebrities so this should guarantee some privacy.

The inside of the booth is really cosy, with the left and right walls being lined by sofas and love seats and the central space having some more chairs and tables. The tables already have some snacks—chips and dips, chicken fingers with barbecue sauce, tapioca squares and pepper jelly—and drinks—soju, rice wine, red wine, honey wine, and beer. Across the room from the entrance is the stage, currently empty save for three microphones on stands. A large flat-screen TV on the back of the stage shows the karaoke app, and they can access it from their phones on the bar's website.

Yoo-min and Seungjoo are already there, of course.

Woo-young is, too, but not Tae-hwan.

And the sensor from the rescue dungeon, Yun Minseo.

"Huh. Guess this won't be a sausage fest 'til unnie gets here after all. Ugh. Fine, Yoo-min, I'll sing one song of your choice."

"Pleasure to meet you properly," says Hye-jin, amused.

He throws his arms up in the air. "Woohooooo! Hye-jin, I owe you a favour, I'll do whatever you ask—"

Seungjoo, who's sitting on the loveseat right next to Yoo-min, elbows him. "Hyung at least wait until you're drunk before you start flirting with people."

He rubs his side but keeps the dumb grin on his face as he lowers his arms, wrapping one of them around Seungjoo's shoulders. "Ji-woo-noona's going to be late and Da-eun-noona can't come, she's taking care of her kid tonight."

"Tae-hwan's gonna be late too, but I told Tae-gun-hyung that I'm teleporting him here at 5 past no matter what so he'd better be decent or else."

"I believe I speak for most of us here when I say that I hope he's not."

"Pass."

"I feel like he'd just make himself a pair of ice pants or something," says Hye-jin. "Which just sounds uncomfortable? But the reaction would be funny."

"... Okay, Hye-jin's selling me on it. Ice pants would be pretty fucking hilarious."

Yoo-min opens his mouth, glances at Seungjoo, then closes it again.

This deserves a reward, Yoo-min gets pets.

"Hye-jin, check the bar's website, if there's anything you want you can order it from the menu there and a waiter will come over to bring it to us." He's holding a glass of wine, himself, though he hasn't drunk anything yet.

Nod! She can check the bar's website, yeah.

"So, he totally forgot you that one time he left you alone in front of the press, right?"

Hye-jin glances up from the menu. She considers trying to preserve his dignity.

"Well, you see, it was complicated," and then she coughs something that sounds like a 'yes'.

"Ahuh. Knew it."

"Wait, really?"

"Incoming."

Tae-gun appears in the middle of the room, blinking and momentarily adopting a look that Hye-jin by now probably recognises as his "getting oriented in a dungeon" look before he relaxes again. 

And he... actually dressed up for this! He's wearing a sporty suit jacket over a white dress shirt with the top buttons undone, tucked into black slacks that leave his ankles exposed, and black dress shoes.

"Wow, Tae-gun, what's the occasion? You're leaving me feeling like a regular ugly duckling here."

She is not going to have a reaction to seeing her partner dressed up, she is looking at the menu.

"You knew he was going to be extremely literal. You knew it. This is the result you wanted. As Ji-woo-unnie would put it: say it directly, coward."

He blinks some more, looks at all present, frowns, then says, "The email said—"

"Hyung, go sit with your partner and stop giving Park Yoo-min more things to react to."

"Rude!"

"I'm with Woo-young."

"Double rude!"

...he feels like there's more stuff he doesn't understand happening here again and he dislikes it. But fine, he'll sit—

—he does a double take when he gives Hye-jin a proper look—

—he'll, uh, sit next to her, he guesses.

Uh huh.

"Hey," she says warmly to Tae-gun, then shows him her phone. "I've got the menu pulled up already if you'd like to look."

Uh huh.

Seungjoo covers Yoo-min's mouth preemptively.

Valid of him, honestly, but Yoo-min pulls his hand off his face (after giving his palm a light kiss) to say, "So, is anyone going to start us off on the singing or do we need to be drunker to do that?"

"I'm gonna get mine over with sooner rather than later. What's my poison."

"Oh, boy, it's my birthday! How much do you hate K-pop, J-pop, and Viet-pop?"

"I am not giving you extra data to plan my demise by music."

Snort!

(She picks out something fruity and minimally alcoholic to drink for herself.)

"Viet-pop it is!" Minseo's torture shall be the Cukak remix of See Tình.

(Tae-gun will... have soju? Soju sounds fine, they already have soju here so he doesn't have to make any choices. He's definitely getting some food though because he burns calories like crazy.)

Fine.

She's gonna fucking rock it though.

K-pop hand motions and all, bitch.

.... help it's not what she was expecting.

Would it be rude to laugh??? It is probably rude to laugh. Instead she'll just watch with a delighted expression and then clap once it's over. That's supportive, right? Right.

Okay but that was genuinely pretty impressive, he'll clap too.

Yoo-min is whistling and cheering by the end. "You rock, girl!"

Oh he wishes he could've recorded it. Well, there'll be more opportunities, he's sure.

“I do. But most importantly: no one will ever believe you,” says Minseo blithely, giving her hair a little theatric toss before sitting back down.

….. oh, that’s diabolical.

This causes Hye-jin to giggle. “Once in a lifetime pop star, huh?”

“Yep. Hope it’s seared into your brains.”

"They'll believe me if I say it," Tae-gun says serenely.

"...holy shit," Yoo-min murmurs quietly. Lee Tae-gun has a sense of humour?????

Yeah, he does.

He does! It's great!

"... Yeah, but will you? This way he suffers."

"Oh I won't."

"...Tae-gun????"

Seungjoo starts giggling.

"Tae-gun—Tae-gun, please, can you imagine everyone's reactions, can you imagine—"

"Yes. I can."

"Oh my God. Oh my God."

He laughs.

Hye-jin is still giggling. Her partner is great!

"Congratulations, Yoo-min. You won your bet and still managed to lose."

"Woo-young, was he always like this?"

"Yep."

"Then d—"

He stops.

He has a thought.

He has a terrifying, terrifying thought. One might even call it a moment of dawning horror, as he slowly turns to look at Lee Tae-gun again, with dread accumulating in his stomach like slowly dripping molten lead.

"Tae-gun. Do you. Read the group chat."

Seungjoo freezes.

Minseo doesn't. She conducts herself perfectly well in the group chat, and therefore has no skin in the game. She raises her eyebrows and smirks.

?? Is the group chat particularly embarrassing?? Maybe she should join...

He looks down at Hye-jin's phone again. "What do you think about the spicy wings?"

"Oh my Goddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd," he keens, burying his face in his hands.

Woo-young start cackling.

"My fire immunity doesn't extend to spiciness, you know," says Hye-jin, happy to play along. "But it's probably not very spicy, so if you're asking if your food will be safe from thievery... The answer is maybe."

"Oh, I was just thinking to share."

"Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God," he repeats over and over and over as a supercut of all of the thirst he's expressed for Lee Tae-gun in that group chat plays in his head.

Seungjoo pats him sympathetically. There there, that's your just deserts.

"Hmmm. All right, but not just the spicy wings, in case the fire esper needs to flee from things being too hot."

"Sure, we can get other things too," he says, not sounding judgmental at all about Hye-jin's lukewarm reception of traditional Korean dishes like spicy wings.

"I," Yoo-min declares, "need to get drunk enough to suffer the necessary brain damage to forget this information." He fills and downs two shots of soju and jumps to his feet so that he can go to the stage and make a bigger fool of himself.

"Incoming."

Tae-hwan appears and immediately walks over to Woo-young to sit next to him and wrap an arm around his shoulders. "Hello hello, what'd I miss?"

"Tae-gun reads the group chat!!!" Yoo-min wails from the stage. "And Minseo-noona sings really fucking well and did a whole performance for us!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"...if you want to play two lies one truth you need a third statement and the lies need to not be so transparent."

Giggle.

"Yeah, since when do I ever sing at these things? At least make your lies believable, man."

...here's a third shot of soju and then he's going to get himself to look ridiculous by singing something really badly.

Woo-young repeats the instructions on how to order things for Tae-hwan.

Wow Tae-gun might need to be drunk for this, actually.

...Woo-young asked him to. And—it's fine to get a little bit drunk, right? It's fine. And being drunk helps the nerves, and despite all this joking around he's still kind of anxious about—things and stuff. So. He gets his own soju.

His Japanese accent is surprisingly good?

The singing.... well.

Yeah, she's with Tae-gun, she might need to be a little drunk for this. Though... actually, maybe not. That might be a bad idea. Considering Tae-gun is, you know, right next to her. And looking really nice, actually. And being cute and funny.

She'll play it by ear she thinks.

"Damn, dude, you make a good argument for why I should start mapping out this entire venue in case of any dungeon portals hidden in the attic. Who wants to hear about this place's plumbing and what kind of horrible shit people have flushed down the drain?"

?? Huh?

"Backlash is sensory deprivation," answers Minseo, at that look. "I have my out for if Yoo-min decides to hog the mic tonight."

There's a knock on the door to the booth and the waiter shows up with Hye-jin's fruity drink once they're let in then they bow and walk back out.

"So, Hye-jin, how's working with Tae-gun-sunbae?"

Tae-gun chokes on his soju and has to cough into a napkin to not make a mess.

"Good! Our specialties line up well enough that we can actually just get most missions together, and I feel we cover for each other's weaknesses pretty well? I protect him from the scary ghosts, he runs into melee like a lunatic..."

"He does it less when you're around, actually."

"How are you alive."

This is of course directed at her partner.

"The question we've all been asking ourselves for years..." mutters Woo-young.

He coughs some more and clears his throat. "It's more backlash-efficient that way," he says, still hoarse. "I summon the blades only once..." But with Hye-jin around to manage his backlash he doesn't need to be that highly-efficient.

"Ugh. Of course it is." She's going to have a large swig of her thankfully mildly alcoholic drink, because, because. Why.

"And you, sunbae? How's working with Kim Hye-jin?"

"Ah, it's..." He clears his throat again. "With Hye-jin..."

Yoo-min's song ends and he hops back onto the love seat. "I want to hear that too."

"...it's good. She's... good. At... things."

.....

That is the first time he's called her Hye-jin instead of Kim Hye-jin. At least in her presence.

"It's nice not to have to drag around dead weight! I have more space to practice and get good at things! .... Thank you, sunbae."

Uh huh.

"Come on, sunbae, you can do better than that."

Why is his face hot. He's talked about what Hye-jin's good at before. It's probably the soju, he's always been kind of weak for alcohol and drinking on an empty stomach is always a bad idea.

"She's... smart, and resourceful. She's insightful and learns fast and, and adapts well to, um, unexpected situations..." Downing the rest of his glass of soju right now is not a good idea. Why is he doing it anyway.

"Damn, that's, like, almost a confession coming from Tae-gun," says Yoo-min, grinning.

Yeah it kind of is though.

Minseo will save them.

Sort of.

"How goes that gigantic mountain of accumulated backlash, chipping away at it?"

"...yeah, it's... getting better."

It is. Even the chronic damage has been getting noticeable improvements. Small ones, but noticeable. It's on a downwards trend.

"...huh. I'm reading into that reaction."

Tae-gun pushes himself up to his feet and marches towards the stage because anything is better than continuing this conversation.

And Hye-jin is ordering food! So much food! She's just so busy looking at this menu that she's had open this whole time!!!!

... Okay but she does want to hear him sing though.

Minseo snorts.

Tae-gun's definitely nowhere near as bad as Park Yoo-min, if not as good as Yun Minseo. His voice is a deep baritone, almost a bass, and he can hold a tune and even transition between tunes well enough. He didn't pick a particularly complicated song, though, and stays well within his vocal comfort zone.

"Incoming."

He falters for a second at that but decides he will not let it stop him.

And here is someone Hye-jin hasn't met before, with short purple hair, red-orange eyes, and a brilliant smile.

"Heyo bitches~!"

"Sh! Interrpting Tae-gun's big musical break!"

Hye-jin waves at the new arrival, but yes she's watching Tae-gun's big musical debut. He's really pretty good!!

Aaaaahhh.

No, Lee Tae-gun, you know how to do performances in public. You do them every day. Just imagine your image's on the line; it in fact is.

Yeah. Okay. He can do this.

He does this.

Oh. Oh wow.

Oh.

...hey he was not expecting this at all but he actually likes EXO so he's gonna sing along here in his corner, that's really cool.

Oh wow is right, yep.

A song like that deserves a loud, cheering wolf whistle!!! Good job to their guild's K-pop star!!

Eh. Hers was better.

He winks at Baek Ji-woo and bows when he's done.

There's a round of applause and cheering.

And he needs to go back to his seat before he remembers he should feel embarrassed, yep yep yep, he'll do that.

"Ah, that's Baek Ji-woo-sunbae," Tae-gun says to Hye-jin belatedly. "She's the healer of Yun Minseo-sunbae and Kim Da-eun-sunbae's trio."

, wait,

wait,

What did he just DO

"Yeah I am, and I got here just in time! Damn, boy, you almost make a girl want to go straight!"

"No he doesn't."

"Ha! Yeah, no he doesn't. Anyway hi there, Kim Hye-jin! Great to meet'cha, you're prettier in person."

"I, um, thank you. Pleasure to meet you, too."

She would like to gently pat Tae-gun's back to comfort him, but probably that won't actually be comforting because he has the shittiest ex. She'll just slide her phone over his way and say, "Already ordered the spicy wings, and some gimbap, is there anything else you want?"

Lee Tae-gun is currently not available, please leave a message after the beep.

BEEP.

...but also he needs another drink after that so he'll get one.

"It'll take between five and seven minutes for him to come back online," Woo-young says.

"Hey, now that everyone's here, let's cheer," he says, filling a glass with honey wine.

Sure, sure. His boyfriend grabs a beer.

He'll just have the soju, too.

Yeah, sure, sounds good. Fruity drink.

"You have an accurate estimation of how long it takes him to come back online?" she asks of Woo-young.

"Mmhm. I've got tons of experience embarrassing hyung."

"Not that it's that hard at all to embarass Tae-gun, really."

"Oh, you were wrong."

"No I wasn't. Hyung, remember a minute ago?"

Yoo-min laughs then lifts his cup up into the air. "Quasar!"

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

(Awwwwww Tae-gun is so cute!)

"Cheers!"

"Yeah! Cheers!"

Seungjoo gets up to clink his glass with Tae-gun's with his own "Cheers!" then he downs it and walks over to the stage to do his solemn duty of looking like a fool.

Yoo-min loooooooooooooooooooooves his boyfriend.

"Why don't you look at me the way Yoo-min-sunbae looks at Seungjoo-sunbae?" Tae-hwan asks Woo-young.

"'Cause you're not as pretty."

"Straight to the heart, hyung, straight to the heart."

"Hey, mind if I check something?" says Ji-woo to Hye-jin, holding out a hand.

"Our compatibility? ... okay?" This is super not how it would go in Japan and she's not totally comfortable with this but, um, peer pressure or something??

Eugh, yep, no compatibility to speak of.

Ji-woo makes a face.

"Damn it," she mutters, dropping her hand.

"Ji-woo-unnie's backlash really, really sucks, so she's basically always checking everyone she meets to see if she can pick up more partners," explains Minseo, which is not quite the entire answer but it is a very polite one.

"Hye-jin and hyung are so compatible they could feel it from across the room when they met, I think it'd be really hard to beat that."

"...shit, for real? I didn't know that."

Yoo-min will not brag about how he's also super compatible with his boyfriend because that'd be mean to Ji-woo-noona. He'll just continue making heart-eyes to Seungjoo from his seat.

No, Yoo-min, Woo-young doesn't think you quite understand. He's not gonna belabour the point either, though.

"Yeah but the term partner is like - okay, so we don't gotta be monogamous with this shit, right? Cool if you wanna, like Yoo-min and Seungjoo over there, have fun being a happy fairy tale my dudes, but there's no reason a single very busy esper has to only have one singular partner to handle the backlash!"

Minseo pats Ji-woo. Healers have it rough sometimes. Sensors too, actually.

... She does kind of feel like Tae-gun could probably use another person to also be taking down some of his massive mountain of backlash, considering, but, uh. She's not saying this out loud.

Hey, Yoo-min and Seungjoo do occasionally invite a third or a fourth to have some fun with! ...not esperwise, though, they are in fact very monogamous esperwise.

The food Hye-jin and Tae-gun ordered arrives then.

Oh, yes, actually, he should... eat. And not just have his blood replaced with soju. Even though he wants to.

Spicy wings are nice.

They are, actually! And not too hot for Hye-jin! Nibble nibble nibble.

Seungjoo's song ends.

Yoo-min applauds and wolf whistles.

Woo-young applauds, too. "Tae-hwan, you're up next?"

"I am? Oh, fine, I am," he says, hopping to his feet with a grunt and swaying in place a bit when he does. After steadying himself and popping a couple of tapioca squares into his mouth he goes on stage and starts to look for a song to sing.

"So, Woo-young, why don't you tell us about that dungeon you were complaining about in chat yesterday?"

"Which? —oh, the one in Incheon? Man I fucking hate non-Euclidean dungeons..."

...ooh, that's a topic Tae-gun is interested in.

"I will drink the hell to that, man, fuck those fucking things," says the sensor esper, with more heat than she's had in the entire outing combined. "That Incheon one sucked...!"

They chat, they drink, they sing variously badly—all of the boys do and Ji-woo does and Minseo refuses and insists that Yoo-min is insane for saying she ever did and Hye-jin refuses too except it's in a way that looks amenable to persuasion and Yoo-min is a lot worse at not being Too Much when he gets drunk and eventually he says, 

"What if Tae-gun sang with you?"

Tae-gun, who is himself a lot drunker than he'd like to admit, doesn't immediately process the suggestion.

.....

Hye-jin looks at him assessingly.

(She is not very drunk, but. ... She is also not sober, either.)

?

She could have Tae-gun singing directly at and with her.

Probably she should turn this down, but.

....

"... would you, er, want to...?"

"? Sure?"

(It is important to mention, here, that this misunderstanding is a lot easier to happen in Korean, a language which omits subjects and objects very often. Tae-gun is assuming that Hye-jin has yet to inform him of what it is she's wondering he might want to.)

(Yoo-min is perfectly aware that that's the misunderstanding that's currently happening. He also knows Tae-gun well enough to know that if he capitalises on this opportunity Tae-gun will never back down. Drunk Yoo-min is perhaps a worse person than sober Yoo-min.)

"Excellent!" he says, hopping to his feet so that he can pull Tae-gun to his and start pushing him towards the stage. "You have fifteen seconds to pick the song or I'll pick one for you."

...bwuh?

Huh?

...

........?

Wait. Wait wait wait. Wait, he does not consent to, to—

—sing with... Hye-jin?

Shit he's already on stage? Um. Um.

Um!!!!

"Okay?"

Wait squeak that wasn't actually saying yes but - um - well. Guess they're doing this now!!!! Eep!!!!!!!

Uh uh uh uh fifteen seconds pick a song pick a soooooong help help what's something easy and - fuck they should probably avoid love songs of all kinds but augh everything is a love song and there are so many to scroll through!!!!!

Ji-woo is at this point absolutely sloshed, and this has served to make her louder.

"You cannot traumatize the newbie who you just persuaded to sing!! Bad Yoo-min!! Bad! You two get some time to think about it. Ji-woo's orders. Or else."

She stares daggers at Yoo-min. He can guess what the 'else' is. He's ever needed to be healed.

"Sorry ma'am yes ma'am they have all the time in the world ma'am," he says.

Seungjoo is a tired kind of drunk and is just leaning affectionately on Yoo-min and watching everything with half-lidded eyes but he knows instinctively when he should pet Yoo-min affectionately. Pet pet pet.

Unfortunately Tae-gun's tracking of social reality is lackluster at the best of times, so right now all he's optimising for is "a duet" which lands him on... Some.

...Yoo-min will not literally cheer out loud because that'd give the game away but YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Hye-jin is actually a bit overwhelmed by options right now, and doesn't even really keep up with K-pop, so: yeah sure, that one's fine!

Midway through the song, she begins to realize that it is perhaps less fine.

Tae-gun, could you have maybe picked a song that was less, um. About two people. Who have feelings for each other. But are not talking about them. And who are just friends, but in fact. Would like to be more than friends. And who both want the other to hurry up and confess already. This is maybe perhaps a song that literally everyone and their grandmother will read into.

She's still going to keep singing, but, um. Um. Never trusting Tae-gun for song choices ever again, that's for sure!

Nope, Tae-gun is not processing the words, he's got his public face on which is absolutely necessary for him to be able to sing at all especially in this state of inebriation, so.

"It feels like we're lovers, it seems like we're lovers but not," indeed.

The only reason Woo-young isn't reading into it is because he knows both of them better but it's things like these that make him think there may be a God and they are a troll.

Tae-hwan isn't reading into this because he has ever met Tae-gun and knows that there is no way that man would ever sing subtext at someone.

However, Tae-hwan also happens to like this song, and when it's time for the Lil Boi of Geeks cameo he jumps onstage to take it.

Is this heaven? This might be heaven. Yoo-min is in a state of sublime transcendence about the events that are happening right now.

Still not processing the words! Appreciating Tae-hwan's cameo from an artistic perspective!

Hye-jin is unfortunately burdened with knowledge. She is not drunk enough for this. She is not nearly drunk enough for this. She's got a sense of perfectionism that means she's still doing her best to sing this well, but, but, but. If she could just be struck down by lightning or God or something that would be great. Someone please save her.

The song will end eventually, right? Right? Please? This torment will end eventually????

Yep. This is why she comes to these things. Shit like this. This is great.

The song is in fact not infinite! Tae-hwan's cameo was close to the end, actually, and in just a little bit they're done, and Tae-gun is looking at Hye-jin with a sort of intense look in his eyes and breathing heavily after the singing.

The applause and cheering is more raucous than it's been for any other performance so far, including some more wolf whistles and banging on the table from Yoo-min. "Bravo! Bravissimo!"

"WOO! Well done!!!"

Ji-woo is well aware that Tae-gun did not mean to do that, but honestly? She ships it.

fjdsklaghyueswjfdsgysgesygijl she doesn't know what to do with being looked at like that!!!!!!!!

The look on Hye-jin's face is pretty priceless, and Tae-gun's is about to become really, really funny in three... two....

He turns around, marches robotically towards their table, downs more soju, then hides his face in his arms. He thinks Yoo-min-sunbae's idea of giving himself enough brain damage to forget tonight might have some merit.

Yep, hiding from the world sounds good to her! After also sitting down, she's hiding behind her hands and her hair, two layers of protection is better, right? Right.

(She's never trusting Tae-gun with a song pick ever again. .... This implies that they might ever have a duet together again which is ALSO MORTIFYING nevermind.

..... SHE HAS THIS AUDIO RECORDED FOREVER AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA -)

You know, if they really wanted to not give the impression that the song was perhaps somewhat reflective of reality they should've not reacted this way. Although, honestly, hyung would've reacted this way no matter what, he just is in fact really easily embarrassed. And of course Woo-young himself is pretty sure these two are ambling towards something like romance, they work together far too well.

But... they've got their shit to work through. He wouldn't want to pressure them, let them figure out what works for them on their own.

"I'mmm not sure I can follow that up well," he slurs, internally cursing the mismatch between his thoughts, which sounded perfectly coherent in his mind, and his words, which definitely don't. "But our stars probably want, mm, the attention 'way from them. Sssooooo." Hyup! ...he can stand. Can he stand? He can stand. "My turn!"

"Thank you Woo-young-sunbae," murmurs Hye-jin, from behind her hair.

"Awww, you two did great. I can join you for your next one, Hye-jin?"

"Don't throw up on the mic, Woo-young!"

"I'll be fiiiiiine," he says, leaning on the mic stand as he browses for songs.

Tae-gun is going to be offline for the foreseeable future thanks.

Yeah, Hye-jin is also pretty offline. There will be no further planned duets tonight. But she appreciates the attempts to make her feel better and will smile at people accordingly.

They wrap up soon after that anyway, as it's so late it's early and they're most of them reaching critical levels of drunk, including Tae-gun, who does actually drink a little bit more after that in a feeble attempt to invite oblivion.

Woo-young would usually be Tae-gun's designated driver, but of course tonight he's also completely wasted, so that duty falls to...

Hye-jin! Who is a little drunk, but still one of the most sober members available.

She does not know where his house is, but, uh. They have a shared silo?? And he can sleep on the couch on her side. Which is the best option available for him without a hotel room or something, which is not an option right now, at least not at two in the morning with no notice. Tae-gun showing up drunk at a hotel room would absolutely get to the press immediately. (Especially being carried there by his partner!)

At least this way she can make sure he doesn't choke on his own vomit or something.

Something like that!

When he realises everyone's leaving he gets to his feet and sways in place a bit. As he got drunker and drunker—and started feeling hotter and hotter—he started unbuttoning his shirt, with the effect that now it's unbuttoned down to his navel and no longer tucked into his slacks. His hair is quite disheveled, and he's got a feverish look on his face. And he does in fact realise that he's quite drunk, and in this state he feels like that's mission accomplished, because he does not want to be sober.

Still, despite all of that, once he's fully upright he can in fact stay up and walk in a straight line. Certain habits remain even when one is very, very drunk.

Ahahahahahahahahaha yep this is a 'teleport' situation. Straight to her side of the split silo. No looking at the abs that are just, out there, for the world to see.

"I'd like to keep an eye on you tonight if that's okay," she says, once they're there. On account of the vomit thing.

He squints at her. "I'm not for looking," he says, which is totally a sentence that makes sense. At least in his head.

On the bright side he's not slurring, which is more than can be said about certain teleporter espers the two of them could name.

Wait did he catch her checking him - no, no, wait, he's very literal.

"I meant in the sense that I would please like to make sure you don't throw up in your sleep and die."

"Ha! I'm not gonna die of sleep. I'm very tough." He does kind of want somewhere to sit, so—he summons somewhere to sit, directly under himself. He kicks his shoes and takes his jacket off and throws them somewhere in the direction of a door (is that the entrance door? they didn't enter through it but it probably is) then sits.

"It would still make me feel better if I could reassure myself of that fact," she says, retrieving his shoes to put neatly by the door and his jacket to put... somewhere. She doesn't have a coat rack. Why doesn't she have a coat rack?? She'll... put it on one of the available shelves, she guesses, laid out so it doesn't get wrinkled.

"That's silly but you can do silly things if you want. You're drunk, drunk people do silly things." Or is it he who's drunk? ...well, obviously he's drunk, but so is she, so that's logic.

Snort.

"That they do. Thank you. Hmmmmm I should be able to get you a blanket and pillow if you don't mind the couch..."

He looks at the couch. Then back at her. "I have a bed, though. ...right, you wanted to make sure sleep won't kill me." He shrugs. "Okay."

"Thank you for humoring my silly drunken concerns," she says, breaking into the tiny linen closet for one (decorative) pillow and two blankets for him. She will have this couch prepared for sleep in no time at all!

He watches all of that quietly, through half-lidded eyes. His summoned ice bench is standing perfectly still in the air, not swaying at all despite his inebriation, and he's smiling faintly.

Okay! Reasonably cozy place to keep an S-rank esper for the night! .... Now what does she have for her sleep. Hm....

She notices him looking at her while she considers this conundrum. "Hm?"

"Cute."

"Oh. Thank you."

...... Right right back to getting things ready. Obviously she will be sleeping on the handholding chair, which should be comfortable enough...

He's feeling sticky.

"'M gonna take a shower," he says, looking around for a door that must lead to a bathroom. —oh, wait, this is the silo, he could just go to his half of it and take his shower there.

"Sure, go ahead."

And, yep: he can do that! But there's a shower on this side, too.

"... Do you need me to find you, uh. Pajamas or something??"

He seems to fail to hear her. He also seems to fail to understand how... doors... work. "Where's the hand scanner?" he asks. "—oh, it'll be your hand, not mine, won't it..."

"...? There isn't one. It just locks."

"...with a key? Oh." That seems remarkably unsafe.

Is the key in evidence?

...

...this might be too much effort. His floating seat rotates in place so he can look at her. "Do you have an extra towel?"

A key is not in evidence! There's just a perfectly ordinary locking mechanism.

"I do, yes."

Arcane magic if you ask him.

"May I use it?"

"Yes, of course."

Is. Is he confused by how doors work. Because the bathroom locks by a similar mechanism (from the inside.)

Well, given the way the lock doesn't click once he's inside, it seems like he might. In fact. Be confused.

Well, she will respect his privacy anyway. Even if he's confused about how doors work.

She'll take her shoes off and go read in her chair. She's got a bedtime routine, but, uh, she can't do that while he is in the bathroom, so. She'll just wait and try not to fall asleep.

Tae-gun's very quick and efficient. It takes him nine minutes to shower, and that's accounting for two whole minutes spent trying to figure out how to turn the water on and which of the cleaning products available are used where. Then he realises he doesn't have his toothbrush, and spends another three minutes agonising over whether to ask Hye-jin for help unlocking her door so he can go fetch it. It's, look, it's just embarrassing to be unable to figure a door out, okay? And, yeah, he's drunk, but he's not so drunk that he can't feel embarrassment.

He opens the door, wearing only a towel, and asks, "Hye-jin, I may need your help unlocking your door so that I can fetch my toothbrush." He has decided he will not feel embarrassment, no, sirree, it is perfectly normal to ask for help when one is in an altered state of consciousness.

"Oh! Yes, of course."

Yeah, he totally couldn't figure out the door. Adorable. Here it is, unlocked for him.

She is not having any opinions on Tae-gun in a towel. None. There is also no looking. ... At least not while he's looking at her, anyway. She can look when he's going through the door.

This time he uses his legs rather than float. His door unlocks using a hand scanner, because he is very security-conscious. Unfortunately, all of his security-consciousness right now is focused on opening the door at all; he leaves it open once he walks through it.

Fortunately she doesn't have a very good view of his silo from her place in the chair! Since it's right next to the wall.

But she does have a good view of. The person opening it. Mmm...

The person opening it does not seem to notice. He doesn't turn the lights on, either, and just finds his way to his bathroom to grab his toothbrush by touch/memory. Then it occurs to him he could just brush his teeth right there, so he starts doing that.

...

She'll stay put for now so she doesn't accidentally see any of his silo. And instead stay perched here and read. And try not to think about how he's just wearing a towel and is VERY PRETTY and, and, they're compatible and it would be SO NICE to touch him and...

Brushing of teeth takes three minutes. Then he steps out of the bathroom, squints at the open door, remembers that he is meant to Be Watched tonight, and walks back out to her half of the silo. This time he remembers to close his door behind him.

Here she is, right where he left her. Reading. Trying not to think certain thoughts. Why does alcohol make her horny...

Cool. He walks over to sit on the sofa where he'll be sleeping—he is too tall for it, but so it goes—then opens up his commscreen and starts tapping at it.

Cool, then she'll go forth and get ready for bed. She... doesn't really have all of her stuff here, but she does have a toothbrush and change of clothes, so. That'll do.

When she walks back out of the bathroom Tae-gun is still awake, lying on the sofa with his commscreen open above his face, reading something with one hand behind the pillow under his head. The towel is hanging somewhere it won't be all damp and get in his way. He has not pulled his blankets on.

The towel being hung up means that Tae-gun is absolutely not wearing anything.

....

(Distantly, she notes she can give her cousin an answer. Not that she ever will, but. She can.)

.........

"Tae-gun-sunbae, could you. Please pull the blanket up," she requests, shutting her eyes.

?

"Why, are you cold?"

...wait.

Blanket on him. Wrong subject. Or object. One of those.

He pulls it all the way over his head and hides under it.

Yeah. That's. Yeah. Extremely valid.

She keeps in her nervous giggle, because he might interpret that poorly, and instead just heads to her chair of coziness.

"... I'll ask to get a longer couch," she observes, eyeing how it's a bit too short for them. "In case you need to sleep on it again."

Uh huh uh huh uh huh sure yep there are sure words being said.

(She saw him naked. She. He. Caught that look. Before she closed her eyes. She definitely did not look unappreciative.)

(He's, like, distantly aware that he's physically attractive, but that was Hye-jin looking at him with, with that face.)

(He's not in acute backlash right this second. He is still being remotely guided due to the mountain of backlash he has accumulated over the years, and being in her presence feels really nice.)

(He wishes he were too drunk to realise that a good amount of the horny he's getting right this moment is probably the strictly normal non-backlash-mediated kind of horny.)

Okay well she's just. Going to read. Yep. Reading.

He's butt naked. The only thing protecting his dignity is a flimsy blanket. And she's right there. And his dignity definitely has opinions about her being there.

HE'D RATHER BE DRUNKER AGAIN PLEASE

(Go down boy. Down.)

Being drunk kind of got him into this situation!!

"... Let me know when you want the lights off," she says, glancing up and then - um. Looking away immediately.

Nope, he cannot do that, see, because that would involve producing words with his facemouth, and words are currently offline.

He bets if he said please NO

Would he even need to say words, what would she do if he just walked up to her and NO

He's so pent up he hasn't had sex in literal years NO NO NO NO NO

Partners do this all the time WE HAVE HAD THIS CONVERSATION BEFORE AND THE ANSWER HAS NOT CHANGED

Well. Then she'll just. Keep reading. ... Keep trying to read, anyway.

He wants to sleeeeeeep he wants to forget toniiiiiight it was aaaaawfuuuuuuul he's never going out with these people agaaaaaaaaaaaaaainnnnnnn he might need to move to the Alps to make sure none of them ever see him again so he never has to face his SHAME

His shame sure does want to face her SHUT UP are you a bad innuendo machine now???

You realise that having all these thoughts is not helping it go down HE DOES NOT HAVE AN ALTERNATIVE yes he does NO SHUT UP

He will STAY STILL and NOT MOVE and survive this through SHEER WILLPOWER. He is the MOST POWERFUL MAN IN KOREA and he can SURVIVE being naked near KIM HYE-JIN. This is what he will do.

Okay, well. Kim Hye-jin will just be over there, in her tank top and short shorts, trying desperately to read instead of think about how they're partners it's probably fine and he's right there and certainly, ahem, attentive absolutely nothing. She is thinking about nothing. She is reading.

He is thinking about everything and wishing he weren't but his resolve is steel. He will in fact resist. He knows this like he knows himself. It'd be one thing if he were backlashing but here? He is in control. He is in control. That is who he is. He is in control.

He will NOT attempt to have sex with this gorgeous, hot, resourceful, intelligent, funny, kind WITH KIM HYE-JIN.

Good night.

He will not say that with his mouth words because he is in control but he is not a fool, and he will instead. Make sleep happen. Eventually. Somehow.

She does eventually inform him she's turning the lights off, and: yes. Sleep. Yes. Sleep sounds good.

Okay but what if he gets up and touches her in the dark NO, BAD.

Sleep.

When she wakes up, Tae-gun and his belongings are nowhere in sight, but he texted her.

Sorry about last night.