Hye-jin peers at the screen. "Fumigura...? Wait, she's from White Star. Huh. I knew it had a trauma esper, but we hadn't been personally acquainted, we moved in different spheres. She was out of commission for a while for a lot of surgeries? I'm not sure what for, but that's what I remember. I hope she's okay?" She doesn't comment on the 'should he be looking for a new partner' front, she's... not really sure how to. Much better to engage with the practical and let Tae-gun handle the complicated emotional bits.

You know things are bad when you're having to rely on Tae-gun for complicated emotional bits.

"Woo-young-ah..."

"Hyung, can we—"

"Skip it? We can only skip it if we know what we're skipping and I don't."

"...it's a confluence. And I'm still going to rescue people, and that's making my backlash backlog grow, and—"

"Are you going to be okay?"

"I don't know. I think I'm still going to need you. For at least a while. But this isn't sustainable either."

He sticks his right little finger out. "Promise me you'll take care of yourself and listen to yourself and not do the hunny gunny self-sacrificial thing. There can only be one of me."

He sporfles at "the hunny gunny thing" and, yes, ties his little finger with Tae-gun's. "Promise."

He pulls Woo-young into a one-armed hug and gives him a noogie.

Giggle. This is extremely cute.

(And, for the record, it's not that things are 'extremely bad,' exactly, though obviously they're not great, but. ... Hye-jin trusts Tae-gun to understand his best friend, actually.)

"When you're done tormenting him I'd like to give him a hug, please," says Hye-jin, from the other side of their backlash snuggle buddy. "Along with the plea to please take care of yourself."

Hmmm... three more seconds of tormenting and then yes he can release Woo-young for hugs.

Hehehe.

Hye-jin patiently waits for her opening, then scoots over to hug him.

"You are thoughtful and kind and precious and deserve all the care you've given to everyone else, and certainly more than to be kindling for a self sacrificial pyre. And also I don't have many Korean friends, don't make this harder on me."

"Awwwww I'm a friend!!" he says, wibbling in place a little.

Snort!!!

"Yes! Was that in doubt? It should not be in doubt. I like you as a person and value your company!"

Wibbles~

Tae-gun rolls his eyes and pulls himself up to sit a bit straighter so he can look at the description of the potential new partner properly. "She's not a dungeon esper," he observes. "At least primarily. That's interesting."

"No, she does - uh, after dungeon cleanup? If I'm remembering correctly?" She peers at the description. "Yeah, trauma counseling for rescued civilians. And she's a mental esper. ..... huh." That 'huh' is of someone who sees a potential place where, actually, a mind esper would be really really useful. Like Kang Jaeha. Like that. ... Also admittedly the trauma Tae-gun very obviously has, but she suspects that he's not going to go for that, what with the source of his trauma being another mind esper. Ahem.

He is very loudly and clearly not hearing her thoughts, here. His mind is not going anywhere near that, thank you very much.

Yeah. Yeah, he did notice that.

If his partner doesn't go into dungeons then—

Oops, she had tactical thoughts that triggered the hangups in both available boys. This was in retrospect predictable. Fortunately, she knows how to counter this.

"Anyway, I choose to believe you were so charmed by me in particular that I've made every other person from Japan look better. That is clearly what's happening here, and I should be smug about it!"

Well that does snap Woo-young out of the incipient funk by making him snort and hit her with a pillow.

"I don't think that's how anything works," Tae-gun observes in a monotone that doesn't quite fit the small smile tugging at the corners of his lips.