???!?!???!!

"... that was what you wanted the water for???" she snorts, dumbfounded but giggling despite this.

"Sometimes, when a cat is misbehaving, you have to spritz them. If the cat is as big as hyung is spritzing won't cut it."

"I'm not a cat," he sulks.

"No, what you are is a fucking idiot.

"You loved these guys—no, shut up, I don't care what stupid thing you're about to say, you loved them even if you weren't in love with them, they were incredibly important to you, they were your best friends, they're two of the single-digit number of people who have ever seen you at your most wretched and vulnerable, and your fucking shitty abusive mind-rapist ex isolated you from them as part of his months-long campaign to make you have no one but him in your life, and then because you are in fact a fucking idiot you spent five years without contacting them out of embarrassment.

"Guess what, dumbass, of course they don't hate you, and now that we're in the process of finally fixing your brain you have to see! That! People! Care! About! You! And that you miss them! And that they've been one part of the big gaping hole in your heart that you're only now, finally allowing yourself to fix!

"So! Stop being a fucking idiot! And be happy instead!"

He's not going to cry because he's not path he is kind of pathetic actually but he's not going to cry because his best friend asked him not to and, and, and he doesn't know how to be happy but, but, but—

"Okay," he manages to choke out. "I'll try."

Awww. Well, good. He deserves to be happy. She... doesn't have a towel or anything... but she can go get one and see about drying him off.

".... I don't think spritzing cats is actually recommended for policing their behavior," she says awkwardly, because that's the only thing she can think to say.

"Maybe not but it sure works on hyung."

"You're a dick."

...he sniffles.

"You've had years to get used to it. Now give me a hand up, I wanna take a shower—no, you know what, a nice bath with one of those bath bombs you never use, today was stressful."

He sighs and summons an ice platform under Woo-young's chair to lift him up the stairs.

Woo-young ruffles Tae-gun's wet hair when he's floating past him.

Harrumph.

...he leans towards Hye-jin because she's very nice and she didn't need to be drying him off but she's very nice and he's very happy to have her.

.........maybe he could use his words to say this.

"You're very nice and I'm very happy to have you."

... Giggle.

"Thank you. I try to be. I'm happy to have you, too." She pets him, just a little, affectionately.

And then she cheerfully dumps the towel on his head and calls up to Woo-young, "Hey, should we feed you?"

"Yes, please!" he calls back.

...why did having a towel dumped on his head make him kind of horny. Lee Tae-gun, what the fuck is wrong with you.

Right. Food. Not thinking about that, especially given that Woo-young is now back home.

They'll have later for that! The confluence has honestly been a lot more manageable once they started having sex. It's not that she wants the confluence to go on, or anything, but. She now doesn't feel like the both of them are slowly drowning in miserable ever growing backlash. If it's one of the long ones, which it very well might be, they will probably be okay.

(So long as Kang Jaeha doesn't do any of his shit. But that's always a clause in just about everything she ever thinks, now.)

For now: yes, food. Hye-jin has by now properly raided and cataloged his kitchen, and can accordingly make a meal that is competently made and also not instant! Eat healthy, damn you!

Of course, this does mean that also sometimes Hye-jin needs to replace the groceries she ends up going through. There is some kind of arcane method by which Tae-gun's secret house acquires more food supplies, but she doesn't know it. So what happens is that sometimes when she's at home she goes grocery shopping, and carries everything back, to be teleported with her, once she's done. Could she just get her groceries delivered? Sure, but that makes her predictable, and she's currently trying to be really frustrating to any potential crazy stalker exes.

Mind, this way also has downsides, like 'be out in public where the mind-rapist ex could maybe get her,' but at this point she's almost playing chicken with the bastard to try and get some kind of proof that he is in fact a crazy stalker ex.

Well, if he is a crazy stalker ex he is continuing not to get her. Maybe she's just too good at avoiding being predictable, or maybe he's just given up and decided that she is bringing Tae-gun joy and that's really what matters so he'll leave her alone. Who knows!

Hye-jin definitely doesn't. She just has suspicions. Many, many suspicions.

And soon she will also have fruit! She's picking through them right now, trying to find things that look like they'll keep for a while. Hmmm, how many is an appropriate number, it's hard to estimate how much to get with how Woo-young is only sometimes also present at the secret silo. Ehh, Tae-gun's a black void of caloric consumption sometimes, and he likes easy things he can just grab and eat, erring on getting more seems like the safest side...

A teenage girl taps her on the shoulder. "Excuse me? Um, do you know where the cleaning products aisle is?"

"Uh - back of the store, to the left," she provides, with a smile.

"Thank you!" He goes in the direction Hye-jin pointed.

...she. She goes in the direction Hye-jin pointed.

MOTHERFUCKER.

She neither flinches nor sets the obvious innocent person on fire, and instead somewhat stiffly goes back to looking through produce. She's a combat esper, and she has been working very hard to get her reflexes right on what she would do if she saw him again. Which is: absolutely nothing, except attempting to leave.

Well. Well. She thought he was going to do something like 'try to make her flinch into setting someone innocent on fire,' so. Here she is. She lives here now. Current victim of the brain wizard, that's her. Is this better than being in limbo? Honestly, for her, yes. She has an enemy to fight, and she will make him hurt for fucking with her. She can't use her powers, for fear of being turned against someone innocent, but her mind's doing just fine, thanks.

Her shopping list isn't quite complete, but she's going to be done shopping for now anyway. She could just abandon her cart and flee, but that would make her look crazy, and if she looks crazy, he wins the larger war. If he keeps her under wraps for too long someone will miss and retrieve her. She has dungeons scheduled, and she's very famous. He has dungeons scheduled, and is also somewhat, though noticeably less, famous. There is a timer on his ability to fuck with her, and trapping her entirely in an unreality only of her own imagination would get attention from everyone else, and, most importantly, proof that he's abusing his powers. So. She just needs to keep attempting to get away in ways that seem perfectly normal to outside viewers, and also viciously piss him right off in ways only he will know about. That last one isn't tactically required, that's just for personal enrichment.

She can do that.