"Tae-gun, no."

"The thing is." He downs the rest of his cup, wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, then fills it back up. "The thing is—"

"—he loved me. He loved me so much. He loved me more than I thought it was possible to love someone. He made me happy every day, he made me feel like I could do anything, be anything. He made me feel like the most important person in the world. He fucking smiled at me when he saw me, like I was the fucking morning sun or some shit." He drinks more. "He listened to me, paid attention to me, he was interested in everything I was interested in. He supported me—I thought—he wanted me to be stronger—I thought. He always made time for me, he always made me his number one priority, he needed me.

"And I loved him too!" Alcohol! He should not be drinking this much alcohol when they haven't even touched their food. "He was smart, he was brilliant. He was insightful, he understood people in a way I never could, and he could keep up with me even about the things he wasn't so good at. He was hilarious—you guys know that. He was charming, he was nice, he was fun, sex with him was mind-blowing—he was—" He breaks, here, choking on the words, the words Jaeha repeated to him so many times. "...he was my prince charming.

"And he needed me. He needed me because, because—"

He downs the rest of his second glass and slams it onto the table and lowers his eyes to his lap again. "Because his backlash is depression."

His voice suddenly grows cold, monotonic, losing all of the agitation and emotion it'd been carrying. "He lost—loses—pieces of himself. One by one. Starting with joy. When we first met, he hadn't felt joy in years. He hadn't felt happiness in years. He loses his—sympathy, his ability to feel happy when others are happy and sad when they're sad." He's listing these one by one like he's reading them out of cue cards, unmoved. "He loses his ability to find things interesting. He loses his ability to feel anything positive at all, and he forgets what that's even like, why he'd even want it. He gets completely anhedonic, and has no reason to ever do anything. Then he loses his fire—he can't get angry, can't get upset. And then—sensation. Can't feel things. Can't feel pain. His senses get duller, he can't taste things. He loses the drive to eat, or sleep, or move, or breathe. He dies.

"Jaeha's dead. My Jaeha, the man I loved—" he takes a deep, shuddering breath, "—still love—is dead. There's a—thing—animating his corpse—"

"Doesn't he have a partner?"

"I thought so. I thought he was over me. I thought he existed, and was happy, somewhere else. And if he isn't—then—then he's not my Jaeha. He's, he's that thing. He let himself become that thing, and that thing doesn't want anything.

"He needed me because I was the first person who ever let him exist."

There are so many things she could say in response to that. 'No one made him sell pieces of his soul so he could keep a better hold on his boyfriend,' or 'Love and need are two very different things and love is not entrapment,' or 'He could stop at literally any time,' or 'He could try solving his problems with things besides his mind control powers,' or, or, or -

She doesn't say any of them. She keeps her hands folded quietly in her lap, and she looks at them, and she lets her partner grieve for the man he's lost.

"I'll accept that hug now," he mumbles to Hye-jin.

Oh, he is getting so hugged. Just, just, the most hugged this man can possibly be, like he's never been hugged in his life and she's trying to make up for it with sheer determination. Hug.

"Thank you," she says softly. Followed by another repetition of, "I'm sorry."

He has no idea how to respond to either of those things, so he just won't.

He's not crying, though. He's not sure why. But he's not.

"...so the reason you didn't get a partner all these years—"

"The reason I didn't get a partner all these years is that I have fucking PTSD about my shitty ex, yes."

His current partner winces and pets him. She resumes her earlier habit of not saying things. She is a dispenser of hugs and pets, that is her job.

"Okay before we move anywhere with that let's actually eat before Tae-gun gives himself actual brain damage from drinking that much on an empty stomach."

Good idea Si-yeon.

"...by the way, the NDA I'm under about his powers and backlash would bankrupt Quasar and leave us all unemployed if he sued."

"Holy shit Tae-gun do you want to maybe get all of the bombs out of the way?"

"I think that was all."

"I do think we can get him for some criminal actions and have a decent case in court for extenuating circumstances," says Hye-jin, ever practical. "He's gone after me in public twice now, I've sent several cease and desist letters to both him and Lucid, and I've got an off shore server with audio and video files and, and, food should come first I'm bad at this I'm sorry."

He winces, but he's said his piece. They're all smart cookies, they should be able to put the rest of it together. To know that Tae-gun doesn't want his Jaeha to die just because there's a monster wearing his skin, doesn't want his Jaeha to be sent to prison just beside the thing animating his body committed crimes. 

His Jaeha doesn't deserve that.

"Audio and video—"

She covers his mouth. "Food first."

"Food first," she agrees, reaching over to grab something to munch on. "I, uh, am wearing a mic at all times, though. Tae-gun too. So." Awkward munch.

"What, all times—"

"We are not wearing microphones while having sex." ...his house is fully video monitored everywhere but he does not need to bring that up either.

"Awww I'm glad you still know me so well even after all this time."