"Is it the same time every day? What's the plan for tomorrow? My first dungeon isn't until the afternoon." He kind of wants to spend some time with her without backlash and build more of a rapport when she's not actively trying to hold back half the thoughts her brain is generating, and also he wants to know more about how Nightmare has been treating her to be a more supportive partner which he can't do if she doesn't talk about it.

"Same time every day. Nine AM."

"Oh." That's really early, damn. "...I might need to go yell at someone about my schedule, then, it's insane for our schedules to not be aligned."

"Oh. Um. ... Mine's because of the location of Nightmare. It's in Germany. I don't think mine should be changed to be later, it's a little late for arrival as it is." The obvious time to be dealing with Nightmare is of course at night. This currently puts her arrival at 1 AM local time; frankly earlier would be better.

"Yeah, that makes sense." But it sucks. How's he going to...

...he'll just lay his cards on the table. "So I kind of wanted to hang out with you sometime when you're not under any backlash."

"Oh. ... I don't know how that's possible now that Nightmare's active." Oh no, was that too judgemental?? It was probably too judgemental, she sounds condescending for sure. Quick!! Reassure him that he's missing nothing!! "Um. I'm about the same, though? With less crying and shaking."

"It's not really about that. It's... I know how mental backlashes can colour everything? And it'd be nice for us to develop a relationship outside it, too.

"If we shifted our schedules such that we woke up naturally a few hours before your shift that'd work, I think? Assuming a six hour run and us spending twelve to fourteen of the remaining eighteen hours of the day together, eight of which we're asleep for, I should be backlash neutral, at least."

Nod. ... She doesn't mention maybe arriving earlier to Nightmare after some adjustment. This is fine. Six hours at Nightmare, actively using her powers, is a lot.

"...I know that look. That's the 'okay I guess but I just thought of something that might be a problem but I don't want to bring it up and rain on your parade' look. Out with it."

Oh no.

"... It might be better for me to start scheduling things earlier if possible, to, um. Set up the emotional blockers before the main bulk of the rescue espers go inside."

"My schedule is the most flexible. I can match yours, and it's the most efficient backlash-wise to do that anyway." She's making things up to be worse than they are in her head, isn't she.

She totally is. She's a burden on everyone around her; a teleporter based in Korea is not going to be best leveraged at 3 AM or whatever she'd end up at for maximum Nightmare efficiency, probably with how quickly her emotional suppression fades it's not even going to be that much more efficient to arrive earlier, and on and on and on.

".... Okay," she agrees, instead of arguing, though.

"...if it helps, I'm being selfish, here, too? If I'm in a dungeon when you're out and vice versa I am also going to die of backlash, you know."

"... Not literally?" she confirms, suddenly concerned.

"Hopefully not! But work with me, here, I need you just as much as you need me, you're not doing me any favours by taking on more work or worry than you need to and not letting me be an active participant in our work relationship. Lean on me just as much as I'm leaning on you." He gestures at his chair.

"Oh. Okay. Um." She pauses, then adds hesitantly: "... I'm trying?"

"Cool! Me too. Also—I'm going to try to tone down my whole... this... But I expect I'll fail a lot so please forgive me in advance if I start acting like I'm looking for a fight. I don't mean it." ...much. It'll just be a habit he'll have to break, because the way to get through to Tae-gun-hyung in fact is to pick a fight.

Nod. "It's okay. They're good ideas."

But yes please stop acting like you're picking a fight with her, she's perfectly cooperative.

"Cool. And, um, sorry again." Food's done, though, so they can eat?

They can!

"Apology accepted." There's a long silence as she tries to figure out how to... say things... but probably she should? Hm. "Um. ... You can just ask for things? Mostly I... don't know how. To ask for things. Especially when I'm backlashing."

"That sounds like a problem we can workshop solutions to, when I'm less tired," he decides.

"Thank you for bringing it up. And thank you for—I get that this was probably hard, so thank you for doing it anyway. We'll figure out how to be good for each other."

Nodnodnod.

"Yeah."

For now: food and then, perhaps, snuggles?

Snuggles! It's the whole reason they're here.

Even in a confluence, named S-ranks are relatively rare, but unnamed ones, ones that do require both Tae-gun and Hye-jin and other espers besides, those are becoming common as the confluence's really starting to gather steam. Nightmare is often (though not always) the herald of that, the dungeon that appears before things rapidly escalate. From past data, it's likely that Tae-gun and Hye-jin will be called to S-ranks two out of every three days. The day immediately following the appearance of Nightmare is one such day, as is the next.

The third day doesn't have an S-rank, though, and is consequently a day of lighter work for both of them, in which they're going to be soloing a few dungeons on their own. They're still not all of them easy dungeons by any means: while Tae-gun and Hye-jin usually prefer to share A-ranks, they can solo most of those and with the way the confluence is going there are times when they need to do that. Or, well, "need"; there's too much work and not enough people to do it, and at least Tae-gun himself is the type to take those dungeons on when he feels it's necessary.