interlude: our carefree lives | Glowfic Constellation

this_peculiar_power

Lee Tae-gun. Korea's first and, currently, only S-rank. There are A-rankers who could get the promotion to S-rank, if they wanted to, if they revealed enough of their powers—or, at least, there is one, in Kang Jaeha himself—but this flash in the pan boy was the first one to decide to just go for it and now he's probably learning about how much it sucks to be the center of attention.

Not that you'd know from just looking at him. He's always gorgeous, stepping out of dungeons, and that's genuinely impressive in itself, but it's even more impressive if Quasar is right that they might be compatible. This implies things about the shape of Lee Tae-gun's backlash, things that suggest he's quite good at self-control, and that he must be holding quite a lot in, to be able to look like that. So that piques Jaeha's curiosity, and he looks into the boy.

Lee Tae-gun is 21; manifested really late, about a year and a half ago; has had three partners so far, two A-ranks and one B-rank, each lasting a handful of months and ending in the normal way these things do, with two of them finding partners they're more compatible with and one stepping away from dungeoneering. As far as Jaeha can tell, there's nothing particularly out of the ordinary in the boy's history. He's really just very straightforwardly boring.

And, well, Jaeha is also between partners right now. The story with him is also usually the same: he's never found anyone he had great compatibility with, and they'd all eventually leave, even if they never found someone else. Better alone than with Kang Jaeha. But he doesn't take it personally. He knows they probably want more out of a partnership than he can give. This boy will be no different, they'll spend a while together and help each other survive and eventually the boy will move on and Jaeha won't take it personally either.

So Kang Jaeha is in a meeting room, reading some files and waiting for Lee Tae-gun to arrive so they can figure out whether they'll do business together or not.

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this_peculiar_power

"That much I noticed."

neither_rest_nor_peace

He pouts. "Well. That's what it was."

this_peculiar_power

"Both Lee Juheon-shi and Baek Hyun-jae-shi are your sunbaes, right? How come they're partnered now but weren't when you joined?"

neither_rest_nor_peace

"...Hyun-jae-sunbae's previous partner, uh. Died. Last year. And she'd never been to the queer meetup before and went to one to, um, get really drunk and forget about it by maybe having inadvisable sex with a girl, and then they met and found out they were super compatible."

this_peculiar_power

"And so Lee Juheon-shi just... left you?" He doesn't want to complain about the series of happenings that led him to have met Tae-gun but he's finding himself put out by the idea of someone having dropped Tae-gun like a hot potato like that.

neither_rest_nor_peace

"—no, of course not." The water's already hot, so he strips and gets under it. "We talked about it, he wasn't going to just leave me in the lurch, and eventually we found my second partner—he's not at Quasar anymore. Or, um, anywhere, he decided that being a dungeon esper wasn't for him, I think he's working with civilians now but I'm not sure what, we haven't kept in contact."

this_peculiar_power

...still doesn't sit right with Jaeha but, well, again, if they weren't that compatible after all he guesses that was for the best. And... they're still on good terms, so that's... good?

neither_rest_nor_peace

"When Ipsae—that's my second partner—decided to stop, Si-yeon-hyung's partner had just done the same thing a bit earlier, and I already knew hyung from the meetups and we knew we were compatible so we partnered."

this_peculiar_power

"And Kim Chun-hee-shi...?"

neither_rest_nor_peace

"Is my hoobae, and they were a lot more compatible than hyung and I were."

this_peculiar_power

"And he did leave you."

neither_rest_nor_peace

"We talked about it." He looks up at Jaeha then tugs him under the shower. "...did all of your partners leave you just like that?" he wonders.

this_peculiar_power

"I guess I'm showing my damage, huh?"

neither_rest_nor_peace

"...that's a kind of..." Weird? Mean? Thing to say about oneself.

this_peculiar_power

"Well, you're right that all of my previous partners left. I could list their names for you if you want but the story's always the same. I'm too apathetic, I'm only interested in the sex, I'm boring, I don't care about anything." He shrugs. "They varied in how polite they were when they were telling me how much I sucked as a partner."

neither_rest_nor_peace

"...I don't think you suck."

this_peculiar_power

"That's because with you I'm more guided than I've been in literal years. I told you, didn't I? I'm inventing myself again for you."

neither_rest_nor_peace

This is not, objectively speaking, "romantic", he thinks, but he's still getting butterflies.

this_peculiar_power

Jaeha grins then grabs the shampoo to wash Tae-gun's hair. He doesn't remember when or why he started doing it but he kind of likes it now; it feels like taking care of Tae-gun, who doesn't really need anyone taking care of him and furthermore objects to the concept. It's a small thing but that's something Jaeha's getting back, is his appreciation for small things. His, just... feeling like his day-to-day existence is good rather than neutral or tolerable.

neither_rest_nor_peace

Well, whatever Jaeha's reason is, Tae-gun finds it very nice to be on the receiving end of.

this_peculiar_power

"You're very cute."

neither_rest_nor_peace

And now he's scowling. "I'm the most powerful esper in Korea."

this_peculiar_power

"The most powerful esper in Korea is very cute."

neither_rest_nor_peace

He hopes Kang Jaeha can tell that he's being glared at despite the fact that Tae-gun is not actually turning around to do so. Having his hair washed is more important than glaring, just barely.

this_peculiar_power