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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, none of them particularly impressive in their own rights, each lasting a handful of months and ending in the normal way these things do, with them finding partners they're more compatible with. 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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neither_rest_nor_peace

He gets a call.

this_peculiar_power

Jaeha obviously accepts it and—holds his breath, because he shouldn't say Tae-gun's name with all of the relief he's feeling, he should actually not show any emotions at all, if he shows emotions that'll be manipulative—

neither_rest_nor_peace

Tae-gun blinks when he sees Jaeha's face. "...hey."

this_peculiar_power

"Hello."

neither_rest_nor_peace

"Are you... backlashed?"

this_peculiar_power

"...no. I cancelled my assignments today and haven't used my powers at all since last night."

neither_rest_nor_peace

"Oh. You look..."

this_peculiar_power

...ah. Right. The expressionless face would be the face Tae-gun usually sees when Jaeha's backlashed, wouldn't it?

He doesn't say anything.

neither_rest_nor_peace

"Hyung, are you alright?"

this_peculiar_power

Aaaaand he loses at "hyung". He turns his face away and sobs into his hand and tries to hide it. "Sorry. Sorry. Just—sorry. I'll—" He doesn't know what he'll. Hearing Tae-gun call him that filled him with far, far too much hope and he shouldn't be feeling hope, it was probably a slip of the tongue—

—Tae-gun asked him a question. "No. I'm not." Because he needs to stop lying, and even a white lie would feel wrong.

neither_rest_nor_peace

...oh.

That's, that's his Jaeha. He made his Jaeha cry, he, he didn't think that was possible—

neither_rest_nor_peace

Focus.

"Why did you tell me all of that yesterday?"

this_peculiar_power

"...isn't it obvious? Because I'm in love with you. Because I couldn't bear lying to you anymore, because I realised I—had done something horrible to you, had been doing something horrible to everyone around me—"

neither_rest_nor_peace

"What changed?"

this_peculiar_power

"...I just. Being guided, probably. Getting it all back. And then—you told me you liked me—and I told you I liked you—and you didn't say anything, and that made me anxious, but then you felt something, and that made me happy, and it made me realise that I was happy doing something you didn't know I was doing and could object to and that made me think about this which I'd been avoiding for weeks and I couldn't, I couldn't bear to keep doing it to you. Because I like you. Because I'm in love with you."

neither_rest_nor_peace

"Hyung, when was the last time you used your powers on me? —other than last night. And other than just knowing what I'm feeling."

this_peculiar_power

His heart skips another beat at "hyung". That can't have been a slip, right? It can't have.

"I don't remember. A month ago, maybe longer."

neither_rest_nor_peace

"When was the last time you used it on someone else?"

this_peculiar_power

"...less long ago than that." That's vague and manipulative. "This week." Also lying. "...I do it all the time. I do it almost instinctively, whenever I'm talking to anyone—other than you—I'm always trying to present them with my best, making them feel well-disposed towards me, fudging memories and retrying things until they work, letting them figure out what I should say that would make sense and work well."

neither_rest_nor_peace

"Would you stop, if I asked you to?"

this_peculiar_power

"I would take a spaceship to the Sun if you asked me to, Tae-gun. Yes, I'd stop. I'll stop being an esper, I'll become a housewife for you."

neither_rest_nor_peace

"...that's ridiculous."

this_peculiar_power

He covers his face again. "I'm such a fucking cliché when it comes to you. Of course it's ridiculous."

neither_rest_nor_peace

"And if you backlash again..."

this_peculiar_power