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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

"Yeah. Start one before yours, I end the second and you yours at the same time?" Not that they can know exactly when a dungeon is going to be cleared, but they have ranges of expectation.

this_peculiar_power

...he's feeling kind of vulnerable and like he doesn't want to spend any more time away from Tae-gun than he strictly needs to, but...

...he knows his boyfriend. And he doesn't want to rain on Tae-gun's parade. "Of course, Tae-gun-ah," he says, kissing Tae-gun's temple.

neither_rest_nor_peace

...

"You know you can say no, right? I, I know you said you'll never refuse me anything but. Um. I l-like you too? And I want you to be happy too."

this_peculiar_power

"You know, you're a lot more perceptive than you give yourself credit for."

neither_rest_nor_peace

this_peculiar_power

"I'll be fine. You don't have to worry about me."

neither_rest_nor_peace

"...okay."

this_peculiar_power

"...but it would ease my mind a little if you could instead choose an earlier dungeon that allowed you time to get some guiding in before the second one." Which is not gonna be straightforward because the dungeon he managed to get for himself was inconveniently in the middle of the afternoon so Tae-gun would need to leave pretty soon for the schedule to work out, but it can't hurt to ask.

(He really hopes it can't hurt to ask.)

neither_rest_nor_peace

"I'll try." It actually makes him a lot happier than he'd expected it to, for Jaeha to ask him for something. It's an opportunity for him to do something that will be good for his boyfriend and it turns out he likes those.

this_peculiar_power

And while he does that Jaeha should probably do his homework on the dungeon.

neither_rest_nor_peace

Tae-gun feels a bit bad about the espers who were going into the dungeons he's clearing but the important thing is that they're cleared, not who does it, and he can probably do it faster than the B-rank teams that were assigned to these, which is strictly positive. Right?

(If he'd stuck to his schedule he wouldn't be making people have to scramble to cover for him and then scramble out of his way.)

He grabs some quick food since it seems like he won't have time for a proper lunch, kisses his Jaeha goodbye, and teleports away.

this_peculiar_power

And now he's alone with his thoughts again.

this_peculiar_power

Though it's not as... bad... as he'd expected? It felt... well, housewife-y, to be kissed goodbye by his love on his way to work, knowing that he'll be back later. And the knowing is definitely carrying the day, there, especially the part where Tae-gun did specifically go and pick an early first dungeon to try and come back more quickly to Jaeha.

No, actually, he's... feeling kind of good. A bit bored, but good.

this_peculiar_power

He's gonna light a cigarette though because his nerves aren't completely fine, actually. They could do with a little bit more calming, a little numbing of the anxiety that actually Tae-gun isn't coming back.

(If Tae-gun decides to never come back then Jaeha will respect his decision and probably die, but the important part is the first part.)

this_peculiar_power

But that went okay, overall. Other than the day of stress, that is, which is really a very small price to pay. His Tae-gun said he loves him back, and called his house "home", and said that he doesn't want to leave, and not using his passive powers on Tae-gun at all has not in fact caused any problems whatsoever. He thinks he's had this exact sequence of thought earlier but he's still marvelling at it. Everything is going... okay?

It feels like it shouldn't. Feels like there should be some reckoning, some punishment for all of the awful shit he did. If nothing else, Tae-gun was not the only person he wronged. But the idea of coming clean to anyone else feels sickening; no one else would be as understanding and forgiving, and besides it would involve revealing the full extent of his powers to everyone, which he... can't do.

Unless Tae-gun asks him to.

But it would be a disaster, and might get him ostracised and unable to clear any more dungeons. And, and those are rationalisations, because truth is he's afraid. He's afraid, and he feels like he doesn't deserve this luck, nor the beacon of shining light that is Lee Tae-gun.

this_peculiar_power