He does, legs around Jaeha's waist and arms around his neck.

So Jaeha can carry him to their bedroom and they can take care of their backlashes the usual way.

"I slipped again earlier," Jaeha says when they're doing their ritual showering together.

?

"Into using my passive power," he elaborates.

...oh.

"I was using it to find the monsters with you, after we left the dungeon, and then when we got back I—forgot—to turn it back off while I waited for you outside. And then I remembered to do it once you got back home and I felt you orgasm in your pants."

...wait.

"Was that... all?"

"Y—" Pause. "No. I also used an illusion on the team leader when she was trying to talk to me while we waited for you."

Blink. "Why?"

"She was prodding for gossip. She wanted to see if she could get something on our backlashes, since it seems strange for you and I to have compatible ones. And I—wanted to distract her. So I used an illusion to prop up responses that wouldn't give her any information."

"And did you... need illusions for that?"

He notices he's starting to feel defensive of his choices, which is an incredibly unproductive mindset. They're in this together, he's already committed to being someone who will deserve Tae-gun's love.

"No. But they're convenient, and useful, and I'm used to them, so I just use them without thinking."

"Did you lie or try to, I don't know, make her think something that isn't true in some other way...?"

"No."

"Then I think that's not so bad." Really, in Tae-gun's opinion it's not bad at all, he's just worried about the backlash slippery slope. He guesses the empathy powers are kinda bad, but...

...wait, why are the empathy powers bad, exactly?

Jaeha notices the hesitation. "Hmm?"

"It's nothing."

He blinks owlishly.

(It's hard enough not to use his powers when people aren't actively subtexting him!)

"It's just, I think I..." Words. Come on, Lee Tae-gun, you can do those. This would be so much easier if he were backlashing. "People always say I'm easy to read. You and my other hyungs."

"It's the eyebrows," he says, poking them with his right index and middle fingers.

He rubs his forehead. "Well, what difference does it make if it's my eyebrows or your esper powers? It's all the same."

"...I'm going to need you to elaborate on that, Tae-gun-ah, I don't know where you're going with it."

"I mean that it's not a big deal, if you slip and use your powers to hear what people are feeling. It's bad for the backlash and habits I guess but you don't need to beat yourself up about it."