"Yeah. With, um. A lot of signatures on it, and. Several notes. I thought it was going to be the standard 'get well soon' kind of deal, but, um."

She sets the tupperware down to free up a hand so she can open it and show him. The front does have a perfectly ordinary 'Get well soon,' to it, but the interior...

In the center of the card, surrounded by signatures and little notes of admiration and well-wishes and - everything else - is the sentence, 'We hope you incinerated the fucker' in a lovely and swooping calligraphy. In gold ink that perfectly matches the 'Get well soon' on the front. Printed as part of the card.

"I love it intensely and might keep it forever," she clarifies.

Oh it would be good if she'd incinerated the fucker... maybe, like, as a reaction... But probably not, she'd probably have noticed a charred corpse on her way out.

"That's very cute," he says sincerely.

She definitely doesn't remember it, and with her record of incineration she might not have left a corpse! This is a mystery for people who can tolerate watching a bodycam video of the wearer being shot, and not for the Hye-jin that is currently having experiences.

"It is! And, it's. ... I don't know, I would have expected something corporate or too stuffy or. ... I would not have gotten anything like this at White Star."

"...Quasar is good. I, I know you've had issues with guild president-nim, but..."

"Yeah. I know. I'm being slowly won over. But I'm still going to do the - pushing for an outside client-focused company thing. For - people that don't want to join Quasar. Plus while I like the people and a lot of what the guild does for me - besides the president - it's. Very decentralized and informal and. ... Sometimes I want some structure and formality? Besides, I definitely want to get friends outside of the guild. On principle. At some point." When she's not in danger of being assassinated.

"Yeah. I don't know how to get those, though." He's only just getting any friends at all again.

"One day I will get to lend you my super cool friend group," agrees Hye-jin, smugly. "Anyway. Where are we going for the meeting?"

"I was thinking we could have it here, actually?"

"Oh. Really? Are you, um. Okay with that??"

"I... think so? Um. If... I mean, if any of them were working with him then it wouldn't matter very much if we met up here or anywhere else, right? They could just get him whenever waiting for us and then we'd be in his clutches. So I gotta act like they're not. And it's... a show of faith, I guess? Um. And it's not like they're going to really know where here is, anyway, it'd just be, like, knowing what it is. Right?"

"That makes sense, yeah. And they'd just know about what it is, not where." Smile! "Sounds good to me." Pause. "And they can help me with my sweets!!"

He grins. "Yeah."

Then he pauses. "Maybe we should make food. I'm not ready to make food for everyone, though... Maybe we could get takeout? Or I could make something simple, enough tteokbokki for everyone wouldn't be hard—oh, but you don't like spicy, maybe some gimbap? Or just fried chicken, can't go wrong with fried chicken..."

"Food sounds good! Though fried chicken sounds hard to do at home; anything involving frying in oil is both temperamental and high-risk. Hm. ... Takeout seems straightforward, and we could get orders from everyone in advance? Or just more food than necessary?"

"Wouldn't it be really impersonal, though, it's the first time they're coming over, I feel like I should be making something... Except I'm not a good cook, except people always say that it's the thought that counts? Am I overthinking this? Okay obviously I am, I always overthink things, but..."

Giggle.

"Would making something for them to eat bring you joy?"

He stops to consider that.

"I think so."

"Okay! Then it sounds like a fantastic idea." She beams at him. "What do you want to make, and do you want assistance?"

"...I think we could make a bibimbap with bulgogi and I have frozen kimchi we could serve as sides and maybe have tteokbokki as an entrée—do we have anything to drink? I think I have soju..." And off he does into the kitchen to figure out what to make.

"Oh and yes I would appreciate assistance," he calls from the kitchen belatedly. "If it's okay."

Help, he's cute!

"Mhm!" She will happily assist, then.

Tae-gun texts his friends to inform them that they'll be meeting at his place while he's grabbing the ingredients.

And Si-yeon video calls him two minutes later.

"...why is he calling me."

"I... don't know??" says a confused Hye-jin.