"Hyung you're being a bitch."

"I am. Sorry." Then he looks at Hye-jin specifically. "Sorry," he repeats. "I'm—twitchy."

...what the fuck.

“I wasn’t actually proposing murder as the better solution,” she grumbles, still upset. “I’m - trying to think.”

"I—get you. You're right. I shouldn't have assumed."

"I should take some of the blame for that, too. We've been too flippant, I guess. Or at least I have. Or maybe too quick to anger. If we want to figure out how to deal with this problem then I can't be—secretly wishing I could just teleport him into the sun while you feel too miserable about the prospect to ever evince an opinion.

"I'm sorry for how I've treated the subject. I've been too angry, on your behalf, and hurt, and I've felt that you weren't angry enough and that I should push back against you, make you see how horrible that was, but..."

"...I was doing wrong by you. You'd have felt a lot more able to process your emotions about this if you could express the conflict within you and get acceptance rather than pushback, and I couldn't give you that, and now you feel like there aren't any grey areas to navigate, it's just black and white. So I'm partially to blame for that, and I'm sorry."

...oh.

"On the object level... Hye-jin and Si-yeon are right, this is an angle to consider, and we can't be flinching away from plans because they feel to distasteful to think of. That includes plans that would let Kang Jaeha walk away scott-free, and it includes plans that would have us assassinate him in the dead of night."

Si-yeon scoffs.

"...okay, you know what? That all makes sense but I don't think I can—engage—on that level until I understand. Why do you guys think killing him is justifiable? The government of Korea apparently wouldn't. I had my mind messed with nonstop for a year and I've been in house arrest for five years because of it and I don't. I'm—I just don't understand."

"You did love him," Hyun-jae points out. "Setting aside everything else, you loved him, so your judgment of it is clouded even if what you've been through was worse than what everyone else has. ...before yesterday, anyway."

"Yeah! I did!" Still do. "That doesn't mean I'm not, not, not capable of... rationally engaging." It did mean that. It... might still mean that. But he's finding himself a lot more able to do it now than he has in years, and he doesn't know what exactly changed—or, the answer is "everything", actually, but he doesn't know which specific part of it is making it possible for him to consider all of this without breaking down crying.

“So my opener with him,” says Hye-jin, “was having him show up near my house to what we think was dictionary attack me out of fucking nowhere. After half a decade of being away from you. I realize you have history and more context, but from my perspective? That is an insane and dangerous thing to do, especially to someone with my power set. You,” and she points at Tae-gun, “can use your powers to do odd tasks around the kitchen. I’m very happy for you. Me? If I fuck up, even a little, someone dies painfully. So, yes, actually, someone that will fuck with a fire esper on a five year old grudge needs to stop, however necessary, because otherwise. People will die.” Food munch. “I was also upset on your behalf, mind, but that was the calculus in my jump to murder. Except, again. My actual first step was sending some fucking e-mails.”

"...that's a good point."

"You don't have to look so surprised when your partner turns out to be intelligent and have thought things through."

"I'm—not—that's not—that's not what I meant," he says, lamely.

“I’m sure,” she mutters, irritated. “Which is why you took my concerns so seriously and treated them with such gravity and respect.”

"...I would prefer it if you were properly aggressive rather than passive-aggressive."

“Fine. Do not paint me as murder happy, because I have spent literal years of my life working very, very hard to make my exceptionally dangerous power set as safe for the general populace as possible. And my shitty ex liked to paint me as crazy and unreasonable, and I am twitchy about it.”

"Stop reading things into what I say! That's—that's the same as—I didn't say you were murder happy. If I don't say a thing I don't mean the thing! I don't say things I don't mean! I don't mean things I don't say! I'm not, not, not trying to paint you as anything! And, and if I thought you were crazy and unreasonable why would I even stay?"

...hoooooo boy. The nice Korean boy in him wants to try to paper over the conflict and awkwardness but he kind of feels like this might be—good for them? Maybe?

Yeah, don't worry, this isn't off the rails yet.

“If you get to twitch rudely about vague implications of the best ways to handle the crazy backlashed psychic esper and how different methods of dealing with him might have fallout for anyone with anything even vaguely like his power set, then I get to twitch rudely at implications that I’m being crazy, unreasonable, or murder happy. I am saying that the way you react to me does not make me feel like you trust my judgement, even if you do not intend it that way.”

"Okay! Sorry!"