As will the short couple, shortly.

... wait, was she supposed to have hugged him earlier with Tae-gun?? She was giving them space!! And from her read on Woo-young she expects he'd want people to not make a whole big Thing out of this and his feelings, and instead just make this a nice party, is she wrong about that, is she doing a Bad Social, she doesn't have her social cue cards for this situation...!

"Kim Hye-jin-sunbae?" ventures the quiet and willowy psychic esper, recognizing a kindred spirit. "It's a pleasure to meet you in person."

Sunba- OH. Woo-young's new partner!! From White Star! A JAPANESE PERSON IN THIS LAND OF OVER FAMILIARITY.

"Fugimura-san!" says Hye-jin, gratefully. "Uh - I suppose it'd be hoobaenim in Korean - the pleasure's mine, I hope you're doing well?"

"Yes. The - Japanese is fine, I don't mind."

Oh that's a 'please go with the Japanese honorifics it would make me feel so much better,' if she has ever heard one. She's been there.

"If anything, it made you feel more at home?" offers Hye-jin.

Nod.

Oh! Oh! That is a way in which he can be helpful socially!

"We could speak Japanese instead," he tells Hana, in Japanese.

Oh, that would be so great, the mess of keeping track of relationships in Korean is so much.

"I-I wouldn't want to impose?" offers Hana hesitantly. In, admittedly, Japanese.

"I speak Japanese fluently."

"O-oh."

Hye-jin should probably translate that to normal people speak. "She absolutely wants to speak in Japanese, but is very concerned about being rude to the others present who might not have fluency," says Hye-jin, to Tae-gun, in Korean, so that everyone present can understand. She's pretty sure she knows what the answer is going to be from the assorted crowd.

ACK IS SHE SO TRANSPARENT.

To this one person who has experience with both Japanese people (having grown up in Japan) and emotionally constipated people (having partnered with Tae-gun). Sorry, not sorry.

...oh he didn't even think of that.

"Oh my gosh, Woo-young, is your partner another Tae-gun?"

"My partner is her own person! ...but in the way you mean it, yes."

Hee hee.

"They should've paid more attention in class at school anyway," says Si-yeon, also in Japanese, flomping onto a seat at the table next to theirs. "Their loss if they didn't."

"There's enough of us to hold multiple conversations in parallel," adds Yoo-min.

She does not actually blush, but. ... But. She'll give a shy nod.

"It would be kind of nice to get to speak in Japanese with more than just Tae-gun-ah and my mother," muses Hye-jin, in Japanese.

"I can speak some of it, too!"

...it feels oddly dissonant to be called "Tae-gun-ah" in the middle of a sentence in Japanese. Sort of how it sounded dissonant for Hye-jin to call Hana "Fugimura-san" while speaking Korean earlier. It's crossing some wires in his brain.