"I'm sorry, Insoo. I'm sorry. Please hate me, please don't, don't think it was your fault. All of the little ways—the insecurities, the way you felt like you were never enough—I did this. It was me. I made you feel this way, I made you feel like you're not enough, but you are, you are enough, you've always been enough—"

Oh. Oh, so he—he knew. Of course he knew. He knew, because it was him. All the, the, if he knew—he knew—

"All Nightmare did was shown me in detail that there is no way for me to get Lee Tae-gun back." The tears are flowing freely, now, and he's staring at the ceiling, because he can't bear to look at Insoo's face, he's a coward and he's selfish and he can't even face the man whose life and self-esteem he ruined almost on a whim while he finishes crushing that man. He just can't. He's too weak, he keeps saying he'll face the punishment but even wanting to die is just wanting to run away, because he can't actually face any of it. "And so I wanted to die, because if I couldn't have him then life wasn't worth living. Everything else was—an accident. I was caught before I could act on it, and I got here, and they happened to have this—humane esper containment procedure—" Because he also got the email and it doesn't take a genius to put two and two together. "I'm sorry, Insoo."

"I have to go. I have to, have to—" He doesn't use the door, he just requests a teleport from his personal stash of credits so that he can be away as quickly as he possibly can.

Jaeha squeezes his eyes shut. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry—"

Someone else pokes his head into the room about half an hour after Insoo leaves.

"Kang Jaeha-nim? I'm with the Korean government. If you'd like an attorney present, we can provide one for you, but you said there were several crimes you wanted to confess to?"

He's managed to calm down some over the past half hour and he was allowed to go to the bathroom and wash his face but he still kind of looks like shit.

"I would in fact like an attorney, if possible, yes." Not because he doesn't want to confess; rather, he wants to figure out how to, in the process of confessing, get all of his money and assets into better hands so that he can at least make any sorts of amends at all ever. He's filthy rich, surely he can use that to bring some good in the world, even if it doesn't offset all the harm he's wrought.

Damnation. It would have been so straightforward to just get a confession immediately, and if what he said earlier was true, the public outcry would be enough to get it fastlined through court. But yes, yes, fine. This will probably go over better legally, anyway. He's well aware that Lucid would absolutely be up his entire asshole about taking advantage of an esper in an altered state of mind if he actually managed this.

"It's absolutely possible. Would you rather leave hiring one to your guild, hire one personally, or have one appointed by the Korean government or someone you trust?"

"I have a lawyer on retainer," courtesy of dear daddy being one of the richest men in the country, "so I would like to keep working with her, if possible."

Nod.

His lawyer's name is retrieved, and then the man scurries off to go retrieve her.

Soon enough he will be legally represented while he confesses to all of his crimes. He'd still like to do that, right?

Yes, he would, with again the caveat that he wants literally any good to come out of it and "his father gets all of Jaeha's shit back" would not count and he's not totally entirely sure what happens if he gets sentenced to life in prison or (even better) capital punishment. Like, can he donate his assets, how does he do that without fucking Kang Jaehyuk claiming he was too mentally unwell et cetera.

.... wow.

Everyone is very impressed with the intelligence and efficiency with which he is systematically destroying his own life.

They're sure not going to stop him, though. Not even Lucid. He has successfully communicated to his guild that they can't protect him without going down themselves, and that he doesn't want them to try.

So they won't.

Yeah.

He hopes Lucid and the Nightmare team can figure out a way to spin this that won't cause any splash damage to other, innocent psychic espers. This was, very much, all him.

He's sorry.

"He.... confessed???" blurts Hye-jin, having just made the stupid decision of checking the news even though, probably, she should just stay in the underwater silo. Even though it doesn't have internet.

...there is really only one person she could be referring to in that sentence and with that tone of voice but since that does not actually make sense as a thing to have happened he is just—confused.

YEAH. YEAH HER TOO.

"I don't understand, why would - why would he - what," she continues, scrolling through the article and trying to figure out where the fucking trap is.

"You mean—you mean—"

She shows him the article.

Kang Jaeha confesses responsibility for attempting to have Kim Hye-jin killed, reads the headline, and that is not the end of it. There's a whole list of crimes he's confessing to. So many.

"I don't understand."

No. No. He's fine. He's safe. He's safe. It's not just because the world doesn't make sense that he's, that he's—

—but this makes no sense. This makes no sense. Why is this happening? What is he trying to accomplish? How sure are they that their sense-data reflect reality they're safe.

"... Should we go - ask - someone questions or. Go hide in my silo until the world maybe makes sense again????"

He might notice that she's started trembling. No no no no no damn it she didn't want to be right she didn't want to be right why isn't it over what's he DOING!!!

He needs to hug her. She's trembling, he's terrified, hugging is how you solve this.

"I... I don't know."

Whine. Lean.

"Okay. ... Okay. How - sure is - everyone of the power suppression."

"Prez said... very sure?" The article also explains a lot more details about Kang Jaeha's powers, details that had been confidential, so apparently Kang Jaeha confessed to those too, which means that people must trust the suppression at least enough that even while they're aware of his powers they're still... interacting... with him...?

"Then what the fuck!!!! ... I wonder if people will let me go ask him directly what the fuck, as the person who was almost assassinated. And on a, a - timer to teleport out regardless."