Yeah, he's in the bathtub, with cold shower water splashing and mostly in control of his hyperventilation.

Mostly.

Yeah.

She sits behind him, wrapping her arms around him regardless of the cold or the water. She... starts humming a lullaby, for lack of a better idea. Maybe that'll help.

Having more things overwhelming his senses helps, yeah, but the hug helps most. He leans on her and closes his eyes and sobs.

(Why now? Why? Why couldn't they have found this before? It's been years—)

(He loves her. He loves Kim Hye-jin. He's, he's moved on from Jaeha. But it still hurts so, so much.)

She doesn't say anything. Just holds him and hums her very insufficient lullaby.

This crisis doesn't last very long, relatively speaking. About fifteen minutes later his breathing is mostly normal and he's not sobbing at all. And he's sufficiently recovered that, after clearing his throat to make sure his voice works, he asks, "How... did it go?"

"Fine. We didn't... have much to say to each other, really. He apologized. I asked him to pay for my secret silo, because it was admittedly absurdly expensive."

He nods. "And was that... all? He just—his backlash is—is that the whole reason? No plans, no, no—other shoe to drop—?"

"The handcuffs suppress his backlash, apparently. I don't know how well or how completely. I. I mean emotionally I feel like there's got to be something, right, but. I don't know what it is."

He nods. 

"Well. Good. Good for him." He hugs her closer and says, in a tiny, tiny voice, "It's really over."

"I hope so." But doesn't believe it. Still. "... The confluence looks like it's finally winding down, too, there aren't even any A-ranks they're hiding from us for our own good or something. I checked." She did admittedly want to burn some things, but objectively this is better for the world.

"Yeah," he says, still in that tiny voice.

He doesn't know what comes next. 

"I don't know what comes next."

"I don't either," she sighs. "... I guess practically speaking I'll probably sell my house? It's pretty ruined for me now. Even the prospect of him being in prison doesn't... un-sour it for me, so. I think that's probably it for it." Which is really depressing and upsetting, actually.

"...do you really want to? I, I mean, it's your house, I just mean..." What... does he mean, exactly? "I think that, if, if it were me that might be the kind of thing I'd convince myself of that, um, might not really be true." Because, as Woo-young might put it, he's a drama queen.

"Mmm. So the - joy in putting it together is gone? When I'm there I don't feel hopeful or safe, I mostly just feel sad. Or angry, or at risk, but. Mostly sad. I had a lot of plans that I wanted to do that got dropped, and I've essentially raided it for all of the stuff I liked in it for moving into your house or my underwater silo, so. It's just this. Sad empty husk that I don't even feel potential possibility in."

He nods and hugs her tighter. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry being with me was the source of this. I'm, I don't think it's my fault, but I'm sorry it happened because you were with me." Giggle-hiccup. "I'm sorry I have such shit taste in men."

Hug. "Juheon seems pretty cool. I guess you didn't date him, but. I like him," she snorts. Echoing silence on Si-yeo, though he's, fine even if she doesn't like him personally. "And I don't think you had shit taste in men, exactly, just. ... Man. He, the person beneath the backlash, made so many incredibly stupid and selfish choices so systematically that I don't know if there was a way this wasn't going to explode horribly."

"Maybe. It still feels... like that's not true. There were... so many times he could've, could've..." But he's had this thought before. Said this exact sentence before. It hasn't really taken him anywhere.

"Right. There were lots of - ways he could have prevented it. But his backlash impairs his ability to care to. And he didn't... You didn't have a panic button to press if you thought he was getting out of control, yes? Because no one did. It was reliant solely on him not fucking up, on doing everything right, all by himself."

"Well, who else do we know who's just like that," he mutters mostly to himself.

"And I called you a dumbass for it, too," she snorts. "Think of how bad it could be if your backlash went into violent anger!"

"Yeah," he sighs. "I know."

"And he had - I'm correct in that he'd had a history of doing that sort of casual mind editing, yes? You said you were where he learned how to be himself. So. Like if your backlash sometimes veered violent, and you knew this from experience, because you had."

"Yeah..." He shakes his head and turns the water off. "I... don't want to talk about him anymore."

"Yeah. Sorry. I - should find someone else to talk about this with, really. Since I actually can now."

"Maybe Woo-young," he suggests, to her and also to himself.