"I was much bigger and venomous."

"I bet you must've been so fearsome. Are there pictures of that version of you?"

Since Haru is interested in the topic of Dungeons: What The Fuck he has actually already interviewed Cricket a lot about what he remembers from being part of a dungeon (unfortunately, it's not much). There is some security camera footage of Big Cricket, but not a really good picture, since he was, uh, a monster, plausibly trying to eat people, though they don't think he in particular got anybody before the dungeon was slain. No other monsters escaped the same dungeon to compare notes with.

And blah blah blah blah it doesn't even help but he can't concentrate on anything else till he's had longer with his feet on Yamanaka's feet. It would be a lot faster if she wanted to platonically make out. She's O-positive and he's A-positive, so she can give him blood albeit not vice versa, but they save that for when they're in a hurry to get him up and running again.

Eventually he manages to let Yoo-min off the phone.

This was fun! They should do it again sometime!

Jaeha hadn't originally been scheduled for this dungeon but he got specifically and personally requested for the most peculiar of reasons: apparently the psychic effect it's causing on its victims is really hard to clear. There are a couple of espers who managed to go in and not get affected, including this guy with a stealth power that also happens to be able to resist psychic effects fully, but Jaeha is to shield as many people as he can and then save the victims from the persistent feeling that the air is poisonous and they need to hold their breaths until they fall unconscious, or the certainty that they're drowning, or any number of other creative ways the dungeon has found to fuck with them. There are monsters, too, which are being held back some, but they really really need to send in some big guns soon.

It's in Japan, so he'll need a teleport, but he wasn't doing anything else in particular so he might as well.

Public face on. "Hi! I'm Kang Jaeha, I hear you need me to shield some people and clear some other people?"

The support staff he's talking to jumps when they hear his voice but then relaxes at his words. "Oh, yes, Kang Jaeha-san, thank you we're so swamped—here, let me get the espers who need to go in and then you can get started with the victims—"

He really doesn't feel like going into that dungeon at all so it's a good thing there's work for him to do outside. In the worst case he can just say that he's too backlashed and shouldn't go into the dungeon right now, but they probably won't press.

Victims are piling up. Stealth guy keeps going in and putting a person over his shoulder and hauling them out. He has his serious face on because these people are suffering, but,

, oh, a new face! "Hi! Are you the miracle sanity dispenser, I've got another patient for you." Gently placing the person in a lawn chair time; holding your breath till you pass out isn't great but it's not stretcher-and-ambulance dangerous because you start breathing again once you pass out. Fistbump once his hands are free?

"I am, indeed!" What is this man doing. He wants a fist bump? Is—

(Jaeha can't feel him. At all.

That must be the esper he read about in the briefing document.

But an esper being immune to him? That's—not actually possible. What the fuck.)

Fist bump it is, then, and Jaeha will hope the hiccup is interpreted as him just being awkward over the fist bump and—

"- and once you're unburied from the patients are you headed straight back to Korea or do you have time to hang out?"

He ought to go back to Korea because he'll be even more backlashed and even less personable.

Wo Do-in has been acting unsatisfied and Jaeha expects he'll want to break up as soon as Jaeha gives him an excuse to and not going into isolation after this dungeon would be an excuse. 

Jaeha might have just found himself a new partner. 

"For someone like you? I have all the time in the world," he says, falling back into the flirting almost subconsciously before he remembers that actually that can backfire horribly and he has no idea what this man is feeling and he can't even change anything—it's fine. He's fine. Flirting is fine. It might make things awkward but it'll be fine.

"Delightful - I hate to tear myself away but there's at least twenty more people in there and if we're not lucky somebody's going to have a plastic bag and cleverly put it over their head -" He shrugs apologetically, takes one step backwards before tearing back off into the dungeon.

...that went better than expected! He was totally responding, right? That was the body language of someone who's responding?

Fuck.

Anyway, yes, there are victims to clear, he'll keep doing that.

Here's another one! "Wow, you're fast!"

"Right back at you." That was a lot of compatibility, right? A lot more than he has with Do-in. And this man is in fact drop-dead gorgeous, and seemed to be responding positively to that tiny bits of flirting... On the other hand, maybe he interpreted it as just being friendly? Homophobes are often extremely clueless. On the other hand, he's an esper, so... "I never caught your name."

"Call me Haru! Unless you're too formal for that in which case Swan or Suwan is fine." That lady looks a little more fucked up than she should; he takes her pulse and waves over a medtech when this is inconclusive. "And you're our miracle sanity dispenser Kang Jaeha, right?"

"I see my fame precedes me. You can call me Jaeha, Haru-san."

Here's the medtech! They carry the woman to the med tents for more observation once Kang Jaeha's done with her.

(Should these espers really be doing this right now? He supposes Kang Jahea has been making short work of all of the rescues, but still...)