Haru catches up on his email, because "almost, but not entirely, free of backlash" is a good state in which to do that, and then he pets Cricket and walks to Yamanaka's. (Ren's house was chosen to be in easy walking distance.)

With a book. And a notebook.

And Jaeha, as expected, is yelled at. Wo Do-in calls him a selfish and self-centered prick, which he can't argue with because it's true, and then they have some angry sex in which Do-in gets to be kinda rough and mean in a way he feels isn't a problem, and then they go to their respective homes to sleep away from each other. 

Jaeha kinda misses Haru, which is insane, they just saw each other. 

Anyway, it's just a matter of time, now.

Haru actually forgot to get Jaeha's number but will see if he has an email deriveable from name and guild, if Jaeha takes too long to send a text.

kang.jaeha@junoguild.co.kr does seem to be a valid email address.

I totally forgot to get your number.

- Haru

He gets a text shortly after.

Hey, handsome

Is this Jaeha or a secret admirer?

I'm kind of curious now what you'd do if I said it was the latter

Good question, I haven't figured that out in advance.

Well, I'm not very secret about my admiration at all

There are some very nice benefits to making it known to you that I admire you

Such as, for instance, learning the sounds you make when I kiss your neck

Now you have this information! Whatever shall you do with it?

What a silly question, Haru-san

I'm going to extract those noises from you more often

I'm looking forward to it ;)

logistics though......

Do-in hasn't, in fact, broken their partnership off, but even if he had Jaeha would not bring it up right now. It would not do for Haru to think he had been the one to cause this breakup; being with Haru might have sped it up but not by more than a couple of weeks, it was a foregone conclusion.

Does Yamanaka-san sync assignments up with you?

We sometimes even run dungeons together, for certain values of "together", but usually it's our boss who does the syncing on our behalf, for her sake.

...forgive me if this is inappropriate to say but I don't love the vibe I'm picking up on of you being used mostly for her benefit

It's not inappropriate to say but I mostly think of it as being for the benefit of whoever she saves in the dungeons! She's got a great power and she's sucking up a crippling backlash that she can't even clear quickly to use it instead of quitting espering to go back to being a performer. I wouldn't impugn her right to do that but as long as she feels moved to do dungeons and I can help, that's all to the good. It could stand to be more serendipitous but that's not her or the guild's fault.

Jaeha supposes he is selfish, huh. There's something that feels just... wrong about all of this. If nothing else it does feel like it's a little bit the guild's fault.

She used to be a performer?

, he asks rather than trying to get into it.

Yep. Awakened in the middle of being some idol's backup singer, on stage, that's why her backlash is not secret.

Oh

That sounds terrible

Especially to the kind of person who wants to perform, damn.

Right?? I think very highly of her for being active as an esper at all. I mean maybe I wouldn't be able to stand her if we ever had a conversation but based on what I know I think she's cool.

Do you guys not interact when she's not backlashed?

No. This is me guessing and not something she has said, she hasn't said anything, but I think a) it is more practical for her to not know me, so that if she does accidentally think about who's touching her feet she will run out of things to think about that faster, and b) probably just like when I'm not backlashed I have to cram in all the alone time I don't otherwise let myself have, she probably has socialization she wants to do with, like, her family and friends who she already knows. I could make a fuss about it and insist on hanging out with her sometime, but it seems like the upside potential is not amazing and the downside potential pretty bad.

I suppose that makes sense

Quick, time to acquire a new topic to talk about.

Ahh.

My guild would probably be happy to poach you if you want to ?piss off your father? But pitch me on Juno ofc if they're cool.