"...what did he do to you?" she asks, softly.

"I think that is quite beside the point. The relationship Dal-seo has with you, where she can walk into your office unannounced and call you 'mother'? Kang Jaehyuk would never have this relationship with me. Someone who has managed to foster that in her child must know what that means. You must know that it doesn't come for free. And you must know that it matters. I can't believe that you don't care for Dal-seo, but Kang Jaehyuk does not care for me, and I don't think he'd care for another child of his, either."

"You're quite perceptive," she says, thoughtfully.

And grudgingly, he thinks.

"So. I want to cut ties with him. And I want him to not raise another child, at least not without me there to actually make sure that child will have anyone in their corner, anyone at all. These are in tension. It has also occurred to me that a man as rich and powerful as Kang Jaehyuk might not take all of this sitting down, and famous esper or not this is something I should probably be concerned about. But I don't know how to play the game, I don't know what he could do, and I am hoping you'd have any insight into it."

"And what do you have to offer me for my help, then?"

It was always going to come to this.

"My network."

"Your 'network'," she says, sounding slightly incredulous and condescending.

"Nam Hee-seo-nim, one of the few things I am very good at, that are mine, is having contacts, and knowing people. I had... three separate people contact me, last week, about how they'd heard someone had been asking questions about me. I told them to answer any questions posed honestly, so you don't need to worry about your file on me being wrong, although I expect you have enough redundancy in your own checks that you'd have noticed something odd was happening.

"I think mine is better than yours, though, and it is also different. That network is coin I can pay with."

"Hmm. And I have... what use for that? And what guarantees?"

Bingo.

"Nam Hee-seo-nim, how you choose to spend that coin is of course something I cannot advise you about. As for the guarantees—you knew, already, didn't you?"

At that she cracks a bit of a smile again. "There are only so many times someone I know could know someone who knows you before I noticed a pattern. Your delivery could use work, though."

"I am but your humble student."

She brings her cup of tea up to her lips, purses her lips delicately when she notices that it got too cold in her distraction, then puts it down and starts drumming her fingers against the armrest of the sofa.

"What did you think of Kang Dal-seo?"

"—Dal-seo?"

"You exchanged ten words, total, for less than thirty seconds. Give me your brutally honest opinion of her, what she seemed like to you. Whatever comes to mind, but try to focus on her shortcomings, if you can."

What.

"I—it would not be my place—"

"Jaeha, there are times when you politely demur and there are times when you obey. This is one of the latter kind."

"...understood. She seemed—earnest. She craves your approval, and feels like she doesn't truly have it. She's impatient, and—green. Inexperienced. She's—clinging to ideals of winning through her own merits, rather than nepotism."

Drum drum drum. "Correct. You know, Jaeha, when you were going through your phase as a teenager I thought you had no self-control and were selfishly lashing out. That's not quite true, though, is it? You chose to come off the way you did, specifically to get under your father's skin. It was deliberate and intentional. It was not, as you said, a mistake—or, at least, it was not accidental."

There are times when he speaks and there are times when he is silent. This is one of the latter kind.

She sighs. "I sent Dal-seo to study abroad, in the West. I think it was good for her, but I think there are some skills she's lacking which you have. I want you to teach her."

What.

"And in exchange, I'll help you with Kang Jaehyuk."

"What would that help entail, exactly, Nam Hee-seo-nim?"

"Well, first I'll need to understand what exactly it is that you object to. You say you absolutely will not be Kang Jaehyuk's heir—why? Is there some compromise? Is it the business management side of things? Or—"