"Then I might have to have someone over to clean the place more often than that. Has Cricket ever wanted anything in particular that would be too much of a hassle to get him which all this space could help with?"

"He's such a grouch that it's not obvious but I think he's a pretty content person in general. He can fly, he can watch TV all day, every now and then a 4D dungeon shows up and people have to suck up to him. But if I think of something I will let you know."

Man even though he's still kind of salty about Cricket he still wants Cricket to like him.

Harrumph.

Maybe once he's replaced his smoking habit with a nicotine gum habit.

Oh no, fifteen seconds of silence. "So if the blog managed to attract your attention should I give you book recommendations after all or is the blog special somehow?"

"It being written by you makes it special but I would not say no to the book recs. I've got a while of nothing much to do and time to kill, after all."

"Sorry about that." Peck. "If it still seems like a terrible idea in retrospect you have my permission to be mad at me about it."

"I think even if it seems like a terrible idea in retrospect it'll have been valuable to learn that it was a terrible idea after all. It is not obviously one, from here."

"I think I'm right! But I must think it possible that I may be mistaken and all that."

"Right, I just mean that, even if you are mistaken, I wouldn't be mad at you, because you weren't mistaken in a way that I think we could—tell—from here. And I don't want to be mad for good shots that turned out to be wrong."

"Okay, don't be mad at me, then, I won't complain about you not being mad at me."

Smooch.

"It's just day one, anyway. Too early to tell anything."

Pet pet. "I think we're making good progress."

If he says so. Jaeha doesn't feel that different.

"What were you into before you awakened, anyway?"

"Honestly I don't remember much. Boys. I did alright at school so I must've liked studying." Man, did he just... never have any interests? Maybe he has just always been boring.

"Not so much with the mandatory clubs in Korea?"

"Oh, yes. I was in the journalism club." Why was he in the journalism club.

"Neat, did you write anything that's still around?"

He has! No memory! Of his! Teenage years! What the fuck! 

"Not easily accessible by me. Maybe the school website might have something?" He should maybe feel embarrassed but he has no idea!!!

"It's not a big deal, I just experienced a momentary curiosity that was more appropriate to vocalize than anything else that was going on in my head at that exact moment. I have notebooks going back since I was six but that's me being weird."

"That's adorable. ...uh, not in a—I don't mean it in a condescending way."

"It could be a lot worse than adorable, I'll take it."

Arghhhh he wants to undo and redo it better and he can't argh.

Anyway what did he do when he was a teenager. Had a lot of inadvisable sex. Pissed Kang Jaehyuk off. Was a dick to his classmates.

He doesn't remember!

Haru does not seem lastingly affected by the adorableness situation. "I can cook," he mentions. "Probably not this week because while the dungeons can't find my ass to kick it the schedule's going to do its best but in general. I'm mostly good at Western food, though, Ren and I took turns and she was the one who always wanted to do Japanese food as part of the underlying characteristics that made her move to Tokyo in the first place. And at Charlie's he's a terrible cook so I do all of it while I'm at his place but his palate is Westernized as all get out so it's all stuff with bread and cheese and bacon and, if I'm very convincing, a vegetable."

"Just the one? Gotta pick it carefully, then, wouldn't want us regretting our choice."