Wha—oh.

"I... see."

"Don't bother, he's going to call you by your full name at best," grumbles Yoo-min.

Pat pat. "Hi, Tae-gun."

"Hello."

"Ha, my full name is hidden from prying eyes."

"...isn't it Suwan Masaharu?"

"That's what it says on my Japanese passport, certainly."

"What, do you have a second, secret name?"

"Wait is that related to the bell thing?"

"Of course I have a second secret name, my Canadian passport says 'Traceless'."

"Ohhhhhh that's your esper codename!! Wow that's so cool."

Esper codenames just sound weird to him but what does he know.

"Thank you," he tells Woo-young, "I put a lot of thought into it."

"By the way, Tae-gun, Si-yeon is at the other table over with the girls if you wanna say hi," says Juheon, hiking a thumb in that direction.

Ughhhh must he? Fine fine he'll go, Si-yeon will probably be sad and think Tae-gun's doing some social thing if he doesn't say hi the first time they're around each other after they stopped being partners. 

The other table has so many more people though.

Jaeha is still being scrupulously ethical, so the way that he knows that Lee Tae-gun is no longer sitting at the table is that he's watching them from a distance, not using his power.

...is that ethical? That may not be ethical. He's not using his powers but—it's okay to just be looking, right? With his eyes? Or is it creepy? Is he creeping people out?

Fuck. Fuck!

But he can't go back. Can he? Not if Lee Tae-gun will be there. That felt, felt—he always thought stories about people who could guide each other from a distance were fake but, but how else do you explain this shit? That was guiding! That was 100% guiding! But Lee Tae-gun himself didn't seem fazed so it was probably very asymmetrical, but also, fuck!

What's he going to do? What's he going to do?

Lee Tae-gun doesn't spend a lot of time at the other Quasar table. He just says hi to Ha Si-yeon and his new partner Kim Chun-hee as well as some other people who are there, blushes terribly at probably being teased by one of them, and then walks back to the table where Haru and the others are.

No! No no no! Why is he coming back! Couldn't he stay away! That way Jaeha wouldn't need to, to—he doesn't even know. People are going to think he's taking a massive shit and he can't even muster the feeling to get embarrassed about it because the alternative is sitting at the same table as Lee Tae-gun. Maybe if Lee Tae-gun were across the table from him but he is right next to Haru.

Fuck!!!!!

He wants to go home. He wants to go home with Haru, wants to be far, far away from Lee Tae-gun and with Masaharu Swan, with his partner, his Haru, not, not, not Lee Tae-gun.

But he doesn't want to rain on Haru's parade. Haru is still backlashed, and is having fun with people, but Jaeha isn't there so he's not even getting guided, but Jaeha can't go back, and, and, fuck.

He can do it. He can do it. Haru needs guiding, and backlashed Haru has fun at these places, and he should not rain on Haru's parade. He will just sit on the sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach until they can LEAVE.

...but he'll also pop a painkiller from his inventory so that when he's explaining what took him so long he can truthfully say that he wasn't feeling so well and took meds for it. He won't be lying at all. Haru doesn't want him to lie.

Okay. He's ready.

He walks back to the table and takes his seat next to Haru.

Handhold.

Jaeha can barely feel Haru guiding him because Lee Tae-gun is right there and that is horrible.

He was prepared for having to do some acting so he doesn't let those feelings show. Instead he just kisses Haru on the cheek.

"Okay now that everyone's here and the mood's right! I have an announcement to make! Actually." He gets up and clinks a fork against his glass to get the attention of the people at the other Quasar table, too. "Everyone! Important announcement!"