"To make it less tempting to backslide. I think he'll keep sensitivity to risk of getting caught in more stages of backlash than he will a felt sense of it being fucked up. Am I wrong?" he asks Jaeha.

"No."

"...oh. I see. I—can get a list of people for you to vet. —do you want access to counselling?"

"...like therapy?"

"Yeah. We have some people who are used to dealing with esper shit and who can be trusted to keep everything confidential."

Wow that sounds absolutely horrible.

"I tried it when I was like eighteen and it wasn't for me but a lot of people seem to get something out of it," says Haru.

"It'd be someone to check in with your regularly and whose entire job is to be nonjudgmental about any times you fuck up and who'll be there to help you come up with effective ways to do better in the future. It might be a lot tougher, emotionally, to admit errors to someone whose opinion you respect or feel like you need to live up to, especially if you don't already have a plan for how to do better."

If such a person actually existed that could potentially be useful, even if absolutely mortifying.

"Maybe."

"We do have very trustworthy people, and you don't even need to start off by telling them everything, maybe just see them a few times to get a feel for them, get their vibes, see if you can make it work."

That continues to sound horrible but...

"No pressure, though. It sounds really tough."

And now he's being pitied.

Fuck his life.

"Beyond that, we could get a rotation of people checking in, asking you how you're doing, just generally keeping track of you."

Nod nod.

"I... suppose that'd be useful."

"Do you know of anyone else in Quasar you're compatible with, who could tell how backlashed you are?"

Flinch. "Lee Tae-gun."

"...ah. Tae-gun would be—a tough nut to crack."

"...why?"

"He's... very reserved and private," Park Yoo-min hedges. "It's difficult to get close to him. Although, for something like this..."

"We're compatible enough I could feel him guiding me from a distance, yesterday. —I think it was asymmetrical, he didn't seem to react at all."

"Oh. Wow." Yoo-min and Seungjoo are compatible enough they don't need to be touching to guide each other but Jaeha and Tae-gun were substantially farther apart than just "not touching". "—did you use your powers on him yesterday?"

"I've been clean for weeks now."

"I see. Well, that's a possibility, if he can tell how backlashed you are. And maybe we should find other people, but—don't feel forced."