And now he's kissing again, kissing Haru all over, lips nose cheeks eyes forehead temple ears jaw chin neck—definitely neck, he wonders if he can leverage their hugging position to reach the back—Haru said it!!!! He did!!!!! He really did!!!!!!!!! Haru likes him back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He never understood the cliché'd thought of "this must be a dream" before but now he does because it must be, reality was never this nice, never, not even his dreams have ever been his nice, even when Haru told Jaeha he liked him in Jaeha's dreams that didn't feel this nice, maybe that means it's real, only it can't be, only it is, he's Haru's, he really is, Haru likes him back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He's so cute! Why did Haru get a guy who was so moved by Haru's presence to renounce his wicked ways and customize himself to Haru's specifications and who is also ridiculously cute dropped in his lap, why is that a thing!

Hey can they go another round Jaeha thinks he doesn't have enough words to express how happy he is right now he knows he's a bit of a one-track mind on this one particular subject he's sorry but also if Haru calls him "my Jaeha" while in the middle of sex Jaeha would actually reach Buddhist enlightenment he thinks he's pretty sure and anyway even if not he still needs to find more ways to express how happy he is he's not the type to go shouting things into the heavens so he can't do that and also that wouldn't be so useful because that'd mean he's not actively touching Haru which seems like a completely absurd thought he needs to be touching Haru right now yes please??

His Jaeha can talk him into that yes absolutely.

So on the ?bright? side he's still human and he does get sufficiently physically tired to need a break from these proceedings, but it doesn't look like he's particularly inclined to stop touching Haru anytime soon. You'd think he was the one with the loneliness backlash, except for how both of them are at zero right now, and also he doesn't feel lonely just deliriously happy.

"I remembered what I was gonna say," he murmurs, holding Haru in bed. "I found a counsellor I'm willing to try out, and we'll see how that goes. I... was going to say that I was going to do my best to become someone worthy of your affection. I'm not sure what I did good enough to get it already, it feels like I still have such a long way to go... But it's not like I'm going to stop. So I guess I'm going to do my best to continue being worthy."

Smooch. "Good. You're doing very good. I'm maybe not zero nervous about what'll happen when you resume dungeoneering but I think we'll figure it out."

He laughs a bit, also nervously. "Yeah, me too. But if I'm with you, I feel like I can take on the whole world."

"You'll give me a swelled head."

"I'm not saying anything I don't mean. Meeting you was the luckiest moment of my life."

"Oh, well, the swelledness of my head is probably a lost cause anyway."

"My Haru has the best, brightest, prettiest head."

Haru giggles.

"So do you have preferences for what we ought to do for our first date? ...does that time in Japan count as the first, actually?"

"We could choose to tell the story that way but we could have a cooler first date than that if we don't."

"Oof, lot of pressure there."

"I don't think it's hard to improve on desserts you were unable to enjoy at a cafe chosen because it was near our dungeon!"

"Yeah, but now I want to make it really memorable!"

"I bet you can accomplish this."

"I bet I can, too. You know, the gay teenage romantic I never was but who still lives in me kind of wants to make a little bit of a production of it. Show up at your door maybe a little bit overdressed and nervous about it, give you a ride on my car, hold your hands in public while showing you beautiful places in Seoul, get a restaurant reservation for us somewhere fancy... Is it a good use of esper money, getting a last-minute reservation somewhere nice?"

"You should know that I'm not actually a foodie, I might not adequately appreciate somewhere really upscale. I eat microwave ramen and Kraft Dinner and I like it. Also my door is your door, but on this indulgence is free."

"From the perspective of someone whose taste buds have been all but dead for nearly the entirety of the past decade, the appeal is in the narrative and aesthetics, not really so much the taste."

"We could have a picnic, picnics are narrative."

"I like that, we can do a picnic. It would've been really romantic if we could do our first date under cherry blossoms but I'm not willing to wait until April and besides in practice all parks in Seoul are going to be too busy to be properly romantic until at least May."

"Cherry blossoms are nice but I don't even spell my name 'spring'. A picnic this not-technically-the-weekend sounds good to me."

"Perfect."