"Me too!"

Is he? Is he really? Jaeha has no reason to doubt his words but the thought that Haru also feels excited to do things with him feels so fake. It makes no sense whatsoever. He does not deserve this luck, and he does not deserve his Haru, but hopefully he will be able to retroactively balance this karma by becoming someone who does in the future.

Haru snacks while he's prepping, so as to have anything for lunch at all instead of losing the concept of lunch in a flurry of picnic dinner arrangements, and then disappears for Introvert Time In The Introvert Hole.

Right. Introvert time. Time away from Jaeha. This is... useful, probably, so that Jaeha can keep writing.

Where was he?

Not Lee Tae-gun. That's for Later, he decides firmly. He could keep thinking about what he'd been thinking earlier, or about... his mother.

Why are there so many difficult topics to think about. Unfair.

...he wants to impress Haru. That's the thought that occurs to him, as he reads over the stuff he wrote earlier. Which, like, duh, obviously.

But that's the thing, when Haru "rejected" him, that felt like he was failing to be impressive. Failing to produce something good enough. It's not that he was married to that particular idea of what to do, that particular date, it's that he failed to be impressive and effortlessly produce something Haru liked. He's meant to be sweeping Haru off his feet, so his date ideas should be perfect and his gifts should be perfect and he should do everything completely right at all times.

Man, you really can fit so much anxiety in one person, huh.

And he's... sure Haru would like it if Jaeha could effortlessly guess the best way to woo him in a way that somehow didn't violate his privacy. Who wouldn't? But there isn't, actually, a way to do that. And the next best thing is asking, it's learning the hard way, with words, what things Haru likes. And it's also, partially, learning what Jaeha likes, and then... telling Haru that. So that they can figure it out together.

That sounds absolutely terrifying and mortifying and horrible and he has no idea how he'll possibly ever do it so instead he's gonna go work out again which is a much better stress response than smoking, in his opinion.

Haru pops out of the introvert hole in plenty of time to pack a... they don't obviously possess a dedicated picnic basket so he is going to put the dinner in Cricket's cat carrier, which he has for when airline staff are fretful.

Jaeha is in the middle of taking a post-workout shower when Haru does this and while esper hearing isn't good enough that he heard Haru while the water was on it's good enough that Jaeha can hear him once he's drying himself off. He can finish that quickly and put some clothes on so that they can go on their FIRST DATE as BOYFRIENDS.

"Hey! If you have a real basket somewhere speak now." He hefts the cat carrier.

...speaking of failing to be effortlessly perfect...

"I'm afraid I don't. Terrible lack of foresight, truly." Over to Haru to kiss him and then help pack.

"I can't imagine it's come up before, no worries." In go sandwiches and little lunchbox-cakes and bottled water.

It hasn't, because Jaeha is twenty-five and Haru is still his first boyfriend so he has zero experience and is winging it. That's fine, though. It's okay. So long as Haru likes him.

Off they can stroll with their picnic "basket". Holding hands, even though neither of them needs any guiding at the moment.

Eeeeeee.

Jaeha has lived in Seoul all his life and has learned a thing or two about it. As an illusion specialist, he has also learned a thing or two about what things are or are not pretty, and why, so he can point those out on their nice afternoon walk holding hands going to a park to have a picnic together because they are BOYFRIENDS.

Haru's narration is not sure what Jaeha's particular brand of illusions has to contribute to a study of what things are and are not pretty, but Haru will admire things accordingly!

Sometimes he likes crafting illusions that are in fact pretty rather than just insert the emotion of perceiving something pretty directly into people's brains, is what!

Anyway, the Han river is pretty and since it's getting to be sunset they might see some pretty water and light shows from the Rainbow Fountain, which the park Jaeha picked has a view to. He's not totally sure if those are already on, he forgot to check, but now would be the time of year for them.

"I know what a light show is but what's a water show in this context?"

"Different coloured lights are pointed at different fountain jets, and they move in sync with each other and the lights to catch them and refract them."

"Nifty, I hope there is one."

"Mmhmmm." It would be SO ROMANTIC even if Haru doesn't think so. It can be romantic if one of them thinks it's romantic and the other thinks it's nifty, right? Right. That's how this works.

Anyway, they can find somewhere to sit and eat and be really quite gay in public in Seoul which he hadn't really ever quite done before and now he will do it a lot.

Hopefully nobody will decide to intrude on their gay picnic. Not even if Haru decides impulsively to feed Jaeha a piece of cake.

If someone does decide to intrude on their gay picnic Jaeha is going to unfortunately have to throw them into the river because anyone who will interrupt HIS HARU FEEDING HIM CAKE should be eaten by fish.

Then it's a good thing that doesn't happen because someone falling in the river would be very distracting indeed.