"Right. We'll figure something out. For now I can feed you. I'll pick up something for lunch, and dinner we can just. Figure it out, with less of a time constraint? ... What do you want for lunch tomorrow."

"I dunno."

... Giggle.

"Sorry, am I overthinking things and trying to manage you when I shouldn't?"

"Um." He doesn't have a way to say "yes" that isn't rude. "I mean, planning's good?"

"But yes," she says out loud, having heard him all the same. "Right. Sorry."

"If, um, we start doing dungeons on the same schedule—it's fine if you don't want to! I know I do a lot of them, but, um. We'll probably need to—plan. Stuff."

Nod! "The - impression I get is that it's more efficient for partners to do dungeons together, for backlash reasons? So if I wouldn't be slowing you down, that'd work fine for me. And if we don't do that I'd definitely specifically plan to have breaks between dungeons at the same time, even if I don't end up taking up the same number of solo dungeons. ... But I might. Three seems pretty straightforward if you can handle them? My concern's more the time in between."

"...I think it's straightforward but other people don't think so, so I don't know. But, um, the time in between is—I mean—you know. We'll. Guide. Each other."

"Right. It just, um. An hour seemed, um. Kind of short?"

"Oh. I usually don't reach zero between dungeons. Just, um. After. In the evening."

"Right, it's - probably fine for backlash reasons, I just, um, it." Really doesn't seem like enough time for reliably satisfying sex, but he's her first partner ever, so what does she know. "We'll play it by ear I guess, you have more experience with these things than I do?"

"Yeah. We'll—figure it out."

Knock knock they have food!

OH THANK GOD HE THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO DIE OF AWKWARDNESS

ALL HAIL THEIR SAVIOR, FOOD!

"Itadakimasu," a little too quickly, and then immediately puts food (in this case, sushi) into her face, because. Words are hard. Relationships are hard. Figuring out how one does an esper partnership is hard. Oops, she's in Korea, she maybe shouldn't have done the Japanese thing.

Nom nom nom, it's good sushi.

...she's really cute.

"So, um—is there any way I can help you with the, uh, research you mentioned you wanted to do? About guilds, I mean."

Hooray!! A work topic! She likes these.

"Hmm, well - I suppose tell me about your opinion of Quasar and how they compare to other guilds? Though I think Quasar's the only one you've been in, right?"

"Yeah I haven't been in other guilds. From what I understand, other guilds are a lot more... um... corporate? I don't know how it is in Japan but here we grow up knowing we'll go into a soul-crushing desk job in a badly-lit office where our bosses will yell at us whenever they make mistakes and take the credit for our successes and it's not quite like that but kind of like that?"

"Uh, but I don't actually know, this is just—other people telling me."

"Right," says Hye-jin, nodding. "And Quasar does have the neat teleporting tech now, which is a definite plus even if you're wrong about the guild culture, which - I mean, I don't think you are? But, you know, accounting for biases and all that. ... Sorry, that wasn't too rude, was it?"

"...huh? Why would it be rude?"

"It's sort of..." she begins, then trails off. "It could be taken as doubting your judgement, I guess? When it's more like... making a habit of watching and accounting for biases in everyone, regardless."

"Oh. That's not rude, that's just sensible."

"Well. Thank you."

"Oh there is one thing I know, thouigh—people from other guilds, here and in Japan, insist on tailoring honorific language based on rank. They introduce themselves with their ranks and if their rank is higher than yours they expect you to use honorific language for them, no matter whether you're more senior or experienced or older. Quasar doesn't have that. It—um, kind of makes me uncomfortable, when I have to interact with espers from other guilds."