"He did. God, it was so stupid, he was still in the, like, that was back when he was still pretending he didn't like you? And he was all like, well they're not that useful I think, though they're interesting and make me think in twisty ways, and I went, are you having fun, and he was quiet for like ten seconds and said I guess??? and I was like then that's probably mission accomplished!! and he looked like I'd grown a second head."

This earns a giggle!

"Of course. What is a fun, can you use it to vanquish more dungeons, if not, then why does it exist?"

"When I suggested that you might possibly maybe perhaps have positive regard for him as a person he looked like he'd never heard of the concept. —anyway I played them, too, and they are fun."

"They are!! I'm glad you had fun. The developer of the - I forget the name, the colored squares through 3D one - is making another puzzle game, it looks neat."

"Oh I should look it up, I was actually really mad about that one because it looked so perfect to have a level editor like Portal 2 does but it just doesn't? For some reason? Like what if I want to keep playing, what then, I've got to do something with my time when I'm sitting bored feeding a battery!"

Giggle!!! "Oh no. Do I need to give you media recommendations? I did a lot of killing time back at White Star, before, uh, my relationship with Hideyoshi went sailing majestically on its maiden voyage off that cliff." As in: before they filled the backlash hours with sex. Cough. "So my knowledge is a little out of date, but I might know something else."

"I'm not gonna say no, read anything good recently?"

"Yeah, actually!"

She still of course reads, even with Tae-gun present to fill her hours with really-quite-efficient-for-backlash-reduction techniques.

Does Woo-young want strong literary opinions from her, because she sure does have them! (And tries not to think of when she last remembers speaking of her strong literary opinions.)

Hell yeah he'll hear them. He is also pretty opinionated about media—well, perhaps he's just opinionated in general—but he's the type that likes hearing other people's opinions, too, even when they're objectively wrong.

Nope. She's totally right about everything, thank you, especially her dumb shipping opinions. Those two would have been great together if they had ever been put in the same room, the canon pairings are dumb and stupid and they act like idiots!

No he's with her on a lot of those actually, the average writer is just so bad at making the obviously correct pairings happen. Woo-young got queer-pilled on that too after he came out of the closet and realised just how many pairings in stories are just coasting on the fact that the main characters happen to be attractive able-bodied specimens of opposite sexes who spend some time together even while having zero onscreen chemistry or reason to stay together whatsoever, so he started aggressively pairing the girls with girls and the boys with boys in his head and now it's a hobby. Everyone's gay if they try hard and believe in themselves.

Right! Or - well, okay, she doesn't actually aim for same sex pairings in particular, she tends to go with people that have similar sorts of aesthetics? They need to have a similar sort of - feel to them, that they're on at least one similar wavelength while still being different enough that they offer something to one another. But it turns out that because of writing tropes, often that means that the answer is lesbianism (or whatever)! So. They have come to the same conclusion by different methods. Therefore: they are both right. There can be peace in the literary opinion kingdom. On this one topic.

(Okay but like the pacing of that third book was awful, no you cannot convince her otherwise, you're just wrong -)

See, now she went and had a wrong opinion in front of him! The pacing was great, the whole point of what that book was going for was that they were in a chaotic mess of their own making and the feeling of being jerked around by some stuff happening too fast and other stuff happening too slow was meant to instill that same sense in the reader! It was very true to life, too, feeling like time is passing at inconsistent rates because of the shit going on in your life is extremely relatable.

Ahuh, ahuh, except that if it's meant to instill that sense in the reader it also should have given the reader less information, the signal to noise ratio was all wrong. Also, this is probably genuinely personal taste, but why would she want a book to instill the sense that she's being jerked around and things are happening too fast? She has enough of that in her work life! She doesn't want it badly simulated for her in literature!

She is perfectly happy to continue on in this vein for a while. Companionable literature arguing.

They get food, and its arrival prompts Woo-young to start telling Hye-jin about his favourite restaurants in Seoul, since he has a sneaking suspicion the literal only times Hye-jin went out to eat were the single-digit ones he was personally witness to plus that one time on Christmas Tae-gun told him about. Seoul may not be Paris or New York or São Paulo but it has plenty of culinary landscape to be explored, too!

Oooooooo, yes, those are great, and - yeah, he's totally right about her inability to go out to eat. She's down to explore some culinary landscape options!

(She wishes she had more friends to invite to these places, but that is probably a solvable problem.)

...does she want to be matchmade? Most of his friends are espers but not all of them are Quasar and she might get along with some of Tae-hwan's old friends she met on his birthday. Also Woo-young's twin isn't an esper and has a non-esper social network so that might help too?

... Yeah, she can be matchmade. With potential friend options. Um. If that wouldn't be too much trouble.

Sure! Does she want aliens like hyung and her, though, those might be harder to find.

She can in fact interact with people that originate from this planet, thank you, just. ... Please be selective, she's an introvert and, er, a bit... sensitive right now. (Read: she's kind of a massive moody bitch.)

Okay, introverted, thick skin, any other requirements? Oh or does she prefer to be friends with extroverts so they'll drag her places?

Nope, absolutely not, that is Tae-gun's thing, she will resist and furthermore resent being dragged places.

"Alright, I have some people in mind maybe and I'll tell noona about it, too. You do already know Kim Chun-hee, though, she fits the bill, other than being Quasar."

Nod. "I - can try to make friends with her." Considering she.... kind of also.... already got to know her carnally.... ahem.

He peers at her face. "Okay, spill it, what about what I said is making you look like that?"