"And I would need to kiss you before you were willing to bend on that, wouldn't I?"

WHAT IS HE SAYING!!!!!!

Hye-jin is overcome by a fit of giggles.

It is very cute to see her boyfriend get flirted with??? She did not expect this, but she's not complaining! (And: yay! She did not screw up poly! Her boyfriend gets to flirt with the nice American, too! It is Very Fair!)

"It's kind of a pity that you'd probably be incompatible, with how guiding statistically works," she sighs, forlornly, once she's done giggling. "But I can happily give him a high rating, if you're wondering!"

"I mean, not necessarily, Si-yeon-hyung and Juheon-hyung are actually slightly compatible too—"

WHAT IS HE SAYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"She is statistically correct, but we could always find out the normal way. That said, I'm not entirely sure me kissing you right now is what the situation needs, though do let me know if I'm wrong."

HE STILL DOESN'T HAVE A SOCIAL SCRIPT FOR THIS!!!!!

Help, he's so cute. She doesn't tend to cause this reaction in him, and maybe she should try to more often!

"He is, for the record, really actually a verified DRT sergeant, with all of the actual responsibility that holds," she offers, in case that helps. "I checked."

Why would that—oh. Oh.

Yeah, okay, that is something he wasn't being anxious about which he is—still not being anxious about. Okay.

"Um."

"I succeeded at my goal of making you less anxious about outbursts in front of me, though, so you may carry on with the actual conversation the two of you were having."

Wait, what? Oh.

...

This is sorcery.

"Um. Right. Okay. So. Um. You should get a new place and so should I probably and they should not be the same place so we... can... when you say spend some time apart you mean...?"

"Have - living spaces that are both ours in a way I had trouble with moving in with you, even though you wanted me to be myself all over the place? Still be esper partners, dating, and probably still inevitably end up sleeping at one or the other place a lot because snuggling is nice? ... Possibly we should get two apartments in the same building, but I can't tell if that's appealing and cute, or if my inner self-sacrificial efficiency weasel is making a mess..."

"Well I think it'd be cute."

Both of Korea's S-ranks are adorable. This is kind of insane to watch.

"Okay. Then we can tentatively go for apartments in the same building, or a duplex or something," she says, with a firm nod. "And if I turn out to be insane about this I can work it out with my therapist, and get a new place. Because being across the hall from each other or something would be pretty cute."

...he loves her.

"Hye-jin-ah, may I kiss you?"

"Yeah!"

He kisses her.

Kiss! Eeee~

And: yay! She feels some amount of enthusiasm about figuring out her housing situation now! And she has the underwater silo as a general flee from the whole entire world location!

Eventually though, the urge to plot logistics breaks through:

"Probably this is a 'bother Quasar' kind of thing, isn't it," she sighs, a little resigned. "Because, you know. Esper senses, superstrength. Things we will want to do in our respective domiciles."

She does not sound happy about asking Quasar for help with things.

"Oh. Hm. Probably?"

Pout.

"Ugh. Fine. Quasar. But let's have a couple days to think about what we each want in a new home separately before we go bug them? I feel like we've had a lot of - jumping into things too quickly problems, and I would like to not do that this time."