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side story: even when i grow up
I'll still be the same on the inside
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So. Awakening sucked. It sucked really, really, really bad. Tae-hwan had to be sedated to be able to fall asleep at all, and even that wasn't enough to get him a restful night's sleep every night. Or, well, he supposes he doesn't actually know that that was a problem with how he slept as opposed to how he was feeling all the time. And, you know, if someone'd told him in advance that his backlash would've been this kind of—hyperactivity—he would've scoffed and said that'd be chill? It wasn't chill. It wasn't chill at all. It was super not chill to be so wired that he couldn't actually do anything because spending longer than five seconds on any given task was impossible.

Or, well, kinda. Physical activity, sports, stuff that got him constantly moving, that was alright. He still couldn't stick to one specific sport for too long, an hour was really pushing it, but it was much better than walking holes into the floor vibrating out of his skin and unable to do anything about it.

He did have to be put under at the end of the week, though, because at that point he was running on such severe sleep dep the exhaustion might've actually killed him. Risking issues due to the induced coma was a better deal than that.

On the bright side, all of that exercising made him fitter than he's ever been! Or maybe that was the thing where becoming an esper makes you hotter. Could be that. He likes his new eye colour, and his hair is growing into a cool deep purple that he'd never considered before but which fits his face well in his opinion.

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Okay, that's also missing a huge bright side, which are his superpowers, that's like an amazing bright side, or they would be, if it weren't for how shit Tae-hwan's backlash is, and also for how underwhelming his powers turned out to be. He thinks. He doesn't actually know because he didn't test them very much due to, again, how shit his backlash is. Also, the person they found to guide him during testing was a guy and Tae-hwan is not here for that. 

The person he's about to meet is also a guy, but his backlash might be reasonably compatible with Tae-hwan's so the efficiency might make up for the lack of sex. He's fine with, like, having an arm around his shoulder and leaning on him or lying on his lap or whatever, and he can even do that while not wearing shirts probably, but he's really not gonna do more than that. He's open-minded and he's not homophobic but he's not gay.

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Tae-hwan's been informed that the guy's a teleporter but he walks into the meeting room through the door like a normal person. "Seo Tae-hwan-shi?"

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A normal person doesn't have waist-length green hair, the hell.

He makes it work, though. Nice. "Hi! You just be Min Woo-young-shi," he says, bowing.

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He bows, too, but then walks over to Tae-hwan. "Let's get the shake out of the way?" he suggests, offering a hand.

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"Sure!" Handshake—

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oh wow is this what guiding's supposed to feel like??

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oh wow yep

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He pulls his hand away and clears his throat. "I guess we're pretty compatible, huh?"

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"Seems like it," agrees Min Woo-young, peering at his face.

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What's he lookin' at.

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Tae-hwan's face. Wasn't he paying attention to the narration? He just said.

"Sit? I don't know why you've just been standing there, these sofas are really comfortable." He doesn't wait for Tae-hwan before taking a seat, himself.

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"...got kinda used to standing up all the time during hell week, I think," he says, but he's at zero backlash right now so he sits.

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"Yeah, I read the description, it sounded really rough."

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"Got abs of steel now, though."

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"I'll believe it when I see it."

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"Sure." He lifts his shirt up to show them off.

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"Oh you were not kidding."

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Tae-hwan thinks this guy might be gay. Then again, who wouldn't be gay for this? He lowers his shirt again. "And I survived it, which was looking kinda shaky by the end of it, so I'm happy with that."

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"Yeah, it goes like that sometimes. I had to spend the whole week being IV fed."

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"Oh, oof, it gets that bad?"

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"Not on the regular. Hasn't happened since, actually. But, you know, now I know how bad it can get and I'm really motivated to not get there. Thus: partners."

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"Right. Well I just manifested like a month ago so I don't really know anything."

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Woo-young peers at his face again.

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"...what! Why are you looking at me like that!" That's the second time he's done that!!!

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"So it's fine to look at your abs of steel but not your face?"

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"Oh. I guess I am very handsome."

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"Uh huh."

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"...wait, you're making fun of me."

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"Who, me? Nooooooo..."

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...

This dude, this guy, this complete stranger, whom Tae-hwan met twenty-seven seconds ago, is making fun of Tae-hwan to his face.

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He thinks they'll get along splendidly.

"So why don't you tell me a bit more about what being an esper is like, sunbae?"

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"Well, like what? What do you know?"

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"Well now I know that we always spend a nice weeklong holiday in Hell before getting our powers."

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Woo-young is sitting close enough to Tae-hwan that he can pat Tae-hwan on the head. Pat pat pat.

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Oh right that feels so nice Tae-hwan leans into it—

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—aaaand away. Woo-young is a guy. Not that he's not fine with guys patting him on the head, his friends also do that, it's just that it felt far too nice.

"Anyway, I also know using powers gives us backlash, guiding gets rid of it, I'm not gay by the way so our guiding will have to stay strictly platonic."

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"Sure. —do you know my backlash?"

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"...uh, no." There was a file he was meant to have read but he only skimmed and he feels like this is not the time to try to fib. "Something about not being able to move?"

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"I lose motor control, like, ability to move. Starts with my legs and climbs up, usually after dungeons I can't walk or worse."

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"Oh. That sucks." Sounds better than his backlash, though, at least he can think.

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"Yeah. Reason I bring it up is that I will be at your mercy in our silo, and since if I lose arm control I can't even use my phone I'll be watching lots of movies or reading books."

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"How do you read books without your hands?"

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"I've got something set up to track my eyes and scroll down."

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"Oh. That's super cool."

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"—wait does that mean you didn't fuck your last partners or are you, like, the girl—"

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Woo-young lifts his eyebrow and doesn't say anything.

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"—shit. Uh." Good going, Tae-hwan, you just put your foot so deep in your mouth you're going to shit your shoe tomorrow.

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Woo-young manages to hold the straight face for two more seconds then cracks up.

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Oh. He's not... offended?

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Nope. "Are you always this forward or is it only pretty boys that reveal this side of you?"

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"—I'm not gay!"

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"No? So all that interest in how I have sex was purely theoretical?"

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He wasn't interested—wait, he was, wasn't he. "Well, yes!"

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"I'm just teasing you, I feel like after saying something like that you deserve to be a little bit embarrassed."

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"Yeah that's fair."

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He eventually stops giggling. "But to answer your question, my two prior partners were women, and not being able to move doesn't mean I can't get it up. Besides, there are plenty of things to be done with a tongue and that is nearly the last thing to go."

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"Oh." Right. He knows that. From experience. Yep. He has a looooooot of experience. Practical, too. "So you're not gay...?"

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"I'm bi but I haven't actually ever been with a man."

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Wait so that means that they'd both be inexperienced and learning together if they not! Gay!!!

Maybe a bit bicurious though shut up!!!!!!

"Wait but then how do you know you're bi?"

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"How do you know you're straight?"

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"I've been with girls!"

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"Presumably you figured you knew you were straight prior to that, though."

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"...huh. Guess I did."

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"I actually didn't realise I was bi until I became an esper and was suddenly surrounded by beautiful men."

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"Well, you've just added one more to your roster."

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"So I have!"

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"Anyway, circling back to your question, there isn't a single answer. It'll at minimum depend on what your power is and whether you'll be doing dungeons or not, and then your schedule—"

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"Wait, hold on, what do you mean whether I'll be doing dungeons? I'm an esper."

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"—yes, and occasionally espers don't do dungeons. You could be doing construction work, helping with research, powers are varied."

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Wow that's super lame he hopes he won't have to do that.

"Alright."

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"Not your thing?"

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"I dunno, my power kinda sucks."

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"Oh? I thought you hadn't tested it."

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"I did a little but the backlash was too bad and I wasn't that compatible with the other esper and so I dunno much."

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"Well, what do you know?"

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"I make things go slower."