He hides a smile in Haru's neck. "You think you're really cute, don't you?" he asks, nuzzling affectionately.

"Somebody keeps indicating this to me and I guess I'm very gullible."

"I wonder who that somebody is. They have good taste."

"But they're taking advantage of my credulity."

"It's only taking advantage if they're wrong, otherwise they're informing you of true facts about the world."

"Then I will be so well informed."

"Then I think that somebody's mission was accomplished."

One advantage of the Western ranking system over the one used by places like Korea and Japan is that it can characterise the high-end of power much better. D-, C-, B-, and A-ranks are reasonably objective to define for espers, and a dungeon of a given rank is one that can be reasonably taken down by a small team of two to six espers of that same rank, but S-rank is basically anything that breaks the scale. D- through A-ranks are designed to cover 99.9% of espers and dungeons, so it's not usually that big an issue, but the power distribution has a pretty long tail, and occasionally you get horrors like Nightmare—which has been cropping up for decades and has yet to be destroyed—and prodigies like Jaeha—who, despite the ostensible classification as A-rank due to concealing the full extent of his powers, has nearly unmatched flexibility and versatility in his illusions and can easily deal with threats that leave most other psychics stumped, Nightmare included.

It's been over three months since the last big S-rank dungeon Jaeha has had to deal with.

That's... concerning. It's concerning because, see, usually Jaeha is sent to such dungeons a lot more frequently than that. Being, as mentioned, one of the most powerful psychic espers in the world, when psychic espers make up fewer than 2% of all espers, he is wanted all over the world. And all over the world, fewer S-rank dungeons have been showing up. This happens sometimes, about two to three times a decade in fact, and it has happened twice since Jaeha awakened, and when it happens it's a prelude. Usually, soon after such moments of peace, a short period of time during which a lot of A- and S-rank dungeons appear everywhere. It's as if they're all coordinating and saving their energy to hit the world with their combined might.

Nightmare doesn't only appear during those times, but it always appears during those times.

So. That's why it's concerning. It's concerning because they're probably soon to become really, really busy.

Nothing they can do about this, though. They'll become really, really busy, but they'll... deal. Like they always do. Like he always has.

The first meeting with Dal-seo is literally just going to a café for an afternoon tea. She and Jaeha are neither of them totally sure of what the format this so-called "mentoring" is going to be but meeting casually without Nam Hee-seo's presence might be a good first step to figuring that one out.

Haru's down to come along if Jaeha would like; if they wind up vibing in a way that doesn't require him he can do blog stuff in the café no problem.

Jaeha thinks it could be useful to Haru since they'll probably be talking about business management-related stuff and Haru might want to participate but it's up to him.

He'll come along then.

She's already at the café when they get there, and she gets up and bows. "Kang Jaeha-shi, Suwan Masaharu-shi, hello."

"Hi."

"I hear you went to school in the West and I'm really too Canadian for honorifics, if I can convince you to just call me Haru."

She blinks and glances at Jaeha.

("Ummm... is that okay??")

("Rapid fire lesson one: figure this one out yourself.")

"Sure, I can do that. It's great to see you, Haru."

Jaeha pulls out a chair for Haru then grabs his own right next to him.

It's so cute that Jaeha pulls out chairs for him. It predates the list! It's just a Jaeha thing and it's adorable. "Good to see you too! What's up?"

She sits back down. "Just work, really. My department's got a big delivery coming up so we've been having to work overtime every day for the past two weeks, it's exhausting."

"You sound a lot happier than I think I'd be in that position."

"...guess I like my job."

("Shit, did I say the wrong thing? Did I misstep?")

"What department are you in, what's your role in it?"

"I'm in the oversight team for Hyundai's seasonal menswear department and I'm project lead, so I'm in charge of organising and delivering our performance reports for the winter season and market analyses and forecasting for summer. Our spring releases are already underway, of course."