There is a nurse in his room. There's been nurses in his room every day, swapping shifts. "Kang Jaeha-nim?"

He would love to respond but he unfortunately has this TUBE. He makes a noise.

"Are you conscious?"

How do they expect him to respond to that. And how is it not OBVIOUS—he makes another noise, more annoyed this time. He's not gonna try to speak because he would slur humiliatingly and incomprehensibly but he can make some noises and thumbs up and things.

They stand up. "We'll inform your father and get you extubated at once," they say, bowing and fleeing.

In that order, is it? Fucking figures.

What follows is probably not the most humiliating sixty minutes of his life, but unlike the probable most humiliating sixty minutes of his life, this time he's not in some sort of awake coma so he can actually appreciate the humiliation of being extubated and confronted with the things they needed to do to compensate for the fact that he could not use the bathroom on his own. He kind of wishes he were still in that awake coma. Instead, he has to live through this. 

And of course father dearest is nowhere to be seen.

"Kang Jaeha-nim?" the doctor—and this time it's the doctor, not one of the nurses—says. "We've, ah, had an esper check—"

"Yes, yes, I know, I'm an esper now, I can tell." He can tell that he's an esper. Not just because he's not atrophied his muscles at all, nor because he saw himself in the mirror and noticed that he looked hotter and that his dick was bigger, and nor even because he had a relevantly timed mysterious ailment that lasted eight days.

He can tell that he's an esper, and that he's psychic, because he can feel their minds.

Fuck him. 

"Father dearest wants to talk to me, doesn't he?"

"Yes. Kang Jaehyuk-nim asked you to join him in his study at your earliest convenience—"

"Well it's really fucking inconvenient right now, but that's not what he meant, was it."

Silence.

"Yes, I'll go see the man, what else can I do?"

They nod, bow, and leave.

Fuck him he's a psychic esper.

Whatever. He's showered, he has some bed sores that will need taking care of but those aren't visible through his suit, and he's going to go see Kang Jaehyuk.

Who's waiting in his study, as promised.

"Jaeha."

"Father."

He peers at his son. "You look... well."

He lifts an eyebrow. "Do I, now."

"Jaeha."

"That's my name, don't wear it out."

"Jaeha."

"Father."

"Do not forget your place. Becoming an, an esper does not make you any less my son."

"I wonder."

"Jaeha," he says, warningly.

"Father, what did you think was happening?"

"...I beg your pardon?"

"You had an esper check it, oh, however many days into it—"

"Four."

"Four days into it. What did you think was happening before that?"

"What would you have done if I weren't an esper? What are you going to do now that I am? Aren't you kinda fucked, now? I've always had a lot more options than you thought I did, but now? The world is my fucking oyster."

He slams the desk. "Jaeha! You will respect me!"

"Or what, father? I will respect you or what, Jaehyuk?"

He visibly startles at Jaeha using his given name.

"Did you, at any point, get worried. Did you get concerned. Did you, at any point, feel scared?"

"Of what? Of you?"

"Of losing me!" he says, his voice breaking. Fuck, he did not want his voice to break here. "I stop eating, stop moving, stop shitting, I could've died, would you have cared about it at all beyond losing your only goddamn heir—" And he doesn't need to actually hear the answer because he can know. He can just know. The knowledge of how to do it is at the tip of his fingers and he can just see, he can just look—

—there's nothing. There's nothing there.

He knew. He's known it for years. He's known it for years and it was so, so stupid to have ever hoped otherwise.

Kang Jaehyuk doesn't love him. The confirmation is naked before his eyes, it's amazing how well he can understand it when what he sees isn't even the feeling itself, it's the, the—

—it's the way Jaehyuk's heart is hammering in his chest, because he is scared. Kang Jaehyuk is terrified of Jaeha, right now, he doesn't know what Jaeha's esper powers could be and he knows that it could be that Jaeha might be able to kill him with a thought—

—it's the way Jaehyuk feels in the hollow of his throat and in the middle of his tongue like there's an opportunity, he's salivating over the possibility of Jaeha getting a useful power, a power that could propel Samsung forward, his mind is churning with possibility—

—it's the way his eyes are narrowing, Jaeha is so familiar with the way Jaehyuk's eyes are narrowing because it's the same way Jaeha's own eyes narrow, that cold calculation that replaces fight or flight in his lineage, apparently, because Jaehyuk has a plan, Jaehyuk always has a plan—

"Hold that thought, father," says Jaeha, and he holds Jaehyuk's thought for him, turns around, and opens the door.

As Jaeha expected, there are somewhat more body guards outside than there usually would be.

Jaeha is holding their thoughts, too, now. He's holding their thoughts, and they're forgetting what they just heard and saw. Jaeha hasn't just walked out.

He's still holding Jaehyuk's thought, and the bodyguards'. He's holding all of their thoughts, and he is carefully, carefully erasing them. He's looping them, they're stuck in the same second, and they're all going to be stuck in the same second while he walks a few more rooms down to see if there are any other surprises Jaehyuk left him.

There aren't.

Jaehyuk is really quite stupid, isn't he.

So now he's back in Jaehyuk's study, and he's looking at his father, frozen in this second. Frozen in the second before Jaeha walked into it. How long could Jaeha hold him there, he wonders?

Well, if he holds it too long, he's going to go into that coma again. Can't be having that.

But he can hold Jaehyuk for a little bit longer while he walks around Jaehyuk's desk to unload the gun he had strapped to its underside. And, ah, the conversation's being recorded, too! Clever, too clever by half. But it turns out Jaeha's cleverer.

—it's the way Jaehyuk isn't sad. There's nothing in his eyes. There's nothing in the back of his scalp, in the pit of his stomach. Jaeha is a threat, Jaeha is an opportunity, Jaeha is a risk, but Jaeha is not, and has never, ever been...

...someone Jaehyuk loved.

Kang Jaehyuk is waiting in his study, as promised.

"Jaeha."

"Father."

He peers at his son. "You look well."

"I feel a lot better, thank you."

He blinks.

"...I think I could've died."

...he huffs a bit and leans back. "Yes. You could've. The doctors said..."

"I just—stopped. Right? You just found me and I wasn't responding. They told me." Or, you know, Jaeha acquired this information somehow, who cares how. "And if—if I'd been anywhere else, if someone hadn't found me, I might've—"

"We were very lucky. I... wasn't sure what was going on, no one could find anything wrong with you. And after a few days, since you were the right age..."

"I'm an esper," he says, nodding. "I can feel it. I don't, don't know exactly what I can do, yet. I haven't tried it, I don't want to risk it, but—I think I'm powerful."

"Do you know... what you can do, at all?"

"A little. Not much. Something... with minds. People. It's big, it's very big, it's..."

He waits.

Jaeha takes a deep breath. "Father, I'm... I'm sorry."

"...Jaeha?"

"It's so stupid, but I think I'm a bit stupid. Just, everyone says that when you almost die, that can change things, it makes you see things differently, and I never thought..."

"...son..."

(...oh, ow.)

"I've truly been a monumental cock for the past several years, haven't I?"

"You..."

"I know I have. It's just, it's..."

Sigh. "There's not any point in explaining it. I'm just sorry. I'm sorry about..."

...something's wrong. Something's weird about all of this. Something—

Undo.

"Father, I want to be an esper."

"...what? But weren't you just saying—"

"I don't have what it takes. Not yet. Not here. I can't just pretend the last several years didn't happen, can't show up to a meeting like it's normal..."

"Well..."

"...well, I could, sure, but—father, I can't change overnight. I don't, don't think I'm ready for this. I think I need some—time. To grow up."

"You seem to have grown."

"Grow up more. I—it's one thing for me to feel this way right now, after being so—scared about dying, but—I feel like I might regress to my old habits. Old patterns. If I stay.

"And... this is taking responsibility, too. It's something bigger than me. I can study, I can learn, I'll be able to use my power a lot better when..."

"...it would be a good idea for you to see some more of the real world, it's true..."

And now the entire thing, from the top, so the whole conversation can be recorded. He'll probably need to fudge the time a bit, say that he procrastinated coming to talk to Jaehyuk for a while to cover for all the undos and redos, he lost count of how many he had to go through to get the optimal result out of the conversation, but it'll be fine. And this time he won't trap those poor security in the same second forever.

He hopes they don't get brain damage.

lol.