"Yeah." It's just really hard to tell if that is genuine 'no opinion,' or 'opinion has been forcibly burned out of him.'

"So my plan was to poke legal tomorrow for official partnership contract and getting your pay and work hours sorted and whatnot? Make it all tidy and predictable."

"Oh! That's great! Yeah!" Sweet, go-along-with-it was the right answer! He's so happy! He's going to get a partner contract! On his first try! It would be uncouth to do a little jig, so he does not. But there is a jig in his heart.

"Cool. It's mostly going to be protection clauses and 'Do not do more than this per day' kind of stuff, because that's the direction I'm worried about you from."

“But I’m the guide. Xow would I make you do more than a certain amount in a day?”

"Other way around," snorts Minseo. "We want you to be okay, too."

“Oh. Xa! Well, I’ll be fine. I won’t be busy in the future with dinner plans or anything.”

"It's fine for you to have dinner plans, man, I really do primarily want co-sleeping."

“Well, sure. But you’re already blind for the day and it’s not even evening yet. Don’t you want to get started earlier than bedtime? To maximize your vision?”

"Yyyyyes, but - okay, you seem to be more reassured about your general - obvious value and having a place and useful things to do? And not being thrown in the garbage or some shit? Such that I can say," okay, try to be as reassuring as possible! She pats his arm around her, in what is probably a reassuring manner, "that I do in fact have another guiding partner." And then before he can go Oh no, competition or whatever:

"But co-sleeping with her kinda sucks, for us both, and during confluences it can get a little - we're friends but we also map dungeons together, so we get kind of sick of each other? Plus I tend to be worse off in the backlash department than she is, during a confluence, and she's got a husband and kids. So. You being here right now actually means she got to spend time with her family instead of helping me out."

A working esper with a family? That was the height of irresponsibility in Russia. But this isn’t Russia. “I see. You xave a working partner during the day and I’m going to cover the overnight.” He says it as neutrally as possible, mostly because he’s quite conflicted about this revelation. On the one hand, that makes him much more disposable, but on the other: “That means I am assisting two espers at once, really.” And there will be room in his schedule for more.

Minseo relaxes a little. "Yeah. You are." She pats his arm again, reassuringly. "Thanks."

“So, when you do want to send her home? Dinnertime so she can feed the family?”

"Going forward? Uh, probably, though her husband's the cook between them. I guess we should all be in a room together and talk about this at some point, what works best for all of us."

Oh, that would make a lot of sense. His loyal Communist forebears would be so disappointed in him for assuming—well, his loyal Communist forebears are the reason he assumed, so. Whatever. “That seems like a great idea. I can’t wait to meet her.” A true fact, actually, rather than mere nicety.

"She's excited to meet you too. I've actually talked about her already, she's Kim Da-eun, that shielder I mentioned. 's why we end up mapping a lot of dungeons together. But having a meeting will be a tomorrow thing, at the earliest."

“Ah. I’m sure she is busy—or back at xer xome already? Will you need me through the evening, after all? I really can try to reschedule.”

"Nah, I'm good. The plan had been for her to co-sleep with me tonight anyway, I was just trying to free myself from the horror that is her hair." Minseo says this with complete gravitas, as if speaking of a great cosmic horror from beyond the veil of reality. ... Like Cthulhu, not like dungeons. The scarier cosmic horror from beyond the veil of reality.

She pulls up a commscreen to check Da-eun's status. "Yeah, she's good for tonight, be free." And has already sent her two "did the bad Russian man hurt you????" messages. She gives a little sigh, and starts typing out reassurances. "She even prefers it, to get the chance to make sure I'm okay."

“That you’re… okay? Why would she think—did she think I did something!?”

"No, she's just... actually, imagine if you were a shield esper. Who was constantly paired with a sensor who goes blind and relatedly insensate. Such that you considered it your, like, personal job to keep that sensor safe and alive, for the good of humanity against dungeons or whatever. How normal would you be about her meeting the idea of you?"

“Well, not speaking from any particular experience, I’d probably be planning contingencies for an attempted murder and then frequently pinging them coded emoji for check-ins while I waited for the all-clear, which I wouldn’t believe anyway.”

"Yeah, that's about where she's at. With the understanding that I would find frequent emoji check-ins irritating and wouldn't cooperate with that in the slightest."

They're going to get along so well, aren't they.

“Which xas not stopped xer, but xas slowed xer. I can leave for a bit, if you like, so you can call and reassure xer.”

Snort!

"Oh, that would not reassure her at all, I hate phone calls. If I called her, she'd think I am being held hostage. Seeing me in person or bust, baby. Like I said, your dinner plans are actually very helpful."

“Understandable caution on xer part. Well, nothing for your partner to do but suffer and xope, then. It won’t be too much longer, at least.”

"Pretty much! She will probably have some tips for your situation, though. Which might be nice."