Eventually they reach the restaurant in question, and are soon seated—well, knelt—at a low table and offered tea.

“Now seems like as good a time as any to admit that I’m still not used to kneeling over meals.” It doesn’t stop him, though! He happily pores through the menu with a seraphic grin.

"It is tragic that I am your sunbae, you keep handing me lines." He's not checking the menu, he already knows what he wants.

“What do you mean, sunbae?” he asks without looking up from the menu. “Are you very xungry? I could go for something big if you were up for it. I love morkovcha, but little carrots aren’t enough to really satisfy you—ooh, pork sounds good.”

"I mean you keep saying things that I could turn into innuendos or flirting but it would be inappropriate for me to." Because he does not want to be in the kind of story with silly misunderstandings. "And yeah, I'm hungry."

“What do you mean by—“

“—oh no.”

”I’m just going to sit xere quietly and take it all in—wait—I mean the atmosphere!”

He laughs. "After the carrot comment I thought for a moment you might've been doing it on purpose."

“Oh, yeah, absolutely everything I do is totally on purpose. I wasn’t paying more attention to my growling stomach than my word choice!”

"With a power and backlash like yours, I'm sure you're good at multitasking."

“Xa! I am very specifically good at focusing on something innocuous to the expense of all other stimuli.”

"I suppose that would tragically follow."

“It’s not unusual, surely? You have to overcome your own, right? What is your backlash, again?”

"Indecision, ish. At low levels it looks kind of like mania or excessive talkativeness and insecurity, at high levels I can't decide whether I should blink now. Or drink water. I assume it might get bad enough I can't decide when I should breathe in and out but it has yet to get that bad."

It occurs to him to stifle his giggle too late to take action in time. Instead he giggles apologetically for giggling, which interferes constructively to cause full-on laughter. “Oh, that sounds very cute!” he says by way of explanation for the giggling, which makes him actively more embarrassed, for which he giggles again—now stifling it behind a napkin lest he disturb the other patrons. “Mine isn’t nearly so charming.”

"Oh it's adorable. I was slightly backlashed earlier when I was with you and Misha, it was why I was talking so much."

“Well, I hardly noticed! I just figured you were that chatty type.” They are briefly waylaid by a server asking about their orders. Dasol looks at Si-yeon for help on choosing good soju and they start in with appetizers. Once she’s gone, his eyes flick back to Si-yeon with a mischievous glint in them. “Are you still a bit backlashed? Is that why you complained about being handed lines instead of using them?”

"Not at all. I complained because I am your sunbae and it would be terribly inappropriate. I can only use those lines after appropriately disclaiming that I don't mean them."

“Does it say that in the contract somewhere? In my previous place of work the seniors said whatever the hell they pleased. Are you worried I’ll be offended?”

"I'm worried you'll think I mean it!"

“…no, I’m quite sure you do not have any interest in me.”

...should he say this... yeah it might be good for Dasol. "If it weren't for the professionalism issue and for the let's-call-it-cultural issue you would be totally and completely wrong."

Really? He thinks it but he does not say it aloud. “Cultural issue?”

"I'm a very spiky person in a way that I think would interact badly with a lot of your expectations about how relationships go. I think I can do friendship well enough but more than that has some pretty sharp risks."

Dasol looks Ha Si-Yeon over. He has no visible protrusions, and his hair is lying mostly flat. “What is spiky?” he finally asks. “You look smooth to me?”