Maple kiss.

He sure hopes Cricket is not going to hold this amount of being sappy against him because he will not actually budge on it.

Cricket makes a barely audible dismissive sniff, that's all.

Good enough.

"Since we're doing a picnic, would you rather have a late lunch or something closer to the early evening?" It's still only just getting into spring so the evenings are a bit chilly but nothing being warmly dressed won't fix.

"Hmmm, what time is sunset today..." Phone, answer him this question. "Sunset dinner?"

"Sounds good to me, we can do that."

"Hmm, what to bring. I think sandwiches are standard, and maybe some kind of, like, pasta salad kind of thing..."

"I know we had tteokbokki just the other day but that's traditional, too. Maybe I could just make a different kind."

"In a picnic? Is it good cold?"

"Some kinds are!"

"Sounds good. We might need to go grocery shopping."

They can go grocery shopping TOGETHER because they are BOYFRIENDS.

"Yeah, let's do that."

Haru normally has groceries delivered every day but they are mostly small amounts of raw fish because Cricket doesn't want it day-old and eats a fairly narrow range. They can go in person for human food. Sandwich bread and little cake things and pasta salad fixings.

And while they're doing their perfectly mundane things together, "So I wanted to pick your brains about something."

"Sure, what's up?"

"As I am new to this idea of, you know, ethics, I'm trying to think about what to do about everything I have due to my father. Case in point, that house at least half of which I never spend any time in, which could be sold for a ludicrous amount of money and then that money could do something better than 'be a house I only use a small fraction of', but I'm not sure if I'm not overcorrecting and if this is even the right kind of thing to think about."

"Hm. I've mostly focused on not developing extravagant tastes in the first place, since I didn't come into money with any of them already installed. The sprawl is serving a function in keeping Cricket out of your hair, though probably a smaller place could do that too if it were laid out supportively..."

"Mmhm. But that's just a—particularly emblematic example. I am a partial owner of a number of companies under the Kang Moon-il Group umbrella, and my father wants me to inherit the majority shares for most of them, if I'll be able to have an heir of my own. Those are sources of income, not just wealth, that I wouldn't have if it weren't for my father. I have quite an absurd amount of both income and wealth that I wouldn't have if it weren't for my father."

"Yeah. Uh, what happens if you indicate that you're never going to have an heir of your own - do you even want kids in the abstract -"

"Not particularly," but in the specifics if Haru wanted kids Jaeha would be up for that. 

...

Bruh.

"And I've—told him that in so many words already. I think he's really hoping against hope that something about me will change as I get older. Either that or he's trying to convince my mother to go through one more pregnancy for him, which I'm not sure she will, she's got the heir she wanted already and I would not be surprised if she thought I was my father's problem."

"Have you tried talking to your mother about it?"

"I have never had a conversation with her in my life. I'm... not actually even sure how I'd go about contacting her, without asking my father. Maybe if I tried contacting her office the fact that I'm legally her son could get me somewhere?"

"...wow. It might accomplish nothing, but if it did accomplish something it would plausibly be worth it? If it doesn't sound too awful."

"It doesn't sound particularly awful in principle, I actually just do not have any idea who my mother is as a person. For all I know she's actually lovely and has correctly concluded Kang Jaehyuk is not and if I try to reach out to her everything will work out fine."

"And even if she's not lovely it sounds like she's... mastered keeping him out of the way with, uh, the methods available to her."