"We should see how I do without you at least a couple of times for stress testing anyway, but given how long it's been since my last dungeon it might be a good idea to start small, do a couple of dungeons with you next week, see how that goes, then try one without..."

"Yeah, that sounds right to me."

"Are they generic, though?" he wonders. "It seems like you should be useful for scouting many kinds of dungeons that sensors have trouble with, and the combination of stealth and mobility ought to be pretty good for rescues, too..." Have people considered that Haru is perfect and good at everything. Just a thought.

"I do scouting missions, yes, but sometimes it turns out that in addition to giving sensors trouble the dungeon is also trying to melt off my skin, or it's louder than a heavy metal concert in there for some reason, and I have to turn right around. Admittedly that's not the typical case. And I'm good for rescues but since every dungeon involves rescues everyone has a way to do it or has allies who know how locally and doesn't need me in particular there."

"I suppose that makes sense." But have they considered that they should instead use Haru so he gets to be a big damn hero like he deserves to be. Have they. He thinks they should.

Once the pasta salad is mixed up and chilling in the fridge he writes up these considerations for the guild, though since it will be seen by a relatively large number of people he doesn't identify Jaeha's backlash, just that he was stuck in a hole full of it for years and needs to ease back into balancing it more appropriately.

Quasar can accommodate that! But it might be a good idea to just offer them the dungeons they'd offer them and let them just pick which and how many of them to do? It'll be slightly more work than if they use the opt out system they usually do but only slightly, they'd just need a bit of advance warning.

That sounds fine to him!

They can do that, then!

"Whatcha doin'?" he asks, exaggeratedly stretching his neck over to look over Haru's shoulder.

"Opting in to opting in to dungeons," Haru says, moving it so Jaeha can see easier. "So we can see what comes up in practice while working out how to approach it."

"Oh, I see. That makes sense." He kisses Haru's cheek and gets back to his own cooking. "So that's the plan?"

"For now, at least."

"I gotta say I'm kind of excited to run a dungeon with you."

"Me too!"

Is he? Is he really? Jaeha has no reason to doubt his words but the thought that Haru also feels excited to do things with him feels so fake. It makes no sense whatsoever. He does not deserve this luck, and he does not deserve his Haru, but hopefully he will be able to retroactively balance this karma by becoming someone who does in the future.

Haru snacks while he's prepping, so as to have anything for lunch at all instead of losing the concept of lunch in a flurry of picnic dinner arrangements, and then disappears for Introvert Time In The Introvert Hole.

Right. Introvert time. Time away from Jaeha. This is... useful, probably, so that Jaeha can keep writing.

Where was he?

Not Lee Tae-gun. That's for Later, he decides firmly. He could keep thinking about what he'd been thinking earlier, or about... his mother.

Why are there so many difficult topics to think about. Unfair.

...he wants to impress Haru. That's the thought that occurs to him, as he reads over the stuff he wrote earlier. Which, like, duh, obviously.

But that's the thing, when Haru "rejected" him, that felt like he was failing to be impressive. Failing to produce something good enough. It's not that he was married to that particular idea of what to do, that particular date, it's that he failed to be impressive and effortlessly produce something Haru liked. He's meant to be sweeping Haru off his feet, so his date ideas should be perfect and his gifts should be perfect and he should do everything completely right at all times.

Man, you really can fit so much anxiety in one person, huh.

And he's... sure Haru would like it if Jaeha could effortlessly guess the best way to woo him in a way that somehow didn't violate his privacy. Who wouldn't? But there isn't, actually, a way to do that. And the next best thing is asking, it's learning the hard way, with words, what things Haru likes. And it's also, partially, learning what Jaeha likes, and then... telling Haru that. So that they can figure it out together.

That sounds absolutely terrifying and mortifying and horrible and he has no idea how he'll possibly ever do it so instead he's gonna go work out again which is a much better stress response than smoking, in his opinion.

Haru pops out of the introvert hole in plenty of time to pack a... they don't obviously possess a dedicated picnic basket so he is going to put the dinner in Cricket's cat carrier, which he has for when airline staff are fretful.

Jaeha is in the middle of taking a post-workout shower when Haru does this and while esper hearing isn't good enough that he heard Haru while the water was on it's good enough that Jaeha can hear him once he's drying himself off. He can finish that quickly and put some clothes on so that they can go on their FIRST DATE as BOYFRIENDS.

"Hey! If you have a real basket somewhere speak now." He hefts the cat carrier.

...speaking of failing to be effortlessly perfect...

"I'm afraid I don't. Terrible lack of foresight, truly." Over to Haru to kiss him and then help pack.