He hides a smile in Haru's neck. "You think you're really cute, don't you?" he asks, nuzzling affectionately.

"Somebody keeps indicating this to me and I guess I'm very gullible."

"I wonder who that somebody is. They have good taste."

"But they're taking advantage of my credulity."

"It's only taking advantage if they're wrong, otherwise they're informing you of true facts about the world."

"Then I will be so well informed."

"Then I think that somebody's mission was accomplished."

The first meeting with Dal-seo is literally just going to a café for an afternoon tea. She and Jaeha are neither of them totally sure of what the format this so-called "mentoring" is going to be but meeting casually without Nam Hee-seo's presence might be a good first step to figuring that one out.

Haru's down to come along if Jaeha would like; if they wind up vibing in a way that doesn't require him he can do blog stuff in the café no problem.

Jaeha thinks it could be useful to Haru since they'll probably be talking about business management-related stuff and Haru might want to participate but it's up to him.

He'll come along then.

She's already at the café when they get there, and she gets up and bows. "Kang Jaeha-shi, Suwan Masaharu-shi, hello."

"Hi."

"I hear you went to school in the West and I'm really too Canadian for honorifics, if I can convince you to just call me Haru."

She blinks and glances at Jaeha.

("Ummm... is that okay??")

("Rapid fire lesson one: figure this one out yourself.")

"Sure, I can do that. It's great to see you, Haru."

Jaeha pulls out a chair for Haru then grabs his own right next to him.

It's so cute that Jaeha pulls out chairs for him. It predates the list! It's just a Jaeha thing and it's adorable. "Good to see you too! What's up?"

She sits back down. "Just work, really. My department's got a big delivery coming up so we've been having to work overtime every day for the past two weeks, it's exhausting."

"You sound a lot happier than I think I'd be in that position."

"...guess I like my job."

("Shit, did I say the wrong thing? Did I misstep?")

"What department are you in, what's your role in it?"

"I'm in the oversight team for Shinsegae's seasonal menswear department and I'm project lead, so I'm in charge of organising and delivering our performance reports for the winter season and market analyses and forecasting for summer. Our spring releases are already underway, of course."

"Of course, she says, like I wear anything but jeans and dungeon gear without prompting, for all I knew you held onto your spring releases till mid-June."