"And presumably she can tell that I haven't introduced myself to a monster yet, but I've been much sparser on the comms lately, it's the thing where I'm no longer spending hours and hours backlashed with a partner who ignores me."

"I could not fathom how someone could exist in your presence and ignore you, but I suppose backlashes tend to be unreasonable like that."

"Awwwwwwwwwww!" squeals Ren.

Yaaaaaay he's getting good son-in-law points! He supposes being wildly in love with someone's son will do that.

"I think we've been mostly busy with dungeoneering, though Haru may be taking up a hobby in business management..."

"Not just out of nowhere, I didn't wake up one morning and decide that I wanted to integrate disrupted return-on-investment paradigms. Jaeha may wind up inheriting a substantial chunk of the Korean economy and I can nepotism in on it."

"Ooh, juicy! I knew your house was nice but I thought that was just esper money!" says Ren.

"I got it after I awakened but it was via said substantial chunk of the Korean economy, I wasn't yet making as much money off being an esper then."

"And the nepotism isn't homophobic?"

Handwobble. "Enh."

"It's a complicated situation but we have a consultant that might help us make it less complicated."

"A consultant?"

"Yes. The chairwoman of Hyundai group, I'm helping her with some things in exchange for her helping us with this." Why is he being so circumspect. "Also she's, uh, my mother, which is how I got to talk to her in the first place, but I feel like it would be—grossly misleading to lead any description of an interaction with her by calling her my mother." Wait is he coming off like a super ungrateful son. "It's complicated."

Ren blinks and looks at Haru.

"They did, like, the backstory of the Parent Trap."

"Oh my goodness."

"'The Parent Trap'?"

"It's a movie about a set of identical twins who were split between their divorcing parents as babies and meet at summer camp. They switch places."

"Ah. Well, my parents aren't divorced, at least as far as the public is concerned..." Okay you know what a great way to make one's mother-in-law concerned is, it's to have Jaeha's entire fucking family history. His family history is so concerning. "Anyway, yes, Kang Jaehyuk—my father—is homophobic, but my mother believes she can make it work anyway."

"Well, I hope that all works out for you two. Is business management interesting?"

"Parts of it are!" And he can chatter about the courses he's been auditing.

He is now getting a BAD grade in being a son-in-law, fuck. He can at least look pleasant, he supposes, and he will try to make up for it at a later point in the conversation probably.

Ren looks pretty pleased with him but maybe she just looks like that all the time.

"So how about you, anything catching your fancy recently?" he asks her during a lull in conversation.

"Oh, I'm taking an ikebana class -" She can show them her latest project, it's in the kitchen on the windowsill, and chatter about the teacher and the principles of flower arranging.

Yay he's Shown An Interest that's worth points too! He can ask interested and interesting questions and try to be pleasant company.