"...I don't know much about Quakers except that they're Christians? That's very different from Buddhism." What the fuck.

"They're a weird kind of Christian but yeah, it's certainly something. I don't think she takes any of it very seriously, just tries it on as a frame through which to see the world?" He needs another slice of bread. Omf.

"Sounds very... lively. As a, uh, way to... be."

"She's very lively, yeah. I think I get - liking to be busy - from her, but I have more focus?"

"Yeah, I can see that." He's SO CUTE he should cease immediately.

"Can I bring her a Tupperware of this if there's extra? I think she'd really like it."

"Sure, feel free." It is So Weird that Haru wants to go through the motions of asking for permission for this kind of thing.

"Anything else go on here today besides epic stew and baking?"

"Not really. I exercised, I helped sort some forms for DDSI, but I haven't gotten any better at acquiring pastimes."

"Well, those are things and you did them, I'm not sure there's another standard of goodness at acquiring pastimes than that."

"...I suppose."

"...do you wanna see pictures of the dungeon, it's not very pretty but I got a decent shot of a couple geysers in action once I'd figured out their pattern."

"I'd love to." He wishes he were better at coming up with topics so Haru wouldn't feel compelled by the backlash to fish for something. He's starting to really dislike that look on Haru's face, it always makes him feel guilty.

"I'll pull up my photos," he says in the general direction of his phone, and then he can commentate between bites of stew and bread on the rhinoceros behavior and the geyser patterns.

Backlash sucks. He wishes he could be guiding Haru and not generally suck as a person while he does it.

...

NOT. LIKE. THAT. Get your mind out of the fucking gutter, Kang Jaeha.

Anyway, next time Haru looks like he's winding down but before he makes that awful face again Jaeha will say, "I don't have anything else in particular to do tonight so do you want to turn in and do Korean?"

"—language, I mean—" Fuck.

"It's, uh, a little late to decide to do Korean for dinner, so language it is! I could use a quick shower, do you mind yelling at me through the door while I do that - my phone's waterproof, so if that sounds like a hassle I can deal -"

"I can yell through the door." He is not sure if Haru missed it and he is not going to ask, let's just pretend that did not happen.

"Great." He brings his pajama pants into the bathroom with him. "So what's Korean for showering, is it a hada one?"

"Yeah, syawohada, funnily enough."

"Does syawo mean, like, the unit of cleaning activity, as in 'a shower' or does it mean the plumbing apparatus, as in 'in the shower', or both?" calls Haru, as the water goes on.

Jaeha sits on the floor with his back against the door. "Just the cleaning activity, but it can also be used to refer to, say, a gym's showers is syawo sil, shower room." Don't think about Haru showering. Don't think about it.

"Are lots of rooms something-sil? Kitchens? Bedrooms?"

"Yeah. Bathroom is hwajangsil, although kitchen doesn't use sil, it's either bueok or jubang." Don't think about the fact that Haru's not wearing any clothes right now, or about the water going down his body, about how he already knows what Haru looks like shirtless but has no idea what he looks like anywhere else, and he could, if he looked, but he couldn't look, not even by accident, and he should definitely not be thinking about it. Definitely not picturing it. Did Haru grab underwear with his pajama bottoms? Jaeha didn't see it but maybe he did. Or maybe he didn't. Would he be wearing just the pajamas? Fuck he shouldn't have thought about this, now he's definitely going to look and it's going to be so conspicuous when he does. Fuck.