"What's the difference between - say the kitchen words again please, it's loud -"

"Bueok and jubang," he repeats, more loudly, and he is not thinking about it, definitely not thinking about it. Esper superhearing isn't enough for him to discern exactly what Haru is doing in the shower right now and he shouldn't even try. And he shouldn't be thinking about it anyway. "They mean the same thing but bueok is pure Korean while jubang comes from a reading of the Chinese word for kitchen. Most of the time you'll see bueok but some documents or literary works might use jubang instead." Good, he successfully distracted himself—FUCK.

"Okay, what about 'bedroom', is that just whatever the word for bed is and -sil?"

He said a quick shower and apparently it was; the water shuts off and Jaeha can hear towel-rummaging.

Okay good no more imagination. Definitely no imagination of what the towel is doing right now. None of that. "Kind of but kind of not. Bedroom is chimsil but bed is chimdae. Chim by itself has nothing to do with beds, though, it can mean spit or needle." Stop thinking about it. Stop thinking about it. Stop thinking about it. Stop thinking about it. Stop th

"Oh that's so weird, are those just homophones or do they have the same Chinese character underneath?"

"I think they have the same Chinese character, yeah. Maybe that character itself means bed or something."

"But what do beds have to do with spit or needles..." The door opens; Haru's shirtless but wearing his pajama pants. (If Jaeha peeks, yes, there's underwear.)

Jaeha doesn't lose his balance because he is an esper but he was not expecting the sudden lack of support on his back and does have to catch himself. "S-sorry, I was distracted," he says, hopping to his feet. "You meant the Chinese character for just chim? I think that one might be different actually, but I'm not totally sure, I'd need to look it up." It's totally normal that he isn't particularly looking at Haru because he is going into the bathroom to brush his teeth. And the mirrors are thankfully sufficiently fogged up Haru won't see his flush.

"And -" Oh, toothbrushing is happening. Yes-or-no-questions time, Haru guesses. "Is 'dining room' also a -sil?"

Heeee got distracted and forgot he was meant to be interestinggggggg. Thumbs-down, note to self tell Haru it's sigdang.

"Huh, I wonder why not. What about... basements."

Thumbs-up. He will brush his teeth quickly. Except that'll mean he'll have to face Haru again. He has an erection. He dearly hopes Haru won't look down. He kind of liked it better when he thought Haru barely tolerated him and he was focusing on being too prideful to properly entertain any such thoughts.

"Okay, so what are basements -sils of, then?"

He spits some water out so he can say, "Jihasil, underground room."

"Are ji and ha 'under' or 'ground', by themselves?"

"Yes. Ji is 'earth', both the element and the planet, and ha means under." Okay finishing brushing teeth now, good to go, he will act normal and not like he is concealing an erection, has Haru brushed his teeth already or.

Haru brushed his teeth in the shower. "Same spoon arrangement?"

"Yeah, that works." What if Haru noticed instead. What if he saw how pent up Jaeha was and said, no, that won't do, I'll help you with that, can't have you going to bed in that state. He could do that. Jaeha wouldn't be able to refuse because of course he shouldn't be going to bed in that state. Or maybe Haru would be so disgusted, and call him a slut and a pervert for harbouring such thoughts, and tell him to deal with it himself. Or maybe when they're spooning Haru's hand could brush a bit too low, and maybe it could stay there a while, maybe he could just leave his hand there and then not do anything more because it was entirely accidental, maybe he didn't even notice, it's just there. Or maybe—

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Haru hops into bed as though all is right with the world and burrows under the duvet and then holds up the edge for Jaeha to climb under too. "Is the ha the same one in your name or is that a different etymology?"

"I don't think my name has an etymology per se. It doesn't have a meaning, at least, I suppose you could read it as under ashes? Under wealth? But it's just the same first syllable as my father's name with a different second syllable."

"That's like, a thing, in Korea, right? Family syllable recombination." When Jaeha gets in bed Haru snuggles up and puts his top arm over Jaeha but at a decorous altitude.

What if it was at a non-decorous altitude instead. What then. He could do that. Jaeha would let him. There'd be nothing Jaeha could do about it. He wouldn't even see it coming. It'd take him entirely by surprise and he wouldn't know how to react and so he would end up not reacting. That's what would happen.

"It's not universal by any means but it's common enough, yeah, especially in more traditional families. If my father had raised any siblings of mine they'd probably also have jae in their names."

"- are you gonna take the bracelet off?"

"—right, yes," you moron you idiot you nincompoop that's the whole reason you're here. 

Will that kill his boner. Please say yes please say yes please say yes please say yes pl

No.

Fuck.

Well at least it's replaced the detailed fantasies. That's good. It's replaced them with self-loathing and disgust but those are better.