"Somebody oughta run a PSA."

"What, 'careful when interacting with a Korean person, they might be lying about their entire personality in order to look more presentable to you'? I am always surprised that this isn't common knowledge."

"I actually meant 'let's all be forgiving of people exhibiting personality traits, we all have them, even K-pop stars'..."

"I assure you there is plenty of discourse about this in Korea, for all the good that it does. This is responding to a real market demand."

"That's why I want to affect the market demand, I wasn't suggesting going and having a heart to heart with the music producers." Sigh. Snuggle.

Haru's phone rings and he answers it on immediate autopilot. "- sorry," he mouths to Jaeha, "backlash -" And then he sees who's calling. "...Sparkler? Hi? Did you misdi-"

"Traceless!" comes the very, very faint answer. "It's -" Inaudible.

"Ah," says Haru.

"It's fine?" he says, the volume of his voice lowering as he does when he realises that it's an esper on the other end so he should probably also be quiet.

Haru has his phone sound very low but Jaeha's face is quite close to Haru's. "- wanted to see if you, y'know -"

"Are you - wrong question," says Haru, "how drunk are you right now."

"Don't worry about it, I only -" something.

"Do you need me to call Arctic for you, or should -"

"Naaah," and Haru frowns fractionally at being interrupted. The next thing Sparkler says is in French but doesn't seem to be any more impressive.

...what? This guy is drunk dialing Haru at—when? It's barely evening? How much day drinking does he do?

Haru replies in French.

"I don't actually," inaudible.

"Ah, my mistake," says Haru, "you could've surprised me - does Arctic know where you are -"

"If she wants to," giggles Sparkler.

"Or Harvest Moon or your agent or - are you okay, I know you can't be too backlashed right now but -"

...wow. Jaeha can barely catch anything he's saying and the little of it he's catching is actually giving him a real poor impression of this dude.

"Look, Sparkler, you did actually catch me backlashed but -"

Something something "nothing better to do, do you" something.

"- but," Haru goes on when permitted to do so, "it's not otherwise a great time, how about I text Arctic for you so she can make sure you're okay?"

"I know how to -" something.

"Yes, I know, but you called me instead for some reason, so I'm going to do it, I still have her number. Where should I tell her you are?"

"I'm -" inaudible.

"...that'll just have to do then, I'll let her know and Pyramid too just in case, okay, and -"

"D'you wanna come over and give me a -" Inaudible, but guessable.

"No thanks, Sparkler, I just wanna make sure you're not going to walk into traffic, okay? I'm going to hang up so I can text Arctic."

"But -"

Haru looks like he'd rather rip off one of his own fingernails but he manages to hang up the call. "Okay now I have to text Arctic," he confirms this with a button-tap, "that Sparkler is drunk somewhere and calling random people and might need help... send text."

Jaeha squeezes Haru and rests his cheek on the side of Haru's head. "What the fuck?" he asks quietly.

"I dunno, it's not like he does this all the time, though I have suspected him of alcoholism in the past."

"I'm sorry, I did catch some of what he said, and 'nothing better to do, do you' is really not endearing him to me?"

"He has at least historically had pretty low opinions of both the feet-touching guiding method I do with June and also the concept of blogging."

"...I mean the feet-touching guiding method isn't the best, admittedly, but mostly in that I'm sad that—okay I don't actually mean this since I was a horrible monster at the time but I was already pretty good at blowjobs then—I'm sad you didn't have anything better? And what's wrong with the blogging?"

"I didn't draw him out on that topic extensively, I mostly used to listen to him, like, rate actresses out of ten, or explain craft beer. Maybe he thinks if I were 'serious' I'd write a book?" Shrug.

"...oh my God?"

"If he were any fun to hang out with I would probably still occasionally meet up with him when on that side of the country!"

"I'm sorry you put up with him for how long again?"

"Years. My standards for company get very low when I'm backlashed."

"Should I feel flattered that you spend unbacklashed time with me, then?"

"I have ulterior motives, but you are inarguably better company than Sparkler, if you were in any doubt."

"—okay out of those things the one I'm going to question is the ulterior motives."