Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Not for the first time Cassian found himself out of place. Truth be told, the feeling of displacement had become his new norm, he was inured to it by now. Mostly.

The cafe he was currently seated in was of the overly trendy and eclectic variety. Tucked out of the way, with lavender doors to draw passer-bys in, he probably never would have bothered with it if Crow hadn’t mentioned it after the last meeting.

It seemed the designer decided to go for a slightly busy, colorful aesthetic. Spaced out over hardwood floors, each table was unique and paired with brightly colored chairs which varied in type from melamine, wooden, to plush armchairs and even a hanging hammock by the circular feature window. Puzzling taste aside, allegedly their cupcakes, especially their lemon ones, were “worth stabbing a man for.” Of course, this was Crow and she rather liked throwing that threat around for any old situation.

Come to think of it, she'd probably been trying to drop a hint for Driver. A pointless endeavor as the man was caught up brainstorming his next project. Still! Driver’s loss, his gain. The occasional sweet treat was a nice break from the norm–there really wasn’t a convenience store or food stall in the area whose kimbap he hadn’t tried at this point (not that a cupcake or two was going to be dinner!).

Besides, he rather liked lemon cupcakes. They reminded him of DC–of Georgetown and the bakeries there he'd visit, probably too often for Jeff’s liking. The cafe’s version was pretty decent, albeit different from what he was used to back home (no raspberry filling). All the same, it was worth the money but probably not “stab-a-man” worthy.

Cupcakes devoured, he had only his drink and phone to occupy himself with. Thanks to the upcoming winter break, Cassian really didn’t have any pressing deadlines looming over his head. Sure, he was going to head over to the vilzone later, but there was no rush. It was cold out, he was finding that December’s in Seoul weren’t entirely dissimilar from DC, but today the wind had a viscous bite to it.

And so Cassian stared at his phone, as if that would somehow change the message therein. But no! The same cheerful conversation greeted him every time.

“That’s the third time you’ve reread that conversation since we got here. I don’t think her messages are changing.” Moros remarked, prompting Cassian to set his phone down with a disgruntled huff. “I take it you’re worried about Yuri’s upcoming visit.”

Cassian fiddled with his drink, now little more than ice, and if anyone thought he was pouting, well they were wrong! “Of course I’m worried. Things are quiet now but a lot can go wrong during her visit back home. She’ll be here almost a month too.”

Moros drifted away from Cassian, scanning the cafe’s other guests. “Hmm, you mean with the vilzones and Don King.”

“Well sure, but I’m also worried about Lampas. They haven’t been following protocol lately, it makes it harder to predict what they’re going to do next.”

“Cassian, you have another problem on top of that,” the noble soul intoned ominously.

“Oh really, what else do you think I need to worry about?” The villain responded nonchalantly, far too used to Moros’s dramatics.

“All this time you’ve been telling your sister you’ve been cooking for yourself. She’s not going to be impressed with your skills when she gets back.”

Cassian twitched at that. He wasn’t a bad cook! And he did use the recipe book the Kims’ had gifted him whenever he got the chance. The various dishes had turned out pretty well. Sure, there was room for improvement but that wasn’t the issue...

Everything took so goddamn long to make! Every dish was unfamiliar, had a million components that had to be chopped by hand and after all that hassle, he was only left with enough food for a couple sittings. As a student by day, villain by night, he simply didn’t have an hour plus everyday just to make one or two meals! Still he really ought to put in extra effort for Yuri’s visit and make a couple of nice, well put together meals.

What kind of foods does Yuri like again? He tried to think, she had a tendency of cooking lighter, nourishing dishes, maybe a soup would be a good idea? It would still be cold, after all. Then again, Cassian thought intensely while dredging up memories that weren’t his, Yuri likes spicy foods, doesn’t she? She’s just convinced that I-her brother’s too sickly to handle anything with too much heat? Did Gangu get sick a lot as a kid or something and that's why she's always sending me that awful traditional medicine? And what did spicy food have to do with any of that?

Cassian wasn’t sure, memories from further back require serious effort and even then they’re fuzzy and indistinct. One thing for sure, Yuri’s overprotective behavior was somehow both endearing and annoying at once. Thank god there was an ocean separating them most of the time.

Moros suddenly snapped back to Cassian’s side. “Heads up, you have a visitor.”

Looking up, Cassian is surprised to see that sure enough, Moros is right. The far less annoying of the Kim siblings seems to have found him and is headed his way, an apologetic look on her face.

“Hi, Gangu oppa, can I sit with you?”

Like always, responding to his new name causes a wave of dissonance to ripple through him, and that’s not even touching on the honorifics (the fact that Gangu had been a bit of a pariah was proving to be both a blessing and a curse). Pushing the feeling aside, he noticed Naeun's expression seemed strained, prompting Cassian to look past her to a couple of figures shuffling around awkwardly a ways off. Ah, so that’s the problem.

“Sure,” he responded while moving his tray to the side. “Trying to lose your shadow?” he asks, keeping his voice low.

“Yeah, it hasn’t been going so well today,” the teen sighed.

Something about her word choice caused the villain to examine the psyker carefully. “I’m surprised you didn’t let them have it already.” Cassian can’t claim to know the teen well, but from what he's seen Naeun has shown herself to be a quick thinker, good at improvising on the spot and not afraid of confrontation, either.

Naeun schooled her expression into something carefully neutral before taking a sip of her drink. “Sometimes a girl just wants to walk home without causing a public incident, y’know?” She faked a smile before adding, “I try to keep it down to once a month.”

Cassian frowned, “this kind of thing happens that often?”

“Every now and then,” Naeun hummed before taking a bite of her cookie. “It tends to pick up a bit after a big shoot gets released. Technically these guys have followed me long enough I could ask the police to intervene. According to the recent anti-stalking law these guys should at least get a warning notice for following me around, or investigated if they’ve done anything like this before. But, well...the neighborhood cops are tired of dealing with me,” she finished with a wince.

He blinked, shocked. “Seriously?” Over the years the former psyker had heard of stalkers harassing his fellow–now former–colleagues through the Lampas rumor mill. By and large, it always seemed like those issues were swiftly dealt with, guess it was a benefit of working for an international agency.

And the one time one of his own fans thought it would be a great idea to figure out what apartment he lived in, break into his car and lay in wait for him? The front desk may have dropped the ball letting her into the building in the first place, but security in the parking garage had been on top of their game.

Still, it was not a fun phone call to wake up to at three in the morning. A couple of weeks later and it was like the whole thing had never happened, he hadn’t even needed to move. (He did though, that front desk guy may have gotten the ax but it was better to play it safe.)

“Last time one of the supervisors told me they can’t just drop everything for me, there are real emergencies for them to deal with and I should try ‘talking it out’ first.”

Cassian doesn’t bother hiding his dismay. “That is literally the worst advice I’ve heard.”

“Yep, I got better tips from my agency. I’m just gonna kill time here and if they haven’t fucked off by the time I’m done, I’ll call my brother. And if he shows up with his seonbae even better because then I get a ride home and don’t have to walk.”

“You haven’t called him already?” He’s surprised by that. Whenever he’d been in trouble, real trouble, he had never hesitated to reach out to Jeff. “What would you have done if I wasn’t here?”

The rose haired girl had the good grace to look embarrassed. “Well, thanks to my ability I could see you were here ahead of time, and Uchan wasn’t responding to his texts so I figured, ‘why bother?’”

Ah, so that’s how it is then, huh? “So this isn’t a chance run in, is it?”

“I wasn’t looking for you specifically, just a familiar face. I’m not keeping you from something, am I?” The teen asked, genuinely concerned.

“Nope, it’s fine. I was just going to head to, um–” Cassian paused, realizing, I really shouldn’t just say it out loud, should I? “–work later.” There! Good enough.

“Work?” Naeun’s expression wobbled between emotions before landing solidly on amusement. “Is that what we’re calling it?” Moros, that bastard, bobbed around merrily in the background, single eye squinted up, clearly amused at Cassian’s expense.

“Look, I can’t exactly call it what it is right now, can I?” Cassian demanded, exasperated, less at Naeun and more so at a certain floating eyeball.

This time Naeun’s smile is warm and genuine. “Oh no, you’re right. I’m sure it keeps you busy. At least you get to set your own hours.”

“I mean, it’s technically the truth, I get a salary and everything,” he mumbled.

Naeun’s face scrunched up, “what really?” She just managed to catch herself before she could blurt out, “villains get paid?” and rephrases. “I didn’t realize your, um, ‘workplace’ actually paid. I thought it was more of a volunteer thing.”

He shrugs, “bosses do, dunno about the others to be honest.”

“Wait, who pays you? The government? Does that mean you’re a civil servant?” Naeun rapid fires.

Uh... “good question.” Cassian can make an educated guess, but he never really asked Driver where the money comes from–near as he can tell it changes hands several times before arriving in the account Driver had turned over to him months back–so there are a few possibilities. Most likely the money comes from the Korean government (Ministry of Interior and Safety), in which case the answer to Naeun’s question is yes.

Of course, in an incredible twist of fate, he could still be bankrolled by Lampas themselves. They were responsible for keeping villains in line after all, vilzone bosses were an integral part of that system. Then again he couldn’t rule out Winterbell either–they were the driving force behind the establishment of vilzone’s in the first place. Despite Gadam vilzone’s ties to the organization, Winterbell’s inner workings remained a mystery. A problem for another day.

There was also one final possibility: the money came from Driver himself. It wouldn’t have occurred to Cassian back then, when the former boss had been trying to recruit him...but now that he knew just how much capital Driver was playing around with in what he considered his “humble hobby?” Well, Cassian couldn’t completely rule out the chance that he had inadvertently ended up on Driver’s payroll. It’s not like he needed the money per say, still the idea didn’t sit well with him. For some reason the thought of it left a bitter taste in Cassian’s mouth. Moros probably would have scolded him for it, but Cassian had come to trust in and rely on Driver, to an extent. Sure, the other man had his secrets, no doubt about that.

But then, who was he to talk?

Curious, Naeun pressed on. This is way more interesting than her norm, after all. “Don’t you know?”

“You must be in a good mood, answering her questions when you don’t have to. Are you sure it’s a good idea?” Moros questioned.

“I’m not worried about it,” Cassian said, answering both. “And haven’t you heard? It’s bad luck to look a gift horse in the mouth,” and he sighed internally at the look of confusion that spread across Naeun’s face. Damn it! All those chapters I skipped from those Korean lessons years back because “I wouldn’t need to know it anyway,” is coming back to bite me in the ass, isn’t it? “I mean knowing where the money comes from wouldn’t change anything, a gift is a gift after all.”

Naeun looked doubtful before sipping on her drink. “It’s way too suspicious to be relaxed about.”

Honestly it’s amusing to see how indignant she is on the matter. But there isn’t anything to be gained by dragging the topic out, so he redirects. “You still haven’t told your brother about your powers yet, have you?

Naeun's expression turned sulk as she redirected her gaze out the window. “Even if your abilities make you more of a supporter you should still be stronger than the average person. I bet if you told your brother he could get Lampas to train you.”

At that, the teen grew surprisingly solemn. “Unlike my brother, I don’t want anything to do with Lampas.”

Oh, that’s unexpected. Cassian’s expression must give away his surprise because Naeun asked, “Is it really that surprising I’d think that?”

“Your brother’s practically a poster boy for Lampas, who wouldn’t be surprised?”

“We both know he’s not as picture perfect as he seems.”

If by perfect you mean one dimensional. I shouldn’t criticize, I used to be like that too. “Are you talking about the trainee incident or hell training last month?”

Naeun looked perplexed. “Hell training? What are you talking about?”

Ooof course. “Nevermind that.” He should have known better, really! It had been careless of him to ask. It shouldn’t have come as such a surprise, both siblings were keeping their own secrets. He just happened to be stuck in the middle of it.

“Um, excuse me? I mean, sorry? I need to ask something real quick.” Ah, it seemed one of Naeun’s shadows had grown bold or impatient. Maybe both. And why the hell didn’t Moros say something? Cassian assessed the intruder. He’s average built and looked ready to crumble in on himself, eyes downcast. He must be getting forced into this. At least the teen decided to walk up to the side of their table instead of behind Naeun. Of course this still means if he doesn’t leave voluntarily they’ll have to walk around him to get to the exit.

Not that it matters, he thought, glancing across the table. Naeun looked like she was ready to yell at the intruder, or throw her drink at him. And if necessary, to keep throwing things at him.

Cassian speaks up.

“Hey, can’t you tell you’re interrupting? It’s rude.”

The other boy floundered, having not expected interference. The tension built up in Naeun seemed to unwind a fraction, her eyes darting between the two boys.

And that’s when the real culprit comes in. Walking up from behind Naeun (damn-it!), standing head taller than his partner in crime, the punk swings an arm around his “friend,” looking casual while holding the smaller teen in place. “Hey, what’s with this mood? My friend here is a bashful kinda guy, don’t be so harsh to him. Can’t you see it took a lot of courage for him to come over?”

Cassian took careful measure of his opponent, not that it mattered. The lack of mana radiating from the punk makes him a non-threat. I dub thee, Punk Ass.

“So what? Bashful or not, you ought to respect others’ boundaries. Right now you’re bothering us.” And the fact that you’re using someone weaker than you to get what you want is pissing me off.

Punk Ass gave Cassian an obnoxious grin. “Oh? My bad, I tried warning my friend here. No way was a chick like yours single.”

“I’m Right Here,” Naeun bit out.

With the increased commotion, the villain could feel the room shift its focus to his table and him. It’s not like people didn’t meet up in cafes all the time, but the hostility between all parties present was palpable (the fact that Cassian had been talking to himself beforehand probably hadn’t helped to stay under the radar). Not just nearby tables were peeking over, but so were the staff. Not that he was unused to being the center of attention, but as Gangu Gwon, he didn’t want the heat. How would Yuri react if word got back to her that he was involved in an altercation? Last time they talked he’d gotten an earful for all the classes he had called out of–he needed to stay calm and wrap this up, fast.

Surprisingly, Punk Ass picks up on the sudden increase in attention with equal concern, he isn’t as dumb as he initially seemed. Could be a good thing, could be a bad thing. With a couple of staff members whispering to one another the jerk comes to a decision.

Punk Ass looked down at Cassian before sneering. “C’mon, let's get out of here,” and he jerked his companion away before adding, entirely too cockily, “I’ll be seeing you around.”

How fun, Cassian thought grimly. I suppose I could use a new punching bag.

“Amazing,” Moros finally weighed in. “Your terrible luck is truly astonishing. If you don’t go off looking for a fight for too long then the fight finds you,” the noble soul's words dripped with sarcasm. Though annoyed, Cassian let the words slide off him.

“You can’t blame me for a creep being creep,” the former psyker responded before taking stock of Naeun. From the rise and fall of her shoulders her breathing was rapid but she wasn’t hyperventilating; her fists were clenched and trembling. Good thing Cassian had first responder training drilled into him by Lampas. “Hey, Naeun?” Her eyes snapped to him, pupils dilated. “Dumb question time, but I need to make sure you’re okay.”

“Okay?” the teen’s voice cracked slightly. “I’m pissed! Why do jerks like him exist in the first place? It’s so gross.” Her voice shook, but grew stronger and steadier by the end of her short rant.

Any other occasion and Cassian would be amused. “Harsh, only one of them seemed like a jerk, the other guy just got dragged along for the ride. Not that we can do anything about that.” Unless I start going around, beating up bullies left and right in my spare time. I’m busy enough already.

Before he can suggest it, Naeun takes a deep breath and holds it for several seconds before releasing it. Cassian feels disquiet, unsettled at the thought that this teenage girl already knows what to do in this kind of situation, it’s happened enough. After a few deep breaths he asks, “How do you feel now?”

“Honestly I’m starting to feel terrible,” she replied, looking drained. That checked out.

“You should try sipping on your drink–wait, it’s not coffee is it?”

“Ummm,” Naeun looks at her drink, which could not be more obviously green. “It’s a matcha and red bean latte, does that count?”

“You did say it was dumb question time,” Moros remarked. “But even I can see that's not coffee.”

Cassian just managed to not roll his eyes, because really, how did he miss that? “Caffeine’s the last thing you want after a stress response like that. I’ll grab you something else,” he said before heading to the counter. A quick glance at the menu with nothing but coffees in view and Cassian decided on the direct approach instead. “I need to get my friend a drink that doesn’t have caffeine in it, preferably something calming. What do you recommend?”

A shorter staff member further behind the counter sprung forward, “Oh, I know just the thing! I can make her a lavender tea latte. Should I make it hot or iced?”

Cassian considers the question. A hot drink would take longer to finish, I hadn’t planned on being here for so long. Then again, maybe it’s a good thing if we take a while. It would lower the chances of running into the pricks from earlier again. Wait a second…

“You said tea latte?”

The employee smiled, eyes crinkling behind her glasses, “we have chamomile.”

“Oh, I guess hot would be fine then,” he said while pulling out his wallet. “How much…?” Now that he was looking for it, he didn’t see the drink listed on the menu.

The barista waved him off, “oh it’s nothing. I took your friend’s order when she came in, I noticed how stressed she was then–now I know why.” After pouring hot water for the chamomile to brew she moved over to a nearby machine. Once there, the barista jolted, as if having a sudden revelation and shot Cassian a suspicious glare. “You do know each other, right?”

He doesn’t take it personally. “Not well, but we’ve bumped into each other a few times. Her brother goes to my school, she just couldn’t get a hold of him.” There, true enough.

Satisfied the barista redirects her attention to drink making. “He’ll owe you after this, then,” the woman says just before purging the steaming wand, creating a loud hissing sound.

The thought of that made Cassian look away and shift awkwardly. “I don’t really care about all that.” And really, the less time he spent around Uchan as Gangu, the better. At least they have different homerooms at school. A glance back towards his table, Cassian checked to see how Naeun was doing. It looked like in the meantime she decided to force herself to eat her cookie, piece by miserable piece. She might as well be eating cardboard, for all she looks to be enjoying it.

Maybe I should grab her something for later, when she can actually enjoy it? Wait, why am I going through all this fuss? He wondered even as he turned to grab a tray. “Just a minute, I want to grab something for my friend–”

A tray with a steaming hot beverage and a small box tied up with lavender ribbon slid across the counter towards him. Cassian can’t hide his befuddlement. When did the kindness of strangers become such a source of confusion for him? “Are you sure?” he finally manages\ed to say, the words feel thick in his mouth. “I can pay, it’s no trouble.”

The barista shook her head. “It’s on me. I have a niece around your friend’s age, I know I’d be grateful if she had a friend willing to stand up for her like you. And besides, your friend will enjoy our pastries a lot more when she’s home safe. You’ll see her home, won’t you?”

“She’s putting a lot of trust in you, isn’t she?” The noble soul took the words right out of his mouth.

“Yeah, I was planning on walking her back,” Cassian murmured in response. “Um, thanks. Really.”

The walk back to the table is short and Naeun wordlessly moved her tray aside to make room. At the sight of the box she looked up, confused. “The one staff member wanted you to have it for later, so you could actually enjoy their pastries.”

“Oh,” the girl looked equally surprised as he was but quickly regained her balance. “I’ll have to thank them before I leave,” her smile is weak but genuine. Poor kid, he found himself thinking. She’s younger than my students but she’s already dealt with stuff they never had to by that age. And they had me training them!

…and where the hell are those punks anyway? It's been over six months already, shouldn’t they have come to face the villain who dared tarnish their master's name?

Unprepared for that train of thought, Cassian began to aggressively swipe through his phone for any kind of distraction. “The drink’s a lavender and chamomile tea latte. It should be calming,” he said before resting his chin in his hand.

Sensing the downturn in his mood, Naeun asks, “something wrong?”

“It’s nothing,” he says from around his hand. “Just work stuff.” And really, what’s one more lie?

And speak of the devil, Cassian could feel his other phone vibrate in his pocket. He heaved a sigh before pulling it out. What can Driver possibly be bugging me about? I said I’d drop by the vilzone sometime today but I didn’t say when, what’s the big deal?

Cassian held back his amusement. It seemed like Crow had commandeered Driver’s phone. Well, it could be worse. Aside from calling me duckling, Crow's not that bad really, once you get used to her. Thanks to Lampas, he had loads of experience dealing with "unique personalities.

Words he never could have imagined thinking even a year ago. He responded:

Cassian isn’t sure what amused him more. Crow, one of the most powerful villains in all Seoul, using a ridiculously cute emoji–or the fact that Driver had it on his phone. Who woulda guessed? Returning his phone to his pocket, he looked up to see Naeun watching him while she carefully sipped on her drink.

“Let me guess, ‘work’ was wondering why you’re late?”

He gives a noncommittal shrug. “They were just checking in.”

Naeun’s expression became downcast and she stared into her drink. “I’m probably really inconveniencing you right now, aren’t I?”

Cassian could hardly believe her words. “‘Inconvenience?’ Is that how that one supervisor put it?” The former psyker could feel his blood boil. “The man ought to learn how to do his job properly.”

He scrolled through his phone, unseeing. “You’re fine. I can stay, it’s no trouble.” His words come out more forceful than intended. Whatever. He gave up on his phone, his focus was too scattered for any distractions it might afford anyway. “How’s the drink?”

“It’s really nice, actually.” Suddenly desperate to avoid the threatening silence, Naeun grasped for something, anything to talk about. “What did you get? Before I got here, I mean.”

“I got a couple of cupcakes, the lemon and the red velvet one, and a strawberry ade.” Wait a second, I’m an idiot. I could have just ordered her a strawberry ade before! Annoyed at the lapse he shifted around in his chair. Whatever, it worked out in the end. Besides, now that he was looking out the window he wished he’d ordered something warm himself.

Naeun blows on her drink, almost halfway done. “I’ve never heard of a lemon cupcake before. Was it good?”

“It was pretty decent.” It’s tedious, keeping up the conversation. Not that he blamed Naeun, sometimes talking after a stress response helps. Cassian prefers moving, and while he’s not fazed by what just happened, sitting still is proving to be a chore. Hopefully she doesn’t take it personally…

The lull in the conversation stretched, Naeun no longer felt anxious about it and instead focused on her latte. The sooner I finish my drink, the sooner I can be home. I am so DONE with today. I wonder if I can get Uchan to order out when I get back?

The latte is uncomfortably warm but bearable as she gulps it down. Cassian blinks, mildly surprised. “You didn’t have to rush for me or anything…”

“I didn’t, I’m so ready to be home. Don’t worry, I can see the creeps aren’t outside.”

Cassian hums in response. Her skill is so difficult to understand. Before she said she could only see the past but now she can see what’s outside right now. I wonder if I should ask Moros to use [Power Analysis] on her? He quickly dismissed the thought. He may not have hesitated to use analysis to his advantage against a potential enemy, but against a tentative ally it seemed too invasive an action to take.

Nevermind that time with Driver, Cassian thought the other villain was a serial killer back then

“Who was it that gave you the box? I want to thank them before leaving,” her question knocked Cassian out of his train of thought.

He answered while nodding over to the right hand side of the counter, where the pastry cases were. “She's the one with the glasses and pink apron.” Everyone else’s were black.

While Cassian dealt with his own tray Naeun made her way to the counter, from the corner of his eye he watched as she thanked the woman from before. He can’t quite make out the words, but it doesn’t matter. Should I have thanked her again as well, he wonders halfheartedly. I’m sure it’s fine. He waits by the door for her to catch up and tries to appear untroubled.

They step outside and the crisp winter air wrapped around them. Breathing in, Cassian can feel his breath as it wanted to catch in his throat and he coughed. “This place is kind of out of the way. Want me to walk with you until it’s more crowded or something?”

The teen blinked, surprised yet again, though why? He’d hung around this long, hadn’t he? “I’d really appreciate that,” Naeun answered, looking relieved. “I never got a response from my brother, he probably hasn’t even seen my messages yet.”

A cautious glance and she adds, “I won't be putting you out of your way, will I?”

He shrugged. “It’s not a big deal, I can get around fast when I need to. Just let me know when we’re close enough.”

At Naeun’s confused expression he adds, “I get it if you don’t want me to know where you live. Just let me know when we’re a block or two away or something, then we can go our separate ways.”

He meant well, but something about his practicality just felt so…insensitive. Is that all you think of me–just some nuisance to look after? Maybe I should ask my brother for training. They walk in silence at first, broken only by Naeun speaking up to give directions. The psyker started to worry her lip, I’m not gonna have another chance to talk to him like this in who knows how long. Think Naeun, think!

Oh!

“Has the book been helpful?”

At his look of confusion she elaborates, “the cookbook! Has it been helpful?”

“Oh. Yeah, thanks,” if she didn’t know any better, she’d say he seemed embarrassed. “I probably haven’t used it as much as I should. It’s…been busy for me.”

“Work?” Naeun asked with a grin on her face, “Or hell training? No way I’m going to forget about that. Should I mention it around Uchan to make him squirm?”

The villain mumbled an unintelligible response and Naeun’s spirits lifted. Not just anyone could get away with knowingly teasing a villain! Even though her jab had been lighthearted she watched with dismay as Gangu’s expression grew pensive and even more distant. Don’t tell me my joke upset him? He's so hard to read!

As the silence between them stretches, Naeun railed internally at her predicament. Ugh, do I have to apologize? I deserve a free pass. A bug-your-local-villain pass, exclusive to me.

Finally, after what must have been a great debate, the other teen responded, “I guess I’ll be getting more use out of it soon. My older sister’s been in the States for awhile, she’ll be coming back home just before graduation.”

Internally, Naeun cheers, apology averted! “That sounds nice. Are you close? I’m sure your parents must be looking forward to her coming home,” she comments politely. Not that she knows anything about his family dynamics.

“It’s just the two of us, actually.” He says it so nonchalantly. Old news, distant memories and dulled pain.

And damned if Naeun doesn’t know what that’s like. Sure, Uchan and her have their uncle and auntie in Suncheon, and technically speaking their mother’s older brother and his wife were their guardians now. But that was just on paper. The years she and her brother had spent living further south had been difficult on everyone. It was a huge relief when an agreement had been reached, allowing the pair to return to Seoul on their own–it was the last will and testament of Kim Gwangho that Uchan attend a public high school in Seoul, and no one wanted to argue with the will of the dead.

Of course, the lease for the paperwork for their apartment had to be under their uncle's name. The first few months living alone had been interesting to say the least. Naeun was instantly popular at her new middle school. And Uchan was Uchan, serious as ever. (No, that wasn’t fair. He was different before, but she didn’t like to think about that.) Money was no object, budding careers aside, the siblings were set up for life with the life insurance pay out from Lampas.

A poor compensation for a life.

A sudden gust of wind struck them, and Naeun just managed to hear Gangu’s question before his words were carried away. “Hey, is that your brother?” If she didn’t know any better she’d say he sounded concerned.

Awareness rushed in and Naeun spun around, finally taking her surroundings in. How did she get so completely distracted she walked them both all the way home? Oh no, don’t tell me Uchan’s gonna lose it. Sure enough, her brother is footsteps away, he must have just walked out their building. Phone in hand, he looks equal parts concerned as perplexed, brows screwed up in consternation.

“Naeun, what’s going on?” He eyed Gangu warily. “And what is he doing here?”

Inwardly, Cassian sighed. I can’t get a break today, can I?

“What a shame, you were trying to avoid the red head and this happens.” The noble soul observed. Cassian could only bite his tongue, is it really necessary to point out the obvious all the time?

“He was walking me home,” the words are ground out as Naeun faced off with her brother. “Because someone wasn’t checking their messages again.”

The red head looked genuinely embarrassed at that. “Sorry, I had a meeting earlier with Chief Ham and I forgot to turn my phone back on afterwards.” Still, he eyes Cassian skeptically. “How did you two run into each other?”

“I was minding my own business, you know,” he defended himself. “But I wasn’t going to be an ass and leave your sister in a bad situation.”

Uchan’s expression well and truly soured. Was it discontent at being indebted to Gangu once again or was it anger for letting his sister down–Cassian assumed it’s both.

Now stuck out in the wind in another situation he wished he’d been spared, Cassian lamented, all I want is a day where things go to plan. And I make actual progress towards my revenge. But no, instead I’m stuck with this bullshit.

Though it must cost him greatly to make the polite offer, Uchan forced himself to say, “Thanks for looking out for my sister. Did you want to come insi–?”

“Nope,” rude or not, cutting Uchan off is a no-brainer, especially when it spared them both additional suffering. “I have somewhere I need to be.”

Unfortunately life has one more curveball to throw him.

Naeun spun around, a look of determination on her face. “Hold up, give me your phone,” she demanded, hand outstretched.

Cassian’s thoughts stutter. He’s pretty certain the temperature spikes, skyrockets really. Confused, he can only manage a less than eloquent, “uh, seriously?”

“How else am I supposed to text you?” she answered, with a roll of her eyes.

Is not texting me an option, he wondered. Then again, between her knack for trouble and her ability running at all times, maybe it would be a good idea to keep tabs on her.

“Her ability could prove useful,” Moros chimed in, as if reading his thoughts. Begrudgingly Cassian pulled out his civilian phone and unlocked it before handing it over. He could feel Uchan’s eyes on him like daggers (or maybe hot pokers) but he ignored it. I really hope I don’t regret this.

Task completed, she handed his phone back to him before saying, “there! Now we can meet up. I still owe you from before,” she said with a conspiratorial wink. “I’m not much of a cook but I’m sure I can help you get ready for your sister's visit!”

Uh what now?!

Moros, that bastard, that pest didn't even try to hold back, and burst into laughter. Before the red head can make a move, Naeun grabbed her brother by the arm before dragging him away to their building. As the doors closed Cassian made out an, "Uchan, don’t you even think of embarrassing me!" And finally, he's left to his own devices. So much for no regret.

By the time Cassian makes it to the vilzone he's positively fuming.

How the hell do I keep ending up in these messes?

Chapter Text

It was Sunday, Cassian ought to be relaxing. Or maybe catching up on chores or last minute assignments—who gives out class work so close to winter break? Instead, he knows he’s wasted half the day watching his phone with a vigilance he normally reserved for high stakes operations. It’s as if the device had turned into a ticking bomb, countdown remaining: unknown. Tip-toeing around it wasn’t going to help, so around 2 pm—his morning completely wasted—he tried his best to carry on like normal. There was still another week or so of class until break, and his classwork wasn’t going to finish itself, now was it?

I do NOT remember homework taking up so much time. Or being this hard, Cassian thought for the nth time this year. Is this what regular high schools are like compared to psyker academies? Thinking back to his teen years, he can’t help but feel doubtful. One thing for certain, Korean Literature was killing him. He may have spent countless hours of his youth reading to fill the time, but that didn’t mean he knew how to analyze texts the ways his teachers expected him to.

His phone rattled against the table and he winced. I really hope that’s Yuri…

He set his phone down before the inevitable reply could come in. Maybe he should have deliberated about the matter longer before shooting the teen down, or at least waited awhile before texting her to make it seem like he did. She clearly meant well, but no matter how he looked at it, the risks outweighed the rewards. The prospect of adding her skill to his hand of cards was appealing, he hadn’t hesitated to utilize Uchan when the opportunity arose—but the redhead had training. Naeun wasn’t prepared to be sucked into the world of psykers, villains, and worse. Cassian didn’t want to worry about having another person to protect.

His track record in that department wasn’t the best.

The black blob that was Moros caught the corner of his eye. It wasn’t uncommon for Moros to read over his shoulder—a fact which had taken some getting used to—but this time the entity in question stared at his phone with an unnerving intensity. Cassian didn’t like it one bit.

“I’m beginning to see a trend here.” Oh yes, Cassian most definitely did NOT enjoy the judgy look Moros somehow managed to impart despite being little more than a single eye.

“What are you talking about?” he demanded testily, annoyed as he’d been on edge all day.

“Cassian, you are a terrible texter.”

What? No he wasn’t! He was just fine at texting! His inner circle would agree—Rick would send him videos and horrible memes, and he’d respond with equally bad ones. Exchanges with Raul were always brief, to the point but consistent.

As for Tuppence? The only thing scarier than a phone call from Tuppence was a text. He still remembered the last message he received from her, just two words, “You're Late,” they sent a chill down his spine even now.

And Jeff…

Cassian scowled. “Like you’d know. Aren’t you ancient? I thought you’d have more trouble with modern technology, but you seem just fine with everything.”

“Hmph! If you don’t know something, just admit it,” Moros replied haughtily.

Attention diverted from his phone, Cassian leaned back in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. Okay, he thought, you want to play this game? Fine.

“You never mentioned how Jeff came upon your amulet. Was he the one who taught you about the modern world? Or were there others before him that kept you up to date?” Cassian pressed.

Moros didn’t respond, but he didn’t drift any further away, either. Dark tendrils wisped out from him like tongues of flame, eager to spread. Cassian’s phone vibrated against the table.

“You ought to get that,” Moros said, sullenly.

“It’s a text, not a phone call,” Cassian muttered under his breath even as he reached for the phone. He watched as the disembodied soul began drifting across the room again, an aura of gloominess surrounded him. Well, so much for that attempt to fish for information, he thought grimly. Not that I'd expecting much of it. Still, it’d be nice to learn something about the one-eyed menace, for once. A glance at his phone, no surprise—it’s Naeun. He suppressed a laugh as he read.

Cassian mulled over his answer, only to have his internal debate interrupted. “Meeting with the ‘other office managers?’ What does that mean—did Driver schedule something with the other vilzone bosses?”

“If he did, he didn't tell me about it,” Cassian responded, typing then deleting and typing again.

Moros bobbed up and down as he read the response in progress, “is it really necessary to lie to the girl? Her skill would be a great asset. And you need to learn how to cook Korean food. I should know, I saw you look up how to cook rice that time.”

Cassian ignored the jab as he switched convos to Yuri’s and scrolled way back. ^[1] Besides, that was ONE time, he didn’t know how to use the rice cooker then, so sue him! ...okay, now that he was thinking about it—being confronted with undeniable evidence helped—he could admit, maybe Moros had a point. He’d been putting less and less effort into his replies to Yuri lately. The realization left a bitter taste in his mouth. Yuri deserves so much more... Moving forward he'd have to push himself to do better.

Aloud, he told a different story.

“Yeah, but her brother already hates my civilian identity enough as it is. Spending more time around his sister is not going to help that. I don’t need to explain why that kind of attention is a bad idea, do I?”

Moros huffed at that. “Such a trivial concern considering the stakes you’ve been dealing with. Not to mention, with her skill, she’ll need protection no matter what.”

He’s got a point there, he admitted, with great reluctance. Maybe I can have Driver keep tabs on her? But then I might need to give him a reason for it. Will “because I’m the boss and I said so,” do the trick? Somehow, Cassian doubted it, the engineer’s curiosity was boundless. Maybe Shadow Ghost could do it? He's strong enough to handle most situations and I know I could tell him “keep tabs on this girl, no questions asked. And take out any creeps following her, trouble likes to find her.”

Then again, what if the situation got misunderstood, and he was the one mistaken for being a stalker?? A shudder threatened to run through him. Oh, the irony.

He hit send.

A nerve Cassian didn’t know he had in him sang as if struck. Who did he even consider a friend these days? The answer didn’t bear thinking. Sure, he’d been getting more comfortable with the other vilzone members lately, that revelation had been unsettling in of itself. (No, he wasn’t in denial—Shut Up!) But with Naeun, it never even occurred to him that her motivations could be entirely selfless. A wave of shame rolled over him. He'd gotten so used to everyone having their own agenda regarding him, from Moros to Driver, Neo Centry to Winterbell; Cassian was just another instrument in their grand design. Had it been any different with Lampas?

God dammit! He set his phone down as if burned.

…he hadn’t vacuumed in a while, had he? That’d be a better way to spend his time, right? Something unambiguous and productive to clear his head. Besides, last he'd seen him, Driver had insisted Cassian take a break, so the training room was a no-go. Mind set, he marched across the room to the closet, pulled the appliance out and got it set up.

“Cassian?” Moros sounded confused. “It’s not like you to run away from anything, much less something so small.”

“I’ll deal with it when I deal with it. It’s not going anywhere, is it?” he responded, refusing to look up.

“Suit yourself,” the being hesitated a moment. Then, realizing that nothing could be done to change Cassian's mind, Moros disappeared into his pendant. Any other occasion, and the prospect of having a night of peace and quiet would have had the villain elated. As it was, there was enough chatter in his head to make up the difference.

~~~ ⁂ ~~~

He never did get back to answering Naeun that night. Or the following one, for that matter. It wasn’t entirely intentional. Every time he returned to their conversation, the right words just…wouldn’t come. “Sorry, I forgot there were nice people out there,” nope, not that! “I didn’t realize you were being sincere,” oh, did that sound terrible. “I don’t have any friends, actually,” well that was just sad. And wrong, but Cassian wasn’t ready to admit it out loud yet.

On Wednesday, his inaction caught up with him.

ARE YOU OKAY YOU DIDN'T GET IN A FIGHT DID YOU? The words scrawled across the screen as soon as he unlocked his phone.

Moros laughed when he saw that. “She knows you have a problem picking fights, I see.”

“That’s not exactly special knowledge,” Cassian retorted.

“Knowing you have a problem is always the first step,” Moros pronounced with smug finality.

Cassian wasn’t in the mood for criticism or analysis. Or Moros’s pompous, know-it-all attitude. He began typing another excuse when he felt the mood of the room take on a frosty chill.

“You shouldn’t keep turning the poor girl down, you know.”

Moros’ words came as such a surprise, Cassian failed to hit send. Instead, he looked up to the floating eyeball. “What’s it to you?” he challenged. “You keep telling me not to blow her off but I thought you’d be glad I wasn’t getting sidetracked by something unnecessary again. Don’t tell me it’s ‘cause I, ‘need to learn how to cook,’ nonsense again. I can always watch some Newtube videos to learn how to make something impressive enough.”

The noble soul remained silent, but his form flickered, and dark tendrils threaded out from him. Cassian was left with the impression that the being was annoyed and searching for a reason to explain his objection. A shareable one, that is.

Cassian had decided: he was going to get to the bottom of this.

“Don’t tell me you’re actually worried about my relationship with Yuri, ‘cause I don’t buy it.”

“What relationship? You go out of your way to avoid her at every turn,” Moros retaliated.

Cassian blinked. What? Where the hell did that come from? He scrubbed at his face, annoyed. I already have enough to deal with, now I gotta take care of whatever the hell this is before it gets out of hand, too? “What’s your problem?” Aaand he’s off to a great start!

Moros remained tight-lipped as ever—what a shocker. Well, if the Almighty Soul didn’t feel like answering, then it was time for Cassian to do what he did best—instigate. An idea popped into his head and he grinned.

“Are you bored?” At this point, Moros had started to float off and was facing away. The way his tendrils rippled up and down told Cassian he wasn’t far off the mark—how unexpected! He pressed his attack.

“You could have just told me you were bored, you know. I would have turned on the TV or something.” Cassian considered that statement for a moment. Moros didn’t need to be exactly by his side at all times, he’d allowed the distance between them to stretch on numerous occasions. The exact limitations of their connection remained a mystery; the dark, one-eyed soul didn’t see fit to share the exact conditions anytime soon. “Or I could have gotten you a tablet, what kind of show do you think you’d like watching?”

It was uncanny how the being rotated around and closed the distance across the room in an instant. If not for years of training, the former psyker might have flinched. “I am an Ancient and Noble soul! Not some child in need of a distraction!”

Cassian continued on, seemingly nonplussed (he always was good at ignoring small, barking dogs). “What kind of genre do you think you’d enjoy more,” he asked while toggling through the options under Yuri’s account. “A drama or maybe a documentary? Oh, I know. Reality TV.” He gave Moros a smirk. “You have a lot to catch up on, being an ancient and noble soul, right?”

And then he hit play.

Cassian liked to think he wasn’t just petty, but also practical, so he was glad he was finally getting using the noise-cancelling headphones he’d bought several months ago, again. Only reason he didn’t use them more often was because a Certain Someone liked to pull the fun game of “Didn’t I tell you that before? Oh, it must have been When Your Headphones Were On.” It got old real fast. (To his credit, Moros did give him breaks from the non-stop criticism after that.) Evenso, Cassian was willing to risk another round of that game, no way was he actually going to listen to whatever nonsense he had playing on his laptop.

Of course, the best noise-cancelling headphones in the world didn’t mean jack shit when Moros was angrily hovering an inch from his face.

“You are a terrible and poorly mannered child,” he heard as he removed his headphones.

That got a bark of laughter out of him. “Is that your idea of insulting me, calling me names like that? You’re going to have to do way better—I haven’t heard such lame insults since the orphanage.” The caregivers, not the other kids.

The tendrils that composed of Moros’s outline thrashed rapidly, his eye still narrowed. Then, as if thinking the better of it, the being rotated away. “Hmph, still haven’t grown up, I see.”

That caused the villain to roll his eyes. “Let me guess, everyone must seem childish to you, ‘an ancient and mighty soul.’” He paused, thinking. “If it was really so terrible, you could have just gone back into the pendant. Why stick arou–?” The question hadn’t even fully left his lips and Moros was gone. Well look who's running away now? he thought bitterly. Come to think of it, there had been so many occasions where Cassian asked difficult questions only to be ignored or deflected—what had prevented Moros from noping out the way he had just now? Cassian couldn't help but re-envision all those previous occasions. Only now, the scenarios end with a certain ball of dark flames pulling a disappearing act. Poof, swoosh, gone!

Sure, It never happened that way, but the idea it could have pissed him off!

…I’m going to start a coin jar for all the times he calls himself “ancient,” or “noble,” or “mighty soul,” he thought, spitefully. And when it’s full, I’m going to find the most obnoxious thing I can to buy with it.

No. Cassian wasn't petty at all.

~~~ ⁂ ~~~

It’s Saturday evening when he hears from Naeun next. He never did finish his response to her Wednesday night after his squabble with Moros; it was still there uselessly in his drafts.

Cassian stared at the message, he’d called many a bluff in his career, facing off against villains and the like. He knew what a bluff looked like and what situations he could get away with it if he were wrong.

This…wasn’t one of those occasions.

While he had no intention of testing her, his mind couldn’t help but run through all the possible ways having her wander into the vilzone could go wrong. Depending on who she encountered first, she'd either end up in trouble and need rescuing or far, far worse—drawing a crowd looking for entertainment. He can picture it now, somehow the idiot trio have managed to round up a good chunk of the vilzone as an audience to the impending train wreck. Shadow Ghost was there because, well, why would he miss it? Driver was handing out bags of fresh popcorn to the crowd (how did he always manage to have them on hand?). Drones broadcast the show for all not present.

Oh no, no way was he risking that!

“Well, well! It seems like you don’t have a choice now!” Moros announced, entirely too smugly for Cassian’s liking.

“Can it,” he snapped. There's only one answer he can give, still he hesitated.

Cassian liked to think he had a decent sense of direction (combat training with Lampas had drilled into him the importance of quickly memorizing layouts and identifying all exit routes, among other things), he thought he had a general idea of the apartment building he had walked Naeun to, but, as he had promptly headed topside, catapulted himself from one shadow to the next until he reached the vilzone…it was better to play it safe than end up on the wrong side of town.

Maybe, if I’m really lucky, this won’t be that bad.

Wishful thinking was all he had at this point.

~~~ ⁂ ~~~

Turns out Naeun sending her address to him had been a good thing, Cassian had been completely wrong about the direction of her apartment. Luckily, he’d only walked a block before catching his mistake. It wouldn’t have been half so annoying if Moros hadn’t razzed him about it. Guess he was still pissed about the recent headphones episode.

Mentally, Cassian ran through what to expect once he arrived (as if he hadn’t already gone through a half dozen scenarios the night before). Naeun was a friendly, albeit tentative ally. She said she was taking care of the Uchan problem, he could only hope she followed through on that front. The psyker really needed to gain better control over his fire, he shouldn't be affecting the environment like that! A regular civilian would get hurt. Not to mention, it was a dead give away to his mental state, made him easy to manipulate.

The entire train of thought caused him to sigh as he waited for Naeun to meet him at the building's entrance (though inconvenient, he'd honestly been relieved when she had enough sense to not just give the building's code out to him). Much as Cassian found it rewarding, he really needed to drop the whole mentoring Uchan thing. The psyker had improved by leaps and bounds thanks to his tutelage leading up to the Festival of Corruption, but eventually there would be a limit to how far Red Mask could go. And once he fully joined the ranks as a regular, who knew what Lampas would ask of the red head? They had managed to not cross paths as enemies since the Bloodrain incident, it’d be nice if it stayed that way.

Should he be so lucky.

“Welcome in!” Naeun’s greeting was warm, as she opened the door for them both and stepped past the threshold. It’s enough to lessen some of the unease coiled in his gut. A quick glance around as he toed off his shoes, and tried not to feel awkward about it—but this is the first time he’s been invited to another’s house since the whole dying and being reborn thing (roaming the vilzone or popping into Driver’s workshop didn’t count). But it finally looked like fortune was with him—there was no Uchan in sight. Thank goodness for small miracles.

After slipping into her house slippers, Naeun made her way around to the small dining table that separated the kitchen and living room. “Have a seat, oppa.”

Cassian shouldn’t be so caught off guard by the honorific again, he really, really shouldn’t! Still, he fails to fully suppress the jolt of discomfort it sent through him. At school, he’s avoided by one and all (the occasional run ins with Uchan notwithstanding). Whatever spark of Gangu remained inside of him only responded with confusion at “oppa” being directed at him, of all people!^[2] When it came to the vilzone, regular society rules weren’t really a thing there. Besides, he was The Boss! No one was going to give him grief over something like that.

Of course, this entire issue took him back to one of the several problems he’d been trying to avoid: Rick and Raul. They were the only ones to regularly use honorifics with him that he actually felt comfortable with. Since early on they’d called him hyeong, his Korean had been so rusty back then he hadn’t even remembered what the word meant. Once he understood, it became their thing, and secretly or not-so-secretly he’d been thrilled! He had been trying his absolute best, but wasn’t sure if he was pulling off the whole, teacher-mentor-big brother thing. How had Jeff made it look so easy? Guess the fact that he only had one little brother to deal with had helped.

Earning the pair's trust hadn't been easy, Cassian had been glad he never gave up. But now after Lampas’s betrayal and months of waiting, what did their time together amount to anymore? He tried reminding himself to be patient and trust in them, but every day was an exercise in suppressing thoughts of all that he lost. It was a matter of routine, same as pretending to move on and adapt to his present circumstances.

But maybe he didn’t have to adapt to everything just yet.

“Just ‘Gangu’s’ fine, you don’t have to use ‘oppa’ for me. Really.” Now that the words were out of his mouth, Cassian wished he could take them back. That had to be the strangest sounding request ever, he berated himself, why did I have to go and do that? He resisted the urge to facepalm.

Naeun looked surprised but not put off. Okay, so maybe it’s not as huge a deal after all…

Surprise was quickly replaced with curiosity, and the teen seemed caught in her own internal debate. “Did you only just move back to Korea recently or…?”

Now it’s his turn to be surprised. Had he been doing that bad of a job blending in?

“Sorry!” She raised her hands apologetically. “That was probably insensitive of me. I should have noticed it sooner—you looked uncomfortable and you mentioned before that your sister is in the US and, um–”

Cassian scrubbed at his face, annoyed. “That wasn’t a normal request.”

“It’s not super uncommon to tell someone they can drop honorifics with you, if that’s what you like!” she smiled reassuringly. “You could say it was a lucky guess. For one project, my friend and I had to work with a lead photographer from Vancouver for several shoots. He messed up honorifics all the time until he just gave up. Your request just reminded me of him.”

“But that’d make him Canadian,” he blurted out before he could stop himself.

Naeun looked excited, her guesswork had paid off! “Where did you use to live, then?”

The villain resisted the urge to facepalm (again!), and forced his aggravation down. I’ve been cooped up for so long with no one but Moros and villains to talk to, I wind up spilling more than I should about myself to the first normal person I speak with? Cassian lamented the sad reality of the matter even as he ran through his options. On one hand, it’s a perfectly convenient cover story to explain away any future weirdness, because apparently I’ve been screwing up and not knowing it! On the other, Ga-er, Gwon Gangu’s never lived anywhere but Seoul.

…But Naeun’s not going to know that unless she meets Yuri. I can definitely prevent that from happening.

“I used to live in DC,” he finally admitted. “That’s—”

“That's the US capital!”

“—yes, but I was going to say it’s on the other side of the continent from Vancouver.”

Naeun smiled at that. “Because that’s what really matters?” she joked.

Cassian could feel Moros’s gaze as it bore a hole in his side. And what’s his problem, he thought testily. This was his idea in the first place! At least he had been granted the small mercy of the talking eye’s silence. “It makes a difference,” he said, walls shifting back into place. Distance. He needed distance.

Seeing that he had started to withdraw again—apparently he could only open up for so long—Naeun decided to drop it and returned to the real problem at hand. Picking up Uchan’s copy of the cookbook, she asked, “what recipe should we try out first?”

That got Cassian to perk up, and he reached into his bag. “I brought my copy too, I was looking at some of the soup and stew recipes last night.” And if there was a buzzing in his ear angrily declaring, “no you didn’t!” Well, he ignored it. It was fine, he had looked at one point for sure.

Naeun lit up, “you know what would be perfect in this weather? Doenjang jjigae! It’s perfect with mixed rice, gyeran-mari and gaji-namul!”

That was the soybean paste stew, wasn’t it? Cassian flipped his own cookbook open to the recipe. “I didn’t want to worry about any banchan recipes yet, I was going to focus on the main dishes before I bother with them,” no idea what gaji-namul is, at least I know gyeran-mari is a rolled omelette. “Besides, I can just get ready-made banchan from the market, no problem.”

The other teen looked delighted, “that seems like a plan, F-mart isn’t far from here, but Litte’s has the best banchan, we’d have to take the train but it’s not too many stops away.”

Cassian considered the two options. “I’d rather go to F-mart, there’s no sense in making a big deal over the first try. Carrying groceries on the subway is a pain we might as well avoid.” That and the memory of the multi-level grocery store was too much to handle._[3]

Rick and Raul had dragged him there to buy all the snacks they had been missing but couldn’t find in DC. The trip had been an ordeal.

Naeun nodded, looking happy enough. “Good thinking! Let’s head out in a couple of minutes, I want to grab my coat real quick. Can you be in charge of the shopping list?”

“Sure,” he agreed easily enough, before Naeun disappeared around a corner. He snapped a picture of the recipe with his phone before pausing. Should I bring my bag with me or leave it here, he debated. He wasn’t going to need it in the store, it ought to be perfectly safe in the Kims’ home, but he also wasn’t in the habit of leaving his things lying around. Naeun seemed trustworthy enough but she was clearly curious about him. That settles it. He slung his bag over his shoulder, made his way to the door and waited.

Hopefully Naeun isn’t the type who takes forever to get out the door,

The streets of Seoul didn’t have the same feel to them as DC, but a big city was a big city. Cassian had been growing used to it over the past six months, it was no longer strange going from side streets with no sidewalk to speak of to more familiar, wide avenues with eight lanes of traffic._[4]

Still, he followed Naeun’s lead as she expertly navigated the sidewalks, pointing out some of her favorite places along the way—"that stand has the best tteokbokki, don’t go there, they’re overpriced. That’s my favorite stationery shop! If you need a gift for your sister and she likes that kinda thing." He hadn’t been expecting the neighborhood tour as part and parcel of the bargain, but the info was helpful all the same. This part of the neighborhood was new to him, he didn’t get any sense of familiarity from Gangu either, though he rarely got any feedback from that inner spark these days. He tried not to dwell on it.

Walking in, the two waffled around for a moment, deciding between a handbasket or a shopping cart. Fortunately, Cassian had a coin in his pocket, so a cart it was.

“Do you want to split up or…?” Naeun trailed off.

Cassian shook his head. “Nah, it’d be best to stick together,” he replied. What else was he going to do? Stand around outside and try to avoid getting drawn into another arguement with Moros?

“Are you worried you’ll turn around and find her in trouble again?” Moros's question floated in behind him.

What is she, twelve? He frowned, “I wasn’t before, thanks,” he said under his breath, hoping to go unnoticed.

Naeun raised an eyebrow at his seemingly out of turn response. “Was that your ‘friend?’”

“‘Pest’ is more like it,” he grumbled in response, which earned him a look of amusement and a glare accordingly. That was fine, he’d been getting lots of practice at being polarizing, lately.

Naeun’s expression took a complex turn, and Cassian wasn’t sure what to make of it. Like he was being assessed or evaluated for something. “Maybe you can tell me about him sometime,” she offered quietly. “If you’re comfortable with it, I mean,” she added.

The villain nearly startled visibly with alarm. Really, he’d been lucky she hadn’t brought up Moros again until this point. How the hell was he supposed to explain away their relationship? Yeah, about that. So I got MURDERED but brought back to life by this eyeball looking thing with claims of nobility or something. Now I’m stuck with him at all times because LAMPAS may be willing to stop at nothing to get their hands on the amulet he’s tied to. And they probably wouldn’t mind killing me again while they're at it… And yep, that IS the same Lampas your brother works for.

Yeah, that would go over really well.

Looking back over her shoulder, Naeun gave him a reassuring smile. “It’s okay, you can think about it. Right now let’s find the vegetables we need, how’s that?”

Relief washed over him, and he pushed himself into action. He unlocked his phone for the recipe. “We need zucchini, onion, radish, green onion and chili pepper” he rattled off. “There’s also pork and tofu. And garlic.” He frowned, “wait, do you think you have any of this in your house?” Green onion, garlic and onion were staple ingredients, right?

“Um,” the girl looked chagrined. “I guess we should have checked before we left, huh?”

Cassian felt beleaguered but had no room to judge, he hadn’t thought of it before, either. But then he had a good idea what was and wasn’t in his home.

“Already things are off to a great start, I see.”

“Don’t be rude,” he said over his shoulder before facing Naeun. “We’ll check next time, right?” Guess I’m committed now.

“Definitely!” Green onions spotted, he grabbed a pack and added it to the cart. While he was at it, he grabbed a bag of peeled garlic, it’s not like garlic goes bad, right? Besides, I don't feel like dealing with paperwork.

He glanced at the recipe again and noticed, “huh, there’s some other stuff we’ll need if we make the broth from scratch.”

Naeun craned her neck to look, “like what?”

With a sigh and glance heavenwards, Cassian handed over his phone, “see for yourself.” If Naeun’s surprised by the show of trust, she doesn’t let on (she kept his secret this long, hadn’t she?). Instead, she starts mumbling as she reads.

“I know we have gochugaru and doenjang, Uchan said he was getting some last week.” She squinted at his phone in concentration, “we definitely have myeolchi at home, I see them in the freezer every time I get ice.” She stuck out her tongue at that. “They’re the big ones too."

Oh, Cassian realized. So it's normal to have anchovies in the freezer. Yuri must have been using them to make different soups. He recalled when, not long after his sister's departure, he had been searching the freezer for something to eat. Expecting a premade meal, he had stared at the bag and it's contents, perplexed. The multitude stared back at him and into the freezer it went, face down. As per the usual, it was another convenience store dinner that night.

… I really should have been using my cookbook more often.

“I’m not sure about the dashima though,” she said, sounding unhappy with the admission. “I know we ought to haven't used any recently.”

“Better to play it safe and get some, then.” Then he realizes, I have no idea where to even find that in this place. It’s kelp, right? It’s not like shopping in a regular US grocery chain, where he can go to the “Asian aisle” and find everything all at once. “Where should we look for that?”

“The dry seafood aisle?” her shaky tone didn’t inspire confidence. “No, it’s in the seaweed aisle.”

There’s a whole aisle for that? He doesn’t think he looks surprised by that (maybe overwhelmed), but he must because Naeun looked sympathetic.

“I guess everything here is different from what you’d gotten used to, huh?” Chili pepper acquired, into the cart it went.

He shrugged, non-committal. “I just stick with what I know mostly, I got used to western food, on my own that’s what I normally make. Yuri’s the one that likes to make the more traditional Korean meals. I want to treat her while she’s home.” Maybe then she won't nag me as much, goes unsaid.

Naeun listened and nodded along–she knew what it was like being the younger sibling–and she examined a white and green root vegetable Cassian could only infer was the radish. It almost looked like a daikon, though white and green and far thicker. “I don’t think we need that much radish to make the soup…”

“I know, but no one takes just half a radish home. Besides, Uchan makes really good musaengchae. So—!” she shrugged as if it couldn’t be helped, then added it to the cart. Which raised an important question, what was going to happen to the leftovers? Cassian had considered the issue last night but hadn't arrived at a conclusion. He wasn't quite sure what musaengchae was either, something to look up later.

“Don’t tell me you’re using ‘helping me’ as an excuse for a free meal?” Maybe it's just the fact that the whole situation is utterly absurb, but honestly—using one of the most feared villains in the city as a meal ticket? It's hilarious!

That earned him an annoyed glare. “Do you want to do something nice for your sister or not?” the psyker challenged. He’d been right in his previous assessment of the teen. Bold and argumentative.

“I could have figured it out,” he responded as nonchalantly as he could, Lampas coaching for media interviews having kicked in. With all the supplemental damage control and crisis management courses he had to take, Lampas’ strategy to minimize was practically ingrained in him.

Naeun scoffed. “You would have spent an hour looking for one ingredient.”

He couldn't help raising an eyebrow at that. What about this situation says “make fun of the vilzone boss?” He kept his tone unbothered. “Don’t be ridiculous. I would have just ordered some.”

“Pfft!”

Okay, Cassian thought as he felt his mood begin to lighten. Maybe it’s nice talking to someone who treats me like I’m normal, for once. I shouldn’t get too used to it, though. It’s not like this is going to become a regular thing!

“Where do you normally shop at, not here, right?” the teen asked suddenly.

The same conversation he had with Yuri almost every phone call replayed in a split second’s time, Cassian braced himself for the worst case scenario before mumbling. “Normally I just go to the convenience store by my apartment.”

Naeun blinked, “oh really?” Though her tone was polite, Cassian didn't trust it.

“Yeah, what about it?” Nope, that definitely wasn’t him sounding defensive! And what was there to be defensive about? Lots of people ate at convenience stores every day!

The psyker covered her mouth and turned away. “Having a good laugh?”

“Yes, but it’s not like that!” Now recovered, she brushed her hair to the side. “It’s not a big deal or anything, it’s just so normal. Honestly, If it wasn’t for Uchan, I’d probably be at the convenience store every day, too.”

That’s a pleasant surprise, actually. “Really?”

“Sure! It's called convenient for a reason, right?” She smiled briefly before continuing. “So when we first moved back to Seoul we weren’t really ready to be on our own, but living with our aunt and uncle was…” the teen paused, searching for a diplomatic way to phrase things. “...not good for anyone,” Cassian knew understatement when he heard it. Did he have some relatives that needed to be taught a lesson? He took note of that bit of info, promising to follow up with it later should he hear anything else of concern.

“It was such a relief to move back. I think we lived off convenience store and market food the first couple of weeks. When classes started, I got my breakfast from the shop on the way to school.” Cassian winced when he heard that, remembering Bloodrain’s modus operandi. If Naeun caught the fleeting expression, she didn’t show it. “It’s just easier like that, especially now that I’m busy with classes and modelling.” She glanced up at him, her expression serious. “Next year is going to be the worst, if I don't bring up my grades soon my uncle's gonna make me do after school classes AND tutoring, ugh!” She heaved a dramatic sigh and fumed. “I don’t need to do well in literature to be a designer.”

Cassian couldn’t help but sympathize. His CSAT score in the subject had been abysmal, psyker academy hadn’t really been concerned with metaphors or identifying literary themes. Naeun picked up a packaged pair of zucchini.

“We only need one,” Cassian pointed out.

She shrugged before adding it to the cart. “Well now we have two. I don’t see any single ones, do you?” A quick glance around the produce bins proved Naeun right.

“She has a point,” Cassian’s ever present critic piped up.

The villain shrugged and they pressed on. Luckily there were single onions available, he didn’t know what he’d do if he’d been stuck with a bulk bag of them. French onion soup was good and all, but it took forever to make. Waiting for the onions to caramelize with a critical eye hovering over your shoulder couldn’t possibly turn out well. He’d already been stuck with more than one ruined meal thanks to Moros distracting him. After the third time, the pain in the neck had the actual gall to say, “you really ought to pay more attention to what you’re doing, Cassian.” As if he wasn’t the source of the problem!

Now past the produce section, Cassian spotted the different tofus. “The recipe said, ‘soft tofu.’”

Naeun pulled a face. “What, really? That’s not the right kind of tofu for this stew. I’ve only ever used the extra firm kind in doenjang jjigae.”

The pair stared at Cassian’s phone for a moment, baffled. “Is there a ‘regular’ tofu?”

Picking out the pork is relatively simple enough. Only problem, Cassian realized, was the recipe called for a mere 85–90 grams, the smallest package they found was for 190 grams. Which brought up an even bigger problem…

Cassian's sense of metric measurements was absolute shit.

How many ounces is 190 grams? He used his phone to look up the conversion. The package felt light, less than a pound, for sure. The converter confirmed it, only 6.7 ounces. That's even less than I expected. He slid his phone back into his pocket. Thanks to the convenient cover story he had inadvertently stumbled into earlier, he had the perfect excuse to explain why he's used to imperial measurements. Still, the less he has to admit to being utterly lost, the better!

Now he was beginning to remember why he hadn’t been using his cookbook as much as he expected to. In The Past, if a recipe called for half a cup of some vegetable, he had a good enough sense of what that looked like that he could eyeball it. But 85 grams pork, 115 grams radish, 255 grams tofu and 500 ml anchovy stock? No clue!

Better I’m confused now than having Yuri get on my case later, he supposed. He resolved to write down the converted measurements in his cookbook later.

The dashima wasn’t in the dry seafood aisle, that was where the dried anchovies, which they didn’t need, were. Instead, the dashima was with the other seaweeds, so good enough. Naeun selected a packet that looked familiar while Cassian glanced at the shelves packed with seaweed, roasted and unroasted, seasoned and unseasoned, gim sheets designed specifically for triangle gimbap. If he ever got ambitious, he knew what to buy to make tuna mayo triangle gimbap at home.

A project for another day.

Now with all the ingredients acquired, Cassian wondered, is this soup going to be enough for a whole meal? His only solid frame of reference was soybean sprout soup, and that had been relatively light fare. It probably needs some banchan to go with it. Maybe they have some of the ones Naeun mentioned earlier? Cassian hadn’t lied earlier, he really had been sticking to what he recognized this whole time. With everything in his life turned upside down, having something small and familiar helped give him a shred of normalcy he desperately needed. It had been awhile and he’d acclimated…enough. Maybe with some extra guidance, he could try something different for once.

“Where are the banchan at?”

They find the aisle with little fuss, turns out there’s a lot. Even with some spots empty, the assortment of ready-made sides is impressive. Some he recognized, others were completely foreign. He scanned the labels, I think Naeun was talking about blanched eggplant before. I didn’t even know you could blanch eggplant.^[5]

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the psyker make a discovery she found exciting.

“Have you ever tried this before?” she asked while holding up a container labeled beoseot gangjeong.

Candy…mushrooms? ^[6]

How does that even work?? “Um, no?” Why would anyone do that??

Eyebrows scrunched up at his confusion, Naeun reexamined the container for an answer to the current misunderstanding. “Oh, the mushrooms are fried like the traditional sweet but they’re not actually covered in a super sweet syrup.” Reading the ingredients a bit more, she added, “this one has gochujang and honey in the sauce, so it should be spicy and sweet.” She smiles brightly, ”you should try it!”

Well, that sounded a lot less alarming. He accepted the proffered container and added it to the cart. “Sure, fine. I was trying to look for gaji-namul but I haven’t seen any. But I don’t really know what it looks like,” he admitted.

Fortunately for him (or maybe unfortunately? Jury was still out on that one), Naeun is quite good at reading between the lines.

“A lot of these are new to you, I’m guessing?” At least she doesn’t sound judgemental about it.

“I recognize a few.” Braised lotus root and tri-colored rolled omelette catch his eye, as do soy braised beef, braised soybeans ^[7]and seasoned spinach. Everything else? Maybe he tried them once upon a time but he struggled to place them.

“Mind if I pick a couple more out?” Naeun asks. “It’s better than taking the time to make it, not liking it and being stuck with it.”

“It’s a good thing you’re getting her help,” the words floated up from his side before Moros came into view. “She has more sense than you do.” Ah, Cassian had been wondering when the levitating eyeball was going to weigh in again. This afternoon hadn’t shaped up to be quite the debacle yet, and okay, maybe he was actually learning a thing or two.

For all Cassian liked to stick to “the usual” out of habit, he was by no means a picky eater. All the time he spent in the orphanage and the occasions where food was withheld from him taught him the importance of overlooking textures and flavors. When he was finally out of the orphanage, it had been quite an experience learning what he did and didn’t like.

So most things he’s willing to try once.

“What were you thinking of?”

The teen took a moment to browse the selection before picking out another container. “How about this? It’s kkaennip kimchi.”

Perilla leaf kimchi, huh. Cassian recognized the name from Korean barbecue nights with Rick and Raul back in DC. “What else?”

Naeun glanced back to the sides and pulled out another container packed with skewers. “This is a good one. They’re better with dipping sauce but that’s easy to make. I bet we can reheat them in a pan.”

The label identifies the side as sanjeok, vegetable and meat skewers. While unfamiliar, they look inoffensive enough. Glancing at the cart, Cassian realized, that added up fast! “Sure, but I think that should be the last one, we still have to carry all of this back.”

“That’s fine, I brought my shopping bag, so I can carry my fair share back.” And with that they make their way to the checkout lines.

They almost manage to make it through checkout without event. But, while waiting in line, Naeun pulled out her wallet and fidgeted for a moment before speaking up. “I can pay,” Cassian angled towards her to listen as she spoke. “It’s the least I can do, since this was all my idea.” Alright, maybe she felt a teensy bit guilty about the whole threatening to march into the vilzone to find him thing. Considering all the mayhem the Gadam vilzone has been wrapped up in lately, he probably hadn’t needed the extra hassle.

Internally Cassian railed at the offer, he was an adult, accepting money from a kid felt weird. Not that Naeun realized that. Trying to be a high school student was proving itself to be harder than expected. “If that’s what you want, fine. I’m not too worried about it, maybe my sister will be happy to see I went to a regular grocery store for once.”

Intrigued by the mention, Naeun asked, “what’s your sister like?”

For a split second, Cassian is mortified to realize he isn’t sure how to answer, Moros’s accusation from a few days ago still ringing in his ears. “Oh well, y’know,” he started awkwardly. “She worries, a lot.”

Naeun looked amused at his unenlightening response, “besides that. She’s older than you, right? Is she going to school or work?”

“She works,” he responded. “Her job sent her to their main branch for training. They’re paying for everything, so it wasn’t an opportunity she could pass up on.”

“That must be nice, I’ve never left Korea.” Suddenly Naeun’s eyes light up with excitement, “after I graduate, I’m going to go travelling with my best friend, Minyeong! It’s going to be great!”

Cassian couldn’t help the smirk that spread across his face. “I’m sure your brother will love that.”

The joyful grin slipped from Naeun’s lips to be replaced by a scowl. “I was planning on having fun,” she sulked, "not be boring and responsible. Besides, Uchan wouldn’t be able to come even if he wanted to.” She deflated and went silent.

The villain matched her silence with his own introspection. It didn’t take a genius to figure it out, come Naeun’s graduation her brother would be a full-fledged psyker working for Lampas. A fact that she didn’t like. “You don’t want your brother to join Lampas.”

She shrugged, having long since accepted defeat. “It doesn’t matter what I want, it’s what he’s wanted since he was little.”

Well, if that doesn’t sound painfully familiar…it’s enough to make him wince. A gesture that unfortunately doesn’t go unnoticed. “I take it that’s a familiar story for you?”

The implication was clear, but all the same, Cassian remained silent. Let Mr. Know-it-all fill in the blanks. Besides, it wasn’t fair Moros knew so much about him while Cassian knew next to nothing of Moros in return.

I wish I could tell her she doesn't have to worry so much about him. But then I'd be lying. Luckily, it was their turn in line, and they loaded their items onto the belt in silence. When it came time to pay, Cassian let Naeun cover half. He still had his pride, after all.

The former psyker had a lot to think about on the walk back to Naeun’s apartment. As far as information gathering goes, she’s not doing a bad job, he admitted. Not that anything I’ve said so far has been important, but that’s how all good intel starts. He can imagine the mental image of him that’s being constructed in her mind. Of him, Cassian, the villain, and of Gwon Gangu, the student who was, okay—maybe—just a little out of his depth.

Good thing she’s not working for Lampas, her reaction at the café and just now had been too genuine to be an act. On top of that, she’s obviously curious about him. It can’t be helped. Truth be told, he was in the same boat when it came to the other vilzone members. Just what did they do all day? He can imagine Driver, caught up in some new project, distracted for days on end—but what about the others? Do they have double lives like he does? Has he crossed paths with one of them and not realized it? Considering his run-ins with Mujin—who probably didn’t even live in Gadam—the possibility seemed high.

Now back in Naeun’s apartment, the two set about unpacking their items. Pork, tofu and banchan now safely in the fridge, while the vegetables piled up next to the sink, waiting to be cleaned. Thanks to the smallness of the Kims’ kitchen, counter space was limited. If Cassian was being honest, it surprised him to see what a small and modest apartment the two had. Sure, it was bigger than the first studio apartment Cassian had back in DC, but that was a low bar to reach. The building itself seemed well maintained, though a bit dated, in comparison to the building he and Yuri lived in. Then again, how expensive was their own apartment? He had a rough idea of how much such a large apartment would go for in DC, was it just as expensive here in Seoul?

While his professional psyker career hadn’t gone as expected, he was nevertheless with Lampas long enough to know of several insurance payouts. Every time a fellow psyker was killed in the line of duty, the suits showed up to settle what was owed to whom. With the Kims’ father having been a top class psyker, the amount of money the two should have been awarded was surely no small amount. They’ve probably been getting installment payments over the years, managed by relatives or a trust. He shook his head, as if to end that train of thought. Not that it’s my business or anything.

From the freezer, Naeun retrieved a large zippered bag. “We should get started on the soup base first. That’s what we need the anchovies for, right?” Not that Naeun had forgotten, she just wanted to reconfirm.

Cassian retrieved his cookbook from his bag. “Yeah, the dashima too. Hold on, let me see what else,” he added, while flipping through the book to the correct page. “I was wondering, do you think we have enough to double the recipe?”

Naeun froze in place, a dark earthenware pot in her hands. “Maybe, I guess? How come?” She hadn’t been paying attention to the measurements when she’d been looking at the recipe on Gangu’s phone earlier, and truthfully, it had been ages since she last helped make doenjang jjigae.

“Well, no one takes half a zucchini home,” turn about was fair play, right? “And it’d be nice to use up all this pork instead just some of it.” What are we going to do with the leftovers anyhow, Cassian wondered once again. On one hand, it’d be less hassle if she kept them. But then again, if he’s going through all this effort to make something, then shouldn’t he get to keep at least some of it?

The teen looked thoughtful as she considered his proposal. “Let me see if we have a big enough pot,” she said before returning to rummaging about the cabinet. A brief clattering of metal ensued, followed by an “ah-Ha!” and she emerged victorious, large pot in hand. “Okay, let’s get started!”

.

.

.

.

FOOTNOTES

¹ Gangu only had a handful of text threads in his phone when Cassian took over. Obviously there was the one with Yuri, then their phone service provider. Of course there were threads from Gangu’s bullies too, Cassian was more than happy to block and delete those. But somewhere along the line Gangu's number got accidentally signed up for ads from a shop in Ulsan, even though he’d never been. The kid never unsubscribed or blocked the number. Whoever the intended recipient, the shop always referred to them in a fond and caring manner. It made him feel like there was one other person out that cared about him too. Cassian let it go.^{[return to text]}

² Hearing namdongseang, or little brother, brought equal parts sadness and joy. ^{[return to text]}

³Cassian is thinking of Lotte (Litte) Mart at Seoul Station or Zettaplex location, which is four stories. ^{[return to text]}

⁴Having watched a variety of city walk thrus of Seoul, one thing that caught my attention was on smaller side streets there were times when there was no sidewalk at all. Just the road all the way up to the building and people walking in the street as a result. ^{[return to text]}

⁵Cassian has misunderstood what “namul” means due to his limited exposure to the term via the cookbook. Every namul style banchan he came across involved blanching, so he assumed the name was referring to that cooking technique. Really, namul covers a wide variety of vegetable dishes that are seasoned and stir-fried or blanched. ^{[return to text]}

⁶Another misunderstanding based on technique! Gangjeong refers to a confectionery treat, a rice puff that has been deep-fried and coated in a sticky syrup, it also refers to the overall technique of deep-frying and coating in a syrup/sauce. There’s also dakgangjeong or sweet crispy fried chicken, among others. ^{[return to text]}

⁷I tried identifying the foods that Yuri made back in episode 7, gyeran-mari is pretty iconic and kimchi seems like a given. Kongjang (soy braised soybeans), jangjorim (soy braised beef) are educated guesses. I’m less certain about oi sobagi (stuffed cucumber kimchi) and well, I just like lotus root.^{[return to text]}

Chapter Text

With a suitably large pot now acquired and set on the burner, the gutted anchovies soaked therein—according to the recipe, they needed to rehydrate along with the . In the meanwhile, Cassian busied himself with washing the vegetables in the not so far end of the kitchen. From the corner of his eye, the villain watched Naeun as she scoured through the narrow pantry for the and . One after the other, he set the cleaned vegetables down on a thin kitchen towel. Now done, he turned around and caught Naeun staring into the fridge, a troubled expression spread across her face.

He raised an eyebrow, “problem?”

“Oh it’s nothing,” despite her reassurance, her brow remained furrowed.

Cassian debated whether to pry. Had their places been reversed, he most definitely would have preferred a lack of harassment, he'd had more than his fair share this past week. Besides, the last thing he needed was to start another exchange that would cause her to delve into him more. Better to let it go. “If you say so.”

Fortunately, despite the limited counter space, the siblings had two small cutting boards, so the pair were able to work in tandem preparing the other ingredients. Though he rarely used it for anything besides breakfast foods, he found himself sorely missing his kitchen's open layout. The Kims had a narrow, enclosed galley kitchen—it was cramped, to put it mildly. Thus far, he and Naeun were managing to not bump elbows non-stop, but that was only because Naeun had placed her cutting board atop the induction cook top. The entire time Cassian was at the sink, his need to have immediate access to all exits had been screaming at him—danger!—he tamped the feeling down as best he could.

Moving on to the task at hand, Cassian prioritized the remaining stock ingredients, while Naeun tackled the other vegetables. After halving it for the broth, he advanced to slicing the remaining portion of the onion needed for the soup. The knife was dull, soon Cassian’s eyes stung from cutting into the allium. "Thinly sliced,” the recipe said, but at this rate he’d settle for roughly chopped. He glanced ahead at the recipe, he had zero sense of the steps involved here. What goes in when, he wondered while scanning the text for answers. Out of habit, Cassian started to reach for a cabinet before thinking the better of it. This wasn’t his kitchen, after all.

He angled towards Naeun, carefully so as not to bump into each other. “Do you have a large bowl we can use?”

“Sure,” she leaned over and reached up into a cabinet. After a brief moment of rummaging about, she set a bowl on the counter. She watched as he transferred the onion into the bowl. “Do you mind if I take a look at your cookbook real quick? I'm curious about something.”

Cassian tried not to look too critical of the question. “Don't tell me you don't know how to make this,” he said while handing the book over, only to have Naeun immediately close it by accident. She winced at her mistake, only to frown when she processed what Cassian had said.

“Of course I know how to make doenjang ,” the teen said with a roll of her eyes. “Maybe it’s been awhile but—” she trailed off, as if attempting to recall the last occurrence, only to come up blank. “—that's not the point! I wanted to see if it had any other weird ideas, since it wanted us to use soft tofu.” No longer distracted, she started flipping through the book’s pages.

“It's toward the front,” he supplied as she was running out of pages to leaf through.

Having now found the desired page, she began to read. “To be honest, it's a little tricky, every house has their own version of doenjang jjigae. Do you know what your sister likes in it?” It wasn’t the kind of question he could answer without considerable deliberation, standing around for that would be awkward, so he shrugged. She sighed and read on. “I’ve never heard of anyone sautéing the doenjang with the pork before. Normally I’d add it in after pouring in the ssalddeummul.^[8] What do you want to do?”

Cassian considered that information for a moment before responding. “Well, you’re the expert here, we can add it in later.”

Satisfied, Naeun handed over the book with a nod, before picking up where she left off with the zucchini. “You know, normally I save chopping the green onions and the tofu until the end. Are you sure you want to chop them now?”

He shrugged his shoulders, not caring if Naeun didn’t see the gesture. “What else are we going to do? The and dashima are supposed to soak for twenty minutes. It hasn’t been that long.”

Naeun made a small sound of acknowledgement and added her roughly chopped zucchini to the bowl before moving on. Strong Mind and meditation exercise be damned—Cassian’s thoughts ran rampant. Nothing had gone wrong so far, and he had already learned a thing or two the book for beginners hadn’t bothered to include (guess even it expected a certain amount of base knowledge). He ought to feel relieved.

Still, he recalled how Naeun had mentioned she wasn’t much of a cook, it briefly made him wonder—am I getting help from the wrong Kim sibling? No, that had to be jumping to conclusions way too fast, he dismissed the worry, but not without effort. Besides, he reasoned, what could I possibly say that would get Uchan to willingly help me out in such a capacity? He’d have an easier time approaching the red head as Gadam’s vilzone boss, in need of a favor. That conjured quite the comical image! He moved on to the green onions, tossing the whites in the soup stock and slicing up the greens.

Mincing the garlic made for a sticky mess, but at least he didn’t have to deal with the frustration of peeling the cloves as well. After a couple of minutes, he was able to add the garlic to the growing pile of vegetables filling the bowl.

For her part, Naeun had moved onto the radish. Cassian watched, genuinely curious—he had no familiarity with the root. First she peeled it, rotating the root in one hand while the other worked the peeler. Outer layer removed, she set the radish down and with a dull thwunk against the cutting board, she sliced a portion off. She held it out to Cassian, “you need some too, right?”

He hummed his thanks and set about chopping, while watching Naeun from the corner of his eye as best he could. She sliced her round in half before turning it flat side down, curve up. Slowly she sliced through the radish as thin and evenly as she could. Cassian only had to chop his segment into large chunks, which he added to the pot. After watching her progress for a moment, he asked, “want me to slice the other half?” Then amended, “if you think we’ll need that much, I mean.”

Naeun eyed her pile of sliced radish and attempted to judge its size against the pile of vegetables in the bowl. “Uh, let me just, plop it in the bowl to see if it looks right,” before she did just that.

Cassian couldn’t help but feel mildly amused, “isn’t the radish supposed to go in on its own before the other vegetables?”

The teen hmmed quietly before responding, “sure, we can do that but I need to make sure it looks right, y’know?” She drummed her fingers on the counter. “I think we need a little more, maybe just half of that piece.”

“Let me try,” Cassian said as he reached across, plucking the radish segment from her cutting board before setting it down on his own. He turned it on its side and began to slice away as Naeun picked the radish back out of the bowl. Despite the dullness of the knife, the radish was easy to split into narrow strips. “Like this, right?” he checked.

“That’s right,” she quirked an eyebrow at him. “Have you never used radish before?”

He shook his head, “I never saw this kind in the US before. Normally it’s the small red ones or daikon. Sometimes I’d spot watermelon radish.”

Cassian could tell Naeun was turning that bit of information over, extrapolating out from it. Not really sure what she can glean from that but okay. After a moment's silence, she spoke up, seemingly measuring her words. “Since you don’t know Korean food very well, maybe instead of trying banchan from the the store you should go to one of the big markets? There’s so many food stalls, it’s a great way to try out different things for cheap—I know some really good ones! Oh,” she clapped her hands excitedly, no longer uncertain. “How about the big landmarks, like Namsan Tower or Gyeongbokgung Palace–have you been to any of them? Do you know your way around the whole city, or just Gadam?”

Ah, fuck.

“Oh-ho, how impressive!” Moros crowed, once again delighted at Cassian’s expense. “She's not even using her ability, but she asked you all of that. Go ahead, tell her about the time you got lost and ended up at Namsan.”

The villain in question suppressed a grimace, at the memory and at the jab. This is why I was relieved Gangu didn't have any friends, he thought, feeling beleaguered. Then, realizing the callousness of his thoughts, he guiltily amended. I mean, the kid deserved way better than what he got, but I’m having trouble picking up where he left off. Maintaining a convincing act had become an unending burden for the former psyker. From a distance things seemed fine, but up close the illusion quickly fell apart, all thanks to the small, dumb details he didn’t feel like bothering with. He always did get in trouble after mission briefings for messing up the details…

A sudden, sinking feeling gripped him. How many things was he getting wrong while in the vilzone that just got politely—or not so politely—written off? Sure, he'd been called “different” by Driver more than once, but Cassian had assumed that was just his Lampas training coming through. Perhaps that was only half the issue.

Damn. How the hell was he going to fake it around Yuri for three whole weeks? Sure, he managed to survive living with her right after the Big Change, but that was when she had work and he had classes. With nothing to distract her, Yuri’s entire focus would fall to him, her dear little brother. Without school he wouldn't have a justifiable excuse to avoid her.

It was a shit situation.

Naeun stared at him, still waiting for an answer. Sightseeing. She had asked him about sightseeing. The way he looked at it, he had limited options: answer truthfully (ew), deflect (a go-to, sure, but he was sick of being on the receiving end of that one!), or get defensive. And that's how the words, “what am I, a tourist?” came tumbling out of his mouth.

To her credit, the psyker seemed both unfazed and unimpressed. “So that's a no.”

“So what?” he responded snarkily. “Don’t tell me I have to go sightseeing with you now too, what else do you plan on blackmailing me into?”

Naeun looked shocked briefly before her expression morphed into indignation. “That’s not what I was bringing it up for!” she protested. “Your sister is visiting from out of town—out of country—the two of you should go out and do stuff together while you have the chance.” She waved an arm, gesturing to their setup on the counter, “you can’t let her know you’re doing well with just a few meals. And you can’t just disappear to ‘work’ whenever you want, either.” Having unleashed her ire, she regarded him much more coolly now. “Have you even thought about what you’re going to do about that? Your sister and ‘work?’”

She was good at guessing or his panic showed, because next she suggested, “maybe you could tell her about it?”

“No,” his answer was sharp, immediate—it cut off whatever reasoning the teen was about to launch into. Naeun frowned and bit her lower lip, as if she needed the physical restraint to maintain her silence.

“Have you thought about it, though?” she tried again, voice much quieter.

Oh, had he ever.

“It’s a bad idea,” he explained, gaze averted. “She’s been out of the country almost the entire time since I awakened, even if I wanted to tell her, I couldn’t do it over the phone.” He took a steadying breath before his next admission. “If I told her, she’d just—she’d blame herself for it. She shouldn’t beat herself up for something out of anyone’s control. Also, if things go wrong at some point, I want her to have plausible deniability,” he stated, giving up on all pretense of veiled speech. The obvious, "Lampas has it out for me," goes unsaid.

The two stared at one another for a moment, the atmosphere post admission threatened to smother them both. I…hadn’t even thought of doing anything special during Yuri’s visit, he realized. Hopefully his sister wouldn’t feel the need to go to the crowded, super touristy spots Naeun had listed off, but maybe some of Surely she’d be making time to spend with her friends. Oh no, what if they went out drinking again and he had to be there to help to her room? Shit, I’m going to have so much to talk to her about our next phone call…

Naeun had given him a lot to consider—even if they were topics he dreaded—and he went and lashed out at her for it. He sighed. “That was rude of me. You were trying to help and I was an ass about it,” he said, by way of apology.

“At least you know,” the teen huffed, annoyed but forgiving.

A sudden wave of stubbornness evaporated any lingering traces of guilt he felt, and he pointed out. “Hey, I’ve been too busy to worry about any of these things. I mean, you’ve seen how often I've been in the news thanks to work,” switching back to what barely passed for code caused the psyker to snort. Well, it was the truth for once—being Gadam's vilzone boss had become a lot more demanding than when Driver first purposed his deal some months back. Said boss glanced down at his cutting board, he’d been so distracted with Naeun’s questioning that he’d sliced through the entire portion of radish by accident. “Oh. You said we only needed half of this, didn’t you?”

“It's fine, I’ll just set it aside for Uchan to figure out. Unless you want to take it home?” She looked to him for an answer, he shook his head in response—what was he going to do with radish, put it in a salad? Into the fridge it went.

“Perhaps we're seeing why her brother is the one who does all the cooking, if she's more than happy to leave work for him like that,” Moros noted.

Cassian hummed in response. It was a pleasant turn of events, having the opinionated being direct his criticism at someone else for once. For her part, Naeun didn’t react to their exchange. And if her ability showed her the “scene” later, she’d think nothing of it.

“There’s just the tofu and pork left now, which do you want?” she asked, the door to the fridge still wide open.

“I’ll do the pork, I want to see how you slice the tofu.”

Naeun looked concerned by that,“you had to have been able to get tofu in DC.”

He rolled his eyes, “of course we could, I just never used it for anything I made.”

The teen seemed far from mollified by his explanation, but she let the point drop all the same and retrieved the final ingredients from the fridge, handing him his share.

Cassian tore into the packaging, while Naeun cut into hers. Stepping around him, she drained the tofu into the sink before placing it on her cutting board and patting it dry. “I’m going to do it like this,” she said before slicing the tofu block a couple of times down its entire length. “Uchan likes to slice it horizontally in the middle like this but,” she made a slicing motion towards the middle of the block, her hand holding the short side in place so he could see as she explained.^[9]

She tipped the block onto it’s side before cutting it down its length once more. “Doing it like this is fine, it’ll look the same. I think he just likes to do it the other way to look fancy.”

Cassian smiled at that and began to slice into the pork as Naeun continued with the tofu. It was an amusing, if inconsequential, tidbit of information. Have the stock ingredients had long enough to soak yet? he wondered idly. He hadn’t been paying attention to the time, but whether it had or not, Cassian wasn’t sure he felt like standing around and waiting any longer than necessary. Pork now sliced, he set his knife down and washed his hands.

Her task now completed, Naeun slid her cutting board off the cook top, it scraped and skidded its way across the counter. She fussed over the prepped ingredients a moment, pulling the pot to the front burner. “I think this has been soaking long enough, want me to turn the heat on?”

“That’ll work.” With nothing to occupy himself with, Cassian suddenly felt awkward. He forced his hands to remain at his side, he wasn’t prone to nervous fidgeting, he certainly didn’t want to start now. But what to do in the meanwhile?

As if reading his mind, Naeun interrupted his thoughts. “Guess there’s not much to do while the anchovy stock heats up. I’m going to catch up on my *Nsta messages,” Naeun declared before settling in at the table, her gaze already focused on her phone. He held back a sigh of relief and grabbed a seat and began scrolling aimlessly through his phone. News articles he’d already seen, messages from his sister, reread. After a few minutes, Naeun broke the silence. “I know what you meant with that ‘hell training,’ comment now.”

Cassian raised his eyes and watched Naeun closely as she continued. “At first, Uchan said he was going to a study café, to get ready for entrance exams. But then every time I saw him in the evening, he'd be using an ice pack. I asked if things were so bad at all the cafés that he got into a fight over a table.”

That elicited a laugh out of him. “Some probably were bad, I nearly got into an argument over a book once.”

Naeun raised her head at the mention of the bookstore incident. “Don’t exaggerate—you gave me that book, you can't complain about it now,” she argued. Her gaze shifted away from her phone, her hands stilled as she continued her recounting. “Anyhow, so then he said he decided to go training instead, but it’s not like my brother to change his mind like that. I knew he was hiding something. One morning I had a vision of a training session.” She gave Cassian a look of reproach, “did you have to be so hard on my brother and the rest of your people? I know I didn’t see everything, but from what I could see it seemed way too harsh!”

The former psyker shrugged, “that's how I was trained.”

Naeun shuddered, “that's horrible!”

Oh, he realized, suddenly conscious of his apparent age. She probably thinks I was younger than her brother for that. I mean, I was for some of it. Cassian wasn’t quite sure how he felt whenever a civilian expressed horror at what he grew up with. Part of him wanted to think, she just doesn’t get it. But after what Lampas had done to him, maybe he was the one who didn’t get it.

Wait a minute…

“Hold on, when you first told me about your skill, you said you could only see things that happened around you—how could you see what happened in the vilzone? We’re nowhere near there.” He narrowed his eyes at her, “you weren’t trying to sneak into it, were you?”

The teen shook her head vigorously. “What? No!” He watched as the gears in her head had started turning, trying to puzzle out the answer to the point he had raised. “Maybe it happened because we’re related? I think it was halfway through ‘hell training’ that I had my vision, so he would have attended several training sessions by that point. If that makes a difference.”

Moros lazily floated into view, “her powers seem to be expanding, it would be useful to know if there was a pattern. You should ask her if she keeps track of her visions.” Cassian spared him a sidelong glance, but otherwise refrained from outwardly acknowledging the shadowy pest.

“So at least one time you were able to see what happened to another person when they were outside your usual range. I don’t suppose you’ve been keeping track of your visions?” Pestilence or not, Cassian would be remiss if he ignored the question Moros had raised.

Naeun made a face at that, before opening another app on her phone. “Sometimes I'll make a note of them, a lot of them are boring though.” She began ticking off on her fingers as she spoke, “I've seen the neighbors have a dozen fights, watched Uchan do his homework, counted all the cats and plants in my downstairs neighbor's house and watched the class next to mine during their lessons.” She meet his watchful gaze head on, and spoke with the utmost gravity. “Do you know how annoying that is? Sitting through my lessons and someone else’s?”

Having to attend school twice? Oh, how terrible, he thought dryly.

She continued scrolling through her journal app, looking thoughtful as she tried to spot a pattern. “I don't think it's happened any other time. Maybe the other person needs to be around me for long periods of time before I can have a vision of them someplace else?” she theorized, her brows furrowed in consternation. That seemed plausible enough, and if she started to have visions of her classmates at home or the neighbors at work, that would be their confirmation. Right now they just didn't have enough data to go off of. But then, Naeun must have read something she found mortifying because she turned beet red, and buried her face in her hands.

“Uh, everything okay...?” he tried tentatively.

“Yeah, I just, forgot about that one,” the answer slipped through her fingers. “These visions are giving me serious secondhand embarrassment, it’s only going to get worse when I start hearing what’s being said more clearly.

Cassian and Moros startled in unison, “when you start hearing, not ‘if?’”

Naeun groaned at that.

“Um, yeah,” she finally lowered her hands. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you this last time. I’ve started to hear things with my visions here or there. It’s not a lot, I can barely make a word or two out. But I wanted you know.” Her voice dropped. “No one else does.”

“Incredible!” For once, Moros took the words right out of Cassian’s mouth.

“That’s a significant development.” Understatement of the year. And despite her insistence that they be friends, he wasn't sure how he felt suddenly becoming such a major confidant to the teen. “I know you said you want nothing to do with Lampas, but even as a villain, I’m not sure if I get why. Lampas has lots of resources and experts that can help you develop your ability further. With how incredible your skill is, at some point you’re probably going to need protection,” Naeun visibly shrank at that. Interesting, she’s realized that as well. “Lampas would be able to provide you with all of that.”

The teen seemed to squirm. “But if I register with Lampas like I’m supposed to, they’ll try to recruit me as a regular psyker too,” a thousand anxieties played across her face as she spoke. “I don’t think they’ll let up even if I tell them ‘no.’ I’ve been to the Lampas building often enough to see Uchan, I’ve lost count of all the times I’ve been told, ‘just let us know when your power comes in. You’ll have a place right next to your brother.’ ” That description caused Cassian to cringe. All that time he spent, wanting nothing more than to follow his older brother’s footsteps,

“They’ll try to win me over, or they’ll say, ‘we need your help just this one time.’” The teen was sounding more and more distressed as she spoke. “I’ve already seen stuff I wished I hadn’t, what if Lampas makes me see something horrible? What if I only see part of the story and someone’s life gets ruined? That would be my fault! I don’t want that kind of power. And I don’t want to get used like that.”

Honestly, he was impressed by her thorough reasoning. “You’ve thought about this a lot.”

“Of course,” the teen managed to recompose herself. “I thought about it for a long time before telling you, too.”

“Just think, you never would have learned all this if you had kept avoiding her instead of listening to me,” Moros gloated from over his shoulder.

“Shut up,” he snapped, having finally had it with the one eyed know-it-all. At the offended look on Naeun’s face, he hastily blurted out, “I didn’t mean you!”

Naeun’s expression smoothed over. “Oh right, your friend.”

The villain snorted at that. “I don’t think I’d call him a friend, but I am stuck with him for the time being.” I can trust her with that much, can’t I? After all she had shared with him, Cassian was probably skating by with the bare minimum in terms of decency. He frowned, “what did you mean, you’ve ‘seen stuff you wished you hadn’t?’”

Once again, Naeun turned bright red. “Nothing horrible!” She insisted, fussing with her hands before elaborating, “mostly it’s just super embarrassing things. I’m just trying to mind my business but my skill’s always switched on. Like I said before, I've seen way too of my next door neighbors arguments and one too many classmates confessions gone wrong. I could go on, but…” she shrugged, having felt she made her point.

Cassian winced in sympathy, “that does sound awkward.” He wondered, would Lampas provide an inhibitor cuff to someone with a skill like hers? He’d keep that idea to himself. Having one’s skill suppressed wasn’t the kind of thing to be brought up lightly, but maybe he could have Driver look into a possible fix at some point? The man liked having problems to solve, perhaps he'd be able to come up with something small and inobtrusive. And most definitely not with a giant, purple “D” on it.

Having closed her journal, Naeun had returned to scrolling through her messages, aimless and oblivious to Cassian’s inner debate. “I’m guessing you don’t feel like talking about your not-friend anymore, huh?” She said it mildly enough, he could only assume she was hiding her disappointment.

“It’s nothing to do with you, truth is, I don’t know much.” From the corner of his eye, Cassian could make out Moros’s alarmed flicker. He jerked a thumb in the noble soul’s direction. “Are you able to see or hear him?”

Naeun shook her head, “no, but sometimes it looks like there's an extra shadow around you. Or a dark cloud. It kinda flickers in and out.”

Hmm, that's more than she could see in the past.

“This is an alarming development, Cassian.” Moros said while peeking out from Cassian’s other shoulder. The complete one-eighty the soul had pulled was enough to make him laugh. But he had an image to uphold, so he settled for a scoff.

“Two seconds ago you were thrilled, but now when it affects you, you get all bent out of shape over it.” Then to Naeun he said, “my shadowy friend here is worried about you being able to see him.”

“I'm not worried,” the soul rebutted. “If I really wanted to, I could reveal myself to her right now!”

“...wanna run that by me again?” The villain demanded coldly, his glare sharpened.

His focus completely derailed, Cassian failed to notice Naeun as she blinked, glancing between him and the point he was arguing with, then past him to the kitchen. The sound of bubbling liquid having now gained her attention, she rose from her chair. “The stock is starting to boil,” she announced, knowing her words probably fell on deaf ears. Stirring the pot, she listened to the one-sided argument the villain seemed to be engaged in.

She frowned, “you don’t, do this in public, do you?”

Cassian stopped himself mid-sentence to glance over. “Wait, what?”

Naeun rolled her eyes, but obligingly repeated herself. “I think I have an idea already, but I was asking if you just argue with your not-friend in public?”

“I wouldn’t be arguing with him in public if he wasn’t such a prick when it comes to withholding information.” Cassian’s voice rose along with his ire. He forced himself to take a deep breath. Calm down, Cassian. Besides, she has a point. I shouldn’t have a fucking argument like this in front of others. He exhaled heavily, “I’ve been stuck with this menace for six months. The very first day he said, not to worry, no one can see him. Turns out that’s not the case, he can show himself to other people whenever.”

The sound of the burner hissing demanded the psyker’s attention, and she rushed to down the heat. “But only if he wants to?”

She took the grumbled response as a ‘yes’ and smiled. Her amusement, however, was short-lived. How the heck were they going to strain this? All her and her brother had was a small sieve and a smaller pot to pour everything into. Time to get creative!

“I know it just started to boil but,” he said, suddenly by her side, “should we get a colander ready?”

“Uhh,” Naeun trailed off. “We only have a sieve, it’s not big enough. I think we’ll have to fish everything out.” she frowned. “I wasn’t thinking before when we got the groceries, but they make flavor packets that have everything you need all sealed up. It probably would have made more sense to buy those.

“Sounds convenient,” he agreed, watching Naeun stir. “We’ll still have to pour the stock into something else, though.”

The teen made a noise of frustration, “ugh, you’re right. Can you grab the other pot? It's down there,” she gestured vaguely to a cabinet below the countertop. Cassian obligingly retrieved it, setting the vessel down in the sink. He watched the liquid in the pot bubble, the heat it radiated felt soothing after his argument with Moros. He saw how the half onion weighed the dashima down, pinning it to the bottom of the pot. Ah, no wonder Naeun kept stirring it.

Minutes later, unexpected obstacle that it was, picking the bits out of the soup stock was accomplished with only a complaint or two of dismay. Naeun exclaiming, “no, don’t do that!” when an anchovy's head fell off, forcing her to chase it around the pot with the sieve. The sound of sizzling meat and running water filled the air now, neither felt the need to make conversation. It was a tremendous relief, Cassian needed the break. After a couple of minutes stirring, it was time to add the steaming anchovy stock back in. Then the all important doenjang.

Speaking of, where was the stuff?

That's when he realized, Naeun was repeating a small search pattern to his left. Top pantry cabinet, lower pantry cabinet, fridge and repeat. Clearly she was trying to avoid drawing attention to herself—her movements were calm, deliberate, purposeful—a far cry from being frantic. But she’d been staring at the inside of the fridge entirely too long, the same perplexed expression from earlier on her face. He let out a long sigh before finally caving and asking the inevitable, “what’s wrong?”

She met his gaze, looking sheepish. “Funny story. I’ve looked everywhere, but I guess Uchan didn’t get doenjang last week?”

“You don’t have any doenjang? The most important ingredient for this?” or so he assumed.

“I know,” she said, sounding confused and exasperated. “I can’t believe it either, but I’ve looked three times now!”

Cassian glanced at the pot on the stove, it would take a while before it began to bubble. If I turn it off now, I can use shadow hide and shadow dash to get to the store fast, it’d probably take less than five minutes, he quickly calculated. But then I’d probably spend much longer in the store just hunting the stuff down, I don’t know where to find it. Not to mention I’d have to check out again…

Yeah, nope to that idea!

“Well. There’s still some left in the old container.” Naeun poked at a tan container on the counter for emphasis, it toppled over immediately.

“It’s not enough.” Cassian deadpanned.

She shook her head, “maybe if we hadn't doubled the recipe it could have almost worked.” She peered into the container and winced. “We’re too far along to stop things now, so I guess it’s time to improvise.” From the fridge, the teen retrieved another identical container, only this one was red.

“It’s not what we planned on, but I think we’ll just have to turn this into jjigae instead,” the teen paused a beat, giving Cassian a chance to protest, if need be. As he voiced no objection, she ploughed on. “It’s better than having a bland soup, and we can strain it through the sieve to make it smooth, like you'd do for doenjang. Let me show you.” The teen reached into a drawer and retrieved a spoon before grabbing the sieve from before. “You can also stir it in with just a spoon if you don't mind clumps,” she explained as she pressed the pepper paste through the mesh sieve, the red hue immediately spreading.

Not content to just watch, Cassian interrupted, "let me try." That was the whole point after all, can't learn without getting hands on. For good measure, Naeun told him add in the remaining spoonful doenjang, there wasn't enough to justify putting it back into the fridge.

Task complete, Naeun gave Cassian a sincerely apologetic expression. “Sorry, this isn't turning out the way we planned. My brother is normally good about these things too, something must have happened.”

He shrugged, suddenly feeling self-conscious. He had no trouble demanding apologies when slighted by arrogant parties, but it felt entirely different receiving a genuine one without pressure or threat. “It’s fine,” he mumbled. “It’ll probably still taste good, I guess.” Come to think of it, did he know what doenjang jjigae was supposed to taste like in the first place? That was definitely a thought he was going to keep to himself. Knowing Moros, he’d have a field day with that revelation.

For her part, Naeun looked bemused, “I guess you haven’t had gochujang jjigae either?”

He rolled his eyes and repressed a sigh. What a pain this is turning into. “Maybe, I don't keep track of these kinda things.”

Suddenly, music—a ringtone—filled the air, causing the pair to spin around at the unexpected sound. The teen rushed over the table and retrieved her phone, “it’s my agency,” she sounded surprised. “I better see what they want. Excuse me.” The model disappeared around the corner to what he assumed was her bedroom. That was fine. The soup was cooking and from the times listed in the cookbook it wasn’t going to take very long. Waiting for the stock to come to a boil again was probably going to be the most time-consuming part, but already he could see it beginning to bubble.

From the kitchen, Cassian heard a sound coming from around the other side of the wall—the opposite direction Naeun had gone in. And he realized, with alarm, that the front door was being opened. He froze in place, at this point what could he do? Hide, but where? He sighed. Guess I should have known things were going a little too smoothly, and he braced himself for Uchan’s entrance.

.

~~~ ⁂ ~~~

.

Uchan doesn’t recognize his home. No, that’s not true. The apartment isn’t unrecognizable so much as it is horribly wrong. Someone else was in his kitchen, why did it have to be him?

“What the hell are you doing in my house?”

The bastard looked more annoyed than concerned, as if he was the one being inconvenienced. The nerve! Gwon Gangu yelled in the direction of the bedrooms, his eyes still locked with Uchan’s. “Naeun, your brother’s here!”

It was quiet, but Uchan could make out Gwon mutter, “I knew I was going to end up dealing with some kind of mess today…”

His sister came into view. She looked. Well, she looked—fine—albeit confused. Before she could a word in edgewise, Gwon spoke to her, “this was your idea, so you deal with this.”

Naeun scrunched up her face at him, annoyed, before focusing on her brother, “Uchan, I thought you were on patrol until later.”

“What does that have to do with him being here?” Uchan pointed.

Naeun frowned before stepping in close. “Don’t embarrass me in front of my friend,” she hissed.

Embarrass her? FrIend?! Uchan started to protest before his sister grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him away. “Sorry, Gangu, I’ll be right back,” she yelled over her shoulder. “Don’t let anything burn!”

“It’s soup!” floated through the door as it slammed shut.

Hand to temple, Naeun sighed before turning around to face her brother.

“What. Is He. Doing. Here,” he demanded before Naeun could try to minimize the situation.

“Uchan, c’mon,” Naeun started with an exasperated huff, arms crossed. “You were there in the first place when I said I’d help out, so you shouldn’t be so surprised.” She eyed him, searchingly. “But really, what are you doing home so early? I asked Daewung what your schedule was so I could plan around it. If I had known you were getting off early, I would have texted you. Or planned differently—Something.”

Uchan felt like he'd been punched. Naeun was trying to plan around and avoid him? He’d noticed they had been drifting apart lately, but he wasn't able to figure out why or what to do about it. She'd been distracted and spacing out at random—while she insisted there was nothing to talk about, he suspected it had something to do with the time the Northern Vilzone had kidnapped her. What did those bastards do to my sister? He struggled to push the frustration aside and refocus on the current problem. “What would you have messaged me, ‘Don’t come home, I’ve invited my boyfriend over?’” That earned him a withering glare.

“No,” Naeun fired back. “I would have texted you that I invited Gangu over, but it's not a big deal because he’s not my boyfriend! He just moved back to Korea after living in the US, he just wants his sister to know he’s doing well. We’re practicing some dishes he picked out.” Suddenly she looked disturbed, “Uchan, I don’t think he knows anything about Korean food at all! He hasn't even tried doenjang jjigae before. No wonder he needed that cookbook.” The way she said it, you’d think it was an actual crisis!

Uchan labored with a response—that’s not your problem!—he wanted to yell. It had been quite a day and he was feeling frayed. He and Daewung originally had been slated for regular patrol duty through the entire afternoon, but then his senior had been pulled into a meeting. A meeting he, as a trainee, didn’t have the clearance for. It’d been one disappointment after another since then. And now he was home, and the recent threat to his peace of mind was standing in his kitchen. Making soup. Uchan wasn’t thinking rationally. “Are you sure it’s not a date?”

His sister stared at him, unimpressed. “What did I just tell you? Were you even listening? We're friends!”

“Friends,” he repeated skeptically, “cooking in each other’s house?”

His sister scowled at him. “Oh. So we should go to his house next time. Got it.

“No!” Naeun’s eyes widened, startled. He hadn’t meant to raise his voice at her. “Sorry, I just…” Just what, Uchan? he tried asking himself. What was it about the other teen that rubbed him the wrong way? He really didn’t linger around his sister that much. He just had a knack for showing up at major events. So much had been going on in Gadam recently, Gwon’s periodic presence shouldn’t have been that big of a deal.

Arms still crossed, Naeun watched her brother’s inner turmoil for a moment before tucking a stray strand of hair out of her face. “I don't interrogate you about your friends. What’s the problem with mine?”

Uchan felt helpless, what was he supposed to say to that? She was his one and only sister, he couldn’t forbid her from having friends. Time was just moving too fast—it wasn't fair! With their busy schedules, it felt like the psyker got to spend hardly any time with her anymore. His last big break before graduation was upon them, time felt like it was running out. He tried reassuring himself, if either he or Naeun attended any additional tutoring the way most students did, they’d see each other even less. And he reminded himself, it wasn’t as though he was going to be moving out far way after graduation. The agreement everyone had settled on required Uchan to continue living at their apartment until Naeun finished high school, too. That knowledge did little to soothe his nerves, though.

There’s really no stopping this, is there? The realization caused him to wilt. “You’re going to be inviting him over again, aren’t you.” It wasn’t a question, the red head knew how stubborn and determined his sister was. “How long is this going to go on?” he forced himself to ask.

His sister blinked, surprised by his sudden acceptance. “Oh, I hadn’t asked when his sister was showing up. I guess before graduation day, so a couple of months?” She frowned, “you do realize I’m not going to suddenly stop being friends with him after that, right?”

Uchan despaired, why does my little sister have to be so stubborn and so caring? “...and you’re sure he knows you’re not dating, right?”

“Ugh, I’m leaving! You can help if you promise to not start anything.”

.

~~~ ⁂ ~~~

.

The walls weren't paper thin—the doors were. Shortly after the Kims had gone into the bedroom, Cassian had turned on the exhaust fan to drown their arguing out. If the two were having a fight over him, then the least thing he could do was be polite about it and show he wasn't eavesdropping. In the meanwhile, Cassian had added the radish to the stew and was waiting to add in the other vegetables and tofu in when he heard the door click open.

“How’s the stew doing?” Naeun asked from his elbow. She looked she was trying to reign in ten different kinds of aggravation, and the emotions were rapidly escaping her hold.

“It’s fine, almost time for the other vegetables.” Going by her darkening expression, she could probably do without any additional needling, but a diversion might be in order. “You didn’t actually think I’d let it burn, did you?”

She shrugged, “anything’s possible.” Huh, that was a way more nonchalant of a reaction than he expected. Why does everyone think I can't handle basic adulting?

“What soup were the two of you making?” Uchan asked, having now joined the other two in the already too small kitchen. He eyed the pot with mild suspicion, Cassian felt his annoyance spike. What’s his problem? It looks fine so far, doesn’t it?

“Funny story about that,” Naeun jumped in before Cassian had a chance to respond. “We planned on making doenjang jjigae. But someone didn’t pick any up last week like they said they would.”

Uchan looked embarrassed for all of a second before moving to defense, “you should have checked first before assuming I actually did–”

“Are you saying you’re not trustworthy?”

“Naeun no, don’t start that,” the red-head pleaded.

Cassian watched the exchange, cursing all the while. Goddammit, now I’m boxed in! Naeun by his side had created a bottleneck situation, one he could still slip out of. But with her brother standing next to her? The villain’s one exit was effectively cut off. Hugging the wall, he might be able to slip out—but it wouldn't be subtle. What an amateur mistake to make… While fuming, movement from the living room caught his eye. In the commotion, Moros had floated off in the direction of the couch. Cassian could only watch as the soul’s black, cloudlike form merrily bobbed through the air until he seemingly picked out his spot and settled in. Had Mr. Ancient-and-Noble Soul just—unintentionally—acted like a cat? It was a thought so absurd it knocked Cassian out of his negative spiral.

The soup. It was time for the vegetables to go in, wasn’t it? He poured them in, half listening to the pair as they argued (was this what normal siblings were like?). Uchan had some very passionate opinions about rice, apparently.

“You should have started the rice cooker first thing, then it would be done by now,” Uchan nagged. Pfft. Whatever.

Naeun spun around, “that’s great, but what good is that now? It only takes a couple of minutes to make the microwave kind, or do you want to have stew without rice?”

Wait.

Naeun was trying to heat up a tray of rice. She had three trays out. One for each of them. What? Why was there one for each of them?

…oh. Oh, NO. The realization finally struck Cassian and he looked over at Uchan, their eyes met, reflecting their mutual horror. Was Naeun seriously expecting them to sit down and eat together?

I'm going to make a run for it, Cassian decided. I'm going to call this whole thing a loss, and I’m going to slip out the door. I don’t even care that Moros is going to harass me for weeks about this. Naeun paid for half of the groceries anyway, so it's fine, I'm just out a little bit of time and a little bit of money. I just need to—he attempted to gage his route out—get by Uchan. Then around the corner and out the door he’d go. He could put his shoes on in the hallway if he had to. If only I could use the shadows right now–for half a second, he imagined the sibling's confusion his sudden departure would cause. The image was short-lived as he looked across the way and realized a serious flaw in his half-baked plan.

…ah shit, my stuff.

Both his bag and coat were hanging off a chair on the other side of the dining table. If he wanted them, he'd have to bulldoze his way through Naeun and Uchan and swing around the table to grab them—it would be as stealthy as a marching band practice. With his cookbook on the counter, his bag only held a few other inconsequential odds and ends. He could survive the dash home without his coat, temperature didn't affect him much when he was traveling through the shadows. Maybe he could get by with leaving them behind?

And leave them to be hand-delivered in class tomorrow, by Mr. Popular himself? Weren’t you supposed to be avoiding attention?—his inner critic demanded (was it just him, or was his inner critic taking on

Okay. That’s an even worse plan, he admitted (see, he could think things through when he set his mind to it!). The villain tried to steel himself. Even if Uchan doesn't realize it, I've spent lots of time around him. And I've survived lots of boring Lampas functions I got forced to attend—I can survive an awkward meal!

Too bad he wasn’t hungry. And unlike an event catered by Lampas, there wasn’t any alcohol, either.

Damn.

He was just gonna have to suck it up and employ his best I-don’t-want-to-be-here, but-I-have-to-play-nice (OR ELSE) interview training.

With an air of determination that was truly admirable, Naeun ignored the protestations of her brother and shoved two rice trays into the microwave before attempting to cram in a third, to no avail. Could this be an out for him?

“It’s fine,” Cassian said before she could get too frustrated. “I don’t mind not having any.”

The girl looked aghast. “But, it’s a rule—you have to have rice with stew!”

He shrugged, “I'm not that hungry. Really.” Truly, any appetite he might have had was stolen away by the awkwardness of the situation.

“Actually, Naeun,” her brother interjected. “I’m not very hungry either. I ate at the cafeteria before I came home, I didn’t think we’d be eating until later.”

Once again the teen looked dismayed, but she quickly recovered. “Fine, no rice! But both of you should at least try it while it’s fresh, it won’t be the same when you reheat it.”

Cassian and Uchan managed to exchange a look of chagrin, their last ditch attempt had only partially succeeded to get them off the hook.

Like it or not, it was meal time.

.

~~~ ⁂ ~~~

.

“He’s trying to set your head on fire,” Moros said, “I’m know it.”

Cassian twitched mid-scalding-hot bite but refused to look up to confirm Moros's assessment. Besides, he could feel the psykers unrelenting glare zeroed in on him. Consider that assessment confirmed. All Cassian could do now was fume.

Stand, eat and leave. Had that really been too much to ask for? Apparently so!

Naeun had declared she was sitting down, Uchan had reluctantly joined her. Standing and eating was awkward enough as it was, but being the only one standing and eating was two different kinds of awkward, and Cassian had long past his limit in that department. So he sat, and was immediately dismayed when Naeun grabbed him a glass of water too. Quit doing nice, considerate things for me!–a voice at the back of his mind screeched. I just want to leave already, he groused.

But outwardly, he said, "thanks."

The villain reached for his glass and immediately snatched his hand away from the burning hot cylinder (as a civilian he was heat resistant, not heat immune. Good to know). The sudden, jerky movement caught Naeun’s attention, and she looked at him perplexed, but otherwise remained occupied. He shook his head to dismiss her concern but threw Uchan a baleful glare. It couldn’t begin to convey his annoyance and extreme disappointment Cassian felt for the young psyker at that moment. But, well, at least he could dream that his point got across.

Unsurprisingly, those dreams were lost on the psyker in training, who met Cassian’s glare head on. The villain stood up and his chair skidded across the floor, the jarring sound cut across the apartment. “I’m getting a new glass, this one's no good.”

A couple of short strides land him in the kitchen. His back now turned to the table, he listened while searching for a new glass. He heard movement and Naeun hissed sharply before she addressed her brother. “Uchan…!” He tried to keep his eyes down, only flicking his eyes up briefly as he sat back down. The belligerent glare had fallen from Uchan’s face, to be replaced by a look of concern.

“Are you okay?”

Cassian drank from his glass, if only to keep from speaking his mind. I called it, didn’t I? Sooner or later his lack of control was bound to get a bystander hurt. A wave of insight hit him. Huh, was this how Tuppence felt whenever she reprimanded me? He winced at the thought. All he had to do was die to gain that perspective.

“I’m fine, but that could have really hurt someone.” Naeun responded sourly, a scowl deeply etched into her face as she wrung her hand. She must have gotten it worse than he had.

“If it hurts, you could try running cool water over it,” he suggested, the pair’s attention snapped to him. Naeun flexed her hand, debating the idea, Uchan had the decency to look contrite, if mulishly so.

“It tastes alright,” Uchan mumbled into his bowl.

Naeun snorted and made her way to the sink, “what were you expecting–disaster?”

“With what you said before, I wasn’t sure what to expect…”

“Hmm, I wonder what the girl told him,” Moros mused aloud, Cassian refused to engage. The less he spoke, the sooner he could be done and finally leave.

Expression pinched, Uchan forced his tone into the semblance of civility. “Did you have any ideas on what you're going to try making next? Doenjang jjigae would have been a good start, (why’d you have to say it like that? Cassian railed, nobody asked you) but you need more to go with it. I hope you know how to make a couple of banchan, at least.”

“We got some ready made banchan, they’re just in the fridge still,” Cassian’s response was matter of fact. If he had stopped there, things might have been fine. But instead he elaborated, “I really wasn’t worried about learning how to make banchan, though.”

The red head stared at Cassian—beyond incredulous, beyond appalled, and miles into the Land of Disappointment. Why was the universe so dead set on judging him?!

“What?” he ground out through clenched teeth.

“Don’t you know anything about Korean cuisine? Banchan aren’t just supporting dishes, they’re historically significant, and they’re an essential part of Korean dining culture. You can’t just overlook them.”

Cassian couldn’t help it, he blinked, then gaped at Uchan in utter disbelief. “Did you just—quote—the cookbook at me?”

Uchan stirred his stew around his bowl, not bothering to look up. “The fact that you read the book but learned nothing from it makes this even worse.” Uchan declared with absolute certainty.

He felt an eye twitch. This punk, Cassian seethed. He could endure a lecture from Tuppence, Lillian or even Jeff...but from Uchan, who was ten years his junior? Maybe he had a point, but so what?!

It didn’t matter how, it didn’t matter when, Cassian was going to get back at him.

Cassian felt his insides twist into a knot. Did I just—swear to get back at a teenager for being an annoyance at best? Maybe it was time for Moros to earn a point. If this was what his life had come to, then Cassian seriously needed to work on his priorities.

Focusing on not burning his mouth while eating hot stew, Cassian had resolved on tuning the red head out…

“Next time you're over, we’ll have to go over some basic banchan dishes.”

Cassian’s spoon clattered against the bowl. “‘We’ who? No one invited you!” he snapped.

“I live here, I get to invite myself,” the psyker in training proclaimed, with an air of finality that sent the villain’s blood roiling.

He turned to Naeun expectantly, she said she’d handle him, he thought in a bought of bullheadedness, ignoring all the signs. Better she deals with him her way than me. (No one liked it when he problem-solved) Unfortunately, he was met with further disappointment. Defiance rapidly lost the battle, and resignation spread across the girl's features. Cassian let just enough suffering reach his eyes, one last plea, say it isn’t so, he tried willing the situation. Only for Naeun to silently mouth, “sorry,” at him.

Why? Why does this stupid situation keep getting worse for me?

.

In the end , Cassian tasted nothing. But his bowl was empty, so thank fuck for that. 

“So, how should we divide up everything?” The question had been put off entirely too long, but now that the dishes were being washed with furious expediency, it was time to resolve the matter once and for all.

Naeun looked contemplative as she tried to puzzle out a solution. “We only have small containers...”

“Maybe you should keep the stew, then.” His suggestion was a little too sharp, a little too immediate, but he had found himself lingering when he wanted to move. If he was a bit snappish, then he’d make up for it later.

“Hmm, it’s too much for just us. I’ll pack some up for you, and you can grab the banchan?”

“Consider it homework,” floated over from the direction of the sink. The pair exchanged matching tight expressions before Naeun sighed dramatically.

“You’re not giving anyone homework.”

And if Uchan’s come back was drowned out by the exhaust fan suddenly being switched back on again, it was probably for the best.

Now that the ordeal that was trying to get out the door was coming to an end, Cassian made the mistake of looking in the bag that had been procured for him. “Uhm,” he hesitated awkwardly. Tupperware were kind of a big deal, weren’t they? The one Naeun had used to pack the soup in looked like it was from a takeout order, but it was better to not assume. “Should I, bring the container back next time or…?” Next time. There was going to be a next time.

“That’s fine.”

“Just keep it!” Uchan yelled from the sink. Perhaps now he was regretting inviting himself to their cooking lessons.

Him and me both…

.

~~~ ⁂ ~~~

.

Having miraculously made it home without further incident, Cassian was finally able to fish his phone out of his pocket. He had felt it vibrating earlier while in the elevator but he hadn't felt like juggling his bags, the phone and the door all at once. Two missed calls and a few texts, all from Yuri. Shit, is something wrong? He rushed to set his bags down in the kitchen and quickly redialed. I just decided I was going to try to do better by Yuri too…

“There you are!” his sister picked up after a couple of rings, sounding uncharacteristically harried (she must have been, it wasn’t like her to skip niceties like, “how are you?”). There was loud clattering in the background—ah, that must have been to blame. “My break is almost over, Gangu.” Yuri said, sounding rather cross. “You missed yesterday’s call, too.”

“Sorry,” the word dragged across his tongue like a weight, and he felt all the more uncomfortable for it. “I just got home and my hands were full.”

“Were you out for a walk?” she sounded hopeful, her usual cheer started to bleed through. “I know it’s getting cold out, but it’s important for your health to get outside and move around!”

That got a genuine, if wobbly, smile out of him, one that almost outlasted Moro’s snide comment of, “if only she knew how much time you spend training, Driver has to tell you to remember to go home.” There truly was something comforting about being worried about, even if the topic itself had been beaten to death and back again.

“I just got back from the grocery store,” he responded, having made the decision to leave out most of the day's events. And really, how else was he supposed to explain his afternoon to his sister? I got blackmailed into cooking the most awkward meal ever—but at least I have leftovers!

“...did you buy anything other than instant foods?” Yeesh, she sounded so skeptical—working in a high-end restaurant sure left Yuri with some strong opinions about food!

“Actually, I got stuff to make doenjang jjigae.” Maybe hearing that will make her happy.

“Doenjang jjigae?” Was it their connection, or did she sound surprised? “You never liked doenjang jjigae all that much before…”

Shit! Cassian had been so focused on the idea of catering to Yuri’s preferences, he hadn’t once considered what he was supposed to like.

“Well, I’m glad you’re giving it another try, all on your own too!” she pronounced, sounding pleased.

The sigh of relief Cassian breathed was only eclipsed by his fervent desire to throw something Moros’s way and have it connect, as he was chuckling merrily in the background. Noble soul? More like an ignoble imp. “It just…seemed like the right kinda weather for it,” he said, borrowing Naeun’s words from earlier.

“I'm sure it is,” his sister agreed happily. “It’s not as cold here, but a bowl of doenjang jjigae or kimchi jjigae sounds so good right now,” her tone sounded wistful, dreamy even. “Y'know, there's a Korean supermarket not too far away, one of my co-workers told me about it. I'll have to drop by tomorrow to do some shopping of my own. There’s nothing like a taste of home—when you move away, you’ll find out.”

Aside from that last statement, she sounded so happy, it had taken so little effort on his part. Cassian felt like a downright ass for all the times he'd blown her off (Was she more lonely than he previously realized?) He was about to speak up when a resounding crash from the other end of the line cut him off. “Um…” he trailed off. What the hell is going on over there? Taking note of the time, he felt further bewildered. It’s past 2 am over there, she's normally getting done around this time, not up to her eyeballs in work!

“—and my break is definitely over now! Send me a picture when you're done cooking!” And the line went dead.

Cassian stared at his phone for a moment, aside from whatever that crash was, she seemed–well? “It sounded quite…lively over there, didn’t it?” Moros asked.

He hummed in response, distracted. That was abnormal—perhaps there had been a late running reservation for a large party? It wasn’t exactly any of his business, but it stuck out to him. Besides, she always fussed over him—it was past time to return the favor.

He waited until he was actually hungry before heating up a bowl of the stew again. Since he was going to send a picture to his sister, he decided to go all out and dug an earthenware bowl–a ttukbaegi–out from the corner of the cabinet it had worked itself into. Cassian didn’t normally care about presentation, it was just wasted time, but with the reheating the zucchini had lost its vibrancy. Simply put, the stew looked dull.

He still had some green onions, didn’t he?

The stew was still steaming when he crudely cut green onions over top using kitchen shears—that was going to take some getting used to, but when in Rome…). With the plated next to his ttukbaegi, it looked like he was having a decent meal for once.

He sent the picture before digging in. Unsurprisingly, it was a lot more enjoyable now that he wasn’t eating two feet away from a hostile party. The sanjeok were good too, he remembered Naeun mentioning something about a dipping sauce. He hadn’t bothered assembling one, and truth be told, he didn’t have a clue what ingredients one would involve. A problem for another day.

The following morning, he got Yuri’s response.

Cassian set his phone face down and sighed heavily. He’d forgotten, they hadn't actually succeeded in making fermented soybean paste stew, but rather fermented pepper paste stew—of course the color would be off. At least she had bought his explanation readily enough. I wonder what kinda VIP event it was? He found himself simultaneously worried about her wellbeing and embarrassed by his own previous lack of concern. She was always reading up on the news from Seoul, had he even once checked to see how things were going in Philly?

A thought for another time, perhaps. Another couple of days of classes and then, finally, break!

…now what the hell was he going to do about Uchan?!

FOOTNOTES

⁸ Water from the second rinsing of rice, the starchy content helps the stew to thicken. This footnote was barely justified, thanks for clicking.
♡⸜(ˆᗜˆ˵ )⸝♡^[return]

⁹ This video shows the fancy kind of chopping I was referring to.^[return]