It’s a blessing that Hoseok is so honest and wouldn’t suspect anything – not that Jaehwan is doing anything horrible, in his mind, but it is embarrassing, and it’s just that much easier if he doesn’t have to actually address the issue. He’d much rather just keep up casual conversation about the things that months ago would have been impossible to address even in the most serious of terms – it really does feel like taking a load off his shoulders, that way.
“Mhm,” he hums, absolutely disbelieving that Hoseok will really make sure that Nabi doesn’t get out – even if she’s not going out on Jaehwan’s behest half the time, she’s still impossible to keep a handle on when Hoseok is as disorganized as he is. It’s not a terribly marring flaw, but it certainly is not a virtue Hoseok possesses, either. Still, there’s nothing malicious or even entirely teasing about Jaehwan’s tone; he just knows better.
“I – I don’t know,” Jaehwan admits, turning to Hoseok and blinking – will it? He has no idea how this new facet of his mutation works; it’s a bit discouraging, really. Every time he thinks he has it figured out, it does something new and weird like this – will it do this with people? Is it just a cat thing? Will it end up happening with the dog? These aren’t questions Jaehwan knows the answer to yet; thinking about it kind of hurts his head.
“It’s just her right now,” he confirms, blinking as he looks forward at nothing in particular, thoughtful. “But it – I guess theoretically, it could be Mebi too. I don’t know how it works yet – I think maybe it has something to do with linking with her often, so… maybe if Mebi and I train together, it’d work with her too.” A nod – that makes as much sense as anything does. By that logic, though, wouldn’t Hoseok be the most logical target for this…?
Jaehwan raises one brow at himself while he thinks, but ends up just looking back at Hoseok while he’s still pondering it – if that was the case, would anything really seem that different, right now? It’s not like he has any trouble knowing what Hoseok is feeling at any given time to begin with – he’s an open book, it’s one of his better qualities as far as Jaehwan’s concerned. So he shrugs the thought off for the moment – who even knows with mutations.
Mutations are weird things, he thinks. They’re hard to understand, harder to figure out the purpose of, but they’re not bad things – he likes to think of them like that, at least, because it’s always easier to think of the good in things that can’t be changed instead of otherwise. It’s not just in respect to his own, either; he thinks the best of everyone’s mutations, no matter how intrusive or grotesque or harmful they might be. It’s only natural that he finds the benefits and strengths to Jaehwan’s just as easily, even though he’s aware of all that could go wrong with a power like that.
Hearing Jaehwan’s confusion over his own power isn’t something Hoseok’s new to in the slightest, but that fact doesn’t stop him from blinking in turn. He’s quiet as he waits but it’s not out of some expectation or pressure for elaboration; it’s a simple silence that he’s accustomed to taking whenever he feels that someone’s trying to gather their thoughts about something. It’s been a while now (though it feels much longer than it truly is) since he’s been acquainted with Jaehwan, so it’s only natural that he’s picked up on things like that with the elder in specific – and as he waits, he continues idly scratching under Nabi’s chin.
When Jaehwan finally speaks up, Hoseok looks over, too, though once the words truly settle in, he finds himself smiling a little. His attention drops down to the flopped over puppy, and it takes no hesitation at all for him to start petting her with his unoccupied hand. “She seems like she’d be easy to work with,” he muses, a bit of that lingering coo in his voice as he talks of her. Though really, what could ever go wrong with such a sweet dog like her? Could anything really go wrong with linking with animals in the first place? That’s probably not possible, he thinks. He’s mostly sure of it. “If it does happen, then you’d be able to keep track of them both!” Mebi’s not nearly as adventurous as Nabi tends to be and would probably never go wandering around on her own, but – well, just in case she does, Jaehwan would be able to tell. Theoretically, that is.
Not for a moment does he consider himself as a candidate of any sort for something like what Jaehwan had explained was with Nabi, despite the clairvoyant’s thoughts on the cause. It’s true – he’s linked with Jaehwan multiple times as practice in an attempt to help the other out, but that’s just practice right? He wouldn’t think too much on it even if it were a thought to cross his mind in the first place – as he sees it, it’s likely something that could only happen with animals (though he isn’t sure of that at all, not in the slightest).
(Not that there’s anything to really be sure of in mutations at all, but at the very least, his optimistic outlook is set to ‘it can only get better!’, and he naturally believes in it more when it comes to Jaehwan than he would his own mutation.)
