[leave it to chihoon to be able to come up with a plan so calculated and pragmatic that mireu isn't sure whether he wants to be impressed or incredibly pissed off about it.

on one hand, it makes the most sense. chihoon is the least reactive of them—he may be the least reactive person in the entire city, for all they know. he probably could offset muyeol's outburst with his own neutrality to minimize a good portion of the damage. it's not something mireu can do himself, and youngjae can't be trusted with even tasks for preschoolers, so there isn't anyone else to do it. but chihoon's failing is tactfulness... mireu isn't really any better in some ways, but one of them is definitely much more well equipped to handled social situations and interactions better than the other. logically, they make a solid team even if it agitates mireu to his very core.

but the flipside of that, of course, is the fact that chihoon thought of it first. mireu's been one-upped again, and for all the things he may have been forced to let go thanks to the events of christmas break, there's still a lot to hold on to. especially at times like this, where he wants and needs to figure out ways to have the upper hand, even as they work towards the same goals. he just doesn't want to be second or third to choi chihoon. even if muyeol ranked above them, it would be fine as long as he could be above chihoon. it's quite the complex, isn't it?]

So you want to bank on something with no guarantees. That's how it is. [he lets it sound sarcastic and disdainful, but it's not as if mireu doesn't know that they can't predict how things will happen. even with trying to practice manipulating his own emotions to pull off cool tricks, the thing with emotions is that they spike and waver, and even when they can control themselves, they can't make those guarantees for others.]

There's probably no other way, huh? Not without Park Muyeol causing more damage than we can afford to pay back right now.