"Oh, yeah, I played hockey in here one time." He agrees amiably. Although he has to remind himself as he approaches not to describe his own office, which is set up to make him look as cool and imposing as possible. He needs like... a basic ass conference room.

"But make the windows look like there's a really nice view," he specifies quickly in addendum. "Like 30 floors above downtown Seoul or something like that. That'd be great, thanks!"

Can this thing even hear him to be thanked? Who cares. He pushes the door open for Ulla politely, stepping back into a stylish modern conference room. A little big for just the two of them, but very naturally bright.

"I've never been in a building this tall," Ulla tells him, heading for the windows and gazing out for a moment, transfixed. "It dwarfs the palace in Sondermane."

"This one isn't even that big," he says, going to inspect which angle of downtown they have. He points off at the shadow of a much larger building. "The Lotte World Tower is 123 stories high, it's one of the tallest in the world."

He sits down with a clatter of his chair's wheels. "My brother wanted to build something big too, in another neighborhood."

"I wonder what the tallest building in L.A. is. That's where my warden and his husband have settled down. I'll be joining them there when I leave the Barge, not going back to my world." So she supposes she'll find out.

She takes her own chair as he does, tilting her head. "You have a brother? I scarcely knew mine." And she's never going back, so that isn't going to change unless he shows up on the Barge.

"Half-brother," he corrects half-heartedly. "My mom's the mistress."

The mothers had actual gotten along well, and mostly hoped the two brothers would take care of each other. The realities of the Jang family would slowly drive everyone apart though.

"I haven't been to L.A., but he has. He studied in the US, I stayed in Korea."

"My birth mother was a human witch my father dallied with during a summer he spent on land. She gave me to him to raise after I was born with a tail." As far as Ulla knows, she's the only half-human to ever come of sildroher dalliances on land. And she trades shapes often enough here, but she grew up underwater.

"I never met her. My human half brother sought me out once we were both grown, and told me what I was. But there had always been rumors. I never quite fit."

She studies him a second. "Did you have a hard time of it because your mother was your father's mistress?" Because he said it like that mattered a lot.

He said it because it's been said to him. Because Han-seok put together a PowerPoint presentation on why he is the true heir of the Jang family business. It was just that easy for him to swoop in from obscurity, remind everyone who was the mistress's son and take over the company as its public face.

"...No, not exactly," he murmurs, uncomfortable. "But I guess I know what you mean, about not really fitting..."

Anywhere, ever.