Miraculous
30 Ways: SpartAceJi Hyo was in a rush. When was she not though honestly?
As she crossed the street among a busy throng of people, her eyes caught onto movement. An old man, holding what looked like a wooden box splayed forward. The box skid a couple feet away, and while people were careful to avoid stepping on it, nobody bothered helping the man.
The light was counting down.
His glasses seemed to be knocked out as well, the man palming blindly around the pothole he had tripped on in an attempt to grab something, probably the contents of the box. She could ignore him or-
Ji Hyo spotted the glint of an old pair of eyeglasses, and quickly scooped it up and the pair of large red beads on the floor and the box in one running motion. Putting one arm around the small man (who still seemed shocked), Ji Hyo hurriedly finished crossing the street. The cars in Seoul had no mercy for the weak who were left struggling once the light turned red, and she was not about to start her day letting some poor man be at the short end of that stick.
Ji Hyo pressed the box and the glasses into the weathered hands of the man, and offered a small smile. “Are you alright, sir? You seemed to have dropped this..”
“Oh.. Oh! Thank you, young miss. Yes, yes, I don’t know what I could have done if I had lost this…” He clutched the wooden octagon box in a protective manner. “I must return the favor, how can I-”
“It’s no problem really! I have to get going though, so I hope you have a good day!”
She turned around before the man could make other excuses to thank her (he did not seem like he meant harm by it but Ji Hyo was a busy girl damn it). And if she thought that was to be the end of it, Ji Hyo was so wrong.
The old man, the beads, the monster that started roaming the streets the day after was a story for another time.
[ Ladybug x Chat Noir ]
Even the fact that she was now a magical girl turned superhero who saved Seoul time and time again with the powers of Lady Fortune and Lady Luck within her, was not what bothered her on this particular night, two years after that fateful encounter. For one thing, she was quite good at her night job, even though in the daytime she was just plain old Song Ji Hyo. Eighteen years old, one of the many dime a dozen starving freshmen at the local city college. Literature major.
Being a student by day and masked hero by night had few benefits.
At least the other day, she had actually held the Kim Jong Kook in her arms, as she carried him to safety from a falling car in makeshift bridal style. There was no other ulterior reason other than that, it was the easiest position to carry people in, of course- she needed to protect a citizen, and who knew what other debris will fall on him if she had let him on her back. Totally not because she had wanted to see what kind of expression he would make, nope.
It seemed that everyone was a fan of Ladybug, but she had been giddy at the look of awe in his eyes when she had casually picked him up and set him down to a relatively safe area where the citizens had evacuated.
Of course no sooner that had happened, her trusty partner Chat Noir had popped up and together (Chat with much more enthusiasm than usual) they had vanquished the Wrecked Witch, the akuma-possessed alter ego of one Jung Hee Yeon they had later discovered. Feeling trapped from an unhappy home situation, she had thrown her passion into the community orchestra, only to be brokenhearted by the new maestro who had deemed the little community orchestra a waste of time. And so the scorned woman had been an easy target for some akuma that roamed the city.
Cleanse akuma, restore city, get home before their transformations wore off. It had been the usual.
The familiar tone of her alarm, signalling the beginning of her night watch, brought her out of her reverie. Damn it, she had really wanted to get this reading done tonight.
“Tikki,” she said, calling the cheerful red and black spirit residing within her earrings.
Transform me.
Ji Hyo folded the thoughts of Jong Kook, and her almost finished reading assignment on the textiles of 15th century France away, as Tikki’s magic washed over her in a wave of light. She opened the window, and disappeared into the night.
The patrol went without a hitch for the most part. She had managed to spook a robber into scramming with the sole power of her glare (she was rather proud of that) before arriving at the rendezvous point with Chat however.
Chat Noir and Ladybug divided the evening, when attacks were most common into two watches if there hadn’t been any other happenings, or if there happened to be a akumatized person or some other person they needed to keep an eye on. Chat Noir took the earlier shift every other month, but there was a brief period or so where they overlapped. Just to discuss any new information. It was a rather professional relationship. Even if Chat did have the knack for turning a perfectly normal conversation into either a flirt or a joke that was far too cheesy for her liking, but never forceful nor burdensome. Hence why she put up with it.
“Evening, Chat. Nothing out of the ordinary, I’m sure?” she asked, by way of greeting.
“Paw-sitive.”
See, she didn’t know why she bothered, as it only earned her a smug grin on the cat’s face.
The night was quiet. Almost too quiet for a city that never seemed to sleep, the city that lay below them in a glittering mass of lights and towering skyscrapers. Their city. Especially at this time of the night when the moon hung low and full, the odd, quietly bustling rhythm of the city chugged along, with nobody out except for the two of them. It was a Tuesday, she recalled vaguely. Things were slow on Tuesdays.
Ever since meeting her kwami and coincidentally her partner in front of her, Ji Hyo’s world had never been the same. Ah, not Ji Hyo… She was Ladybug now, feeling the strength of an age old power through her veins. All these years they had never disclosed their civilian identities to each other. She had wondered several times how much his civilian identity dealt with cracking these lame puns all the time, but there was enough happening in her life without trying to riddle out her mystery partner and bring him into this mess. Maybe it's because it was a while since the last time it was so quiet, they were both content to just sit on the rooftop for a while.
“Chat?”
“My lady,” he responded amicably. His tail swished behind him in badly hidden curiosity. Even now now, years into this unnamed partnership and he still gave her his undivided attention.
“I don't think there's anything happening tonight. I can feel it in my blood, the night is… quiet.”
“I see.” Chat sat down, feet dangling over the rooftop.
“I'm glad there's nights like this. Guess even bad guys have to take a break sometimes. I sure needed one.”
“Why, is something bothering you?”
Ji Hyo realized how uncharacteristic it sounded. Ladybug was always a figure of justice and good old fashioned determination. She never wavered. Even she must be getting old.
She shook her head. “Nothing big.... It's just been a long day. It's not like I can just stop being Ladybug and stop protecting the city, but sometimes.... I feel like I never have enough time on my hands."
He was concerned, waiting for her to say more, but she was tight-lipped, simply gazing at the sky.
It was Chat that spoke first. “Do you regret being Ladybug?”
“Never,” she replied, almost taking offense at the question. “I’d make that decision again in a heartbeat.”
“I would do the same. It can be tiring at times, I’m sure. But the mask, it gives me something more than what I can have in my current life. I mean, besides the noble intention of protecting the city, of course.” He smiled lazily, his broad shoulders moving in a half-shrug.
“...Why do you like being Ladybug?” he asked, more serious. “What is the mask for you?”
She felt compelled to respond now. Chat Noir was in his element at night. His amber eyes, offset by his dark hair and mask were glowing as they peered at her. After a moment, she replied, “Confidence, I suppose.”
“As dangerous as this job can be, when I am Ladybug I know exactly what I am supposed to do. There is a villain or some other trouble, a robber, and I have the ability to solve it, and everything in my blood tells me this is what I have to do, and drives me towards this clear goal, that this is my purpose. Then everybody looks at me and sees this figure who fights bad guys and rescues cats from trees, and they praise me. Is that a little selfish?”
Chat shook his head no. "Why would that be selfish?"
"I don't know... Saying it outloud makes me think I'm attention-seeking.” She frowned. “But without my Miraculous… I’m just a regular person. I'm stuck looking forward to the next thing, the next weekend, and just doing my work and walking along that line to some mysterious future where I don’t know if I’ll be happy-”
Ji Hyo reminded herself that she was Ladybug right now, and she should not be saying such things to worry her partner.
It was just... Ladybug had several possibly life threatening encounters, yet underneath it all, was simple dischonomy at work: good versus evil. The painfully clean ends to her adventures were tidied and wrapped up in a neat bow, like something out of a comic book made real. It gave her great pride to see her work pay off. But what of her other life then? Who cared about plain, boring, old Song Ji Hyo? There was no newspaper detailing the weekly victories of Ji Hyo: waking up on time to go to her morning class, managing to cook a nutritionally balanced and decent meal and not ordering takeout, talking to the office for registrations gone awry. She wished there was though.
But the look on Chat’s face, patient and beseeching, even though she had cut herself off to maintain the facade of Ladybug…. He trusted her, and dare she say, even welcomed this rare glimpse into her mind.
Ladybug took a breath to steady herself and began again. “I just feel very lost in my real life, wandering without knowing who, what, or where or if anyone really notices I’m there.”
She was rambling again, this is why she didn't like talking so much. Being Ladybug was easier if she didn't let the the first thing to appear in her head spill out of her like this.
“I’m sure Song isn’t the only one that feels that way.”
After much pestering (it’s rather tiring to go civilian-me all the time, isn’t it?- That’s why we don’t talk about our civilian lives when we meet like this- Not the magic of the kwamis preventing us?) Ji Hyo had caved because it was a mouthful to say. So Song, is what she was. Even if she hadn’t trusted Chat to go looking through the phone directory or something looking for every name that had the word in it (he respected her privacy, after all) it would be pretty hard to find. She hadn’t told him whether that was even a nickname, or her first name, or her last name.
“Though, all the stubbornness and determination that my lady has, I’m sure she is a wonderful person through and through.”
And the unspoken, forbidden question laid in the air. Will we ever meet each other then? Without masks, without powers, just the people they were before all the magic and the kwamis?
As Ladybug, she didn’t feel that much remorse when she remembered Miss Song couldn't even string most words together in front of her crush. Ladybug thought it cruel however, to mention that in front of Chat who never failed to mention that he adores her.
“Thanks.” She cleared . “And what about you, what do you like so much about being Chat Noir?”
He looked at her for a moment, but turned his gaze to the half moon that hung in the sky.
“Everything,” he breathed at last. And for once, Chat Noir hadn’t tried to make a cheesy comeback. “Before Chat Noir, I didn’t really have much of a childhood… I was always groomed to be an asset to my father and my mother died young. It wasn’t like I could make that much friends either, since I was homeschooled.”
This was the first time hearing that Chat had been homeschooled. She couldn't imagine how a tutor or a nanny or someone would have been able to curb that enormous energy without any other kids his age. “It must have been hard.” Ji Hyo thought of her own parents who were running a bakery store just on the outskirts of the neighboring city. They called her every week since she went to live by herself.
He chuckled. “There were all these rules at the house, that I couldn’t go out past a certain time, that I couldn’t put my feet on the couch, or you know, small things like that. How to walk a certain way and how to eat with manners. But to everyone else it looked like a good family, my father is successful in what he does.. But I felt kind of empty inside.”
There was a poised energy in the lines of Chat Noir’s body, like a brief squeeze in a spring, building tension in the instant before it shot off.
“Then I met you, and Plagg, suddenly I was free.” Freedom. That glint was back in his amber eyes again and before she could stop him, Chat had leapt off the rooftop onto the next building, laughing as he hurled through the air.
With his tail streaming behind him and leaping as though he would never come back down to the ground, Chat Noir was wind and stars incarnate. Untamed and unpredictable and dear to her heart. She reached out, blocking out his silhouette for a moment with her fingers. He seemed like he might slip through her fingers like water, like sand, at times like this. As if he would at a given moment be whisked away by the magic pull of the endless horizon of the night, the watchful silver moon.
With a kick from his powerful calves, Chat Noir landed back in front of her again in a single jump.
“Miss me already?” he teased, holding her hand where it lay outstretched.
As Chat Noir, he was free to run and jump and talk and laugh and be all those things. Nobody knew who he was under that mask, and may the stars help someone who tell Chat how to behave.
[ Jong Kook x Ji Hyo ]
Ji Hyo thought she shouldn’t be so nervous about this. There were probably hundreds of submissions for the event. And who wouldn't give this chance a shot, really? It was very rare that the theatre department opened submissions for original short plays outside of the senior showcase every other year, and knowing that Kim Jong Kook of all people might star in it, was too good of a chance to pass anyone by. She was sure that practically everyone in her screenwriting class was working non-stop in between the coursework and this submission.
Kim Jong Kook was practically a household name at this point, or at least Ji Hyo thought he should be. It was a terribly kept secret which naturally everyone knew that Jong Kook was the sole son of the owner of JK Enterprise, only the most famous record label company in the country. As one of the rising stars in the theatre department, he had quite a following of his own as well.
Ji Hyo remembered the first time seeing him in their shared class, Shakespeare for Everyone. Call her traditional and predictable and what have you, but Ji Hyo loved Shakespeare. The genius behind the man that had written plays that proved relevant even now, with some of the most subtle not subtle and funniest damn jokes. Even though she didn’t need the class for credit, it was surely an easy A and one she could take with her good friend Ji Min.
“Do you want to go see the senior showcase? The professor said it’s extra credit if we write a summary and analysis about it.”
“Ji Min, both of us know you don’t need the extra credit,” Ji Hyo chuckled. “I mean if you want to. I just don’t know anyone in it.”
“There’s a couple of kids from our class who are performing, it’d be nice to go and support them... Let’s see, Sang Min’s got a part in one of them, I think.”
“Oh, I remember Se Chan said he was working lights or something.”
“I think Jong Kook’s also in it.” At her friend’s blank expression, Ji Min explained, “You know, the muscular looking guy that sits closer to the front? Parted hair and all that.”
She knew vaguely of him. He was a nice enough guy, responding back to some of the dumbest interpretations thrown around in class in a polite manner and contributing his own. Ji Hyo, she remained quiet unless she was absolutely sure about her answer.
The senior showcase was a set of three short plays, each one act long. She skimmed the booklet for any familiar names. It looked like Haha was also credited in the ‘additional thanks’ section, although she couldn’t fathom whatever for, since he wasn’t even in the show, and hadn’t mentioned being a part of it at all, really. Sang Min, her friend from accounting, appeared in the second play as a foolish merchant, and she also caught Jong Kook’s name as well, appearing in the third play as a guardian angel. Both were minor roles, the majority of the roles having been assigned to the then seniors.
Sang Min did an admirable job, despite only having ten lines total. She was rather reminded of the play Servant of Two Masters in its comedic timing. She rather looked forward to the next one as well, since the premise did seem interesting. The guardian angle, played by Jong Kook, watched over the main character, who had been his girlfriend in life. As the story developed, it became apparent that the angel was actually a vengeful ghost and was trying to kill the main character. He only appeared briefly at certain sections of the act and had little lines that were based on a recurring song. The writing was well paced, first of all, but the skills of the actors, especially that of the main character, was the part that really made the play shine.
But the last scene, before the protagonist broke out of the shadows of the ghost during the , Jong Kook had sang the verse of the reoccuring song. His high voice that caught a little in the end in the most perfect way and the light that fell on him just so ma
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