Solar Flare
Solar FlareTrees and buildings whizzed by the van window in a blur. Cars and buses passing by, adults hurrying somewhere, students strolling and laughing. Yongsun sat facing the outside of the van, her cheek resting on her palm. Her eyes took in all the scenery, but she didn’t have any interest in them.
The members were on their way to their next schedule, but Yongsun couldn’t help but think about earlier when they were having a fansign. As usual, she would get teased but this time it went a little too far. With a sigh, she took out her phone, in hopes of distracting herself from the negativity. She navigated to the latest level of her favourite game and skillfully tapped on the buttons accordingly. In the midst of excitement, she missed a step, spoiling the streak. Disappointed with her performance, she tucks her phone back into her pocket.
The van slows to a stop near a convenience store. Hyejin and Byul alighted, wanting to get some snacks for breaks later on.
“Do you guys wanna get something?” Byul asked in general.
“Nope, I’m good for now,” Wheein replied and made a quick glance at Yongsun on her right. She secretly wanted to stay behind to keep Yongsun company, choosing to sit beside her in the first place.
Knowing about the tension, Hyejin double checked, “Unnie, you sure you’re not getting anything? Some ddeokbokki maybe? I could get it for you.”
Yongsun smiled slightly at Hyejin’s concern, and shook her head no.
As soon as the door slid shut, Wheein turned to Yongsun.
“So...you wanna talk about it?” She asked carefully. “You can just rant. I might not give good advice, but I’m a good listener.”
Yongsun took a deep breath, with a look between acquiesce and boredness. She knows that fact and deep down, she had hoped Wheein would take the seat beside her. Or Hyejin. Anyone but Byul. She couldn’t entertain her right now. Byul had apologised to her, but the harm had been done.
“I don’t know, it’s just annoying. it’s like she always take my trust for granted.”
“Oh yeah...even I was shocked just now.”
“Right?” Yongsun’s fiery was getting into momentum. “I didn’t even do anything to her, but she hit me out of nowhere. How is one supposed to react to that? Honestly, I don’t even know what I’m feeling right now.”
Not knowing what to say, Wheein gently pats Yongsun’s upper arm as a form of concern. The two sat in silence for a moment before Yongsun spoke again.
“Thanks for being a great listener, as usual,” she gave a small smile at Wheein.
“Anytime, unnie. Thanks for being a great leader too. I can see how much responsibility you have to take and it’s alright to be sad or mad sometimes. We’re not angels, remember?” Wheein grinned, making a reference to their duet song.
Through the window, she could see the others heading back to the van.
“Whenever you need to let off some steam next time, I’ll be around to hear you out.” Wheein added, to which Yongsun nodded in appreciation.
The door of the van opened and the two rappers returned to their seats. In the process, Yongsun and Byul made eye contact briefly and awkwardly. Facing front, Byul was still regretful about her actions earlier, but sensed that her dearest friend had cheered up a little.
~
The girls arrived at the studio fifteen minutes before their scheduled photoshoot. They were briefed on the flow and decided on the order. Each of them went to touch up their makeup and hairdo to suit the commercial film’s concept.
Hyejin is first of the four. Wheein and Byul sat at the waiting area table occupying themselves with something while waiting for their turn. Next to them, Yongsun was rehearsing her lines for the video segment, occasionally looking up at Hyejin’s progress whenever the director’s strict voice comes along. Before long, it was her turn.
Holding the props provided, Yongsun changed her poses every now and then for each flash of the camera.
“Smile a little more please,” the director called.
I’m trying, she thought. Subconsciously, she strengthen her composure and reminded herself to temporarily forget about the earlier conflict. She looked at the prop and the cameras set up around her, and this time her smile was genuine.
“Okay that’s better...be a little more lively too,” was the comment this time. In reality, these were just the daily remarks anyone in a photoshoot would hear. But this day, Yongsun’s inner self couldn’t help but interpret those comments as hurtful, targeting her expressions and actions. Despite that, she endured and brought out her goofy self and successfully finished her part.
Back at the waiting area table, Hyejin looked up from eating and saw Yongsun returning. “He’s a little straightforward, right?” Hyejin questioned, referring to the director.
“Yeah, you think so too? I thought it’s just me,” the latter started in surprise and ended in a quieter voice.
“I was telling these two about it.” Hyejin observed her expression, knowing she was moodier today. She gave a little pat on Yongsun’s arm to cheer her up. “Anyway, let’s try not to take it to heart.” Yongsun gave a plain tight smile and nodded, then sat down to have some water.
Wheein’s turn was next. Hyejin went to the makeup room for touch up, leaving Byul and Yongsun alone.
Byul was munching on some snacks she bought earlier. She too was feeling regretful about her action, but seeing how Yongsun’s dark expression and seemingly not wanting to talk, she dared not approach her after the “sorry” she had managed to get out of . It was apparent to her that the older one didn’t want to be next to her in the van, so she tried to hang back to avoid the awkwardness. Thankfully, Wheein had taken the initiative to do so.
Byul looked at her snack without interest, eating to occupy herself with something. All her muscles seemed to have lost half their energy and her vision was slightly clouded with fear. She sneaked a few glances at Yongsun, unsure if she should say something now that they were alone and everyone else was busy. It would be awhile before her turn for photo shoot.
“Give me some,” Yongsun abruptly spoke, gesturing at the snack Byul was munching on.
“Huh? Oh…” Byul was slightly flustered that Yongsun was talking to her, but passed her the snack anyway. “Says the one who didn’t want snacks just now,” she said jokingly, in an attempt to lighten the mood.
Yongsun ignored her comment, concentrating on the snack.
Byul quickly added, “U-um, just kidding.”
“You’re always like that,” Yongsun muttered to herself.
After a moment, Byul decided to just give it a shot and talk it out with Yongsun as she couldn’t take the suspense.
“I just wanted to say,” she began suddenly as she didn’t know a proper way to start, “I didn’t mean to hit you. It was my reflexes and seeing you offended made me instantly regret it.”
She looked to her side to check it Yongsun showed any sign of listening, which she seemed to be, and continued by genuinely and carefully asking, “Is…is your arm okay?”
“No.”
“...” Byul looked down, at a loss of words. She tried to avoid saying “sorry” again; one because it was too easy a word to be said, and two, they were both not used to saying it to each other.
“The harm is already done,” Yongsun added in a flat tone. Despite acting tough against Byul, she actually felt bad ignoring her. She could feel a sour bittersweet feeling bubbling inside. She really appreciated Byul caring, but was still annoyed at her.
“Unnie-“
“Just let me be for now,” Yongsun dismissed Byul, thinking this was not the time to talk about the conflict since they were having a schedule. She stood up with a plan of heading to the washroom.
Byul wasn’t sure what to say but she didn’t want to end the conversation there.
Walking away, Yongsun felt frustrated tears welling up and ready to stream down anytime. She quickened her pace to the washroom before she actually cried in the open where others would see. Byul followed her to the inside of the washroom.
“Can you please not ignore me?” Byul said desperately in slight annoyance, and changed to a quiet voice. “You’re not usually like this.”
“Doesn’t mean I have to be smiling all the time,” Yongsun retaliated immediately. “I’m not perfect, I have feelings too, in case you haven’t realised that.” Tears were going to flow anytime soon. Hold. It. In. She took a deep breath. “Now is not a good time to talk since we are having a schedule. I just wanna take a breather, so please,” she gestured to the door.
Dejected, Byul had no choice but to leave the washroom. Hopefully that meant they would talk later.
As soon as the door closed, Yongsun finally let the tears flow, half suppressing them as they still had to film later on. It wouldn’t look good with extreme smudged makeup and red eyes.
Byul lingered outside to not let anyone know what just happened, that she somehow got shouted at by her favorite person. She took a deep breath and tried to have a smiley face before heading back to the waiting area.
~
It wasn’t long before Wheein returned from finishing her part of the shoot.
“Wheein ah,” Byul grabbed the opportunity before it was her turn. “Can you help me out? Yongsun unnie is in the washroom. I tried to talk it out but…” She shrugged. “You seemed to have made her happier back in the van. Can you...cheer her up again?” She made the request sheepishly.
Wheein gave her a look. “Ugh, unnie, why do you drag us into Yongsun unnie’s and your mess…”
“Please?” Byul added, at the same time noticed that it was her turn. Giving Wheein an “I’m counting on you” expression, she rushed off to where the white backdrop was.
Sighing, Wheein complied anyway and made her way to the washroom.
Gently pushing the door open, she stepped into the washroom. “Yongsun unnie?” She called while looking for where the leader could possibly be. All the cubicle doors were ajar and there was only one orange figure at the sink area. Is that unnie? But she wasn’t wearing this earlier though. Wheein edged closer.
“Are you okay?” She tried again while casting suspicious eyes on the figure. “Byulie unnie-” She stopped in mid sentence as the figure turned around to face her.
It looked somehow like Yongsun but not so her, Wheein observed. She had orange dragon eyes, her facial features seemed to have been slightly modified into that of a dragon’s, and her dark pink hair with slight orange tint was tied up in low loose braid.
She was also wearing what appeared to be a Korean traditional high-knee dress. Overall, she looked like a humanoid dragon warrior. Is that someone from the past? Did she time travel? Wheein was stunned.
“Did you say Byul?” The dragon warrior spoke, interrupting Wheein’s train of thought. She smirked and pointed at the latter. Whoa, she has claws too.
Using her right hand, she created a heat spark and snapped it to Wheein as fast as it appeared. “You can deal with her for now. I have something else to take care of.”
“By the way,” the dragon paused a few steps before the washroom door. “The name’s Solar Flare.”
~
Hyejin was back from the makeup room and saw Wheein stomping back to the table. As the latter reached, Byul was on her way back too. Lunch break began as soon as she finished her photoshoot.
“Hey, you two are back,” Hyejin casually remarked, sipping on a packet drink.
Wheein ignored Hyejin and narrowed her eyes at Byul. “On second thoughts, why should I be the one asking her? It’s your mess to clean up, not mine.” She grabbed a packet drink and went straight towards the makeup room.
“What’s with her?” Byul looked at Hyejin, who shrugged, equally clueless.
“Where did she get those orange contact lens?” Hyejin wondered instead.
“Orange...?” Byul couldn’t remember Wheein’s eye colour even though she was the one who was spoken to. Her morale was still quite down since the fansign.
Puzzled, she mustered her courage and headed to the washroom again. Something was strange about Wheein’s attitude, and Yongsun hadn’t yet return was just weird.
She pushed the door open warily. No one was at the sink. All the cubicles were empty too. Without second thoughts, her feet took her to the makeup room. How amazing the mind worked even when emotions were in the way.
The room was moderately crowded. Makeup artists and some of the staff were busy with their own activities while others were having lunch. Wheein was sitting on one of the sofas. Byul dare not approach her again and looked around for the familiar chubby face, but she wasn’t here either.
Defeated, she went to the waiting area again.
“Unnie, what are you up to?” Hyejin was amused at how busily Byul was running around.
“Looking for Yongsun unnie,” she answered while glancing around her surroundings to make sure she didn’t miss out the girl. “She’s not here. Hyejin, can you come with me to find her together?” Her worry turned to desperation and she felt the need to find Yongsun.
“Okay...but do you want to have some food first? Who knows, she might return by the time you’re done.”
“I don’t have any appetite now,” Byul hinted at the extent of her worry. “Besides we have some time. Let’s go.”
She led Hyejin to the floor above via the stairs and started looking at each corner. Hyejin barely managed to catch up.
“So the last time you saw her was in the washroom, and now she’s not at the basement at all?”
Byul nodded, eyes still focused on searching.
“Oh, unnie, you two really get into so many conflicts with each other,” Hyejin sighed. Just then, they reached a split path.
“I’ll go this way and you’ll go that way. We’ll meet back here later,” Byul instructed.
Hyejin did as told and proceeded to search down the corridor and the rooms. Yongsun couldn’t possibly be in the rooms here but she checked to be safe. It wasn’t until she finished ensuring Yongsun wasn’t inside, that she felt strong heat behind her. She turned to the direction of the heat and was appalled at the sight.
“Why, hello, Hyejin.” It was an orange dragon warrior.
“Who are you?” Hyejin tried to run through the list of people she acquainted with who might possibly call her by her real name instead of stage name.
“You can call me Solar Flare.”
“Solar...Yongsun unnie?” Her eyes widened as she made the connection. “Why are you in that costume?”
“This is not a costume!” Solar Flare snapped. Agitated, she shot an orange projectile to Hyejin. “Anyway, good luck to the rest of your day.” She said sarcastically and hurried off.
As the projectile took effect, Hyejin suddenly became annoyed with Byul. Going back to their meeting point, she saw that Byul had returned.
“I don’t know where she went,” Hyejin said dismissively and sighed. “Honestly, Yongsun unnie treats you really well, but you’re always not repentant no matter how many times you apologise.”
“What?” Byul was taken aback at the sudden change of attitude. Then she saw it. “Now you’re wearing orange contacts.”
“What are you talking about now? I was helping you to look for Yongsun unnie, but-” Hyejin cut her sentence off, apparently unsure of how to reply to Byul’s abruptness, and gave up. “I’m done; I’m going back to the studio. Look for her by yourself if you still want to.”
Byul watched Hyejin walk away down the corridor, disappointed at how the situation turned out. First Yongsun lashed out at her. Next Wheein was being weird. Now Hyejin suddenly turned her back on her. Is this karma? Gosh, I’m such a bad friend and member.
Dejected, she headed to an adjacent corridor and stood there in deep thoughts.
She suddenly felt the air become warmer from behind her. Then it got even warmer until Byul started feeling humid as if she just went for a jog.
“There you are, Moonbyul-ssi,” a familiar voice said. Byul turned around.
“What- do I- who-” she tried to ask while thinking who could be looking for her when everyone was basically bailing on her. She looked at the orange dragon humanoid standing in front of her. Then it clicked. “Yongsun unnie,” she acknowledged in a quiet voice. Despite seeing her unique appearance, Byul recognized her identity right away.
“You look distressed,” Solar Flare smirked. “How are you liking the careless attitude from the ones you’re close to?”
“What did you do to Wheein and Hyejin?” Byul asked defensively.
“Nothing much, just a little taste of your own medicine,” Solar Flare stood in a relaxed stance and adopted a mock regretful tone. “You thought you can make fun of me everytime and get away with it? I just brushed it off because I trusted you. But you took that for granted.”
Byul looked at Solar Flare in horror and diffidence. “Unnie.”
“You seem to enjoy that don’t you? But the Yongsun whom you love teasing is gone,” the dragon edged closer to Byul and prepared to fire the flare, just like she did to Wheein and Hyejin. “But I can fulfill you something.”
Unclear of what she was going to do to her, Byul backed slowly. She was still perspiring from the heat Solar Flare was radiating.
“I’ll give you this power to do whatever you want. You won’t have to feel bad about your actions anymore.”
So that’s what happened to the maknaes, Byul thought. Solar Flare’s clawed hand advanced towards Byul, ready to project the flare.
As she reached closer, a red yoyo sharply intercepted her action and wrapped around her forearm. Both Solar Flare and Byul turned to see who the owner of the yoyo was.
“Looks like you were in a heated conversation,” the cat boy said.
“You two are finally here,” Solar Flare remarked, lowering her arm.
“Many people had a sudden mood change today,” the ladybug girl commented on the victims Solar Flare had previously targeted, reeling her yoyo back into the original position. “Care to tell us what’s up, dragon lady?” She approached the dragon warrior but retreated upon feeling the strong heat radiating.
“I don’t think that’s your business; but it’s my responsibility to get your miraculous!” Solar Flare declared and started to shoot flares at the two teenage heroes. Seizing the opportunity, Byul ran further away to escape the situation.
As she continuously fired multiple projectiles from her right hand, the two swung their yoyo and baton respectively to prevent getting hit.
“You thinking what I’m thinking, Ladybug?”
“Of course, Chat Noir. The akuma must be in her wrist guard,” Ladybug observed how she only used her right hand which also stood out, different from her left hand. “But I can’t get close and break it myself ‘cause her heat is too strong.”
“You know the plan,” he looked at Ladybug, who nodded. He activated his ultimate power. “Cataclysm!”
A distance away, Ladybug was trying to convince Solar Flare to be against the evil. “I don’t know what you’re so mad about, but you don’t have to make everyone to be like you,” she said while swinging her yoyo in circles to block out the flares coming at her.
“What do you know? You never know what it feels like to get mocked and having to endure it because people have high expectations of you,” the dragon lady spat.
“I know,” Ladybug admitted with sadness, catching Solar Flare off guard. She thought about how as her real identity, she’s always been made fun of by that mean girl in her class; and as Ladybug, people look up to her as only she could de-evillise the akuma and save the day. “I know how that feels like, and yes, it’s frustrating. But I think about the good things that happened to me.” She held the dragon’s gaze, pleased to have gotten her attention. “Don’t focus on the bad things. I’m sure there’s at least someone, or something that makes you happy, isn’t there?”
Behind Solar Flare, Chat Noir carefully sneaked up, prepared to destroy the wrist guard with his cataclysm.
The akumatised Yongsun took in Ladybug’s words, ready to accept her advice. About to touch the wrist guard, Chat Noir felt the strong heat radiating from Solar Flare and flinched. The latter sensed a presence from behind and immediately returned to her fight mode, firing a flame at Chat Noir. He noticed in time and spun his baton in defence using his other hand.
“So this was all a ploy, you liar!” Solar Flare attacked them again. “You’re no different from the rest.”
Ladybug felt bad although what she had said was true. She and Chat Noir had no choice but to run while defending themselves, and cleared a large distance away from Solar Flare.
“What other ways do we have? We can’t linger too long around her before the heat takes effect,” Chat Noir commented.
With no other clever plans of her own, Ladybug activated her ultimate power, Lucky Charm. She hurled her yoyo in the air and revealed…
“A bucket?” Ladybug wondered.
“What are you gonna do with it, pour water on her?” Chat Noir questioned.
Ladybug darted her eyes around the surroundings, looking for a solution. It was a relatively empty area, except there were some wooden planks and props leaning on the wall. Towards the other side of the area, there were a water cooler and a small refrigerator.
“That’s it!” she declared, having thought of a plan. At this time, Solar Flare had caught up with them. “Cover for me for a while!” She instructed Chat Noir, then spoke a monologue. “I do hope this works.”
“Mysterious as usual, m’lady,” Chat Noir said as he saw Ladybug running towards the refrigerator.
He advanced towards Solar Flare at the same time as she started fighting, while he defended both himself and Ladybug. “You know, you’re a pretty cute dragon,” Chat Noir observed. “I bet your original form is even cuter.”
The said person scowled. “I bet that’s another trick. I’ll not fall for it again.”
“Hey! I mean it,” Chat Noir pouted, vaguely hearing Ladybug filling the bucket with lots of clanging sounds.
“Why is your partner not with you?” Solar Flare challenged but decided against it. “But it’s okay, I’ll easily deal with one myself.”
The two went back and forth for a while before Ladybug was done with her plan.
“Was it getting a little boring without me?” Ladybug rejoined Chat Noir, then turned to Solar Flare. “So, selfish dragon, what do you say-“
“How dare you call me selfish!” Solar Flare interrupted her mid-sentence and started going for Ladybug.
Ladybug dashed away with a smirk. It was exactly what she wanted: make her more agitated.
The two raced each other with Chat Noir following close behind. The heroine knocked over some props on purpose, slowing the akumatised down.
“Not confident of your speed? How cowardly of you to use objects to delay me,” Solar Flare easily leapt over them, target still in view.
“I wonder who’s the real coward here,” Ladybug ran toward where she had set up the bucket of ice as she had the biggest obstacle knocked over near the staircase. “You’re the one who wanted everyone to suffer just like you just because you had a bad day.”
Unable to take anymore criticism, Solar Flare cleared the final object just as Ladybug poured the ice all over the floor. The ice cubes slightly slowed her down as she regained her balance. But with her strong heat, it immediately melted the ice, turning them to water. Solar Flare was on the verge of slipping down the stairs until…
“Chat Noir, your turn!”
The said hero skillfully leaped and landed on the stair railing. “Here, hold on!” He offered his right hand to Solar Flare, at the same time pulling her to safety.
In the midst of nervousness, Solar Flare instantly grabbed the hand with cataclysm, her wrist guard immediately darkened.
“NOOO!” Solar Flare screamed as she realised the object that gave her powers cracked into several pieces. The akuma flew out of the darkened wrist guard.
“I’m afraid your fiery avenge shall end here,” Ladybug declared, capturing the akuma with her yo-yo and cleansing it back to a pure white butterfly.
While everything was restored back into their original state, Solar Flare was turned back into Yongsun. Recovering from being devoid of the akuma, she glanced around from where she was kneeling and saw the two teenagers heroes. “Who are you guys? What am I doing here? I don’t remember being on this floor.”
A beeping sound was heard as Chat Noir realised there wasn’t much time left before he transformed back to his normal self. “Gotta run! See you soon m’lady.”
“To put it simply, you let your emotions took over and you became someone with powers,” Ladybug explained to Yongsun, pulling her to her feet. Just then, she noticed Byul walking out from behind a wall. “I’m guessing you had a conflict with your friend. Good luck sorting it out,” she gave a pat on Yongsun’s shoulder before leaving the area.
“Unnie.” Yongsun heard the very familiar voice.
“Byul?”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you or your feelings,” she started cautiously. Byul tried to find a proper phrasing of what she wanted to say but couldn’t. She sighed frustratedly at herself and glanced at Yongsun tentatively. “Just...I’m comfortable around you so that sometimes leads to me totally being myself.”
At this point, Yongsun felt Byul’s sincerity and decided to . “And…?”
It didn’t take long for Byul to realise what Yongsun wanted to hear and she broke into a controlled smile. “Ugh, sorry for hitting you earlier.”
“You’re forgiven, silly,” Yongsun grinned while gently patting Byul’s arm.
Hyejin had thought of coming back for Byul the moment things were restored by Ladybug. Along with Wheein, they found Yongsun and Byul.
“Byulie unnie! Yongsun unnie!” Hyejin observes the two. “Nice to have you back Yongsun unnie.”
“But I must say you looked cool as a dragon,” Wheein added.
“What?” Yongsun questioned at first but remembered Ladybug’s words “you became someone with powers”. She looked up suddenly. “What did I do?”
“You made everyone carelessly rude,” Byul knew the whole situation as she was the only one who wasn’t Solar Flare’s victim. I was the cause of it.
Hyejin chimed in. “You mean you don’t remember?”
“I knew I was in the washroom because I was mad, but now I’m on this floor.” Yongsun replied.
“Hey. So the four of you are here.” They turned and realised it was the director. “We need to get started on filming so stop your chit chat and hurry back.” He left for the studio as soon as he finished.
“Well, let’s go,” Wheein shrugged. Hyejin walked ahead while Byul put her hand on Yongsun’s back, guiding her back to the studio.
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