Disclaimer: I don’t have any affiliation with the TV show. The plot is solely mine.

Rating: PG -13

Pairing: Kim Jong-kook and Song Ji-hyo

Beginnings

Lee Kwang-soo, Out!

Lee Kwang-soo, Out!

Breathing harder as the seconds passed, Song Ji-hyo – Ace Ji-hyo known to the Running Man fans and fanatics throughout nationwide, closed her eyes thinking with her turmoil mind of what to do next. Fatigue clouded her better judgment. The overhead had just wiped away any hope of her team helping her in the last run to obtain the winning stance. There was no other choice; slowly and cautiously, she breathed in and out before looking down the first floor. She felt a drop of perspiration trail down her neck. Time felt like an atomic bomb. Crucial and continuous ticking. Tightening her hand on the yellow flag that would lead her team to victory, she grasped it with all her might.

“You have nowhere to go Ji-hyo yah, give up.” Ha ha’s voice boomed closer to where she was standing hiding behind a pillar and wall. She was cornered. They knew that. Another team member wearing a red shirt leisurely made his way up the staircase facing her with a look that left no doubt of who the winner would be if she didn’t do something about it. Kim Jong-kook. Time was essential. There was no time for her to be standing here with a blank look on her face waiting to get ousted. Aish Ji-hyo snap out of it, she inwardly scolded herself. It was now or never. Wiping her forehead hastily to remove the tresses of hair that had fallen to her face in her haste to get away and hide from others, Ji-hyo used her other hand to pull herself up and jumped over the ledger without thinking.

“Yah!” The booming voice of the Commander of the red team held an implausible note to it apart from something else that she couldn’t decipher. Not when she was trying to concentrate on winning or from breaking her leg from having pulled such a stun the last second.

A commotion erupted upstairs.

“Ji-hyo! You crazy angry bird! Yah! Are you Superman now?!” Haha’s comment would have made her laugh any other day but not today. She was too focused. She wasn’t known for being Ace Ji-hyo for nothing. She was ranked third among the Running Man. Her cunningness and slyness making up for what others had and she lacked. Her mind was her strength.

They better appreciate what I did for the team, she thought with a determine look on her features as she landed rather unbalanced on the floor. Her wrist gave away under her weight. A grimace of pain flashed on her face before she covered it up by standing up to wave the golden flag with her other hand. Without a doubt she knew her team would win for sure this time. By the time they caught up to her she would be around the corner close to the room where the flag stance holder was at.

She grinned as she looked up to stare at their surprised and astonished faces. She felt like Mary Sue for the first time. Ji-hyo inwardly grinned their victory. It wasn't considered one yet. However, it was close enough to make the other teammates saliva turn bittersweet in their mouth.

“See you on the finish-line Jong-kook oppa!” Her dark eyes clashed with a set of small dark eyes that gave nothing away as she spun around on her feet, heart in . Her team had worked too hard not to reach the finish line in the end. Even the dubbed betrayers of Running Man – Kwang-soo and Suk-jin -- had done more than enough contribution with their cunningness and double-dealing ways to have pulled it off in the end. Not that Bad Ji-hyo had a problem with that herself. She knew what it was like to be overpowered by physical strength easily.

“Game over! Yellow team wins!” The announcement didn’t surprise Kim Jong-kook as he unhurriedly walked behind everyone to where the rest of the other teams and guests for the day were reuniting to see the winning team receive their price. Gold.

“Yah Ji-hyo has enough gold to have her own jewelry store,” Yoo Jae-suk, the MC of the program, joked around. “Aish, she makes the rest of us look bad and poor. She really is our Gold Ji-hyo.” Despite the cynicism and playful sarcasm underlining the grasshopper’s tone – Jae-suk’s given nickname for having worn a grasshopper custom in their previous episodes, not to mention an unhealthy obsession with the color green -- held pride in having capable members that were more than just friends but his family as well to take the winning gold for the day till the next game came around to send them running around like flocking chicken running around with no place to run but corners to hide to avoid getting their name tag removed by the opposing enemy.

Kwang-soo walked excitedly ahead talking with Jae-suk. “Fighting!” He exclaimed. “We won! Ji-hyo noona should have been Wonder Woman. Haha said she jumped. Jae-suk if you don’t take care of yourself in the near future, your grasshopper name will be given to noona as Ace grasshopper for jumping higher than you.” Their Vjs laughed at that comment. Kwang-soo ended up with his cap turned around to cover his eyes.

“Yah! It takes a special member to be a grasshopper!” Jae-suk berated laughing as he walked ahead shaking his head.

“Depends what you mean with ‘special’? Suk-jin added cleaning his glasses before putting them on again. They had fallen off earlier when he took a fall before he got ousted by Jae-suk.

“Don’t you mean insect, too?” Haha butted in earning him a slap on the back of his head for his witty quip. A snort escaped Jae-suk as he took off running behind the cowering Haha, who looked like a penguin with his black and white coat from the back. Big Nose joined in and cheered on content in just seeing the spectacle he was used to seeing almost every day. It never got old. Their conversation continued on as they passed SBS’ halls. Not noticing one last team member lagging behind them with a look of indifference on his handsome features. His features tightened to hide the scowl that threatened to give away under his resistance. His dark shades hid his flashing eyes that would have had the production directors playing the soundbite ‘Sparta’ to war