2025-08-07: Tiny Apartment Confessional
- Log: Tiny Apartment Confessional
- Cast: Shinjiro Aragaki, Myunghon Yeo
- Where: Myunghon's Safehouse, Hirasaka Ward, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: August 07, 2025
- IC Date: June 22, 2012
- Summary: Shinjiro cooks food for a reluctant Myunghon, who is visiting the safehouse. This sprawls into a series of confessions, ranging from their health to their past crimes. Despite the pain of confiding, their relationship is strengthened for it.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
The smell coming from the old Hirasaka apartment that Myunghon claims as a safehouse can be called 'delicious' without a doubt. The smell of oil, cabbage, and egg all cooking, among other ingredients.
Shinjiro Aragaki has his apron on, standing at the kitchen of the safehouse he's been graciously lended a key to. He was told someone's coming, so he's preparing for two: an oiled pan heats up what could only be okonomiyaki. He's already put one out and wrapped so it doesn't cool too fast, and is just finishing the second one, turning the heat off.
The apartment table, a small affair, is ready for setting the plates. Numerous toppings have already been put out as making it more fun for Myunghon might make them more willing to eat. Scallions, pickled ginger, seaweed, bonito flakes, and mayonnaise are all options. Most of these weren't already in the safehouse... did he buy them for this? He has little money as it is...
For his part, he seems to be in a decent mood... his mind's still full of guilt and doubt over everything, but having a nice lunch should help. Sleeping here also helped, his energy levels are definitely higher than usual.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon sent Shinjiro a text that they'd come around with some supplies. Does... does Myunghon just know what's low on in every single one of their storehouses? (The answer is, really, yes, they've got that kind of OCD and if they're not pulling up Item lists the Koalas will eat them alive.)
The Rumourmonger knocks, then lets themself in a moment after; "Shinjiro-ssi, I'm coming in," they call for politeness, knocking their shoes off at the door with the rustle of a plastic bag (this is 2012, okay, we won't quite get to plastic bag bans yet... actually, Japan was still using them in 2024...). There's a blink as they hear the sizzling sound of cooking. "Oh, you're cooking?"
They didn't smell that from the outside? Well, there might be a bunch of odours outside. There's a whole bunch of toppings, however, and Myunghon looks a bit curious about it... but then they rustle through their bag. "The first aid kit pretty much got used up from that fight on the beach, so I brought another one. Also, you can't have enough toiletries... that's the first one to always get used through."
There's a faint smile as she says, "You're having a nice lunch. What's this gonna be, eggs?"
They're already deflecting by calling it HIS lunch!!
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
As Myunghon comes in after the call, Shinjiro turns, plating the two. Is he a big eater? (no, one of these is absolutely not for him)
"You're right on time, I made you a plate too, since you were coming over. How are you? You've eaten much yet?" He knows the answer but it's kind to give them the benefit of the doubt, even if he comes off as fussy at times.
He looks over the bag. "Nice. That'll be handy. I have to thank you again... this is a lot to be giving a key to someone you barely know." They've worked together for a bit now, but... he doesn't deserve this. To the point he only uses it sometimes, to not be 'greedy'.
A pause. "Okonomiyaki. I got us all sorts of toppings to put on it. It's fun." He doesn't usually see eating as 'fun' but, if Myunghon's already deflecting, he has to play hardball...
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon blinks a few times, and then slowly looks down towards the two plates. Like before, their mood starts to shift towards that generally warm tone when they can mask to something approaching weariness. "Ah. Well, there was that steak from Benny's, right...?"
... people should eat multiple times a day, Myunghon, to keep up their energy!
"Someone I barely know? I'd say we're a bit past that, aren't we, Shinjiro-ssi? We made good progress on the Palace, thanks to you," Myunghon gives him credit. Watch, as our actual Monad run is going to be a COMPLETE DISASTER. "I might've been seriously wounded if you didn't rush in."
Okonomiyaki...
"Ah... I sort of remember... going to a restaurant for this as a child," Myunghon reflects. "The tables had a grill and everything. But, ah... I'm not that... hungry right now."
Their words are backfiring on them. Being past 'hardly know each other' means it gets harder and harder to just squirm out of food-related convos. This is why it's basically impossible with Yua and Remi and such.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro frowns as the steak is mentioned. "Half of my steak at Benny's yesterday does not count." He says, before moving to brush over the Monad reassurance with a sigh. "I guess. Listen, you obviously have plenty of allies, so it's still a lot to be lending me a bed sometimes."
Though, he deflects back as Myunghon remembers the meal, and then tries to squeeze through it. But, unlike at Benny's, he doesn't try to force them to eat. Instead, he's going to question it a little.
"Are you ever hungry?" He's not trying to be flippant. "Your relation with food seems... unhealthy."
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
'Sometimes'. It's not lost on Myunghon, as they sit down at the low table and start drumming their long, lanky fingers on it gently. It's a nervous habit. There's something for them to press in turn to Shinjiro, but they're not quite sure how to do it without sounding like they've been exceptionally nosy. Well, then again, perhaps that is the point...
"I'm not... often hungry," Myunghon admits. They look down at the okonomiyaki again. It doesn't really seem to stir their appetite or anything. "I usually do remember to eat before I fall over." A frown, afterwards, because now they sound absolutely helpless because that wasn't a good defence.
"You're a good cook, I can tell. I think you should dig in while it's hot."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro notices them drumming. He doesn't press back, because it'll just open him up. Instead, he hones in on what Myunghon says.
"You'll atrophy without proper nutrition. ...I would know, I've been on the street for the last two years. My diet's gone to shit." He's a third year... what happened at the beginning of high school? "Kitchen's decent, though, so I can eat a little better occasionally."
He frowns sharply as they seem to refuse, though. "Myunghon, you're going to get sick. You- you can't subsist on Koala March, as much as we wish that was a thing." A beat. "...it might be something to see a doctor about, or a psych, but I sure as hell know that's not always possible or wanted."
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon *has* already atrophied, by any measure of it. They hide in their long sleeves and pants, and those bandages, but that body of theirs -- Shinjiro's seen sneaks of how scarred and mangled it is underneath when they take a hit in battle and the bandages come loose, by this point. Yet, here it comes -- it's the part where he admits he's been on the streets that hits them, nothing about themself.
"I heard from Auntie Tae-yun -- she's been checking in and telling me about you and how much she likes having a neighbour again," Myunghon admits. "But she also got concerned about how long you went out some nights and didn't come back..."
It's like a chain of worrywarts here. Myunghon does feel bad using her to try to get her message in, but these are facts. She did ask where the nice young man was. To be fair, some nights Shinjiro might be staying in other places, but...
They sigh, though, because they know they can't deflect forever. "I'll-- try a... bite." Myunghon takes a pair of chopsticks and takes a piece, chewing gently... chewing... still chewing. "It's... um-- egg-mushy?" They swallow.
'Egg-mushy'. 'Crunchy'. 'Beefy'. Why is the way they describe food always so... tactile? So... physical. It's almost like they can't...
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro knows Myunghon is atrophied... and that's absolutely why he doesn't want it to get *worse*.
"...I'm sorry to worry her," he says, dejectedly as he sits with his plate. "I..." Can he say anything about it? It's hard to communicate. Myunghon is on the level, though, and he trusts them. Something about their affect, their attitude, the bits of genuine he's seen under their mask...
"I've done some really awful things. Things I can't take back. I don't deserve this, any of this. A roof over my head? A bed? People who seem to care? It's all bullshit that I have this while others don't. I shouldn't even be in this room with you at this point."
Though, he turns back to his own food as Myunghon takes a bite. He tries his own. It's pretty damn good, but he's not focused on that. He notices the texture, but it's lighter than the flavor. Maybe...
"...are you incapable of tasting?"
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
And in turn, Myunghon knows Shinjiro's still a teen, no matter how powerful and mature he seems. They don't know about his other issues... but shouldn't the same logic still apply? It's not good to abuse your body like that -- but that would be an entirely pot-kettle-black kind of situation, isn't it?
They're entirely too similar. They care about others a lot... but it doesn't quite extend to themselves.
Myunghon watches Shinjiro as they express their past -- not in concrete terms, but... it's something they know a lot about -- about the whisper of 'you don't deserve this'. And to their credit, Myunghon knows Shinjiro probably knows it's in a way irrational, much like how Myunghon isn't *unaware* about nutrition and that the body needs it.
"Shinjiro-ssi... a lot of us in the Baengnyong also wear a cloak of guilt as well," is the approach Myunghon decides to relate. "This side of Hirasaka's become a community for us who aren't wanted anywhere else. A lot of them couldn't even get accepted for a place to stay or get health services because they'd been profiled as Zainichi, and have criminal pasts they want to try to overcome. Auntie Tae-yun, too, has her share of tragedy."
Myunghon lowers their head. "I can't even begin to imagine what you've been through. I'm not going to say 'I understand how you feel', but... as someone who's done truly horrible things as well... I can sympathise with that line of thinking." Maybe they've already connected that their starving themselves is part of that kind of guilt. Where Shinjiro sleeps on the streets because he doesn't deserve it, they forget about eating because...
Well, that's not all of it.
Shinjiro then suddenly says something that prompts their eye to widen. There's a reflexive look-left-look-right panic, but then it's suddenly like they're gone -- then then they're back when they realise they're in a relatively safe space. Their head lowers to one side.
"... you found me out. I can't smell food either. Food just tastes like..." They make a little frown on their face, a thumb to their finger. "Sort of like ashes... I don't know why I remember the taste of ashes so well."
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro's silent for a long time. For once, he wants to continue talking, paradoxically to how he normally is, since Myunghon feels very safe for the first time in his life with an adult to talk about these things. However, he can't talk about what he's *done*. That'd alienate them forever, surely.
"You know, we founded SEES together. Me, Aki, and Kirijo. Now I can't even bring myself to face them, and they still want me back. Have a whole gaggle of new recruits and they still want me. It's fucked up." If he was in SEES... what exactly happened? Did he get thrown to the streets, or, more likely...
Though, as Myunghon panics, Shinjiro tries to calm. "Woah, woah, sorry..." He's softer, taking a breath as they explain.
"...that sucks. I'm sorry. ...hm." It's like a light dawning in his brain.
"...you still need to eat. The alternative is... you'll get worse. We probably can't make anything taste good..." He's trying to consider pathways that they can eat, in spite of this, instead of judging them or prying.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
"I know..."
Myunghon lets Shinjiro have the silence, needing some time to come down from their panic themself. Perhaps, as an olive branch to his last statement, they quietly take another chopstick-full of okonomiyaki to get themself to have a second bite. It's somewhat of a laborious process. The taste of ashes... it might be just as much mental as anything.
"Kirijo... that was that red-haired woman from that battle, I think?" Myunghon tries to recall. They did remember several figures that showed much more concern and surprise at Shinjiro's presence than the others. The newer ones. Aki they can't quite pick out. So, Shinjiro was one of the founding members...
"They... care, don't they," Myunghon observes. "They care a lot. They're upset because you distanced yourself from them because it hurts too much. Just like people get upset when I don't feed myself." Among other things, Myunghon! What about the dettol!
Some part of Myunghon is bristling right now -- an inner part of them that's yelling that they're being too honest and open, because *human beings* will, very fickle, judge you when you're being honest and suddenly change their mind about them. Because it's happened far too many times!
"It wasn't always like this. I lost it both... well, two years ago, a lot of things happened. That was related to what I did too," They're being vague about it too, just like Shinjiro can't admit it. "But I ended up this way as part of that... weak as my body was, it wasn't able to fight off infection and flus and viruses for a while."
They'd ended up in a very ball-like position, knees drawn up to their chest. They're pretty good at assuming that position.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"Yeah. Mitsuru Kirijo. Big deal corpo heir. ...my friend." He can't say former. They're still... connected, aren't they?
Myunghon observes. They feel the same thing as Shinjiro: if you are too honest, people won't be able to handle it. No one in this world knows he's dying except the people with the same exact condition. Few know he's homeless. Fewer know he killed someone. "What do people like us do, though? They don't understand. They *can't* understand."
He says us. He seems them as more similar, instead of judging them. This is probably *increasing* his trust of them, even if he can't quantify that right now.
"...yeah. Two years ago..." He's flashing back to it, briefly. It's clear in how his eyes fade in focus, until he shakes his head, a trained response to stop himself from constantly dwelling on the trauma.
He doesn't press about food again. This has become something else, for right now. When they admit their body is weak... "You probably saw me coughing blood a few times." He admits it, though not why. It was obvious, though, that it wasn't just the fights. "I'm... not great off, either. I get it. A bad enough cold would probably barrel me over." A pause.
"Sorry, I'm dragging you down."
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
The Kirijo Group is something Myunghon, as a former corporate rising star, is intimately well-aware of. It's surprising to see the young heir be involved in the Dark Hour. Or perhaps is it all connected, much like how their father's company was tied to the New World Order?
"You... aren't. When I first came here, some of the older folk in the Baengnyong told me that... even if they can't understand it... it was still worth holding each other up by the shoulders through it," Myunghon murmurs. "I didn't quite understand what they meant, but... I think I'm starting to now." It's already bad enough that society didn't want them -- further isolating themselves only meant death, and maybe, in companionship, they found a little path forward.
Shinjiro tells them they probably saw them coughing up blood. There's a quiet nod of confirmation, but they can't quite bring themself to say it. But right now, even though all of their logical senses is screaming at them to hit the abort button because opsec must be upheld, they find themselves drawn to admit--
"I've killed people, Shinjiro."
As if in penance, they take a third bite of the food. It frustrates them so much. This should be chef-class okonomiyaki. It should be lush and sumptuous and gracious, melting in their mouth, bursting with flavour. Shouldn't someone more deserving of it have it?
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
"You aren't. *You* aren't. Hm." Shinjiro tosses it around, even as he's getting glassy. "Hah. But only people who understand what you've done can..." Is he trying to convince Myunghon or himself, he suddenly asks himself. Is he being hypocritical again, like yesterday?
"It sucks. This should be easier." He really is a teenager.
Myunghon then, though, drops a bomb. He pauses long and awkward. It's probably not the best reaction. It's genuinely shocking... he couldn't have seen it coming.
But who is he to judge?
"...it feels like fucking shit, doesn't it? The weight one bears afterwards. Like we don't deserve anything good for the rest of our life. Maybe like we don't even deserve that."
Is that a confession?
Yes, absolutely. His look isn't just 'oh, I understand'. It's conflicted, sure, but it is clearly one of someone who knows exactly why one would want penance.
He eats his rapidly-cooling food as his own penance, colder to the bite. He, also, stopped his opsec logic. Because, for a moment?
He feels like he did when he was healthy, and cared what others thought of him. And for once... it seems someone cares, truly.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
There's some posturing there, isn't there, Shinjiro? Even Myunghon sees it now for themself. They can't understand what they've done... it's become a reflexive barrier for them, something that's there not for the other people who want to help, but... for themselves. Because it hurts too much otherwise. It sucks. It really should be easier.
Shinjiro affirms how it feels. It feels like...
"... fucking shit," Myunghon echoes. It doesn't really sound right coming from their genteel, soft-spoken tones, but they wear it anyway. It's not lost on them what that means. He's taken a life too.
"... I killed ... plenty, but I remember one in particular," Myunghon finds themself already revealing that much. "A girl who needed a heart transplant. I found a way to argue that that surgery was 'non-essential'. It was easy to paint them as inaccurate, inconsistent. In one stroke, I saved the company twenty-five thousand American dollars. My colleagues lauded me for my mastery of the system."
They look up at this point. "I waved a hundred magic wands, and soon a hundred people just ceased to be. And they... cheered... they were enthralled with the bottom dollar, not human beings."
They shake their head, finally lapsing from what feels like a confessional. This entire apartment feels like one at the moment, and they're not even meeting Mio at St. Bernadette's. What happened to them? Shinjiro happened. "... that's not pressure for you to have to share your story too, by the way. But maybe that's what has me so worked up about Kaneshiro."
There's a little fire in them now, as their preservation instinct pivots them to get angry about that. "You and I... we have to survive long enough to protect the ones we care about. Even if it's harder for us to care about ourselves. Isn't that right...?"
In resolve of that: a bite of the Ashes of Okonomiyaki.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
Shinjiro sighs when Myunghon agrees. Fucking shit sums up the last two years, really, if not longer, doesn't it?
They then explain their crimes. Corporate killing... indirect, but a death caused with knowing either way. He takes it in, but he doesn't seem upset by any stretch. It's a lot of confidence and trust to tell him that.
"...I really fucked up," is what he says first. "And now a boy is an orphan." He's not going to go into detail about his Persona going out of control, but that's because it ties into how he's punishing himself. And at this point, that's because it'd worry Myunghon, who can't do anything about it.
"...yeah." He needs to make a decision sooner than later. But how? He can't go back to SEES. He'd just break their hearts again. But...
Maybe he does have to get active again.
Shinjiro digs his fork in, eating some more of his own. He then realizes they didn't add any toppings. Oops.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon actually finishes their plate. They don't look particularly well after that, even though their body has to be benefiting from it. The mental overload is a lot. There's a little 'urp' as they cup their mouth at the end, from a bite too large for their own good.
Shinjiro fucked up... and now a boy is an orphan. ... ... Myunghon can *guess*, because Shinjiro introduced the fact that he formed SEES with Akihiko and Mitsuru, so there's a natural guess there that a bystander became involved in a Persona operation...
But they don't have the fact that Personae can go out of control at the moment. Because theirs doesn't.
"... thank you for... the food. And for letting me carry some of that weight," Myunghon finally speaks up, after they put their chopsticks back on the plate. But it goes both ways too, doesn't it? Myunghon likely hasn't told about their crimes to many people. Just because they don't kill with a knife or gun...
Well. That's the horror of the modern world, isn't it? A knife or gun is *sensational*, leaving a bloody or smoking trail. That's why Shinjiro's here. But in a way, Myunghon has a bigger body count than the Joker Killer.
<Pose Tracker> Shinjiro Aragaki has posed.
As Myunghon finishes the plate and mental overloads, Shinjiro grimaces, feeling a little bad. But... they have forged a stronger bond in the process.
"Of course. Next time we get you to eat, though, let's... make it more fun." He very softly but also very melancholically smiles. Guess that's the only thing there is to do. Carry this weight... but they don't have to do it alone.
Myunghon is also the luckiest person in the world, as they won't have to clean! If anyone else ate his food, they'd have to help with cleanup. But eating the food at all? That's the reward here.