2025-12-13: We Should Try
- Log: We Should Try
- Cast: Myunghon Yeo, So-young Park
- Where: The Cardboard Dragon, Hirasaka Ward
- OOC Date: December 13, 2025
- IC Date: August 25, 2012
- Summary: After rescuing and resuscitating Myunghon from their attempt to leave the mortal coil, So-young and Myunghon try to decompress, to varying degress of limited success. They decide to step away from the Cardboard Dragon for a moment.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Tae Takemi left, and at the very least, the worst has already passed, though... with all that So-young's already done opening the windows and running a fan, it'll probably take quite a while for the Cardboard Dragon, with its sordid late 70's ventilation, to actually air out. Myunghon's found leggings and a skirt and shoes to put on, still wearing that oversize shirt because they're still actively wheezing and short on breath, fire escape door open as they curl up on the wall next to it. It is a little airier, which helps.
They have no idea they have a ninja assassin they're going to have to take care of tonight. In So-young's words: STOP HAVING THINGS HAPPENING
"Um... we could try moving somewhere else for the time being..." Myunghon does suggest slowly, face still cast in an unnatural pallor. "I could call someone else...?"
<Pose Tracker> So-young Park has posed.
So-young's still kind of running on adrenaline more than anything else, partly because she's deliberately harnessing that energy to force herself to keep moving and not fall into thought, partly because she has no desire to poison herself from fumes, partly because otherwise she might just yell at Myunghon and she really, honestly, doesn't want to do that right now. Maybe tomorrow, but today gets a pass.
Puffing her cheeks out as she passes Myunghon in her pacing, she puts on an uncertain frown. "... I guess we could... but I'm not sure if we should be leaving this unattended. I already got an earful from the doctor about it, and I'm just imagining Shinjiro bustling in and going 'oh no something must have happened' and crashing inside and-- well." She does her best to keep her tone neutral, frowning as she lowers herself into a half-crouch near Myunghon. "Telling someone might be for the best, but I wasn't about to suggest it. You're going to get a lot of people crowding around you terribly quickly."
That might be the most sensible warning So-young has managed in weeks.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon has a shiver and a somewhat desperate whisper of, "I don't think anyone else should-- should know. It'll be..." they place a hand to her forehead, not knowing they're going to get found by Tsubasa and hurt them. "This isn't the kind of thing that anyone should know... once someone knows, it's all over, it changes everything..." they're really rapidly hyperventilating, which they're finding is incredibly poor when their air intake is constricted.
A despondent sigh, as they thunk their forehead on their knees. They probably shouldn't be turning into a ball with the condition of their lungs, but it's the one position in the world that seems to make them content.
"Besides... you can..." they glance to the side. "You can yell at me. It's fine... I mean..."
<Pose Tracker> So-young Park has posed.
So-young remains silent for a moment. She doesn't exactly, uh, mean to let Myunghon hyperventilate on their own, but she's also not really all that medically minded. Besides, she's doing her best to marshal together what she knows of Myunghon and the Cardboard Dragon crew. "And what exactly will it change?" she challenges after a moment, her voice held remarkably steady, or perhaps just blunt.
"They've all raced after you into Mementos to stop the worst from happening once before, and yet they're all still at your beck and call. If I hit the group chat with 'hey, Myunghon's feeling really terrible and run down', do you really think the reply would be 'wow, I'm so disappointed'?"
It takes the conductor about five seconds to realize she's worded that badly, because she hasn't closed off the possibility of Myunghon just replying with 'yes I do', and she's quick to add: "However you're going to answer that, it's probably wrong."
She lets out a breath through her nose, the sigh quiet as she manages to stop pacing. "... don't get me wrong. I'm pretty angry. But I'm not the one with any kind of right to take you to task. Hell, I barely even know half of what you're dealing with at any given moment." And the bits I do know, you don't know that I know, she thinks grimly. There are things she could say to that, but she lets them simmer for the time being instead.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon blinks with that one eye of theirs several times -- it's probably a miracle that it isn't severely irritated and inflamed right now -- before whispering, "I don't know, nuna. I really don't know... it wasn't like this even a few months ago... I have-- we have a group chat. There's-- there's, people, people around, people I don't want to disappoint, people counting on me, sometimes it's easy, Akabane-san just wants Merry present, for instance..."
A pause, as that seems to suggest the obvious to them. They look back at So-young... and it doesn't seem to happen.
The point about how they've all raced after them into Mementos to stop them from doing something foolish does get them to pause, and start choking and sniffling lightly, though. "I know... I understand-- it's simply happening-- too fast, all at once, even back in-- June, I didn't have a quarter of the people in my life I do now... you included."
The wheezing and difficulty processing everything does continue. "Let's, let's... take this someplace else for now. I don't want to be near where I just..." A pause. "I can call Cheolje if I need to. I don't like to, but I can."
<Pose Tracker> So-young Park has posed.
So-young's face is grim at the suggestion of switching to Merry; she doesn't say anything out loud, but there's a relief in her furrowed brow when Myunghon doesn't go through with it, like that would be a notch of escapism too far. "... sure," she allows after a moment. "But 'not wanting to disappoint someone' doesn't mean you have to be perfect. Look at me, how often have I disappointed you?" she smirks all of a sudden, all teeth and self-deprecation. Maybe Myunghon isn't the only one who plays the fool a lot. "Somehow you're still putting up with me and calling me 'nuna'."
"Look, if Umie ever insists she wants to deal with Merry and no-one else, let me and Shinjiro know and we'll dangle her off the rooftop by her ankles," the musician adds with a huff of air. She leaves it at that for now - she's not all that great at coming up with cheesy upbeat reasoning, letting out another breath as she offers her sibling a hand up and a shoulder to lean on. "But I don't think you're giving them enough credit."
The mention of Cheolje makes her wrinkle her nose, which is... a little odd. So-young always talked about him in an upbeat fashion before, but now she's forced to remember that piece of drama waiting for them somewhere down the line. "... fine. But we probably should not bundle you on a train feeling this rough. Let's just find a business hotel or something, or just a bench in a park where there's a breeze."
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
"It's... it's a bit different," Myunghon still doesn't sound like they're thoroughly content with it. "With you, or Shinobi-ssi, or another adult, but it's different with someone younger... ..." A rather disappointed noise in themself, and they clutch at the side of their face, like the full consequences of what could've been start to sink into them, and not far behind, the admonishing voices of the doctors as their face tears up once more.
"It isn't like that... but..." Myunghon does at least not let Umie down that much. "I don't know how to change myself that rapidly save to just pretend harder, clown harder... it really was easier when it was just a simple magic trick, all of it. Have you had to...?"
A pause, as So-young agrees, and her younger sibling pulls their phone out. "Then should I... or do you want to... sorry."
<Pose Tracker> So-young Park has posed.
"Do you really think that? To be quite honest, I think some of those children have enough life experience stored up that they'd give someone twice their age pause," So-young sighs to herself as she shakes her head, pausing to help haul Myunghon up to their feet - not in an unkind manner, but definitely bit more bluntly and matter-of-factly than she really needs to.
"No, I have not," the conductor notes with thinly veiled pride. "But then, I do not take myself so seriously that I feel the need to present an unflinching, unassailable face to everyone. You could simply just not pretend - just be yourself, warts and all, and see just how much things actually change. I rather think it will be a lot less than you're imagining."
"And if someone really did feel disappointed at your true nature, you would be well within your rights to forget about them entirely," So-young adds with a firm and almost proud note, that boundless self-confidence being put to proper work for once. "They would not be worth your, my, or anyone's time."
So saying, she pulls out her phone, flipping it open and buzzing down her shortlist of contacts. She's kind of navigating Myunghon down the fire escape as she lets it right, squinting when it goes to voicemail. "--I realize you may be avoiding us at the moment, Uncle, but your assistance is requested at the Cardboard Dragon. If I call it a 'clean-up operation', will you come any faster?" she asks with some foreboding.
... well, it's not exactly lying...
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
"And you think that's a good thing?!" Myunghon finds themself yelling, stress briefly bursting out of their mind for a moment. "You think-- you think just because they've seen so much horridness and trauma that they're all stronger and better for it? That they're just hardened and--"
And then So-young's getting them off their feet, so they whimper and wince as their arm and shoulder muscles get pulled in a way that aggravates a lot of pain in a lot of their upper body issues they've never addressed. They do wither away at that advice -- 'just be yourself' -- and then grabs at their shoulder, weakly, a hot flash of anger thoroughly dampened by that state. "... and this, tonight? If I said this was myself? Then? Do you feel disappointed at this 'true nature'?"
There's another withering sigh as they take their phone and tuck it in their pocket to say, "Forget it... I'm going to Auntie Taeyun's. It's not such a long walk I won't be fine even at this hour." They stop to listen as it seems like Cheolje isn't available, which isn't surprising because they sent him off to go save the girls from being sold off by Eiji Kamiya, they think in hindsight.
<Pose Tracker> So-young Park has posed.
So-young winces despite the sudden anger crossing her own features in turn. She didn't mean to be quite that rough with Myunghon, and there's still an apologetic frown crossing her face for a moment even as it clashes with the glint in her eyes. "And when did I say any of that?" she is quick to challenge, her brow furrowed. "It is not a matter of being 'stronger' or 'better' or 'hardened' or 'good'. It is a matter of them being that much closer to understanding how you are feeling, to knowing what you're going through. Far better than I ever could."
She rakes a hand back through her hair, grimacing to herself. She really has no idea how to even navigate this, or be patient enough to say her piece properly in a way that will get through. But backing down seems like it'll just risk Myunghon continuing whatever loop this is, slipping back into the same downwards spiral all the sooner as they continue to break their back for the sake of appearances, and then what comes next?
"Are you expecting me to say that I am? Rather, I'm just glad you've finally decided to yell at me for once," the conductor returns, her mouth drawn into a thin line. "What is there to even be disappointed about? 'Oh no, my sibling is somehow managing to navigate trauma and fear and panic day in day out while also managing to support--" she stops to exaggerately count a full hand's worth of fingers, "--a half dozen displaced youths and both their supernatural drama and their adolescent drama'. I just told you I have no right to take you to task for a moment's weakness, and I meant it."
"--he'll come," she adds curtly with a glance at her phone. Even when she's frustrated over the situation with their Mother, she has that much faith.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon is ultimately an easy person to cow, that anger not really lasting long in their condition as they continue to argue in... the back lot, at this point. This is a perfect opportunity for battle music to start, as the Baestation III hitches for a moment, and then
SIBLING
Erupts in 72 pt. Edo SZ font (bold).
It doesn't happen, though, Myunghon still clutching to So-young's side as she whispers in that erratic, unstable voice of theirs, "Then-- then say that, you're always so-- flippant about it... like you just never... care. That it'll be fine. Everything'll be fine... To me, you're just putting on as much of a face as much as I know. Do you really think it's only because I take myself 'seriously' that I do this?"
They do run out of energy at about this point, though, proverbially bobbing between head surfaced and underwater on the scale of 'is my body deciding I should be crying right now or not'.
What So-young says last is what hurts the most, but they're not quite with it enough to beg her to be a little angrier because the thought of suddenly leaving Tsubasa, and Shinjiro, and other people that they've thrown lifelines to is really shredding them apart.
A car does pull up in short order, however, and Cheolje does step out of the back in that graceful manner of his. "Young master? What on earth..." he starts, before looking at So-young with a quiet nod.
"I'm sorry to pull you away from your current task," Myunghon finds it difficult to put up pretenses at the moment when Cheolje already slipped in his surprise. "Nothing changes outside of this, however."
"The task is... done," Cheolje does clarify, placing his hands behind his back. "We were able to rescue those girls at the locations you provided, and we're providing care for them at present."
<Pose Tracker> So-young Park has posed.
"... this is me being serious," So-young admits in what she hopes is a gentler voice. "I may enjoy-- putting on airs, but that doesn't mean everything I'm doing or saying is a joke just because I use twenty words where two will do. See, I'm doing it again," she sighs as she tries to adjust so that she's not sticking an elbow into Myunghon's side or anything.
She tries again, rubbing at her forehead as she feels her head throb. She's fairly sure she didn't catch too much of the fumes, at least, which probably means this is your garden variety headache. "... I firmly believe that no-one in the Cardboard Dragon will abandon you or hate you over this. They will be upset. They will be angry. But that will not be forever, because they think a hell of a lot more of you than that. So when I say 'it will be fine', it's because I mean it."
She's still saying 'they' rather than 'we', and this time she actually notices she's doing it, catching herself for a moment as she frowns. That line about being harder to understand than a demon prickles at her to this day somewhere, it seems, as much as she'd prefer not to dwell on it. "... and maybe that's just blind optimism from someone who hasn't been through what you have. But I can't just deny what I think."
So-young is too mentally exhausted to remember that she's only supposed to know Uncle as their odd-jobbing caretaker and not the right hand man of the Baengnyong, but the idea of Uncle doing some quick courier work for Myunghon isn't entirely outside of the realm of possibility given he looks like he's stepping out of a movie on any given day anyway. Her shoulders sag with relief. "Some good news today, at least," she notes with relish, and then is forced to realize she's not actually all that sure if it's wise to just ask Uncle to bear witness to, well, everything upstairs. "... we had a bit of a fight," she supplies rather lamely.
<Pose Tracker> Myunghon Yeo has posed.
Myunghon doesn't have an immediate answer or an outburst this time, but they do catch the way she says 'they' and doesn't include herself in it. A quiet frown, for a moment, and then they do say, this time, "You're part of the Cardboard Dragon now, as well. You wanted to be included, not excluded like you're not precious enough to be told--" A pause, as they glance towards Cheolje again, and then sighs in turn.
"Perhaps... the comfort of the car might be a better place for the two of you than the alleyway, in the sweltering night," Cheolje first advises. "Even if you aren't settled on a destination, a drive does sometimes clear my mind... I've taken you on many, after all, niece."
Myunghon does pause, perhaps getting a pang of mild jealousy at what these two've shared, even though they're the 'young master' here. That's rich if they say that out loud, though.
"... then take us," Myunghon sounds almost imperious for a moment. "I'm sure you're hungry by now too, nuna..."
<Pose Tracker> So-young Park has posed.
"... fair point. I will work on that," So-young allows with a sigh and a nod. She can't resist the slight shot back: "So long as you do too," she huffs, but that's more just her stubborn and argumentative streak rearing its head rather than anything more seriously meant.
"I'm kind of coming around to the alley," she notes towards Uncle, and alright, maybe this time she is just being goofy for the hell of it, for something to fill the air with and release some of the tension coiled inside of her. "It's got a nice timbre. Good acoustics. The vending machines are a local hot spot." But she gently nudges Myunghon in the direction of the car, glancing at her watch to double check how late it is.
She really, really does not want to be in this limo come the Dark Hour. Either Cheolje will turn into a coffin or Cheolje will very pointedly not turn into a coffin, and she's absolutely not prepared to deal with either outcome tonight. "... you'd think so, but I don't know that I'm going to have much appetite for a while," she admits plainly. "Still, we should try."