Disclaimer: Hikaru no Go belongs to Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obatta, not me. I'm merely borrowing the characters for a while.
A/N: Um, well, how to really sum up this fic? I'm slightly dissapointed with how it turned out... it was a bit of a difficult bunny to work with, but we need more Yongha/Hikaru fics, so I figured I should give it a shot. Perhaps I am a little (or a long way) off with the characterisations, but in my opinion Ko Yongha just loves to stir people up and Hikaru responds to it, so I suppose this is even vaguely possible - but that's why I tried not to overdo the pairing at all, and it's not really the main focus of the fic.
I hope you can enjoy this even a little! It's my first anime/manga fic so I would really welcome your opinion.
Ko Yongha often got bored. And when he got bored, he became impulsive, though the majority of the time this in itself did not present a problem for him. He was the best of the young pros in Korea, after all, and if he had a small so-called "rebellion" then that was only natural, as long as he conducted himself well around the goban and respected his elders those he knew did not much care what he did.
Still, even for him this was a bit too impulsive. More than a bit. It was downright reckless and rude. But he was bored, as he'd taken no time to assure the anxious Hon Suyon as he left for his flight to Japan. Besides, he'd taken some precautions, and though his Japanese was a little shaky he was quite confident that it would be enough – Go was not a verbal game, but a mental one.
The fact that he'd bothered to learn some Japanese had come as a shock to those closest to him, not that anyone was truly close to him, part of the reason he was often bored to tears in the Go world, because there was never a rival close to his own age, no one who could spark his interest in Korea. He had assured those who knew of this visit that he'd only learned Japanese because it would be beneficial for him for future International tournaments that he would be sure to participate in, but the truth was that he'd done it for one reason and one reason alone.
To defeat Shindo Hikaru.
Oh, he knew it was stupid, but he didn't care. That half moku win… utterly humiliating, yet totally captivating. Shindo was interesting to say the least, and Yongha, secretly moved by the young pro's ambition to link the past and future in his Go, could not wait the months it would take to face him in a tournament again, if that was even guaranteed.
So he'd come to Japan with only two days to locate and challenge Shindo. It wouldn't be too hard, and he knew Shindo would relish the chance to play him. It wasn't an official match, no, but a prelude to one, an appetiser, a conquest that would satisy his raging hunger for a little while.
He needed to face passion and not fear across the goban. It had been fun to rile the easily-excited pro up, and he looked forward to doing it again.
It was the right decision, he told himself, because he would win again, that was for sure, but at least there would be a struggle, something to confront and a means to test his worthiness to sit on the throne of the Go world, not just in Korea, but the whole world, and to eventually play the Hand of God.
Everything was fine in Shindo Hikaru's world. Playing Akari, who had gone home a few minutes prior, had really relaxed him. He felt… content. It was a rare feeling for him; he who swiftly climbed the ranks of the Go pros had little time to relax, and it was…nice.
Yes, everything was right in his world.
Five minutes later, Hikaru would mark these words as cursed and would never utter or even think them again. For surely they would only mark the beginning of more insanity and confusion, as they had today.
Ko Yongha smiled to himself; this had been too easy, just a simple matter of a phone call to the Japanese Go Association and they'd turned to putty in his capable hands.
He slid his shoes off automatically, barely listening to the curious inquiries of Shindo's mother. She didn't matter. Well, that was until a particular remark made its way into his hearing.
"It's so nice to see that Hikaru's making friends with those from other countries. I was a little worried about him at first, but since you've come all this way…" she smiled brightly at him and he gave the most sincere smile that he could muster back.
So she didn't know anything about Go, hmm? Interesting. "Oh, yes, Shindo-san, we're very close friends. I'm surprised he's never spoken of me before, but then again I do live a long way away and the life of a Professional Go player is incredibly strenuous; sometimes I find myself completely absorbed in my work, a reason that I've longed to come here for a long time." He said this in the politest voice he could (and he was doing very well, too, considering the fact that normally he would have brushed her off completely), but moved discreetly to the stairs, a large enough distance to be noticed but a small enough distance not to be rude.
"Ah… I apologise, I'm taking time from you seeing Hikaru," she said sheepishly, seeming to remember herself. "I'll call to Hikaru to let him know you've arrived."
"That's quite alright Shindo-san, I don't wish to disturb anyone and I'm sure he won't object to me going straight up."
"Well, alright," Shindo's mother smiled again, "just tell me if you need anything."
"Thank you, Shindo-san," he said, not knowing how much more he could take of this mundane conversation. If he stayed here any longer his motivation would crumble, but he'd come this far so there was no turning back now, unless he wanted to be crushed by his Go rival in the future. They bowed formally to each other and she finally left him, muttering something about her son keeping secrets from her.
Only a split second later, Yongha's polite façade dissolved into a look of disdain and arrogance, his confidence restored. Hmmph, he thought, this game has almost reached the end of yose, and I'm the clear winner. Now there is one true path for me to follow: up the stairs and into Shindo Hikaru's bedroom, where I'll likely be met with a hilarious reaction.
He ascended the stairs quietly and unhurriedly, lazily lifting his feet as if the mere act of touching the staircase was a privilege he granted to each step. He didn't need to bound up the stairs like an excited puppy, after all; he might need this time to reflect on exactly what he'd say to the man he'd survived the tedious plane journey to meet.
Then again, perhaps it would be best to just say what came into his mind at the time…?
Definitely, he thought with an amused smirk as he walked indolently into Shindo's bedroom. The young pro's reaction was even more hilarious than he could ever have imagined, especially when he acted as if there were nothing out of the ordinary about a resident of Korea popping in for a chat with a – well, an enemy he supposed – living in Japan. Hikaru had almost jumped out of his skin at the sight of him.
He sat on the other side of the goban that Shindo was using to recreate a recent pro game, smiled, and said, "So, Hikaru-kun, how have you been?"
Other than the abrupt and certainly unearned use of yobisute, it was a perfectly normal question, but Shindo acted as if it were the most confusing and shocking thing he had ever heard, not to mention rudest. His mouth hung open and he was visibly attempting to not start stuttering like an idiot.
Oh, this was fun.
After a tense moment of silence in which Yongha sat, staring intently into Shindo's eyes, the pro with two-toned hair seemed to snap to his senses. "Are you dead?" was his first question. And he acted as if that was perfectly normal!
"Do I look… dead?" the arrogant Go player asked, not showing how disconcerted he was. Was his Japanese that bad that he'd misunderstood the question, or had he heard correctly?
"Well," Shindo began, "it's hard to say really. I don't meet a lot of dead people. You don't really look it, but looks can be deceiving," he concluded. "I can't see any other reason for you being here though." he muttered. "Unless…"
"Unless?" Yongha raised an eyebrow. This wasn't going how he'd planned, but never mind that. When he'd said Shindo was interesting, he'd meant it, and anything else would be dissapointing.
"Unless you came here to play a game with me, but that makes even less sense."
The Korean Pro leaned in close to Shindo. "Does it?" he asked, his voice low. He needed to be the one in control here, and he'd resort to whatever techniques were required.
Shindo drew in a breath and slowly backed up from Yongha, but the instigator of this strange conversation had already moved back himself so the action was no longer necessary.
Shindo seemed to take some reserve of strength from inside himself and his eyes no longer reflected confusion and doubt; instead, they blazed with the intensity and determination Yongha remembered from the Hokuto Cup, and he instantly matched this intensity. Messing around was certainly amusing, but a game, finally-
"Before we play," Shindo smirked, interrupting Yongha's thoughts, "how about we look over some kifu?" he asked innocently, though Yongha's instincts were screaming at him to run at this point. There was something incredibly evil about Shindo's expression; he didn't like it one bit. But he was one of Korea's finest, and he would not be intimidated!
Shindo stood up and casually made his way toward the bookcase in the corner of his room and took out one of the numerous books of kifu he had collected over the years. Ko Yongha's feeling of dread grew with each passing second, and his fears were confirmed as he saw the book Shindo placed down on the goban in front of them.
A collection of Shusaku's greatest games the title read. So Shindo was playing it like that, huh? He would show him the strength of Korea's Go, then.
Without a word, Hikaru placed down the first stone. He played black, representing Shusaku and Ko Yongha represented Shuwa Honinbo, playing white. "How about we start with what possessed you to come here? You should be busy playing Go right now," Hikaru said, an almost accusatory tone tainting his voice as he contemplated the board.
Yongha placed down the next stone. It was a solid move, but he'd studied Shusaku's kifu extensively after playing Shindo and he knew already that it would not be enough. "My schedule can wait – I'm not here for long. The games we shall play are more than worth it," he replied. He didn't mean to aid in the expansion of the other boy's ego, but he couldn't help voicing those thoughts.
Shindo smiled wryly and placed down the next moves. "To be honest with you, I've barely given you a thought," he admitted calmly.
Yongha glared at the boy sitting across from him, insulted. Shindo had not given him a thought, even after their game that had taken his breath away? Surely that was a lie – it had to be a lie. He'd replayed it time and time again, travelled to a different country to play this boy who had just ridiculed his actions without even a second's thought. This was unforgivable.
Unbeknownst to him, they had both continued placing the stones mechanically while their minds drifted elsewhere, and were now in the middle of the game.
"This play," Hikaru said, "it's interesting isn't it? In modern times, it would have been more prudent for White to move here," he said, pointing to the space on the board with his fan, "but then-"
"What has this to do with anything?" Ko Yongha questioned, bored by now with Shindo's Shusaku obsession.
"We should study the players of the past and learn from them," Shindo said indignantly. Part of Yongha felt glad that he'd managed to disturb his reluctant companion's cool demeanour somewhat, but he was too bored now and felt his impulsive nature stir within him, rather than the desire to hold an intelligent conversation.
"I've already told you," Yongha said dryly, "you can't see deep enough to understand the genius of his play, and therefore cannot learn anything from it. You only see the surface of things," here he paused dramatically, "though I suppose that's not always bad. After all, someone only needs to glance at you to see your personality. You aren't deep at all."
Shindo looked at him with narrowed eyes. "And my personality, what do you make of it exactly? If you're wrong, it's clear that you don't read deeply enough."
"Your personality, hmm… Well, you're loud, demanding, arrogant and you don't have the skill to match up with your talent for boasting. You're stubborn and the only time you can give your full concentration to something is around the goban, or when you are thinking about Go. Also," Yongha began, a smug smile beginning to form on his face, but he didn't elaborate for a few seconds, leaving Hikaru to wonder what was on his mind. The Korean's portrait of him was certainly unflattering, but there was an element of truth in the words that he didn't want to confront right now.
Indeed, he didn't really have the time to contemplate his faults as, for the second time that night, Yongha leaned in towards him, and this time backing away did no good. The arrogant pro aimed for his ear this time, and whispered words the quality of satin into it; Hikaru found himself blushing at the insinuations the other pro was making, though he wasn't at all aware of this reaction. Yongha's lips brushed his ear and the shade of red his face had turned deepened.
Usually he would have pushed this sort of, well, whatever it was, away, especially from someone he so strongly disliked. But for some reason he couldn't move and merely sat there as an unfamiliar emotion washed over him. He couldn't put a name to it, but whatever it was it didn't go away for a few seconds after Yongha had ended the contact.
Yongha had enjoyed that more than he'd expected. Damn… I'm letting myself get distracted; I don't have much time here and we'll need to play more than one game.
He set about clearing the stones on the board, noticing with a grudging respect that they were of high quality, and that their owner obviously maintained them properly. Separating the stones into each goke, he ignored Shindo and instead focused on the coming game, raising his fighting spirit. He placed the two goke onto the goban and looked at Shindo from under his lashes. "Nigiri," he said in a low, sultry voice, as if it were the most sensual word in the world. Shindo seemed a little thrown off balance by it, but Yongha was glad to see that he had regained most of his composure, and the flames were back in his eyes. They were both ready for this fight.
For all his goading, Yongha was glad that Hikaru was taking him seriously. This little kitty got claws, he reminded himself, wary of any traps Shindo might be setting, even this early in the game. That's why it was so fun playing Shindo – you never knew when he might scratch back and claw his way to a higher position than you.
This game finished and several more began as time passed, neither pro yielding for the other. Shindo had been going strong until Yongha had innocently unbuttoned a few too many buttons of his shirt (it had become rather hot in the room for some reason), and it seemed to throw his opponent off temporarily.
Still, no matter the consequences of the games they played, he intended to work Hikaru hard and keep him up all night. Yongha cheerfully slaughtered Shindo, but somehow the feline had managed to cling on in this game and survival with one paw. Divide and conquer, he thought, slightly disappointed as his move sliced through Shindo's remaining territory. He'll have to resign after that.
But no resignation was forthcoming – in fact, Hikaru had opened his fan and placed it in front of his face, hiding his expression. Yongha could only see his eyes, piercing green eyes that saw through his every move.
This… couldn't be good.
Fin.
Yobisute: the privelige of addressing someone without an honourific. As you probably know, Yongha was being incredibly rude. Hikaru would have addressed this issue but he had other more pressing matters on his mind. He trashed KY in a game later for it though.
You will however notice that the honourifics in this are rather inconsistent. That's because if I'd used them all the time it would have clogged up the story, but there were certain places where not using them would have sounded incredibly strange.
If you read to the end, then thank you very much. I'd love to know whether you'd like me to write more HikaGo stuff (I have two Ogata/Hikaru bunnies and an Elfen Leid xover idea), or even if you are perhaps interested in knowing what happens the day following this and how what happened between Hikaru and Ko Yongha will affect them. Shrugs That, or you have my full permission to cast me into the fiery depths of the inner circle of hell where truly awful ff writes go.
I can't believe this got this long though... It was originally a drabble with only the first and last scene, but then I got interested in writing about Ko Yongha so it got much longer. As for what Yongha said to Hikaru, well, I'll leave that for your imagination.