A/N: Uh, yeah, another Knights of Cygnus fan fiction. I seem to be having a bit of writer's block, so I apologize if the quality is not as good as usual.
I want to say, though, before you begin reading – I am not an anti-Korean pop type of guy! I love K-pop, and only want to spread the word with this fan fiction. And MapleStory is from Korea, so I'm just helping the country where my favorite MMORPG comes from. Now that I'm done, here we go...
"I'm singin' my blues..."
Ickhart growled in irritation as he tried to blot out the sound of Hawkeye's horrible singing, shifting around on his tree branch perch uncomfortably as he tried to read his book – a novel called 'Aegis' – and cursed as he nearly lost his balance and fell from the tree. Ickhart had on more than one occasion today considered hitting the noisy pirate with a Disorder to the tongue to shut him up, but Mihail was standing just a few metres away and would probably not like it if he hit a comrade (even one as irritating as Hawkeye).
"Hey, sparky!" The night walker snapped, removing his mask angrily and glaring down at the Commander of Lightning, who was swaying around like a drunkard with his Beats headphones on. "Keep it down..."
Either the pirate couldn't hear him, or he was simply ignoring his warning. Either way, Hawkeye continued singing the song (the song, 'Blue', was apparently by a group called 'Big Bang' – ironically, Big Bang was also the name of a catastrophic event almost a year back, that had changed Victoria Island forever. According to Oz, the group called 'Big Bang' was as famous as their namesake). A vein visibly bulged in Ickhart's forehead, and the Commander of Darkness suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to crush his mask in frustration – however, he decided against it (it was his favorite mask, after all)
and vanished from the branch in a blur, the leaves of the tree not even rustling.
I'll find some other place to read, where no pain-in-the-neck pirate will be there to annoy me. Any prospective night walkers are just unlucky... Ickhart snorted as he leaped through the trees of the Lotus Forest nimbly, looking for a peaceful place to read. His black cape fluttered like a dark cloud in the light, but few people had sharp enough eyes to properly see exactly what the black blur in the forest was.
Irina whirled around as she heard a rustle behind her. Her emerald eyes scanned the forest for any threats, an arrow finding its way into her bow almost automatically.
Nothing. The wind breaker sighed in relief and returned her attention to her training in the depths of the Lotus Forest, firing blazing Soul Arrows at numerous wooden targets she had nailed to various trees in the forest. Spinning around and firing a dozen arrows in quick succession, she grinned as each projectile found its target with a dull thunk.
The Green Breeze of the Wind Breakers wiped her brow with a silk handkerchief, letting out a tired pant. She had been training non-stop since early morning, wanting to practice her shooting – and it appeared her skill had slipped slightly. She had been practicing to return her dexterity back to the point where she could hit a moving target at five hundred feet upside down with one eye closed–
Another rustle behind her. Something was definitely up. Irina tightened her grip on her bow, not letting down her guard after the Valentine's Day incident. "I know you're there, you know," she said simply, raising her bow. "So you can either hide until I eventually find you and send an arrow up your butt, or just show yourself like a noble person and settle any business you have here."
"Well played, Irina."
A tall, caped figure materialized seemingly out of thin air, and Irina recognized him as the chief knight of the night walkers. "Icky!" she laughed (much to Ickhart's chagrin), lowering her bow. "What are you doing out here stalking me?"
"I was not stalking you," Ickhart stated with a deadly edge to his voice. His eyes were hidden behind his mask, making it hard for Irina to determine his emotion. "Sparky was singing so badly I had to run from him."
The chief knight of the wind breakers nodded in understanding. Oh, so he still hasn't caught on the craze that is K-pop...
K-pop was a relatively new genre of music that had appeared on the radio waves recently. Oz had did some... research (seriously though – was there anything the sorceress didn't know about?), and had explained the trend to both Irina and Mihail a few weeks ago.
"The genre 'K-pop', or 'Korean pop', comes from the Korean Folk Town. While is isn't exactly new, it only made it big time after the Erevian Council moved to provide the town with several of the latest technological advances. Since then, the 'K-wave', or Hallyu in the local Korean language, has begun spreading – forming girl and boy idol groups with dance pop performances, creating a myriad of entertaining variety shows, and shooting various addictive dramas." Well, addictive was right. Hawkeye had gotten hooked on K-pop almost instantly, spending almost all of his salary on several albums by idol groups – and Oz had already splurged a large amount of her life savings on a literal truckload of Korean drama DVDs. Even Nineheart had been flabbergasted at the sheer amount of 'entertainment' she had bought ("The length of the dramas combined probably surpassed the age of the Divine Bird," he had commented dryly). Even the ever serious Mihail had begun watching Korean variety shows, constantly laughing till his abdomen ached (and his abdominal muscles were practically made of bronze!). In fact, Irina and Oz had begun watching the piles and piles of dramas together since a couple of weeks ago, and often showed up for knight duty with bags under her eyes. All over the world, the craze had spread – and now, it was almost impossible to spend a day without any contact with what Ickhart called 'the taint'.
The verdict: If 'K-fever' was the normal level of an average fan, Hawkeye would have been classified as having K-cancer – stage four.
The only person Irina knew who had not been affected was Ickhart. And she wasn't surprised...
Mihail watched as Hawkeye began doing squats at the base of Ickhart's tree, singing terribly out of key. "Gee gee gee gee baby baby baby," he wailed, oblivious to the fact that he sounded like a dying giraffe on caffeine overdose. The soul master could only sigh in disbelief, thinking: Is it even possible to sing that terribly?
With a barely masked grin, he whipped out his touch-screen smartphone (a birthday gift from Oz) and booted up the game 'Girls' Generation SHAKE', an admittedly addictive game he played whenever he felt bored or wasn't training.
"Jigeumeun Sonyuhshidae!" cheered nine feminine voices. Mihail smirked. Now, let's see if I can break that high score...
Deep within the depths of the Ant Tunnel, a certain puppeteer was scheming yet again. Francis stroked the head of his puppet, as though expecting it to purr, and flipped through the book in front of him: 'K-pop for Dummies' ("I am not a dummy!" he had shouted rather senselessly at the Gentleman when the latter had given him the book. "I am a genius puppeteer!").
"So..." the hooded man murmured. "I'm supposed to use this trend as my new weapon. I wonder what the Black Wings are thinking... but this is intriguing. Intriguing indeed."
With a wave of his palm, the puppeteer summoned a small swarm of floating pebbles, each with a tiny necromantic inscription carved onto them. "I shall lure the knights with this K-pop craze, and destroy them in one fell swoop!" Francis cackled, his evil voice echoing throughout the cavern and making several small lizards flee in terror. "Muahahahahahahah! Francis is a genius puppeteer!"
Suddenly, a wild Cargo appeared at the entrance of the hideout – followed by dozens of its herd members. The hungry creatures cast their sights upon Francis the puppeteer, licking their lips in anticipation.
"OH CRAP! I ACCIDENTALLY UNLOCKED THE – AAAAAACCCKKKK!"
A/N: I know, short chapter... Review, would you kindly? I was listening to Big Bang's "Blue" song while writing this. From beginning to end, just one song... I feel like I'm gonna explode. The next chapter is almost done, but I'll post this up first. Once I get a couple of reads (and hopefully reviews) I'll put up Chapter 2!