Four Times Ko Young Ha Flirted Shamelessly with the Japanese Pros for Fun and One Time That He Seriously Regretted it
Nase Asumi
He'll never regret this one, even though she broke his heart. When he's in a particularly honest mood he knows that she's the reason he keeps attending these optional tournaments in Japan. The reason he keeps trying to improve his Japanese. He hopes that when she racks up a few titles in the next few years, as she inevitably will, she'll reconsider getting back together and stop worrying about being labeled "Ko Young Ha's girlfriend."
Isumi Shinichirou
Flirting with Isumi is the easiest thing to do in the world, because they're constantly being paired together in interviews on Korean TV. Young Ha doesn't like guys that way, and Isumi is OBVIOUSLY spoken for, but he does love making Isumi blush, and clearly the interviewers enjoy it too. I mean, seriously, what was up with that request that they play spin-the-bottle on Running Man the other week!?
Whatever, Young Ha isn't a fool, he knows all about the shippers, and any press is good press.
Plus, there's an extra bonus for flirting with Isumi because it hilariously enrages his boyfriend Waya, who for some reason thinks he has something to worry about, as if Isumi wasn't constantly mooning over him. Honestly, Young Ha has never seen a more mutually smitten couple. Those two are ridiculous.
Touya Akira
Purely because he can never, EVER pass up an opportunity to piss Shindou off. So, yeah, he gave Touya a bit of the patented Ko Young Ha Smoulder during one of their official matches, while Shindou sat on the sidelines fuming and practically breaking his fan in half. Unfortunately the flirting didn't throw Touya off his game at all and there are a million ways to piss Shindou off, so Young Ha only did it that once.
Touya Akira's Mother
Young Ha hadn't even counted that as flirting, he was just making conversation. But the following day, during one of their preliminary matches, Touya asked him if he was intentionally trolling Waya. Apparently Waya had approached Touya that morning insisting that he needed to protect his mother from "that flash bastard." Touya said all of this with a small, conspiratorial smile.
"You'd better think about how you act next time you're around Waya and Isumi. Do you know that when he was in middle school Waya once punched a 19-year-old pro at a tournament just for taunting Isumi after he failed the pro exam? And that was before they were dating," Touya concluded decisively, while slamming down a bold move that would take the game in an unexpected direction, all the while smirking at Young Ha with a "how do you like that?" look plastered across his face.
Heh. Young Ha was impressed. Clearly there was more to Touya than his aloof, polite veneer.
Ogata Seiji
Young Ha wasn't even trying, he's just flirty by default! All he did was call Ogata by his first name that one time and suddenly he's getting all these text messages from Ogata every time he's in Tokyo inviting him "out for drinks" at bars with incredibly seedy names.
And that email last week! How did Ogata even get his email address!? Young Ha wants to scrub that image from his mind, wants to unlearn Japanese, and should probably pass on that upcoming event at the Kansai Go Institute next month, just in case that creeper is there.
Maybe it's time to reconsider this whole "harmless flirting" business. He was just trying to be charming, but what if he ends up like Ogata someday?
Author's Note: If you liked this ficlet and want to see more of this version of Ko Young Ha, please google "Waya no Paduk" to find a much longer story that Hestialuna and I wrote about Waya and Isumi visiting Korea. We're unwilling to post it here because the format of this website won't allow us to embed the plot-significant fanart but it's up on A03.