Author's Note: Alright... you've been warned. This is emo, and contains shoujo-ai. Now, before you decide to click the back button or flame me, I wasn't going to post this... until I started playing Card Fighters and read Chae Lim's card... which talked about her identity crisis, with everyone referring to her as a Kim clone. Having started this over a month ago, I immediately flipped out and told my best friend about it. Maria encouraged me to finish this, and so, it is dedicated to her.
Disclaimer: I do not own. Everything belongs to SNKPlaymore and Falcoon. Yay for them!
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Just As She Is.
A ridiculously emo Chae Lim fic by Strike to Incinerate.
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Chae Lim hated being the odd one out, when all of her peers from the KOF dissolved into their little cliques; Kasumi Todoh leading the younger, more indy girls like Malin, and Xiangfei and Hinako Shijou, Athena leading the sugary sweets, like Kula and Momoko, Kyo Kusanagi sharing laughter with Benimaru Nikaido, his student Shingo, and various other guys... Even May Lee, her fellow student, abandoned her at the first chance she got, running over to the Japanese blond girl, high-fiving her and talking about ice cream.
But even more than that, Chae Lim hated being pitied. So when Rock Howard, one of the nice guys, offered her, "You want to go out for pizza with us, Chae?" she politely declined. The only one in that little group she knew was Rock, and she'd be intruding. She'd still feel awkward and left out, those feelings intensified with the irony of the fact that she was in a group.
At the end of the day, the slender Korean girl stopped rubbing her arm and wallowing in her teen angst, pushed herself away from the wall, and went to train.
She didn't care if anyone said that she acted just like Kim, even more so than his own sons, calling her the TKD master's clone. It was a compliment, to be compared to someone so great. Shingo Yabuki certainly wasn't called 'Kusanagi's double', and Rock wasn't known as a 'miniture-Bogard'.
Because they had their own identities. You could pick them out of a crowd by their awkward mannerisms and beautiful facial features. It was no wondering they had girls falling all over them.
Maybe she needed her own identity. Maybe then she could find somewhere to fit in.
'I don't need to fit in. I don't need them. One day... all this training will prevail, and not even the Kusanagi flames will be able to stop me,' she thought. But, deep inside, she knew that she could never really achieve that. She was already at the top of her class, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered when you couldn't produce flames, or ice, or electricity.
Before she knew it, she had rounded the corner of the street, and punched a brick wall. Crimson chips flecked away, falling to the ground. Her knuckle felt bad, but the anger and tightness in her chest made that insignificant. She could hear the voices of her parents, calling out to her from the recesses of her mind, as they often did when her mind wandered, filling her with anxiety.
"What are you going to do with your life, Chae Lim?" her mother demanded.
The teenager's reply was always the same, a sunny reply of, "I'm going to help rid the world of evil, just like Master Kim!"
only to be shot down by her father. "We enrolled you in that class for self-defense! That's not a career! What about college?"
Truth be told, Chae Lim didn't care for college at all. Her exam scores were nothing impressive, not like Nagase's, who slept through classes and then aced everything.
"I... I like Taekwondo. I'm... I'm really good at it!" Why should she have to fight for something she loved, or justify herself to everyone else?
"You're lazy!"
"I am not! I train harder than anyone else!"
Her parents hadn't taken too well to that sudden defiance in her voice. "You're quitting it."
"No, I'm not." In that one moment, her mind had been as clear as it was muddled now. Her voice was made of stone.
"Yes, you are. Or you're getting out of this house," they offered her an ultimatum, and she abided by it.
"Fine. I'm gone."
It was then that she began living with Master Kim and his family, since he wouldn't allow her potential to go to waste, and she attended the same school as May Lee, who also lived there, as her parents spent most of their time travelling abroad.
Chae Lim didn't miss her parents all that much... living with Master Kim and his family kept her busy. After she and May Lee came home from school, May Lee had to watch Chang and Choi for Master Kim, and Chae Lim kept an eye on Jae Hoon and Dong Hwan while Myun went out to run errands. Jae Hoon was only two years younger than her, and Dong Hwan, one, almost old enough to look after themselves. She just had to keep them from killing each other, and make them snacks. May Lee and Chae Lim, like Dong Hwan and Jae Hoon, had chores to do as well, and then rigorous training. The four of them were the best students the dojang had.
Among the female students, Chae Lim was a celebrity. Notions of starting a 'Chae Lim Fanclub' had to be put to rest before things got out of hand. May Lee and her alter-ego, appropriately named, 'Hero May Lee', were infamous, and Jae Hoon and Dong Hwan were well-respected as not only the Master's sons, but as the best of the male students.
It was nice, for a time.
Then her parents had called and demanded that she return home and go to college. Chae Lim, sixteen, still did not want to, and Kim knew that. He refused to allow Chae Lim's parents to upset her training, and made a deal with them; he would tell Chae Lim to go home if she didn't become the most respected female Taekwondo practicitioner in the world within one year.
Almost exactly one year later, Kim called Chae Lim into his office, and presented her with an invitation to the King of Fighters Maximum Impact tournament in Southtown, USA, hosted by an organization called Metatron. Flattered, Chae Lim accepted it, and went to Southtown.
It wasn't until four years later that Chae Lim discovered this deal. She had done it, though; at age seventeen, her participation in the King of Fighters had given Chae Lim the title of, 'the Taekwondo Zephyr' and had many heralding her as the best female TKD fighter the world had seen.
All of Chae Lim's anger had been eased with Kim's proposal that she run the newly opened dojo in Southtown.
There was only one last hurdle for her... as much as she hated them for trying to take away one of the few things she enjoyed, Chae Lim needed to say goodbye to her parents. Deep down, she still loved them... and what if something terrible happened to them after she left? How would she feel if she'd still been holding onto a silly grudge from her childhood, and hadn't said goodbye to them?
"Hey!" Someone called, and Chae Lim tried to ignore it, even though she knew they were pointing to her. "Isn't that Kim Kaphwan's clone?" he joked.
A few others laughed, and one added, "Uh, yeah... one of them. See, she's the one with the weird hair. She's the pet."
Chae Lim's fists clenched and hot tears sprang up into her eyes. She hated being called that... she was different from Master Kim, even if she respected him so, and she was different from May Lee and Jae Hoon, too. Why was it that only they understood that?
"Hey! Kaphwan! Can we get an autograph?" they called.
Chae Lim had just about enough. She turned, and she gave them the autograph that they wanted. She autographed their faces with her fists.
Just as she was about to run off and try to forget about what she had just done, used her gift to punish not the evil, but the ignorant, she heard another voice.
"Woah..." it whispered, and it was appreciative.
Chae Lim turned around, and a girl about her age stood there, her hands clasped gently behind her back, with a long brown braid and big brown eyes, and a kind smile.
"Yuri?" she asked.
"Hey, Chae," the Kyokugen girl waved. "That was really something... man, if all of our students turned out that way, we'd never have to worry about filling up classes. Maybe Pops should get some advice from Kim, huh?" she joked.
Chae wiped at her eyes with the backs of her wrists. "Sorry... I went a bit overboard. I had a rough day," she explained with a dry laugh.
Yuri's smile didn't fade, and she moved a bit closer. "Well, if it helps... I don't think you're a clone of Kim. First of all, you're young and cute, and I don't know who he thinks he's fooling, but I know for sure that he's pushing 45," she giggled.
Chae Lim tried to smile and thank her, but the message must have gotten garbled on the way from her brain to her mouth, because what came out was, "What does that have to do with anything?"
Yuri didn't get mad, but she kept smiling. "Well... I was just trying to, you know, cheer you up..." she said.
"Thanks... but I'm not nearly as cute as Athena or Hinako... or you," she replied, then heaved a sigh. "Listen, Yuri... I'm not trying to be bitter. Thanks a lot," she finished, forcing out a smile. 'At least it didn't come out as 'I'm having an identity crisis that makes Rock look like an amateur-league emo,'' she thought.
"Hey... just so you know, me and Rock are here for ya. Whenever you need us," she said, moving one of her hands to take Chae's.
Chae squeezed a little, and asked, "You and Rock?"
"Yeah... May Lee, too," she added.
The Korean girl's grin was real this time, if only slight. "Not what I meant, Yuri."
Yuri giggled again. "Hey, don't get jealous. I'm not interested in Rock," she said, lacing her fingers against Chae's.
Chae raised a dark brow. "Oh really?"
"Yeah really. I'm interested in someone way cuter and way less emo," Yuri assured her.
"No offense, even if he's a ladies man, you're wasting your time with Soiree. If Mignon even sniffled, he'd start punching out every person in Southtown," Chae Lim replied.
"It's not Soiree," Yuri said, making a face.
"Robert?" Chae guessed.
"Nope."
"Please, not Shingo."
"Uh, NO!"
"Who else is there?" Chae Lim asked, now exceedingly curious.
"Well... like I said, very cute, not emo... I'll give you another hint!" she offered. "It's a girl."
Chae hadn't quite expected that. "Oh, Jesus Christ, not you, too? Is everyone jumping on the 'I'm so gay for Athena' bandwagon? First it's that tag-along she has, and then Hinako's gushing to Kasumi about how cute Athena looks in her uniform..." she huffed.
"How stupid do you get sometimes?" Yuri said, her attitude pulling a 180. "It's you, okay? YOU. I like you, just the way you are. I don't care if anyone thinks that you're a clone of Kim, because I know better. I know that you're smart and unique, and I've never seen Kim make half of the beautiful clothes that you have, or been daring enough to try super-spicy kimchee squid... while it was still squirming! You could start your own line, you know?" she said, holding her hand tighter, frustrated and embarrassed, her pale cheeks flushed, and her eyes wide.
There was a silence, while Chae Lim took this all in. "You could model it," she finally said.
Yuri dropped her hand and threw her arms around her neck. "Do not be a smartass, Sohn Chae Lim. I am not in the mood," she said in a mock-angered tone.
Chae Lim gave the best apology Yuri could hope for; a kiss.
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Chae Lim never told her parents goodbye. She tried to call them, but they never picked up the phone. After she got settled at the new dojo, she wrote them a letter, telling them how happy she was to have turned what was once her favorite hobby into her dream job. She told them of her plans to have Yuri move in with her, to help her start a clothing line on the side. She told them that she didn't expect the clothing line to work out, and that she intended to stay with Taekwondo forever.
Her hand didn't shake like she thought it would, and she didn't shed any tears that would stain or wrinkle the paper. She was even able to sign it, 'Love, Chae Lim' and know that she meant it. She wasn't Kim's clone, or their failed child, anymore.
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AN: Omigod, if that wasn't the most emo thing I've ever written. Yes, the title is a reference to Bridget Jones's Diary. Awesome movie.
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