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“I'm your biggest fan!” The words fall from The Commoner’s mouth at such speed that it is quite the miracle that anyone can understand him at all.
The man was bowing at a perfect 90° degrees, his face, partially covered by his hair, was painted with such an intense and bright red that it made it hard to ignore.
“Thank you,” Moon says after a second or two —not enough time to lose the rhythm but enough to make her doubt noticeable. Her voice’s tone trapped between cheerful and confusion as it is quite the unexpected event.
None of them know it at the moment, but this is the beggining of the end.
It starts like this.
Xiao Yueqing, at the age of 17, decides to post about one travel just like any other, but gathers an unexpected amount of traction. And so she posts again and again, every time more frequently and more often than not in a different place around the world.
“She could be anywhere! She can be anywhere!”
At 18, one of her favorite souvenirs —and quite recurrent in her videos— becomes a portal gun and she is able to use it to watch and show the world that surrounds them, there’s no place out of her reach and it is so exciting that she believes she can never get tired of it.
People recognise her portal, recognise her, her image is widely known and she doesn’t mind the cameras at any place nor moment. After all, if she gets tired, she can go anywhere else.
Every step she makes is in a direction she desires, there are no bounds tying her to any place more than her home, there are no limits to where she can be as she can just open a portal when her heart desires. Being able to travel anywhere when she wishes to is such an amazing freedom that it makes her dizzy with joy.
It doesn't bother her, the fact that she needs to keep posting videos, that she has to keep up a certain type of image of herself. She actually loves it, to show the world every place she can reach, to share as much freedom as she can.
At 18 she feels finally found, her quick and light steps being able to lead her where heart points, especially with the help of her portal gun and the support of her fans.
Her strong attitude, her carefree being, her ever present desire to see and live all that the world has to offer and being able to share it with a smile and a laugh.
The powers she gains end up being just perfectly fit for her.
At 19, she’s just walking around when there’s an accident about to happen and she, while she knew it was bound to happen, her brain goes blank and she just acts, untrained and recklessly putting her in great danger but, thankfully, she’s saved by The Perfect Hero, Nice, as she was supposed to be.
Before she knows it, their encounter is plastered in every news channel and sites, their fans paired them and started to really hype it up, their romance is written in internet books and physical contracts that Xiao Yueqing has signed just before becoming Moon.
She becomes Nice’s girlfriend, supposedly a hero, and little less. Her powers, an extension of herself, are crippled and tied to a man who doesn’t feel anything but annoyance for her. She’s become nothing but a doll for Treeman Corp. to play with.
She hates it.
It cracks like this.
On a random Tuesday —that had already been quite exceptional, no photo shoots nor ‘hero’ practice had been waiting for Moon that day— she got called to an actual emergency instead of some staged scenario given by Treeman Corp.
Sadly, those were slowly but surely becoming her norm as Nice, her fake and supposedly perfect boyfriend, should always be ready to help and save her, always leaving that sour taste on her mouth afterwards.
In the beginning, Xiao Yueqing didn’t actually mind it, she was an influencer just a couple of days ago, and, even if there was something exciting and euphoric about saving peoples’ lives, she couldn’t just handle it, her powers were all too new, the knowledge she possessed wasn’t directed to safely handle emergencies or fights at all. The sweet charming boyfriend hero who saves the day seemed like the perfect outcome at the time.
Nowadays, even though this was, technically, one of her free days, being able to help in an actual emergency by herself was a breath of fresh air.
Treeman Corp. courses were really useful for an actual emergency, even if those were becoming rarer —for her— to face, allowing her to apply first aid and recognize the people who need to be prioritized.
And so, the unexpected came while she was evacuating people from the multiple crashes on the street. The Commoner, the new independent rising hero, had just appeared from what could have been thin air, ready to lend a helping hand that she didn’t need or want.
The man, while young looking, had been efficiently calming and helping the many victims, to her annoyance, until the villain —a really aggressive car thief enhanced by fear, mind you— had come back with vengeance.
Xiao Yueqing wasn't quite sure who had been facing the man, and she didn’t care until now as Treeman lately started to insist that she focuses more on civilian rescue, because Nice is the fighter among the two of them and as the perfect couple, they complement each other— but she would really like to know who to curse.
But there’s no time. As a hero, Moon must be the line of defense for the innocents, be a physical barrier against evil and a mental one against fear and despair, and as such, she positions herself between the upcoming villain and the civilians in the streets, reading herself for a fight she doesn’t feel ready to fight, yet she is willing to.
Or, that’s it until The Commoner comes from somewhere on her left landing quite the nasty fist on the villain’s face, cracking his nose by the sound of it.
No matter how clearly untrained the man is, he is ruthless in his assault, his fist landing ever more vicious on the villain before he can break the combo and gain distance at an unnatural speed.
While Moon knows she’s not supposed to be a fighter, Xiao Yueqing opens a portal without thinking twice, kicking the man in the shins, sending him sliding across the street. Fear shows it is as formidable as trust as the villain raises once again, only to be welcomed by one of The Commoner’s attacks again. If she didn’t know better, she would bet the hero had the ability of teleportation.
Fighting the villains was a longer and more thorough effort than what she expected, making her mentally grant some mercy to the hero who was originally supposed to stop him. However, fighting alongside The Commoner made the fight easier and felt more natural.
She fought alongside him, with him, not being a support focused on making him greater, but being an equal who had the chance to fight and help each other.
So, she made small talk afterwards, the villain tied up and she thanked him for the help as she once again turned to the rescue efforts. The Commoner looked sheepishly at her while also thanking her.
She didn’t think about it until, the second they finished, he had turned to her, bowed in a perfect 90° degrees angle and shouted: “I’m your biggest fan!” The words falling like a trainwreck and messing with Moon’s thoughts.
“Thank you,” she says, not quite sure about what to feel about it, a rising star being her fan, an honest admiration that seemed to ignite a spark inside of her, a spark she had thought long gone, even if she didn’t notice yet.
The Commoner raises, face red with embarrassment but a truly excited yet shy expression behind the colour, he opened his mouth but no sound came off, moved it around and still nothing, then he closed it before trying again.
“I- I admire you so much, you’re the best and you have saved me more ways than think!” His words were fast and stuttered, stumbling and tripping over each other, allowing for some of them to fall and get lost to the cracks.
He runs away before Xiao Yueqing can say anything else.
They poke the crack like this.
Their interaction becomes viral, because, of course it will be, he is the new, shiny, raising star of the hero industry, an underdog under no one's name who is just so generic that anyone can project themselves on him, yet, he is just enough different to be the better version of all of them. While it may cause some jealousy, everyone seems to want and wish to be him.
The Commoner is the people’s hero, of course everyone has eyes on him.
And she is Moon, the perfect girlfriend of the perfect hero, her life is constantly under cameras —not a single second to be spared— because if it is not the public’s eye, then it is Treeman Corp’s vigilance to ensure their investment will pay off. Ever since that damned photo, a camera had followed everywhere and, as such, any interaction can become viral.
But you already knew that, didn’t you?
The interaction is impactful enough that her numbers are rapidly increasing and, because her name is tied to that man’s, she can bet Nice’s numbers are suffering from a similar phenomena. So, when Miss J calls for them, she doesn’t think much of it, until she shows them the fairly embarrassing interaction, not for the action but because of what she tells them.
“We must incentivize more of these interactions.”
The way she says it carries little to no emotion, all calculated, as if this was a rational decision, as if it was the right choice.
“What?” she asks because someone has to question it and Nice, Treeman’s little perfect doll, won’t ever question them, she knows that much.
“Both of your Trust values have significantly increased after this interaction, “ Miss J points out while showing the comments of one of the many videos of the interaction on FOMO.
XiangXiang: Of course he has a crush on her! She’s the perfect girlfriend!
“And it looks like, because of how easy it is for the people to project themselves into such a simple ‘hero’, the fact he seems to have a crush on Moon has increased the public’s positive opinion of you both.” And Xiao Yueqing swallows the invisible knot that has been formed in her throat.
The perfect girlfriend, nothing less, nothing more. Moon has been, once again, effectively reduced to one of Nice’s accessories—
“-you’re the best and you have saved me more ways than think!”
—ven when she is the hero!
“We would like to encourage the narrative of a romantic triangle, use The Commoner’s clear admiration for Moon in our favor and lift your hero ranks a good couple on numbers.” She hates the idea, she hates this entire thing. She had one good thing, that a known —and soon important— name recognised her as his hero and they are just going to take it away?
To make another soulless love triangle?
“What about Wreck?” Nice's voice cuts through the air, carrying a weight that Moon's doesn't, maybe it is born from the fact that he never questions their superiors, maybe because he is the corporation’s favourite pet, maybe because he is a man.
It's not important as Moon is none of these things.
“Our script with Wreck hasn't changed one bit,” Miss J answers, crushing a little spark of hope that Xiao Yueqing felt thinking of the death of the love triangle. Stupid, she knows. “We expect him and The Commoner to fight, hopefully you may lend him a hand during those and rise in the ranks.” Moon recognizes that there's something in Nice’s face, a break in that perfect facade that he owns, but she cannot focus on that.
The beating of her own heart is the loudest of the drums she had ever heard, thump, thump, thump, against her skull, filling it with a static sound that doesn’t let her think outside the facts that were just laid in front of her.
Her golden, gilded cage was acquiring more bars, the chains surrounding her are tightening up, making it hard to even breathe, and she had just dragged another person into the nightmare her life has slowly been becoming.
Sure, at this point she already knows that the hero industry is nothing but the world’s prettiest zoo, but The Commoner has been —supposedly— existing in its surroundings, supposedly in its paths, just besides its visitors.
And the fact that she was his hero is sentence enough to throw him in a cage, for him to act besides each other in the circus the industry has been slowly creating.
She feels sick.
The crack grows like this.
Moon is evasive in the interviews, gaining a nasty side eye from Miss J when she tries to avoid talking about The Commoner. Nice, as perfect as he is, seems to have caught onto her little rebellion and somewhat helped her in it.
She hates him, all of what he is, represents, and means to her and her life. However she can feel that little, rotten, love-type of feeling that is in some abandoned corner of her heart —a consequence of their narrative— grows more hopeful, she cannot even crush it but at least she can still mostly ignore it.
They keep it up until Miss J, not even a month after the incident, forces them both to stay locked up on Nice’s floor —Because, why would she, his girlfriend, get one of her own, right?— for two weeks straight while they fill their social media with posts referring to the man.
It is so touching to know that I have such a fan!
I cannot help but feel a little jealous, so eager to talk to my sweet Moon… Yet I can’t thank him enough for helping her!
His red face was a bit cute! It is so satisfying to know I have such cute fans!
So jealous…
The romantic bickering alone had boosted the both of them a good rank or two, gaining the traction that Miss J hoped and expected, her triumphant smile while she informed them and set them free told them that much.
That freedom tastes like defeat, Nice’s even more mechanical walking calls her attention but she refuses to recognise it out loud because that would be just another defeat on her books. And she decides to walk away from him, from the tower, and —if she were luckier— from the hero world itself.
She can’t.
Not even 10 minutes on her walk, another incident happens. Thankfully, it isn’t Wreck’s fault, which allows her to breathe. Sadly, it looks like this is an actual villain and, as such, people are in actual danger around her.
And thus, the dance begins.
Moon can’t even use her portal gun to move around, since all the lovely bickering and shameless flirting her PR had made makes it more probable that it will just call Nice and she cannot stand his face around right now. So she focuses on evading.
It isn’t a solid plan at all, the villain, enhanced by what it looks like trust, has a clearly more aggressive skill set than her rescue and support one, implying that her endurance in a fight is way greater than hers. However, she cannot afford to let herself loose, to let her win and smear her name, allowing people to think that she needs a man to save her.
So she focuses, trips, yet keeps on the dance. The villain’s manic laugh fills the silence granted by her intakes of air, a fist against her arm, a kick aimed against her side, rolls on the ground and her suit will keep being white because trust seems to act like that.
“You were never meant to fight, you silly girl!” The villain laughs as Moon recovers air just in front of her, she refuses to let on how tired she is in any other way. “You should have just called that little perfect boyfriend of yours!” She yells as she launches at Moon. She readies herself up but the villain never meets her thanks to a white plastic bag —full of groceries, mind you— hitting the villain in her face midair.
“Hey!” A voice —that may just have sentenced her— comes from her right and she is very afraid to look and confirm her fears, “You should stop talking to her like that!” The Commoner arrives, defending her honor while stomping on her hopes. She opens her mouth, ready to get him to back the fuck off but gets interrupted by the man before it can ever happen.
“She was just kicking your ass!” The Commoner yells, startling her because that was not what she expected, nor what the villain expected.
“What are you talking about?” She yells, clearly annoyed at the implications, “I'm unscathed!” Sure, rub salt in the wound, why won't you?
“She's too! Unscratched I mean!” The Commoner energetically points out, more determined and motivated than before, “She's a support hero and you did nothing! She kicked your ass!”
When you look at it like that it doesn't seem as bad that she wasn't able to do any significant change besides stalling the villain. It warms her heart, the pure admiration and respect makes it hard to not let down her guard around him.
“Yet she's too scared to call her perfect boyfriend!” The villain mocks, “Too scared to do anything but run!” She tells while launching herself towards The Commoner, who received the first by blocking it with his forearms.
“Why would she need to do that?” He replies, his voice carrying so much strength he doesn't need to raise his tone to project it, “When all she needed was someone to come and support her!” He pushes the villain, sending her a good couple of meters back, just onto the portal Moon had just made.
The villain falls, her back hits the pavement with a painful strength since it was a meter and more of a fall. It takes the air out of her lungs and shocks her enough time for Moon to be able to safely restrain her, marking the end of the fight.
“You-!” she begins to yell but Moon is able to put a tape on her mouth, a simple thing that won't do damage but will keep her from hearing some hurtful things she may say.
“You have the right to remain silent!” Moon taunts with clear fun on her tone, smiling and winking to a close camera that had been recording the entire fight, the one that had been making a hole in her mind the whole time. People soon begin to cheer as it becomes clear the street is safe once again.
One of those cheers comes, very obviously, from The Commoner himself, who widely smiles and sings praises to her. It makes her blush, she is used to this, especially when it comes from her fans —like he is— but there's a certain level of closeness that she feels with him that makes it embarrassing.
“Thank you, Commoner,” she says, her voice coming way more shy than what she wanted and expected. The Commoner’s face just goes redder than how it was.
His smile, that comes in an instant, is one of the most comforting things she has ever had the pleasure to experience.
“Don't thank me, that was all you.” The honesty on his voice makes her heart slip a beat and her face grow warm-
“We would like to encourage the narrative of a romantic triangle-”
Miss J's voice cuts through the moment with the strength of a typhoon, wrecking every thought she had. She, suddenly, becomes hyper aware of the people, the witnesses, the fans, the cameras. She now is very conscious of the way people are looking at her, at them, the unusual shyness, the unexpected heat on her cheeks and the strange skip of a beat-
It reminds her of Nice.
Of how she began to change to become Nice's girlfriend.
Oh fuck.
Oh fuck.
Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh fuckfuckfuck.
Oh fuck.
The crack grows like this.
Someone comments:
I love how smitten The Commoner is with Moon! How could he not be when she's the perfect girlfriend!
And someone else comments:
I never noticed how badass Moon actually is until The Commoner pointed it out! Damn she strong.
The crack grows like this.
The world has begun to put their eyes into The Commoner and Moon's interactions, which stand out by the way the man is clearly a fan of her strength.
A strength that had been bypassed because of the focus on her as Nice’s girlfriend rather than her own hero.
It stands out because of its abnormality, The Commoner is supposed to be just another guy, to have the most generic likes and dislikes, but focused on the ideals of society. It would be normal for him to have a slight crush on the perfect, passive, and supporting girlfriend that Moon is.
But he isn't attracted to that. He instead is an admirer of her strength, of her words and determination, he's an admirer of the particular way she wields a hero's qualities and not the way she is presented as a girlfriend.
He is supposed to be the most normal of the guys and the best of them at the same time, so his particular interest on Moon calls the attention of his fans and puts her qualities in another perspective.
The soft yet strong girlfriend image —that Moon has— cracks like an egg, suddenly revealing her hidden inner strength.
Soon enough, Moon becomes more of a hero than a girlfriend.
Someone comments:
Isn't Moon just Nice's girlfriend?
Someone replies:
Yes she is, but she's one hell of a hero. Even though she's support focused, she can keep up with villains on her own!
Another person comments:
Why would The Commoner say such things? She's a girl! She's to be protected!
Another person replied:
Well, it looks like he is attracted to her hidden strength, just like the books.
Someone else comments on that:
Nice, you better be defending your girl's honour or The Commoner might just steal her.
The crack grows like this.
She had originally vowed to not watch the eventual fight that would connect The Commoner to Nice, solidifying their romantic triangle-slash-square-slash-polygon and trapping Xiao Yueqing deeper into the abyss.
But when it happens she cannot pry her eyes off the screen.
A random Thursday has The Commoner fighting against a fear enhanced villain. The beginnings of it show a close, tied, fight but it doesn’t take long for the villain to take a significant amount of advantage, frustrating The Commoner judging by the face he makes. The villain, a former manager from the costume service area, has a wide reservoir of fear, which is a clear problem for the independent hero as he struggles to keep up.
The villain must have been quite the strict manager as they build up power from fear as fast and as strong as they are doing.
The fight is quite nasty, the hero receives a couple of punches before he breaks the villain’s streak with a mean right hook that stalls them for barely a second before throwing a really heavy fist directly into The Commoner’s face.
The Commoner, in response, begins to giggle, his mind probably dizzy from the recent impact as he most definitely has a concussion for him to have such a reaction.
“Stop giggling!” The villain screams while launching an attack that makes The Commoner fly and hit the wall behind him, hard. Xiao Yueqing winces in her bedroom, imagining the pain he must have felt, the cameraman had secured quite the shot of the hit, making it look really painful, which was probably for the worst if she’s being honest.
Then, not even a second after, the camera goes up and Xiao Yueqing’s face sours even more as Nice, finally, makes his grand appearance by The Commoner’s left side.
“His time trying and stalking him seems to have been quite fruitful,” she grumbles with sarcasm, her hand is already on the TV remote, ready to shut it down, but her finger freezes on the spot while a traitorous voice in her head sings how she would obviously watch her boyfriend save the day.
Xiao Yueqing wants to gag, to sneer, to do something about it. But, even under no one's eyes, the trust forces her to keep her image as the perfect girlfriend —No matter if those moments grow further in between, she still hates them when they come. And so, she readies to stay and watch, a pitiful and tired sigh leaves her mouth the moment she surrenders to the power of trust once again.
“Do you need a hand?” The microphone is able to capture that melodic way his voice tends to sound when arriving in desperate moments —she would know better than the rest, to her great disgust— the camera also does a great job capturing the reassuring smile from the hero, which brings a selection of negative feelings to her.
The plan is going just fine, The Commoner will get nervous, stutter even, and then will get pathetically jealous of Nice, the perfect hero, who owns a perfect girlfriend. The Commoner is tame enough that he is supposed to be just lamely jealous of Nice, and they are supposed to reduce him to just that. The whole thing makes Xiao Yueqing want to puke.
It is here, however, when the plans change.
There's a no little amount of surprise that comes to her when, The Commoner, makes a sour expression with such a clear disgust that no villain had been able to take out of him before —the man had always been smiling at the conflict, no matter how doubtful or clearly tense he was, determination is one of his most prominent features. Hell, it even surprises Nice in camera and she knows they both will get an earful thanks to his slip.
“Yes,” The Commoner spits while firmly and confidently grabbing the hand that Nice offers him, his frown still deep as his face relaxes while he begins standing up. He, however, doesn’t immediately drop the hand, he squeezes it first, takes a big chunk of air, recovers his original posture as some fire lights on his eyes and then he drops Nice’s hand.
There’s a silence as they — Nice, Xiao Yueqing and, probably, everyone watching— absorb what just happened, Nice’s face is confused by the split of a second before a sharp smile takes place in his expression, he positions himself slightly flying at his left, leaving The Commoner, the “main character” of the fight, at his right as if he was Nice’s right hand man.
A clear but still subtly mocking gesture that had been suggested way too many times by Miss J for him to not do it, it invites him to another kind of fight, which meaning was captured by The Commoner as the sneer comes back to his face, even if clearly weakened from its past form.
There's a second of silent determination as the fire in The Commoner's eyes solidify with a great amount of defiance by its side, Nice's fake version of them do not stay behind.
“Okay, let’s do this,” Xiao Yueqing cannot help but by impressed at the quality of the microphone that’s able to capture The Commoner’s murmur before watching him literally throw himself back into the fight, Nice not even a second behind but he lets himself be clearly annoyed at the act through some subtle expressions designed to be noticeable enough.
The Commoner is vicious in his attacks and words, mocking Nice as a “pretty boy” and “perfect hero” —which she actually celebrates, he is making some god’s work right there and then— every time he fails to land a punch as he has the ground clearly dominated, first with fists and then with his rarely seen but so clearly powerful kicks. It, however, makes it clear how little they are used in a fight and why as every missed step makes him stumble on his place, being swiftly covered by Nice’s air assistance.
Nice doesn’t stay behind, his form is perfect in the air, his dodges are precise, his retorts don’t stay behind at the bitterness, sometimes calling for a dry laugh from The Commoner as the villain is pushed around by their fists and kicks, Nice also drops a short laugh at some of the meaner comments, letting the bitterness of his feeling bleed into his melodic —but oh so irritating— voice.
It doesn’t matter the growing sneer at The Commoner’s face every time Nice makes a perfect dodge, because he is right there, ready to use it for their advantage, nor does it matter the way Nice’s eye twitches every time The Commoner makes a risky, but highly rewarding, attack. The fight is a spectacle worth seeing, the cameras obtaining great angles to properly appreciate their reluctant but absurdly effective team work and still able to capture their bickering that, while clearly pointing to their more personal features, makes it even more hypnotic. Not even the news hosts dare to interrupt the fight at this point, not that they even tried before since Treeman had asked them to not take the attention off the fight once Nice appeared.
There’s a certain something to their interactions, something in the way their eyes are lit with the fire of a fight between them, the way every time Nice fails a punch The Commoner drops an absurdly sarcastic “Nice work, pretty boy!” that puts a grimace on Nice’s face, or the way when The Commoner stutters in his hits Nice lets a smooth “Got your back, don’t I?” that just gains a snark remark or just an offended sound. Even if Nice’s smile keeps its annoying presence in a bastardization of its usual one, The Commoner doesn’t even try and that lights up their clear tension that has a magnet of its own.
At the end of the day, the fact that Nice made a few mistakes early on isn't even worth thinking about as Xiao Yueqing—just like, probably, the whole of China— is hooked by the fight. A truly capturing show that doesn’t even end in a Nice tone as The Commoner spits an undistinguishable comment to Nice, who just laughs obviously at it.
Their interactions —while full of snide attitudes— were full of that something that makes you want to see it again and again and again, which was great for Nice’s public image, especially with their angle of love rivals, but it definitely didn’t go in their wanted direction, as the internet has a mind of its own.
Someone comments:
Is my idea or those two have an insane chemistry
Someone else comments:
The bickering, the jealousy, the tension, their synergy, oh heavens the tension, they complement each other!
Another person comments:
The Commoner and The Perfect Hero, like in the books!
And someone else says:
Instead of a jealousy fight I found an insane amount of chemistry amongst love rivals! Now this is my jam!
And the someone else comments:
Away from him! Stop this! Don't you see that Wreck and Nice make a better couple?
The fight that breaks just after that keeps their names trending for a long time.
The crack keeps growing in so many strange ways because the internet is something to fear. The devil works hard, but the fujoshis work even harder.
The crack grows like this.
“This is certainly… Not what we expected,” Miss J says and Xiao Yueqing only watches, with her eyes as open as she can have them, the comment on the screen behind the woman.
Miyumiyu
The tension between them is insane! Aren't they supposed to be love rivals instead of possible lovers themselves?
Xiao Yueqing bites her tongue to keep the laugh from emerging, not that Nice's perturbed face helps in anything to her efforts as it makes it infinitely funnier.
“Your first meeting with The Commoner may be tainted by this… chemistry the people keep talking about,” Miss J says, pointedly ignoring Moon, Xiao Yueqing likes it that way if she is being honest. “We will let it rest for a while and then we will try again, with better results.” The woman puts her hands —delicately but decisively— on the table, staring at them both with determination, well, staring at Nice, their golden child.
“We will fix this,” Miss J declares.
Except they don't.
During one of Wreck's planned breakouts, The Commoner makes an apparition act, their fight is brutal, Wreck breaks and distorts the world around them, while The Commoner, the underdog and the simplest man of them all fights with his teeth and nails and wins.
Their surroundings are utterly destroyed, not even a semblance of normalcy around them, but The Commoner had kept his ground by the grit of his teeth, dodging every piece of concrete by a hair of difference, fighting as viciously and ruthlessly as a desperate man can.
The ending is brutal, bloody, and disgusting, but The Commoner stands — swaying first, then firmly even if he slightly trembled— his posture tired but determined, an arm hanging numb, dead to the world, while the other rises in victory as he screams victorious looking at the ground, at the, tiny but slowly growing pool of blood before his feet.
When Xiao Yueqing decided to stay in the news channel to watch the fight, she didn't expect this, the victory wasn't given but rather had been earned with blood, the relief that arrives with its end is unexpected but welcomed anyways, it brings tears to her eyes that fall slowly as she covers her mouth in relief.
It is a major point in The Commoner's career, in the vision the people have for him, it also defined his relationship with Wreck and his position in their now really messy love polygon.
It, however, does not solve their original problem.
Someone comments:
That was one hell of a fight.
Someone else comments:
I'm actually crying wtf, I'm so glad The Commoner won. Wreck is one hell of a villain, that's for sure.
And another person has the guts to comment:
This is pure hate, not whatever the fuck Nice and The Commoner have going on.
It, obviously, starts a fight.
The crack grows like this.
The internet thrives on The Commoners love life rather than Nice and Moon’s, which is hilarious in Xiao Yueqing’s eyes even if it is not at Miss J’s. Her plan backfired at the sudden and surprisingly high amount of chemistry Nice and The Commoner’s interactions have, even if the man, while being in the dark, acted exactly as Miss J wished to, just with a more clear show of disgust that fans have labeled as “romantic tension”, or something like that.
It lightens up Xiao Yueqing’s day every time she sees how close is Miss J to leaving herself bald at the stress of the consequences of their actions, which significantly increases every time an interaction of them both become viral, or an edit, or someone comments on the legendary Wreck vs The Commoner battle.
The comparison between the fights —the bickering and reluctance of his fight with Nice being compared with the viciousness and surprisingly silence of his fight against Wreck— brought another whole set of problems for them because it also put on the spotlight Nice and Wreck’s fights, they began to analyze their scripts, their sarcastic and planned laughs, their bickering and artificial hate being brought again and again.
They, somehow, began to doubt Wreck's fake love towards Moon, which is an absolute delight to Xiao Yueqing and not so much for the poor and stressed Miss J, and once they began to doubt, it was inevitable, people found shit.
Apparently, because of the viciousness of The Commoner against Wreck and vice versa, and his roles inside the, now, polygon chart of relationships, Nice and Wreck's fights looked more like banter, more tame, more playful, if you believe them to be described as such.
And then someone commented something along the lines of “When the fights are about Moon, they're not nearly this vicious”, effectively opening a whole new can of surprises.
Someone else on the internet found the perfect explanation for such comment, which was, and quote, “Maybe Wreck was never fighting for Moon and her affection.”
Xiao Yueqing has the absolute luck of seeing it for the first time alone, allowing her to freely laugh at it, and then seeing it the second time in a meeting with Nice and Miss J, where she had the blessing of Lucky Cyan herself when she could see in real time their first reaction to such comment.
Nice went blank and then red —with shame or rage, she doesn't know but enjoys it regardless — and opened his mouth, moved it without making a sound, closed it, opened it again and then let out a sharp noise that encouraged him to keep his mouth shut.
Miss J, on the other hand, screeched in rage, grabbed her own hair, dropped it, looked at her hands in disbelief before starting to walk in circles while mumbling to herself and moving her hands. Then, she completely stopped, eyes wide in realization and looked towards them, towards the petrified Nice.
“Maybe we can use this,” Miss J said, hope clear in her voice as Nice just, well, became stone maybe?
She really doesn't know nor does she care enough when she is using all her strength to keep her expression in some shock state before the laughs that she is desperately keeping inside.
Nice's shock is big and long enough that she's able to reach their floor and laugh with all her freedom and might before he arrives just to see her on the floor, exhausted as the remnants of laughter leave her lips in sporadic moments while she recovers.
The crack grows like this.
Ever since their new development, it has been made clear that the core of their romantic polygon isn't Moon anymore, nor does it favour Nice as before. Now the focus is The Commoner and how he reacts, and how he defines their new dynamics. The independent hero had inadvertently and successfully kidnapped and absolutely modified one of their main sources of marketing, putting Miss J between the sword and the wall and making her run wild trying to solve this mess.
Which means that Moon needed to gain traction, and Moon couldn't be 100% monitored by Treeman Corp as they're too busy fixing Nice's image.
Xiao Yueqing welcomed this new freedom with a smile and open arms.
Hell, when she asked for a slightly more mature concept to “match the new vibes of The Commoner” Miss J didn't even make a face before approving it when her past attempts had been stopped with the raise of an eyebrow.
She feels giggly and giddy, high on this feeling, every time she goes out as Moon she's allowed to be Xiao Yueqing a little more.
And, as such, she temporarily forgets how uncomfortable the mere concept of Moon and The Commoner being close enough for people to speculate anything has become. So, when The Commoner stumbles upon her restricting a villain and goes all red and embarrassed, she cannot help but let out a chuckle that makes him go redder than before, because that is apparently possible.
He, eventually, is able to speak normally.
“I- uhh- I just - really, really, like what you did with your hair!” He stutters, all red and smiley while avoiding her eyes with clear embarrassment, “It- makes you look amazing.” The last part- the last part he says while looking at her in her eyes.
She expects the way the air is caught in her throat by surprise, her eyes widening and the warmth in her heart and cheeks. What she doesn't expect is the calm that invaded her, the way she keeps her cool, the way she lacks that something that had terrorised her in her sleep.
The way this is nothing like when she had begun to become Nice's girlfriend.
There's a smile that finds her way into her face, small, simple but honest and full of joy. She touches her, now, kind of curtain bangs thinking of her more mature look.
“Thanks,” she says with the warmth that fills her and she means it.
The Commoner's face looks like he is about to explode, if it could be possible, his head would be, at the very least, releasing smoke through his ears, she chuckles again at the funny sight that his embarrassment is.
She manages to bite back a “you don't look bad yourself” that wants to escape from her lips, leaving a contrasting bitter taste on her tongue. She, however, flicks his nose in a playful move because it is kind of cute that the man is so absurdly embarrassed and keeps her smile from becoming a bitter nasty little thing.
While The Commoner may have brought freedom in her way, he is equally powerful enough to take it back.
She has to keep her guard up and stay careful.
Someone comments:
Big sister Moon?
Someone else replies:
Big sister Moon…
Another person comments:
Big sister Moon!
And another one says:
Big sister Moon!
And a another on-
The crack grows like this.
The change in her bangs is widely well received, her more mature attitude is encouraged by excited fans, sure, there’s a couple —especially Nice’s— fans that do not wish to see her as anything but an accessory to their perfect hero, Nice. Xiao Yueqing has long ago grown used to such people, however, her fans do end up fighting back, making her name trending once again in the FOMO app and forums.
Moon, as Nice’s perfect girlfriend, is always tied to his name, and as such, when she becomes trending, he becomes trending. Her change, as it is an easy way into the focus of the media, is encouraged by Miss J and Treeman Corp, and, as such, Nice posts about how cute her bangs are looking.
It doesn’t exactly settle the debacle. Fangirls are gushing about how sweet of a boyfriend he is, her fans are glad that he is her boyfriend with such an understanding and supporting demeanor. From his fans, she gains two kinds of opinions, the ones that insist that she should be submissive and kept her old ones, and the others that accept his word as law.
Then, they comment about her stepping up to keep Nice bewitched with her looks, if it is because she doesn’t want to be with The Commoner, or that she doesn’t want him, or even worse, Wreck bewitching Nice —She cracks a laugh every time this appears on her feed, remembering and living off their initial reactions— doesn´t matter at all, because the point they make is that she is changing for him.
But Xiao Yueqing, now knowing the card that is The Commoner, lets it be and she proposes the idea to use such a comment to “solidify” her relationship with Nice.
The lack of suspicion that comes from Miss J is a testimony of how desperate she feels and how chaotic this whole issue has been.
The crack grows like this.
She changes most of her white for golden and purple, looking to branch out the same vine from which Nice and Queen come from, the endeavour is especially successful when Nice comments about how, now, her outfits complement each other instead of just match at his shades, sparking another flame of discussions on the internet and bumping up the numbers on his wrists.
The Commoner makes a comment of how much he loves the new outfit, how much “you I can see on it, it’s amazing” makes her stand up more, and leaves her heart lighter with joy.
Every step she makes on her new self direction bumps Nice’s numbers because of the traction but are solidified by The Commoner’s honest comments.
At some point in their interactions, the urge to flirt back is gone, leaving behind a sense of camaraderie and amusement at the sight of The Commoner’s obvious crush on her, making her giggle and her steps lighter.
The man never looks disappointed at the lack of reciprocation but looks happier every time she becomes more herself and less Nice’s. It, however, sparks a burst of joy and laughter every time she sees him try and defend himself from being in Nice’s new narrative.
Once or twice he had made derogatory comments about him, immediately apologizing afterwards because he doesn't actually know they aren’t a real couple, but, as much as it bring light to her days, she keeps her mouth shut in fear of letting a stray word escape her mouth, no matter how much she actually agrees with the man.
At some point she allows him close enough to form a new relationship, some kind of friendship though not a real one. The Commoner seems content with it, she is quite happy about it.
The fans riot.
Nice comes once again to save the day and Miss J gives her a stinky eye but doesn’t tell her shit because the trust amongst the couple is actually one hell of a good look for them and for Nice’s trust value.
For hers too, but when has that mattered before?
The crack grows like this.
The more mature look on Moon is an absolute success, her interaction with The Commoner, complementing her, brings her back on the spotlight to her great disgrace but Miss J’s saving one.
She then tries to push for some couple exercises with Nice, to put the new, mature, Moon beside the old but already perfect Nice in interviews and fights.
It, however, backfires.
After DOS quite successfully focuses on empowering the female population, promoting strong and independent women as heroes of their own, the media had learnt what kind of questions were getting more traction.
The new and Shiny Moon required a certain level of new delicate crafted interviews with a new set of questions.
This is when it backfires.
What the media likes includes drama, to empowered successful women, it usually includes asking about romantic relationships, if she's going to have children, if she's going to marry, what her diet is, among others.
Moon, the perfect girlfriend, has already answered those questions.
You can't ask her about her love life because it is perfect, so they ask Nice about her changes and he, as the perfect boyfriend he is, says that he loves it.
Romance isn't getting that much traction, nor does their attempts at drama, and so the questions grow in a more serious direction.
“Why the change?” They ask, they always ask now.
“I felt like Nice needed a stronger woman by his side, a more mature one,” she answers with the same smile as ever.
“You were already perfect,” he would comment as Treeman Corp. wants him to comment, while gently taking her hand, the blush comes to her face in such a mechanical fashion that people have 15 minute compilations with multiple and different moments. “But you're every day more perfect.”
It usually is followed by those fake but common lovey-dovey eyes that always sell their image, now more than ever.
But now, Moon isn't interesting as Nice's girlfriend but as her own person. The media has gotten sick of her relationship —unshakeable, unbreakable, unchangeable— but her new looks are that interesting, and they slowly detangle her name from Nice's.
It shocks them all the same.
Miss J, who is used to watching Moon as another level to push up Nice's trust, sees how everyday her tactics are watered down a bit more. Nice, at seeing his perfect image being threatened, disappear for a couple of hours. Xiao Yueqing, at the perspective of regaining her agency as a person, keeps going.
At the beginning, it was easy to convince Miss J, Moon’s name always come side by side with Nice's, even when the contrary isn't true at all, so her new looks, her new branding boosts Nice's popularity a good number or two on the top of heroes, which is difficult now that he is amongst the top 20, so Miss J utters no words at it. Later, when everything goes wrong in Miss J’s plan, it is already too late.
Moon's first solo campaign comes in just a month afterwards.
The crack grows like this.
Moon's solo campaign is a success, boosted by her shiny new branding and The Commoner's support, things sail fast and right.
Nice's own image is now surrounded by the tension he shares with The Commoner and whatever he has going on now with Wreck rather than being hand in hand with his relationship with Moon.
He doesn't seem bothered about it though.
The crack grows like this.
Even though Moon’s new look and found security leaves no room to doubt that Nice and her are a couple, the people don't like them the same amount as before.
Her new image and his —quite entertaining– new dynamics don’t give the image of The Perfect Couple they were before.
They may not be a match anymore.
The crack grows like this.
With a comment from The Commoner, with his support —for her— and hate —for Nice.
The crack grows like-
The crack grows-
The crack-
It cracks, it cracks, it cracks, it cracks-
It breaks like this.
Nice has a bigger appeal when he is not with a girlfriend or a partner at all, most of his traction comes at the hands of shipping because fans love to treat them like toys rather than people.
Moon has been an outstanding success as The Commoner's main crush, as her own hero, as an actual person.
It is clear, in the eyes of Treeman Corp, that they have to cut short their losses.
It breaks like this.
On a random Thursday, Treeman Corp lets the public know that Moon and Nice decided to break up.
They quote things like “different paths”, “not the right moment, and “he/she will always hold a special place in my heart”.
And it fucking works.
The fans love their new freedom to interact, speculate and, ultimately, deform Nice’s relationships. He’s like everyone’s barbie, able to fit every single new narrative. Sure, the perfect couple breaking up is not a good decision on paper, but when framed as Nice, the perfect boyfriend, giving his girlfriend the space she believes she needs to grow up and become better for him… Well, the public was very open about how perfect is Nice as a boyfriend and how cute and amazing it is that Moon wants to be the best herself for her man.
It sure frames it as something temporary —they have room to back out if this angle doesn't work, but Xiao Yueqing will make sure it works— but they still call it a break up, they still allow them both to play freely with their characters and assigned roles.
It still, mostly, frees her teleport gun from only guiding her to Nice.
The mere thought of it makes her giddy and giggly. Sure, she is not quite there yet, but she's one step away.
Only one step away from being free.
It breaks like this.
The Commoner is supposed to be the embodiment of the common guy, the normal people, but better, just a what-if your neighbour —or you— had barely passed the bar and became a hero. Because of that, The Commoner does not have PR training.
It is really funny for Xiao Yueqing, to see every time a microphone is shoved into his face, leaving him in a mess of quick and stumbling words as Treeman Corp own PR team grabs their hairs to get every single thread of it out of their heads the second The Commoner makes a mistake or goes out of the plan, as he is bound to do thanks to his lack of training.
Every time a reporter manages to catch him and shove a microphone to him, is an experience, you can see his nervousness, how much he stutters, how much he fails, how many awkward situations he can get himself into in the least amount of time, and how many times can he apologise after that. Xiao Yueqing even has a bingo about it.
This time, however, is different.
Ever since her more mature take had been official, the reporters learnt couldn't be penetrated by the couple's questions, she had, foolishly, felt safe and comfortable enough for her to lower her guard down.
The question shouldn't have taken her by surprise, but it does.
“Will you pursue Moon romantically now?” The man asks, a smile growing on his face as the words leave his filthy mouth.
“What?” The Commoner says, his face, while constantly being distorted and changing, show a clear confusion even through the screen
“Will you date Moon now?” He asks again, he opens his mouth but no sound even reaches out before he is interrupted by The Commoner.
“No! Why would I do so?” He asks, face red in embarrassment yet his frown is deep in clear annoyance. “She looks happy being single.”
Xiao Yueqing didn't know that she was being so obvious about it, but his words melt her heart, filling her with warmth and joy, yes, she's happy and single and happy about being single.
“Doesn't that disappoint you?” The vulture asks once again, his voice being sharp and trying to be downright hurtful from Xiao Yueqing's experience. “That she's so happy about being single?” We are not even trying to be subtle anymore, are we? She cannot help but think with thick sarcasm.
“What? No!” The Commoner reiterates, more annoyed than embarrassed now, even a bit angry if she squints her eyes.
“Now, I get it-”
“No you don't!” The Commoner interrupts the interviewer, Xiao Yueqing cannot help but flinch at the mere thought of smoking as such, Miss J would have gotten her ass, Treeman Corp would have ensured her ruin if she had ruined it bad enough.
She wasn't even allowed to think that she might do that one distant day. Yet, The Commoner does.
“You don't get it,” He emphasises, getting face to face with the interviewer, escalating the situation quickly and violently, the shock it generated allows him to continue. “She just got out of a long term relationship, she doesn't need these kinds of questions about her, nor a man pursuing her.” He states, and while it is not actually true, she knows he doesn't know, but she didn't actually expect him to respect that.
She's not used to anyone thinking about her feelings and respecting them, it's been a really long time since anyone did.
“She needs respect,” The Commoner commands, and there's something like adrenaline rushing in her blood, through her arteries and veins, speeding her heartbeat and making her feel a bit dizzy. “She deserves it as any other person does. If she's happy now, I'm happy for her.” He declares with certainty, it fills her with joy as she can physically feel the effects of trust itself changing live. There’s a sudden giggle and it sounds like hers. Surprised, she touches her lips that are slightly open and curved in a smile.
The reporter stays stunned in silence, Xiao Yueqing could bet everyone is stunned in silence, it is not normal for someone, especially a rising male hero, to talk with so much passion about respecting a superior female hero.
She hates that it is not common at all, however, it is one of The Commoner’s actions, so that might as well change.
“I'm actually a really big fan of her rebranding,” he says after a couple of seconds, his voice softer than before but with the same amount of determination behind it. His face is slightly red, a really cute shade actually. She likes to think he is slightly embarrassed, yet it might be due to the admiration itself and she is equally fine with that. “I feel like she finally is getting somewhere,” now that felt like a punch in the gut, finally getting somewhere, but it is true, she finally is. “She shouldn't have been just one of Nice's many accessories, but her own kind of hero since long, long ago,” his voice raises again, watching the interviewer in his eyes, defying him to say something about it.
Xiao Yueqing can feel her throat suddenly dry, she hadn’t expected for someone to actually recognize it publicly and out loud.
Treeman is going to eat him alive.
“I'm so glad that she is happy and proud of what she is doing. She's amazing like that…” he sighs and his blush intensifies while Xiao Yueqing begins to fight the conflicting feelings inside of her. Happiness, joy, pride, worry and fear, all of them tangled in a complex dance while deciding what she can do.
Her inner turmoil is big enough she misses the next words until a squeak brings her back to pay attention.
”No! Wait, she's my friend!” The words come quick, his face is bright red and his movements erratic in a clear show of how embarrassing all of this has become. “I- I do love her- As a friend!” Oh, that’s what it is happening, and she cannot help but bark a laugh, his badly concealed crush on her resurfacing once again, she had learnt long ago to live with it —and he doesn’t intend to act on it— and thus, it doesn’t actually bother her anymore.
But it clearly brings The Commoner embarrassment enough to create such funny scenes in a live interview.
“Oh god this is embarrassing,” he says softly, his hands covering his face and his ears bright red to a point they might bring luck to his entire bloodline and a bit more. He mutters something else and presses his hand harder against his face. “Stop me! Stop me! Stop!” Heis yells are muffled by his hand, his mind has clearly forgotten what situation he is currently in. “Why would I say that?!”
Xiao Yueqing cannot help but let the laughter bubble from her chest, letting it free and loudly resound in the walls of her own floor of the hero tower.
It breaks like this.
Treeman Corp. tries to bring the both of them —Nice and Moon— back together, but it fails as The Commoner’s unexpected speech gains traction and Moon works everyday better as a stand alone.
In their next meeting Miss J looks like she would like to skin that man alive right now-
“-because he doesn’t even understand the amount of damage control we had to do for Nice’s image!” She complains, and, ouch, not even a thought spared for Moon? Not like it is new.
“Well,” she cannot help but interrupt, tasting the sweet and salt flavour of the words she is about to drop on her. “All of this happened because you insisted on using The Commoner and that angle.” If looks could kill, Xiao Yueqing would have dropped from that floor right to the nucleus of earth itself, burning in the melted rock.
Miss J’s hand twitches, she does nothing and Xiao Yueqing dares to raise a single eyebrow. The usually stoic woman could have thrown something —a chair, her portfolio, phone, anything— at her but she didn't, allowing the smirk on Xiao Yueqing’s face to grow freely.
Miss J takes a really deep breath, and then another before finally calming down and changing to her more serious and determined mood, putting her hands firmly on the table and staring straight at Nice, clearly ready to lay the next steps of their plan.
“Since the public has suddenly decided that your relationship with Wreck is more than just enemies, you might expect for you both to form an ‘improvised’ team for us to play and test the idea,” Nice’s eyes go wide and his face might as well have light up with happiness as he allows —if Xiao Yueqing isn’t wrong, which she rarely is about him as Moon is his ex-perfect girlfriend and now perfect best friend— a small smile form on his face.
“You should also expect to form more consistent teams with The Commoner as the public seems to love whatever the hell happens between you both.” Miss J spits and Nice’s face sours, Xiao Yueqing cannot help but show surprise in her face as Miss J is usually more professional than allowing herself to swear in a meeting, no matter the kind.
“But,” She interrupts whatever complain Nice might have against these plans, “we will be expecting to Moon and The Commoner to team up more as he declared them as friends,” she says with clearly annoyance and Moon can feel the joy building up on her chest, restricting it from showing up on her face. “We may also try to arrange a meeting with other strong female heroes to boost the feminine power idea and you must make clear that Nice is an ally and your soulmate, platonically romantically, it doesn’t matter.” She declares, more passionate with each word.
“We will support you and your solo hero careers as long as your good reputation can also raise Nice’s.”
Xiao Yueqing cannot help but allow the smile to form on her face as she says something along the lines of “Deal!” and barks a —oh so clearly— free laughter.
This is not entirely free, but freedom surely feels just like this.
It doesn't end like this because their stories keep going on.
But this part ends like this.
The public and their clear connection to The Commoner encourage Treeman Corp to show a more approachable Nice, less “perfect human being” and more on the lines of “what every day man can and should aspire to be” mixed with “idol”. They love watching his relationship with Wreck evolve towards a more friendly one and his smiles become every day a bit more true.
His beef with The Commoner is a whole show on itself, the public lives for it and it helps to distance Moon from Nice’s image, as both men are recognized as her trusted allies and really good friends, yet, their animosity is clear and does not involve Moon at all
The Commoner, on his own, keeps going on wild adventures, ending up in the most strange situations and, apparently befriending X???? Xiao Yueqing doesn’t quite know why nor how, and when she asks The Commoner about this he just shrugs and says that he feels a sense of camaraderie as a fellow coworker that hates overtime, as if it made sense. It doesn’t.
He has become her one true friend, the crush long forgotten under their shared jokes, ruthless teasing and mutual respect. At his side, she laughs freely, fights like a dance and feels energized.
The newer, darker suit of Moon —with shades of purple and gold mixed up together— looks just fine by the side of either The Commoner or Nice, yet it is, now, so clearly hers. XIao Yueqing cannot help but smile at the sight of it on ads and screens.
She might not be totally free, not really, trust binds her wrists like shackles, words and signatures tie her tightly to Treeman Corp and she is still subject to any of their whims. But now she knows how to fight back, she now has the unconditional support of The Commoner, her own, loyal, base of fans and her new knowledge.
She might not be totally free but she can be bound on her own terms and fight back if she needs to.
And it is just another Monday when she takes her teleport gun, thinks where in the world she wants to be and makes a portal that actually leads her to said place, confidently walking through it.