Chapter Text
The end of the world happens on a Tuesday.
Jungkook sits on his living room couch watching in horror as Ladybug struggles to stand up, the rest of his team seemingly down for the count in the ruins of what used to be Namsan Tower. The building had fallen two hours ago in a battle between Black Cat and the akuma, a forty foot dragon who seemed dead set on burning down Seoul one fireball at a time.
Now the Black Cat lays motionless behind Ladybug’s protective crouch. It’s hard to tell if he is even still breathing.
The rest of the heroes don’t look much better. Despite the protection their suits offer, each of the six is sporting various scrapes and bruises. Honey Bee’s arm is hanging from his body in an unnatural way and both of Sage Shell’s eyes have painful looking black and red rings forming around them.
It’s clear that after seven years of defending Seoul together, the six have finally come across a battle that they might not win. Because there, facing off with Ladybug, was a figure that could only be Monarch himself.
The supervillain has never actually been spotted before, despite his notoriety, electing instead to send brainwashed villains after the heroes in his stead. For him to be there, in person, meant that something terrible was beginning to unfold.
Jungkook looks around his small apartment in resignation. The pale moonlight shines through his living room window, making ever-changing silver patterns across his apartment walls. It’s a shame that the end of the world is happening on such a beautiful night.
Right when he was finally starting to piece his life back together, the world ended. It was just his luck.
Jungkook is startled out of his personal pity party by his phone ringing. Yugyeom’s contact flashing across the screen.
He scrambles to pick it up, almost dropping the device in his haste to grab it from his kitchen counter.
“Yugyeom! Where are you?” He cries into his phone the second the call connects. “I’ve been trying to call you all night. You better not be out there. I don’t…” his voice fades out.
“I don’t think that the heroes are going to win this time.”
Thankfully Yugyeom had decided to do something incredibly unlike him and was using his (very limited) sense of self preservation tonight.
“Don’t worry Kookie, I’m staying with Jaebom-hyung. We moved down to the basement with some of his roommates a while ago. My phone has been dead but BamBam decided to, very stupidly might I add, run upstairs and grab a charger for all of us.” Yugyeom reassures. “What about you? Are you okay?”
Jungkook sighs in relief. At the very least his closest friend is safe. At least for now.
“Yeah, I’m in my apartment. It doesn’t seem like the fight has gotten close to my area yet. I just- they always seemed so untouchable- I never thought that there was a chance they might actually lose.”
And it was the truth. Jungkook had idolized the six heroes ever since they first appeared back when he was in middle school. He had posters plastered all over his childhood bedroom of all six of them. He had even used his first paycheck from his first part-time job back in high school to buy the limited edition Ladybug action figure.
Even when his life was crumbling apart, he found solace in the steadfast resilience of the superheroes.
Tonight was turning into something he could never have imagined.
“Just listen to me Kookie, stay where you are! And keep me updated. Make sure your windows are closed! Jackson says that people have been losing consciousness the second whatever is in that akuma’s-”
That was the last thing Jungkook heard before the line cut.
He sits there in anxious silence for what could have been either a few seconds or hours. Jungkook wants to believe that their connection was interrupted by something destroying the cell tower, but- but what if…
Thankfully, Jungkook isn’t able to ruminate on that thought much longer. Unfortunately though, this is because at that moment the sirens running up and down his street start blaring from outside his window.
Years ago, when Monarch’s attacks started to ramp up and had become increasingly violent after his persistent failure, Red Fox teamed up with the city to start an initiative seeking to add akuma alert sirens to every block. The sirens would warn civilians of an attack, would let them know when they needed to find shelter. Since then the sirens had sadly become a standard part of day to day life in Seoul, and while they were certainly scary to hear, they never terrified Jungkook quite like they were terrifying him in this moment.
Jungkook’s body moves faster than his thoughts can catch up. He quickly finds himself barricaded against his bedroom wall, His phone clutched tightly against his chest.
From his sheltered spot between his twin bed and his wobbly desk, Jungkook watches Ladybug's final stand. His eyes are unable to look away from the TV screen in his living room, unable to look away from the grim expression on Ladybug's face as Jungkook's hero crumples under the oppressive magic of the villain. There is blood leaking from the corner of his mouth and the corners of his eyes as the hero finally surrenders.
Not long after, the world around Jungkook explodes.
Jungkook wakes up to the feeling of moonlight on his cheeks and smoke in his lungs.
It takes him a couple moments to figure out that the position he is in is not comfortable at all and that instead of waking up in his bed it appears he has woken up in the middle of a pile of rubble.
Wait...not just any pile of rubble. He is fairly certain that the wreckage around him used to be his kitchen.
Jungkook has never been overly fond of his small apartment, to be fair. Yet the realization that his rundown apartment, the haphazard space he considers home, has been destroyed has tears pricking at his eyes nonetheless.
Jungkook takes one minute, one long and deep breath, and then surveys the damage.
His bed has been completely decimated. The feathers from his pillows fill the air around him as they float down to the ground. The cheap bed frame he had purchased only a month before with the dregs of his last month's paycheck is the only thing still standing, the metal a reddish hue due to the heat residue left from the blast. His paintings, which he had meticulously arranged around the few empty spaces of his apartment walls, are burning to ashes in front of his eyes and all that remains of his small television is a foul smelling puddle of molten metals a couple feet in front of him.
Well...he definitely wasn’t getting his deposit back.
It’s all too much and Jungkook really can’t help the sob that escapes from his throat as he watches everything he has worked for burn in front of his eyes.