On occasion I have thoughts about writing crossovers. Recently, I pondered what would happen, if I slotted together Weak Hero and Teenage Mercenary, with Baekjin as a child ending up in the camp.
And god, did the world planning escalate.
First, there was the question of why would he end up there and I admit, I made it easy for myself. The stepfather is an abusive asshole. It is canon that he ran off with the insurance money after the mother died, why shouldn't he try to turn Baekjin into money and literally sell him?
I until now neglected planning anything regarding the camp life and timeline there outside of wanting him back in South Korea in time to start high school. Which is when the implications of that AU really hit me.
1. Manwol
Without Baekjin building up the Union to oppose and take over Yeongdeungpo, there would be no power opposing Manwol.
Teens that were recruited by him in the original timeline, may not join a gang at all and stay unaffiliated or join Manwol later on.
Without the Union on the rise, the fight pulling Manwol's attention to Bae Jihoon and Kang Jeongyeon would not happen, seeing as in that instance, the Manwol members were hunting for people already affiliated with the Union, so the fight that turned Jihoon against Manwol and had him turn to Baekjin would not happen or at least not as it did in canon.
Joo Seungjin may or may not join Manwol straight away, depending on the advantages he could gain.
Ji Gwangseok would try to leave Manwol and get hurt and Ji Hakho would have no strong gang to join and to get revenge for his brother.
2. Former Union members
Ji Hakho
As already stated, there being no Union around to join up with, Ji Hakho may be forced to stew in his hate and rage while also trying to get the money to help with his brothers surgery.
He may be on the lookout for people to help him get revenge and trying to get his own pound of flesh without putting his friends at risk, but as long as nothing big happens, he is stuck in that situation.
Lee Seehan
He rose up in the Union due to selling out Seungjin's dealings with Manwol to Baekjin. As there is very little info on how Manwol operated internally, there is no way of saying if he would attempt that again.
Joo Seungjin
He does things for his own gain and didn't plan to help Pilyeong with Eunjang before getting excommunicated from the Union. With no other big player around, he would have very few options to use his position to his advantage. But then I also doubt he would be very high up in Manwol, if he joined, seeing as Manwol is a high school gang and as a 1st year high school student, he wouldn't be very high in the hierarchy.
Keum Seongje
If Seongje joined Manwol, I can't see it lasting long. He didn't last in the Union due to disliking politics, and I doubt Manwol would be happy about a 1st year high school student beating up whoever he likes.
Bae Jihoon
I don't think that he would bother joining Manwol. He joined the Union initially to get tye backing to save his friend. As that incident wouldn't happen here, he may stay clear of more structured gangs if his fighting antics don't pull Manwol's attention upon entering high school.
3. Eunjang
With the change of the backstory, the situation in Eunjang would also change.
The fight between Park Humin and Bae Jihoon would most likely not happen, and if it does happen somehow, Na Baekjin not being around would prevent the wound to his arm occuring.
Kim Pilyeong set Jihoon on Humin in an attempt to take over Eunjang and rejoin the Union. In this universe, there is no Union, and without the Union there is no reason for him to even know Bae Jihoon.
Sure, he could have affiliated himself with Manwol, but he would need to start at the bottom there and while Manwol had dealings with Lee Chungil, they didn't have the same business oriented mindset Baekjin showcased. Joining Manwol, he would risk being turned into an ATM by other members due to his lack of fighting powers if him being a fake gets revealed. I don't think he would risk that.
4. Start point of the AU:
I would most likely start the story at the beginning of the first year of high school as the story starts in canon, with the twist of a specific albino looking teen joining Eunjang.
As Eunjang is regarded as not a very good school, I think it would be a lot easier for Baekjin to join it without having anyone dig too deeply into his lack of middle school papers and general lack of existence in South Korea for the previous years.
It could go multiple routes to facilitate an actual plot happening:
He does the odd underground jobs, which puts him at odds with Manwol.
Manwol tries recruitment from Eunjang and he starts out as collateral damage and seriously kicks ass. (He already did that in canon. I am morbidly curious how a teenage gang would fare against a Baekjin with excessive combat training)
The typical thugs play stupid games and win stupid prices. He was trying to lay low, but he isn't gonna have trash trying to walk over him.
I further mesh it together with the TM plotline and let SW be involved somehow, replacing Ijin's existence somewhat.
I would love to include my currently favourite pairing of femSieun/Baekjin into it and have the Numbers join the fun at some point. I feel like some of these mercenaries could get a good laugh out of it.
(Option 1-3 also put up the possibility of Hakho approaching Baekjin to deal with Manwol.)
Fazit:
It is an idea with a big playground and so much potential, but god, I don't have time for that at the moment. The timeline planning alone would currently drive me up the wall.
But it has many funny ideas, like Pilyeong trying to bribe Humin with chicken to keep Manwol out of Eunjang, people generally underestimating Baekjin as a weak no-name, Baekjin applying warfare tactics against a rather ignorant student gang...
Ijin broke into a place to copy files to a hard drive. You can't tell me Baekjin wouldn't do that to Lee Chungil to cut the monetary support of Manwol. Especially after he canonical had Seungjin break into his old elementary school and copy his former teacher's hard drive to completely ruin the man.
If he gets attached to Sieun and decides to get all the dirt he can on the Yang's? Goodnight to these fools.
Just finished watching Hotel Del Luna and drew Manwol @dlwlrma 🌕❤ I love all her outfits so much!💕 This will be one of my Patreon reward for September(step by step images, high res artwork, PSD, video process)! Click HERE to check out my Patreon! :D
