“Faster! C’mon!

Youngwoon was tired. Very, very tired. Anyone would be tired, too, if they had to fight off ten men simultaneously attacking them, and then get dragged away from them , having to run fast to match the pace of the girl dragging him while his body was in such a bad condition. He felt like he was going to collapse any minute now.

“ Taeyeon, stop! Ow!”

The girl suddenly halted, causing him to stop too, although since he didn’t time his movements well, he stumbled to the ground, his side taking most of the impact. He winced from the pain, and rolled on his back. Wrong move.

“Ow, my back!” He had forgotten that one of the punks managed to land a hard kick on his lower back. Ah, today was definitely not his day.

He heard a door being kicked open and the next thing he knew, he was being half-carried into a blurry yet familiar room. A huge sofa on one side, a coffee table, a small TV set, and an aquarium. The rays of the rising sun filtering through the windows. Too bright. His vision swayed once again.

“Youngwoon, we’re near the bedroom, do me a favor and just crawl.” The girl said, slowly prying herself away from his heavy weight.

Still dizzy from the events of the previous hours, not to mention a body weakened by being beaten up, Youngwoon almost fell over again when he tried to move by himself. Of course Taeyeon was there to catch him. She tsked at him. “Guess not, huh.”

“’Course not. I enjoy seeing you suffer.”  He said, grinning tiredly. No way was he going to pass up this chance to annoy her, especially now that she can’t leave him by himself.

“I enjoy seeing you suffer, blah blah blah.” Taeyeon rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You talk like I can’t easily beat you to pulp, Kim Youngwoon. Now, if you’d like to live to see another day, I request that you shut up.” He only laughed and when she looked pointedly at him, he raised his free hand slightly as a sign of defeat.

After much heaving and pushing, Taeyeon finally deposited Yooungwoon on to the bed, her strength giving out afterwards. She fell on the bed next to him and closed her eyes for a while. Youngwoon smiled and adjusted himself into a comfortable position and turned his head to look at the petite girl lying beside him only to find her looking back at him. He was surprised, but he did not want to seem intimidated so he winked at her. She let her fist connect lightly with his semi-bruised jaw before she rolled over and got out of bed.

“Let’s get you cleaned up before you get too fresh.” She said, walking out of the bedroom.

Youngwoon massaged his jaw as his stare followed his…friend?  Rival?  Neighbor? Sparring partner? Honestly, he didn’t know. Taeyeon had been there since he was young, and had been too many things to him. Friend, best friend, sister, mother, sparring partner, cook, maid, rival, text mate, date, guardian angel, savior, teacher, and most importantly, although he’d never admit it to her, the world. Yes, Taeyeon is Youngwoon’s world, and sometimes, he’d do all sorts of crazy things just to get her attention and have her by his side. Just like last night.

He had let Taeyeon win their practice match yesterday even if he had already anticipated all the moves she would pull on him. He fell over after Taeyeon hit him with a roundhouse kick even if he could just block it and pin her to the floor in a single motion. He wasn’t a Mixed Martial Arts Champion for nothing, and yet, for Taeyeon, he could lose. He would lose and lose and it would be okay as long as he would see that smug and adorably cute smile on her face as she bragged about how she could easily bring down one of Korea’s underground champion fighters.

They also bet money on that practice session and so Taeyeon had to take the 100 dollar bill which he ‘confidently’ placed on the money pot before their match started. He was okay with that, because money makes Taeyeon happy in the non-greedy way. The girl really just liked having money, so she could treat her friends out, buy nice things for her mother who lives in the province, and so that she had money for cab rides when she has to go save Youngwoon from yet another one of his antics. This time though, Taeyeon took the money from the pot and rushed out of the gym, saying that she would go celebrate her victory with Kim Junsu, this classmate of hers whom he didn’t like because he was always too close to her and was constantly asking for her help.

Technically, it was him who gave her the money, and then she’d only spend that money on some worthless punk? Ah, Taeyeon really can be ungrateful to him at times. He was expecting her to pick him up off the floor and tell him to go shower and then they would eat afterwards at the nearby diner while she would ‘console’ him and tell him how great a fighter he is-just not against her. He would pretend to be upset she would laugh. Everything in the world would be alright, but no, she made a promise to Junsu and she absolutely had to go. The worst part is, no matter how pissed off he may be, he could never do anything about it. He did not own Taeyeon, and he knows it’s his fault. No matter how brave he was in the ring and against all other problems, when it came to Taeyeon, there was really just one word to describe him.

Coward.

“Up!” A voice cut through his thoughts, making him jerk slightly.

“C’mon, we’ve done this a million times before, Youngwoon. Up!” Taeyeon quickly placed the things she brought in on the side table and started pulling on his arm. “Youngwoon, get up already!”

When he still refused to budge, Taeyeon exasperatedly let go of his hand and sighed. She turned around for a bit before walking over to the bed and sitting beside him. He was most taken aback when she batted her eyelashes and moved even closer.

“What this all of a sudden-“

“Youngwoon-oppa, please get up for a bit, I know you’re tired, but we have to treat your wounds first, okay? I’ll give you a massage afterwards to relax you.” All this she had said with a sweet smile, totally out of character. He was stunned into submission, quickly assuming a sitting position, still staring incredulously at the girl before him. Who is this girl and what she done to his Taeyeon?

“Taeng-“

She smiled widely and flicked his forehead with her finger. “Really, Youngwoon. Really.” He frowned as he touched his forehead and watched as she chuckled in amusement. She handed him a mug.  “Here, gargle this.”

He did as instructed, and gargled the salted water. He made sure that the water had reached every crevice of his mouth, helping the wounds to stop bleeding. He spat it back onto the cup which Taeyeon took and placed on the table.

“Strip.” Taeyeon commanded next, and he obliged, removing his shirt and wife beater, tossing them on the floor. He let her wipe a cool face towel all over his upper torso, just so that his body could cool down. He couldn’t help but groan at the icy chill of the towel.

“Silly, pig headed, bastard.” Taeyeon said still wiping his body with the cold towel. “Yes, you are strong and capable, but what makes you think that you could easily win over ten men the same size as you, huh? They might not be as good as you are, but they have numbers, Youngwoon. You should have at least thought of that first.”

Yes. Youngwoon had pulled the crazy stunt of angering and challenging ten drunk men into a huge bar fight. He was so upset over Taeyeon celebrating with Junsu that he spent his afternoon and evening at Journey, this bar that his friend Donghae, a former stripper, owned. It was a semi-underground bar, where ‘transactions’ would sometimes be done, and fights were a common occurrence. He got into the nightly brawl and it ended up being ten against one, with him emerging victorious, but leaving the scene excessively damaged.

He gave a dry laugh before replying. “Taeng, I still won over them! It doesn’t really matter now, because I won over ten men the same size as me! Hahah-ow! Taeng!” The girl, out of irritation, hit one of the big bruises on his back hard enough for him to feel pain.

“You can laugh about it now, sure, but what if I wasn’t there, huh? What if I wasn’t there, when right after you made the last man topple over, another man was behind you with a beer bottle in his hand, going straight for your head! Huh, Youngwoon? What then? What would you do? Would you even be alive? You do know that fights and death are so common at Donghae’s that if a body were to be found after the brawl, they would simply pick it up, put it in a bag and throw it in the river! “

Taeyeon never scolded lightly. Youngwoon had heard a thousand different versions of this scolding, and each one he would take to his heart with no offense. All that mattered was that Taeyeon cared for him. Taeyeon was here, taking care of him. He no longer felt the pain digging its greedy claws into his flesh and bones. Taeyeon was beside him, and now, he could care less about anything else.

“I know what I’m doing.” He said softly, although he knew she was not going to buy that.

“Sure you do. You tire yourself out, waste a few hours in a massive brawl, ending up taking years away from your life. I’m a med student, Youngwoon. I know what I’m talking about. That huge bruise on your back just guaranteed you a loss in your next fight unless you completely rest for three months, but I’m sure you’re not going to listen to me again, are you? You’re just gonna get out the door as soon as you think you feel fine and piss another goon off or something. Every single day, I pray for you, you know that? I hope to God that for a change could you please not do anything crazy today and could He please let you survive another day even though you’re stupid enough to play Russian roulette with only one round empty.”

“Hey, I survived that.”

“You’re missing the point! You make me worry so much! If every minute I worry about you could takes a year of my life, I highly doubt that I’d even be alive right now, right here, treating your wounds and scolding you like I always do. Aren’t you getting tired of this?”

“Do you want me to say sorry, Taeyeon? We’ve been doing this thing a million times already; and yes, I’m getting tired of saying sorry, of you scolding me more, of me taking it. You know what, maybe it would’ve been better if you weren’t there, just so that I would die, and this stupid cycle would end. All I want you to be is happy, Taeng, believe it or not, and you just right here by my side. I think, though, that it’s going to be impossible and there is nothing I can do about it.” He hadn’t meant to say it, but it just came out of his mouth like that. A long hidden frustration, surfacing. Yes, being with Taeyeon made him happy, but just now, he realized how much he was hurting her, tiring her, making her worry. It hurt so much that his greed got the best of him and now, the best of her. Taeyeon was getting tired of him. She was going to leave him and maybe, just maybe, that was for the best, for her happiness.

“That’s a lie and you know it.”

“It’s the truth.”

“It’s a lie because you love me but you don’t even do anything about it.”

He scoffed. “I would’ve done something about it, but along came Junsu-what?!” His eyes widened, realizing what Taeyeon had just said. Taeyeon knew?

“Junsu is a close friend, and yes I know you love me, okay? Not in the friendly way but in the I-love-you- and-I-want-to-do-everything-for-you way. Then again, you’re a coward and you wouldn’t do anything about it.”

Youngwoon is too frozen and shocked to speak.

Taeyeon smiles at him and presses the antiseptic-covered cotton swab harder against his cheek. He cries out in pain and does a double take of her. She laughs before she seals the wound with a band-aid-purple this time, with tiny dinosaurs and stars-and softly kisses his cheek.

No, Youngwoon was not red as beet afterwards and he could still look Taeyeon in the eye without flinching.

Just kidding.

Of course he was blushing like the teenage girl that he was deep inside and was stuttering about how Taeyeon could do that so easily.

“I-if that were so, if you knew that I loved you-wait, how do you even know?” Youngwoon was feeling dumb and slow, because of this suddenly revelation, and of course, well, Taeyeon had just kissed him. On the cheek. He wondered for a moment how stupid he would soon be if she would plant a kiss on his lips? May it be a great sacrifice upon his macho image; he still really wanted to know.

“You’re not only cute when you’re drunk, you’re also very honest.” She smiled, securing a cotton swab over a rather large wound on his forehead with medical tape. “That was three years ago, when in one of your drunken nights, you suddenly kissed me and cried, telling me how much you loved me; but you weren’t sober then, and although I knew that it came from your heart, I just put you to sleep and never talked to you about it. You wouldn’t remember, and you would just probably deny it.”

Youngwoon felt guilty when he saw the sadness and hurt in her eyes, and at that moment, he wished he were more of a man then he currently was.

“Of all the crazy thoughts that enter your mind, didn’t the idea of me loving you too ever surface? Haven’t you thought, even just once, that maybe, just maybe, Taenggoo loves me too?”

“It-that’s-that’s too crazy.”

“Nothing’s too crazy for you.”

“That is.”

“But it’s real! My God, Youngwoon, when are you going to grow a pair of balls or something?”

“I have balls!”

“You don’t seem to act like you do!”

“I know! I’m sorry, okay? It-it’s just too…I don’t know, impossible? I…you’re perfect.” He said, resigned. Yes, there had been fantasies about Taeyeon loving him back, but it was far too impossible, to he brushed those thoughts off. Taeyeon was too nice, too strong, too beautiful…too everything to deserve him. Kim Junsu was there too, being all perfect and close to Taeyeon. He had to grudgingly admit, that Junsu and Taeyeon looked so good together, so…perfect for each other.

“You’re really stupid! So what if I’m perfect? So what? I’m a person too, and I can love whoever the hell I want! Can you please stop with this perfect drama? This is all I hear from you when you’re drunk. ‘Ooh, Taeyeon is so perfect, I love her so much, but she can’t love me back because she’s perfect and I’m not so we’ll never be.’ Seriously? Oh God, I’m surprised you can stand my temper, because, if you haven’t noticed, I’m always mad. I’m always shouting at you, I’m always scolding you and you still just sit there, taking it all. It’s an imperfection, and perfect girls are supposed to be patient and calm, and I don’t know what that’s about, or how they can do that, okay? I’m not perfect! I smell bad when I sweat, I drink rum like it’s water, I burp, I laugh too loud, I don’t know how you could always, always call me perfect Youngwoon; and I don’t know how you could go on for so many years, loving me like this, really, the only thing bad about you, is that you’re a coward. A coward! Kangin, Korea’s number one underground fighter, a coward!”

He flinched, because everything was true.

“If I kiss you, will it make everything okay?”

“Are you completely sober?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“B-but, I—I love you! You love me too, don’t you?

At this, she suddenly laughed and pinched his bandaged cheek. “Aw, so adorably cute, of course I do, but you busted your lip. You are in no kissing condition, ew.”

“Aw, Taeng, but I haven’t kissed you yet-well okay I did, but I was drunk!”

“Is it my fault?”

“Okay, so it’s not, it’s mine, but…but…please? I-I actually wanted a proper kiss when I confessed to you but, umm…Wait! Taeng, what-”

Soft lips landed against his for a second and pulled away before he could react.

“Behave yourself. You’re still going to have to court me.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Why? Of course you’ve got to prove yourself a good boyfriend! How can I just give you my heart without knowing you first?”

“Knowing me first?! What-Taeng, we grew up together!”

“I know. I just love seeing you suffer.”

“Taeng!”

She laughed at his incredulous face. “Eh, I’m just messing with you. All I want you to do right now, is take a rest.  You really do have three months of recuperating left to do, before you can go out and fight again. Now, be a good boy and lie down.”

“But wait, Taeng-“

“No buts, just lie down.”

“No, you don’t understand-“

“Lie down, Youngwoon.”

“Taeng I-“

“Lie. Down.”

“Taeng-“

“I said. Lie. The . Down!”

“O-okay, okay, I’m-I’m lying down.” Taeyeon was the scariest thing on earth when she was mad.

She then brightened up. “Good! Now…” She took off her jacket and lay next to him, one arm over his torso. “What was it that you wanted to say?”

“Nothing, I-“

“Now that you’re lying down, you can say it. Say it.”

“No, I-we can save it for next-“

“Say. It.”

"Okay! Fine! Geez, you're really scary when you're mad..." He half shouted and half-muttered. "Just...thank you, and I love you."

"That's all?"

"Yeah."

"You could've told me!"

He scoffed. "Really."

"Okay, so no."

"See?"

"Fine."

“I love you.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

“What?!”

“Ow! My side!”

“You’re supposed to say you love me too!”

“Of course I do!”

“Then say it!”

“ I love you too, Taeng.”

“Good. Now go to sleep.”

“Are you going to stay?”

“Did I tell you to speak?!”

“No, okay sorry! Fine, I’m sleeping!”

“That’s a boy. Of course I’m staying. Sweet dreams, Youngwoon.”

He was going to be a whipped boyfriend.

“Oh, and I love you.”

Nah, Taeyeon loves him. It’s gonna be alright.

End