Dahyun is helping Chaeyoung wrap her hands, getting ready for her match later. The older girl finishes, but she doesn’t let go of her hands.

“Unnie…?” Chaeyoung prompts, knowing that there’s something Dahyun wants to tell her, but hesitating.

Dahyun takes a few seconds before she looks up. “Don’t lose your hearing, you stupid idiot.”

“I won’t, I still need it to listen to your annoying voice.” Chaeyoung jokes, knowing that she’s just worried. They all are, but they also know they can’t stop her when she has already made up her mind. She would rather try again and lose her hearing than to give up so easily. After all, she has made a promise, to be the best fighter, and she’s determined to keep to it.

Jihyo comes in, and Chaeyoung knows it’s time. She nods when they make eye contact, and pats Dahyun on the back reassuringly before standing up. “Let’s go.”

--

Momo taps her foot impatiently, not knowing whether to call Sana optimistic or just plain stupid for being so hopeful. They are here to support Chaeyoung for her match, and Sana bought three tickets, insisting that Mina will come. But it’s 5 minutes away from the fighter’s match, and there is still no sight of Mina. It comes as no surprise though, because now with Jaekyung in the equation, he doesn’t let Mina out of his sight if she’s not in school or at the dance studio. He’s beside her almost 24/7, even tagging along when they meet up for their girls' night out. That is why, it’s almost impossible that Mina will be able to sneak away from him to be here.

Momo sighs as she holds Sana’s hand. “Let’s just go, she’s not coming.”

But Sana doesn’t budge, tugging on their entwined hands. “Come on Momoring, let’s wait a few more minutes, she will come, I’m sure of it.”

Momo feels her temper rising but she controls herself, because the last thing she wants is to lash out at innocent Sana who is just so optimistic and thinks the best of everyone. Just as she’s wracking her brain to think about how to break it to Sana gently that Mina is not coming, she feels Sana letting go of her hand to wave furiously into the distance.

“Mina! Over here!”

Momo turns to see where Sana is facing, and low and behold, Mina is really running towards them, her hair dishevelled. “I’m sorry, am I late? Has she started already?” She pants, still breathless from that run.

“No, you are just on time, let’s go!” Sana chirps, hooking both of Mina’s and Momo’s arms before pulling them towards the entrance.

“I’m surprised you actually came. How did you get rid of that douche?” Momo asks as they are making their way to their designated seats, causing her to get a light nudge from Sana.

Thankfully, Mina doesn’t seem to be affected by Momo’s strong choice of words for Jaekyung, just shrugging her shoulders. Why would she be affected anyway, when all she can think about right now is her little sunshine? “I told him I’m sick and had to stay home.”

As usual, he wanted to bring her out for a date, but she had feigned sickness, telling him to bring her home instead after school. She did feel a little guilty seeing him fuss over her, worried that she’s sick, but the moment he left, Mina had forgotten all about it, running around to get her things before rushing down here.

“In-laws!” A voice calls out from the raucous crowd, and they see a woman holding a big placard of Chaeyoung’s name waving at them. It’s Nayeon, totally decked out with a placard, foam hands and inflatable clappers. Jeongyeon is sitting beside her with the same stuff, except looking a lot less enthusiastic than the other girl.

“You didn’t tell me we will be sitting with them.” Mina is suddenly nervous, not knowing how to react around Nayeon and Jeongyeon now that Chaeyoung and her are no longer in a relationship. It’s like having to be around your in-laws when you are already separated from your partner.

Sana just pats her hand gently, reassuring her. Momo enters first, sitting beside Nayeon and immediately going for the drinks the couple brought from their café. Sana goes in after Momo, hands still not letting go of Mina. “Thanks for helping us get the tickets.” Sana tells them when they finally get to their seats.

“No problem, thanks for coming to support our kid.” Nayeon beams back, making eye contact with Mina and nodding at her with a grateful smile. “Now that you guys are here, you are obligated to hold this.” She starts pulling out more foam hands and inflatable clappers, giving them out to the three newcomers. “No one is allowed to go home without a hoarse throat today!”

It seems like Mina’s worries are all for nought because there’s no pointed glares and strong words directed at her, only gentle and sympathetic smiles. Before they can exchange any more words, the emcee talks animatedly into the mic, introducing the next match. Chaeyoung’s opponent comes out first, screaming and punching her fist into the air as she looks around the arena, trying to hype the crowd.

“And next, in the red corner, we have Son Chaeyoung!”

Chaeyoung steps out, rotating her shoulders as she stands on the stage as required, letting the reporters take their shots. After a few seconds, Jihyo nudges her from behind, signalling that she can walk off now. She hears Nayeon’s screams from here, but she doesn’t turn to look at them, not wanting to get distracted. There’s no room for error in this match, not when she can lose her hearing if anything goes wrong. She reaches the red corner, and the referee signals for her to take off her jacket. She takes it off and passes it to Dahyun, who takes it and gives her a fist bump. Looking at Jihyo, the coach has her arms crossed, still looking like she’s not sure if she’s making the right choice to let Chaeyoung go into the octagon again.

“Stop with that look and give me some actual advice.” Chaeyoung jokes, rotating her wrists.

Jihyo sighs, knowing that Chaeyoung is very stubborn, and there’s nothing she can do to change anything now. Immediately tuning into coach mode, her eyes take on a steely gaze, one that screams “no funny business or else”. “Set your own pace, don’t be affected by the pace of her attacks. She’s taller than you so try to keep a distance, read her moves and counterattack instead of going in to attack first.”

Chaeyoung nods, committing Jihyo’s words to memory. Satisfied, Jihyo holds out her mouthpiece, and she takes it, adjusting it to make sure it feels snugly in . The coach gives her one last pat on the back, and the little fighter is off, climbing the steps up into the octagon. She finally sees her opponent on the other side of the octagon. She has been reviewing and watching her opponent’s past matches for the past few days, so she knows that her opponent is tall, but she didn’t know she was THIS tall. It’s almost like a David VS Goliath match, and Chaeyoung swallows her fear, because David never gives up.

They bump gloves, and the bell rings them off. Both competitors send a few punches ahead, trying to test the waters. But it is Goliath who steps closer to send the first offensive attack, and Chaeyoung barely manages to parry the punch away. They start exchanging blows, kicking and punching each other, the skills of both fighters being pretty on par with each other. Chaeyoung makes a full swing at Goliath, but the giant dodges it quickly, sending a jab to her ribs area which knocks the wind out of Chaeyoung, causing her to drop her defensive position slightly. Goliath takes the chance to send a punch right to Chaeyoung’s face, before following up with a kick that causes her to stumble a little. But she catches herself before she falls to the floor completely, and paddles further away from Goliath, putting some distance between them so that she can recover from the hits.

Goliath follows closely, not going to let her go so easily. She swings her left hand upwards a little before jabbing her right hand out, nearly hitting Chaeyoung if it’s not because she was fast enough to back paddle away. The giant does the same motion again, and the cub realizes that this habit of her opponent will be to her advantage as she will be able to foresee if a punch is coming. The giant lifts her left hand a little again, and Chaeyoung sees it and immediately puts her left arm against her face, successfully blocking the right punch from the giant. In a split second, Chaeyoung sees her chance as Goliath has her guard down because she’s too focused on attacking, and she takes the chance and closes the distance, sending her right knee to the giant’s face. Goliath falls onto the floor out cold, and blood begins to flow out from her nose.

The referee immediately steps in, checking on the player on the floor. With a wave of his hands, he confirms that it’s a KO. Walking over to Chaeyoung, he holds her hand up, declaring her as the winner of the match.

Mina burst into tears upon hearing the announcement of Chaeyoung winning the match. She barely watched a second of it, screwing her eyes shut the moment she saw Chaeyoung took the first hit. But it only made things worse, because she could rely on the grunts of pain from the two competitors and the commentator’s comments to imagine what is happening. It sounded like her sunshine was going to lose the match, but thankfully, she managed to turn things around.

Sana squeezes her hand, causing her to finally open her eyes. The girl smiles gently at her, and Momo leans over, wiping her tears away. Mina takes deep breaths to stabilize her breathing, nodding to show that she’s okay now. It’s only now that she looks up, causing her to gasp. The whole of the left side of her sunshine’s face is covered in blood, and she can see the worry in Jihyo and Dahyun’s eyes from here. The three start to walk towards the waiting rooms, and Mina’s eyes just trails after them, unable to let Chaeyoung out of her sight.

“Go.” Momo’s voice wakes her up from her reverie. She turns to see the 4 older girls staring at her with encouraging smiles, and that gives her the courage she needs. She springs up from her seat, hurrying down the steps and towards the waiting rooms. The 4 ‘parents’ just smile as they watch Mina run off. Ah, young love.

--

“Jesus, you are going to bleed to your death!” Dahyun exclaims, the white towel Chaeyoung is holding against her forehead looking more red than white. “Where’s the medics?!”  

“Dubs, stop exaggerating.” Chaeyoung lets out a chuckle at how exaggerated her friend is. She’s pressing a white towel against the wound on her forehead, the towel totally blocking her view, but she can imagine Dahyun’s animated expression on her face. It does seem like it’s a pretty serious wound though, seeing how her blood is all over her clothes and pants, but she doesn’t feel the pain yet, her body still pumping with adrenaline.

Jihyo is standing at the door of their waiting room, alternating between looking into the room and out of the room for any medics. She doesn’t spot any of the medics, but she sees the girl running towards them and she knows the girl can do the job just fine, or even better than the medics on duty here. “Over here!” She calls out to the girl, and waves her over.

Dahyun turns to the door at their coach’s voice, expecting to see some unknown medic, but she’s pleasantly surprised to see the familiar girl standing at the door. Smiling, she greets the girl with a nod of her head before announcing to the little fighter, “Your medic’s here.”

Chaeyoung moves the towel away from her eyes and she immediately freezes. Because standing beside Jihyo and Dahyun is another person who is very familiar, so familiar that it hurts to see her standing right in front of her like this. Sensing that the two needs some alone time, Jihyo clears . “We will leave you guys to it.”

Chaeyoung can only stare at her favourite girl in the world, too afraid to even blink, afraid that she will be gone the moment she does. But Mina doesn’t disappear, just walks closer to her, her hand going around Chaeyoung’s wrist gently to move it away so that she can look at the cut on her forehead. It’s a pretty wide cut, so she will need stitches. They don’t exchange words, Mina just working quietly while Chaeyoung stares at the girl in front of her, her gaze never leaving her.

The medical student finishes off by taping a piece of gauze over Chaeyoung’s wound. She has finished what she came to do, but she can’t find it in herself to step away from the fighter. Her fingers continue to move absentmindedly against the perimeter of the gauze, pretending that she’s not done yet, so that she can remain close to her sunshine, even if it’s like this, even if it’s only for a few more seconds. Her fingers slowly trail down to Chaeyoung’s jaw, cupping it gently, and she can feel the fighter snuggling into her palms. She finally brings herself to make eye contact with the wide eyes that has been on her the whole time she’s in the room, and she can see the longing that mirrors what she’s feeling inside.

They shouldn’t be doing this, they have already said goodbye, they shouldn’t make this harder for each other by making things ambiguous, dragging it out like this. But it’s as if they are two opposite poles of a magnet, unable to stay away from each other. Mina clears , trying to level her trembling voice so that the other girl doesn’t know how much she wants to just embrace her and never let go. “Try not to get the dressing wet when you bathe, change the dressing every few hours. If you feel pain or if there’s any abnormal discharge, go to a hospital immediately.”

Chaeyoung doesn’t speak, just looks at her longingly and before she can stop herself, she finds herself leaning in to peck Chaeyoung lightly on her forehead where the gauze is. Stepping back immediately after realizing what she did, she runs out of the room before Chaeyoung can respond, because she won’t be able to control herself if she stays in there any second longer.

Chaeyoung just watches as Mina runs out, not doing anything, can’t do anything to stop her. She just finished a MMA match, and has wounds everywhere, but it doesn’t even hurt as much as seeing Mina run away from her like this. She gazes her fingers gently across the gauze on her head, still feeling the shadow of Mina’s kiss. She thought she’s cool with the break up already, but seeing Mina again just makes her realize she’s not. Mina has always been in the back of her mind, and always the owner of her heart, and that won’t change, not now, not ever.

--

“Momo, for the last time, I’m not doing it.” Mina sighs exasperatedly, why does Momo not understand? The older girl has been asking her to help Chaeyoung remove her stitches, but she’s adamant not to meet Chaeyoung again. She’s been trying so hard to make herself forget about the little fighter, but all it takes is that one meeting to bring her back to square one. It feels like she’s running on a treadmill; she’s been running for so long, but she’s still stuck in the same spot with no progress. She hates it, hates how she doesn’t have control over her feelings when it comes to the fighter.

“Are you going to let her go to some subpar doctor and let them screw up her beautiful face?” Momo tries to reason, not giving up.

“It’s just removing stitches, anyone with basic medical training will not screw up.” Mina deadpans. “If you are so worried, I can book an appointment for her at Myeongjeong. We are the top hospital in the whole of Korea, only the best doctors work there.”

Momo pouts, unable to refute Mina’s words. But it’s Sana’s turn to pipe up. “Yeah Momo, Myeongjeong is the best hospital in Korea, not only for their medical skills, but also the visuals of their doctors! The Head of Emergency Medicine is known as a reincarnation of Aphrodite. What’s her name, oh! Bae Irene, isn’t it?”

Sana nudges her girlfriend, who immediately gets the hint. “Oh yes! I heard she’s single too! Man, she will totally be charmed by our little Chaeyoungie.” Momo says as she glances slightly at Mina. The younger girl doesn’t seem to be affected by their words, eyes still glued to the book in front of her.

Momo deflates and lies on Mina’s mattress, but Sana sees past Mina’s façade, smiling as she lies on Momo, snuggling into the crook of her neck. Momo’s arms go around her like clockwork, and she holds up three fingers to Momo, folding them one by one, like she’s counting off the seconds. By the time she folds all her fingers, Mina throws her pen on the table, stands up and huffs angrily before stomping out of the room. They giggle and high five each other. Bingo.

--

Mina is lost in her thoughts as she watches the scenery go by. She’s in Jaekyung’s car, the guy giving her a ride to the ballet studio from her school, but her mind is far from here. She will be going to meet Chaeyoung later to help her remove her stitches, and that’s all she can think about. She doesn’t realize Jaekyung is talking to her until he calls out for her again.

“Sorry, what did you say?”

Jaekyung smiles, repeating his question again. “I asked if you are tired, you look very out of it.”

“Yeah I’m fine, just thinking about the assignment I have to submit by tomorrow.” Mina lies.

Jaekyung stretches out to hold her hand, and she resists the urge to pull away. “Take it easy, you don’t have to be so hard on yourself.”

“I will try, but I have to do better, I have to inherit the hospital next time after all.”

“Don’t worry, when we get married next time, I will take over the hospital, you don’t have to worry about a thing. You can just go shopping and have high tea with your friends.” Jaekyung tells her, and this finally causes her to look at him.

“I’m sorry?” Mina asks in disbelief. Firstly, who said she’s going to marry him? Secondly, that is such a stereotypical belief that all girls like shopping; she doesn’t even like shopping, she would rather stay at home and play Smash Bros on her Switch.

Jaekyung chuckles, like he doesn’t understand why Mina is having such a huge reaction. “I will take care of Myeongjeong, you don’t have to do a thing. You just have to accompany me to gatherings, take care of our kids, go out for high tea with the other ladies when you are free.”

She doesn’t give two hoots about the hospital, but what she cannot stand is how he just sees her as a trophy, to bring around and show off with no real value. She’s a smart, independent woman, and if he’s unable to understand that, he doesn’t deserve to be by her side. Shrugging off his hand, Mina turns and look out of the window again, showing her displeasure at his words.

“What’s wrong?” Jaekyung asks.

“Please respect me as a human who is equal to you, and not as a trophy that you can show off.” Mina tells him without mincing her words. If she has one pet peeve, it’s misogynistic men.

“Of course I respect you!” He frowns, “I’m just saying I can take care of the hospital for you so that you don’t have to work so hard now.”

“That’s not how I understand it, it seems like you would rather I stay at home and be a trophy wife.”

“Of course not, I’m just saying you can go out and enjoy without having to work or worry about money, isn’t that good?”

“Then why don’t you do that while I work then?”

Jaekyung laughs like Mina just said a laughable thing. “How can I? A man has to provide for the family.”

Mina feels sick to her stomach hearing his words, and thankfully, the car pulled up into the parking lot of the dance studio so that she doesn’t have to be in the same space as this misogynistic pig any longer. But she has to make it clear to him, because she is never going to be able to stay beside someone who doesn’t respect her as an equal.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think we should meet any longer.” Mina looks up at him, eyes steely. She let him stay around because he was nice, but it’s clearly not the case. Now she’s beginning to trust Momo and Sana’s words, that he’s not as he seems. “I cannot, and will not be the ‘trophy wife’ you want. I’m sure you will find someone else willing to fill that spot. Thank you for the ride.”

Mina gets off the car, but Jaekyung also rushes down the car, grabbing onto her. “Mina, if it’s because of what I said, I apologize. It’s just words, they don’t really mean anything.”

She flings off his hold. “You are wrong. Your words tell what kind of person you are, and it just revealed what a misogynistic, patriarchal you are. I wish you all the best in your future, and I hope that this is the last time we meet.”

But he doesn’t budge, grabbing onto her arms again. “Look, I’m so sorry, can you at least give me a chance to explain myself?”

“Let go of me!” Mina struggles against his grip, unable to get out as easily as the previous time.

“HEY!” A voice pipes out from a distance, gathering the couple’s attention. She just came out to throw the trash, but was met with this scene in front of her. Chaeyoung throws the bag of trash into the bin, but her eyes don’t leave the couple. “She said to let her go, didn’t she?”

“I’m talking to my girlfriend here, it’s none of your business.” Jaekyung snarls, letting go of one of his hands, but the other is still gripping onto Mina’s wrist tightly.

“Well, that’s no way to treat your girlfriend.” Chaeyoung frowns, ignoring her heartache at his words, choosing instead to focus on his bad attitude. This is the guy that’s hanging around Mina? A guy that thinks it’s okay to manhandle a girl just because it’s his ‘girlfriend’? She stops in front of them, and sees that the whole of Mina’s wrist is red, a sign of her struggle against him. She resists the urge to punch him in the face there and then.

Mina had let him parade her around as his girlfriend because she didn’t want to correct him during those social gatherings and make it awkward, but now that they are here with only the three of them, there’s no need to be polite anymore. She twists her arm around, and he lets her go this time, not wanting to make a scene now that they have audience present. “I was never your girlfriend. We didn’t make things official.”

Chaeyoung heaves a sigh of relief internally, hoping that it’s not obvious. Thankfully, Mina isn’t dating this douche. With Mina’s words, she gains confidence, her hand going around Mina’s red wrist gently, not wanting to hurt her more, before pulling the med student slightly behind her. “You heard her.”

Sensing that this is a lost battle, Jaekyung retreats. “Mina, let’s talk again next time.” Sending one last glare to the fighter, he gets into his car, veering off.

Chaeyoung watches his car leave the parking lot before she turns to look at Mina. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Mina replies, but still looks a little shaken from the incident. The fighter looks down, and sees the thin wrist that she is holding is all red from the struggle just now. Anger and hurt flows through her immediately; angry that he could be rough with Mina, hurt that Mina is in pain. She lets go, not wanting to make the abrasion worse. “You are still early for your ballet class, right? Come with me back to the gym, I will apply some medicine for your wrists.”

“I actually came earlier to help you remove your stitches.” Mina tells her, and Chaeyoung chuckles. “Then it works out just fine.”

--

a/n: probably two/three more chapters to the end.