Flashing Lights

"Oppa, what are you doing here?!" Minji demanded as she whirled around in her dressing room chair and nearly knocked over several things in doing so.

Catapulting from her position she threw her arms around the (now) red-haired man before her and enveloped him in a bone-crushing embrace.

"Ah, Minji-ah, you're going to kill me," Jiyong complained as he pulled his girlfriend slightly back and pressed a warm kiss to her lips, "I came to see you."

"Why don't I believe you?" Minji said stubbornly as she folded her arms across her chest and looked up at him, "You have a scheduled event here, don't you?"

"No!" Jiyong defended abruptly as he held his hands in the air, "I have off for the next two weeks until the concert in Osaka."

"So you really came to see me?" Minji asked curiously with a small smile.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I come to see my girlfriend when I had off?" Jiyong retorted with a small pout.

"It's not that...." Minji said with a sigh, "You've just been so busy lately."

"I know," Jiyong relented as he pulled her against his chest.

"And we haven't been," Minji huffed up at him.

"You will be. The album will come out soon, right?"

"Who knows," Minji said with a shrug, "It keeps getting pushed back. The fans probably hate us by now."

"You and I both know that's not true."

"Well I wouldn't blame them if they were frustrated. After all, we announced a new release more than 3 times now and - ten months later we still have nothing to show for it."

"What about those two tracks with Will.i.am?"

"Those don't count!" Minji snapped, "A - they ....and B - they weren't 2NE1 songs so much as Bom and CL's songs."

"Minji....it's just because they want to use them to market 2NE1's English releases..."

"My English is improving!" Minji whined.

"I know," Jiyong agreed, "But maybe they felt--"

"It's bull, and everyone can see that."

"You'll have you're day," Jiyong promised as he ran a hand through her hair, "When are you guys performing?"

"Not until 2.....I don't know what the point is though. It's the same recycled material....I'm sure people would rather hear something new."

"Don't be so negative about it," Jiyong admonished, "You love performing...even if it's the same material."

"I know...." Minji agreed, "I just want to move forward."

"Soon," Jiyong said again, "Do you want to grab lunch before your performance?"

"Alright," Minji agreed with a smile.

"So how's the tour going?" Minji asked as she sat across from Jiyong in the small cafe and nibbled on her food. Luckily the cafe was mostly empty and it was in such an obscure part of the area that no one would even notice them.

"It's going well. It's a lot of work," Jiyong remarked as he took a sip of his drink, "But I love it."

"I heard your other girlfriend came to visit you during the last performance," Minji teased.

Jiyong looked confused for a moment before realization hit him and he scowled, "It's not like that! Seungri was helping out because of my injury."

"I'm just teasing," Minji said with a small smile, "Although I did see the fan pictures of that hug..."

"Aigo...." Jiyong scowled again, "Fans are going to start getting the wrong idea."

"It's pretty cute," Minji nodded to herself.

"That's easy for you to say....you don't--"

Jiyong was cut off by a group of girls shrieking wildly and pointing at the couple through the glass, "!" he cursed loudly as he saw the fan girls.

"Not good....not good," Minji choked out as she froze in shock.

"Hurry....maybe we can go out the back way before they take pic--" Jiyong was cut off again as the flashes started going off towards the couple, "tures...." he finished lamely.

"What are we going to do?" Minji demanded as she began packing her belongings.

"Where are you going?" Jiyong demanded in a panicked daze, "You can't just leave me here."

"I can't stay with you!" Minji retorted, near-hysterics, "What will they think!!?"

"It's too late, Mingki.....just stay!" Jiyong demanded as he placed his hand over hers and then let out a frustrated sigh as more flashes went off at that along with more shrieking.

What the hell were they going to do now?

"Do you two have any idea how irresponsible this is?" YG demanded as he sat across from the couple before him at his desk.

"I--" Minji began but YG held his hand up, effectively cutting her off.

"Do your group members even know?" YG asked them seriously and watched as both Jiyong and Minji shook their heads slowly.

"I'm sure they do now...." YG mumbled as he looked at his computer screen, "This is all over the Internet....all over the news."

"I'm sorry...this is my faul--"

"Don't you think I know that, Jiyong?" YG snapped and Jiyong bowed his head silently.

After several minutes of tense silence, YG finally spoke again, "Oh well," he said simply, causing the couple before him to snap their gaze towards him in stunned shock.

"Oh well?" Jiyong questioned incredulously.

"Oh well," YG confirmed with a shrug, "There's nothing we can do about it now. What's done is done. You two will have to hold a press conference, but before that you will have to tell your members and then--"

"Wait a damn minute," Minji snapped, shocking both Jiyong and YG, "What do you mean? Can't we just deny everything and say we're good friends?"

"That's not possible, and you know it," YG retorted, "There are pictures....everywhere."

"So?" Minji urged, "It's not like people would actually believe that Jiyong is dating me. If we refuted the rumors quickly, I'm sure they would believe us."

"Why do you say that?" Jiyong demanded in annoyance.

"Let's be honest, Jiyong......I'm not exactly--"

"Shut up," Jiyong snapped loudly and then softened at Minji's expression, "We've already been over this Mingki," he added quietly before squeezing her hand.

"It's obvious that you two have a lot of affection towards each other," YG said as he observed the couple, "How long has this been going on?"

"Does it matter?" Minji asked exasperatedly and then sighed at his look, "A year."

"A year!? How did I not know about this? How did your members not know about this?"

"Up until recently we've been very careful," Jiyong answered, "Recently....we've been getting too comfortable."

"Too lazy," Minji added with a shake of her head.

"I don't know how this is possible....Jiyong, you have been extraordinarily busy the past few months."

"Skype....phones...texting.....calling....small vacations," Jiyong said with a shrug, "Technology makes it easier now days."

YG sighed at that, "Here's what we'll do--"

Before he could explain himself, a loud crashing noise sounded the arrival of the members of 2NE1 and Big Bang as they all but fell into YG's office.

"Is it true?!!" Bom demanded, being the first one to recover as she practically kicked Top in the head to dart over to Minji's side. Her question was quickly answered, however, when she saw the couple's linked hands before her, "Oh my god....it's true."

"Noona....please get off of me," came Seungri's irritated voice as he gently shoved Dara out of the way and went to stand next to Bom. The other members slowly gathered around the couple as well.

"Minji why didn't you tell us?" CL demanded at the same time that Seungri asked Jiyong the same question.

"Exactly because of this," Minji snapped, "I didn't want to deal with this giant fiasco."

"Well now you have to deal with a much bigger one," CL retorted.

"We will deal with it," YG demanded sharply, and the chatter in the room immediately ceased, "By holding a press conference. Hopefully VIPs and Black Jacks will under--"

"They won't!" CL snapped as she threw her hands into the air, "This will deal a huge blow to our groups' popularity. How could you two be so irresponsible?"

"I have to agree," Youngbae said with a dark scowl as he looked over and met the sad gaze of his long-time friend, "This is extremely irresponsible."

After that, a slew of similar comments were thrown towards the couple before Minji bolted from her seat, "Just shut up!" she snapped loudly, causing the room to fall into silence, "I can't take this anymore....Jiyong....I'm sorry."

"Minji....where are you going?" Jiyong demanded as his girlfriend bolted from the room.

"Not your best decision, Minji," the woman in question scolded herself as she eyed the remaining $200 on the table before her.

She had $200 left of the $20,000 she had taken out of her bank account that day. How she had gotten away with that was a feat in and of itself, but she hadn't had contact with anyone in the past 6 months.

For some reason, she thought she could at least survive a year on $20,000 but that was a lot harder than it seemed. Hotels - and food - were expensive.

She knew that leaving would hurt her friends, but they would get over it. She also knew it would hurt her company, and her group....but they would also get over it. The person she was the most upset about hurting, however, was Jiyong.

She knew this wasn't fair to him. She had made the decision in a split second and went with it because she couldn't stand all the drama and she didn't want to deal with the fallout from those pictures.

At first, her decision had made things worse. People were demanding answers from YGE and what had ended up happening was what Minji had originally suggested. YGE refuted the rumors of the duo dating and eventually the public had started to accept that. It helped that Minji believed herself to be average looking and most netizens agreed with her sentiments.  They didn't believe that the great G-Dragon would ever date someone as plain as her.

Minji had been a coward. She hadn't even her phone since that day, because she was too afraid to see or listen to the messages she had received. She had all but hidden herself away in a hotel in Busan, living on the money she had taken out. She had managed to keep a low profile since she left.

Eventually the scandal had died down and it even seemed that the public had taken a higher interest in 2NE1's comeback. Somehow the scandal had created positive publicity for both 2NE1 and Big Bang.

It seemed that no one knew that Minji had taken off, however, as YG never reported anything on it. They were probably trying to save the company from yet another scandal.

Sighing as she looked down at the $200 dollars she had left - the $200 that would only just cover another night at this hotel, and maybe one more hot meal - Minji knew she would have to return.

It was either that or her mom would probably hunt her down as she as she withdrew more money from the bank. After all, her mother still controlled her assets and she would be able to see the last location that Minji had withdrawn money from.

Sighing again, Minji felt the familiar bubble of nausea rise in her stomach and she quickly deposited the contents of her lunch in the hotel bathroom before she stared at the object right next to her purse: her cell phone.

Taking a deep breath, Minji hit the power button 'on' as she nervously waited for her phone to light up.

As soon as it did, Minji was both surprised - and not surprised - to see that she had well over a hundred missed calls and even more texts.

In doing a quick summary of the calls and texts, she could see that most of them were from Jiyong, followed by her mom and then YGE.

Sighing as she readied herself to plow through the texts, Minji was startled when her phone started to go off.

Looking down at the screen, she saw Jiyong's name flash across it.

Biting on her lips hard, Minji took another deep breath. If she ignored the call, then he would know he was ignoring her....especially since his calls had probably been going straight to her voicemail over the past 6 months as her device had been turned off.

Lifting the phone shakily to her ear, Minji prepared herself mentally as she answered his call.

"Mingkki? Are you there?" came a desperate voice over the line before Minji could even say 'Hello?'.

"I'm here," Minji replied in a small voice that was rough from lack of usage.

"Where the hell are you?" Jiyong demanded sharply, "Why haven't you answered my calls? I've been worried sick about you....and your mom too. What makes you think you can just take off like that? We could have fixed things easily, Minji-ah. You need to come home. I need you. We all need you," Jiyong said breathlessly and Minji could feel tears sliding down her cheeks, "Where are you? I can come pick you up, it doesn't matter if it's far."

"Jiyong..." Minji started, her voice overcome with emotion.

"I don't mind....you know that. I'll come to you and we can sort all of this out. I'm not mad, I'm just upset because I've missed you."

"Ji...." Minji said a bit louder and listened as Jiyong stopped speaking, "I don't think it's a good idea if you come here."

"Why not?" Jiyong demanded and Minji could tell he was getting frustrated.

"Because YGE already killed the rumors and it's not--"

" the rumors," Jiyong snapped, causing Minji's eyes to widen, "Mingkki, I don't care anymore. My heart has been broken....I need you.....I miss you...." Minji could hear him sigh breathlessly and she could almost imagine the broken look on his face, "I love you."

"I love you too," Minji whispered back into the phone, "What are we going to do?"

"Whatever we want," Jiyong answered, "It's our lives, not anyone else's."

"But the fans...."

"Will understand in time," Jiyong retorted firmly.

"You've thought about this a lot," Minji responded. It was more of a statement than a question.

"I have," Jiyong said with resolution in his voice, "You want the same things, right?"

"Of course," Minji nodded, even though he couldn't see it, "But the timing..."

"Who cares? I'm not saying we should go overboard with PDA but I don't think we need to hide our relationship anymore either."

"What about YG?"

"I've already spoken to him, Mingkki, he knows how I feel," Jiyong whispered.

"And?" Minji prodded, dry.

"And he supports it," Jiyong affirmed and Minji could practically feel his smile through the phone, "Where are you?"

"In Busan," Minji confessed with a smile.

"In Busan?! You couldn't even escape somewhere exciting?" Jiyong teased with a laugh.

"I'm not fluent in any other language, remember? It's not like I could just go wherever," Minji scolded.

"I'm coming to get you," Jiyong said firmly and Minji could feel her heart beat rapidly, "I'm coming to take you home."