Keiba turned around to look at him. “’Lovely’?”

“Yeah.”  Min said, staring into her face. “Lovely.”

The music had moved on to another slow song, but neither of them was dancing anymore. He gently touched her jaw, her skin with his thumb as he slowly leaned in—

“Min-Kyung!” Said an excited voice, startling them both. “Man, it’s been a while!”

Keiba blinked the haziness away from her gaze and looked behind Min at the person who’d interrupted. Min, who was at once disappointed and annoyed, was prepared to give the intruder a piece of his mind until he saw who it was. His scowl quickly morphed into an excited grin.

“Jay!” He slapped hands with his friend and pulled him into a bro-hug. “Long time no see!”

“Dude, I know.” He looked at Keiba as he and Min separated. “And who’s this?”

“This is Keiba. Keiba, this is Jay.”

“Hey, girl. Wassup?”

She smiled at the shorter, but extremely attractive Korean man and shook his offered hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too.” Jay commented when they released each other, “Damn girl you give good handshakes.”

She wondered if she should take that a certain kind of way, but decided not to. Jay seemed like a nice guy. “Thanks.”

“So, what’ve you been doing?” Min queried.

 “Oh you know. Same old, same old. Been busy with concerts and AOM and fan-meetings and such. Haven’t had time for anything. Not even my girl.”

“You got a girl? What? Why didn’t you tell me, man?”

“Never came up.” He grinned. “You’ll meet her today though. And woo, man. She’s really something.”

Keiba cleared to get the boys’ attention. “Min, listen, I’m gonna go to the bathroom ‘kay? I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.”

Jay touched her arm before she could start walking away. “Hey, Keiba.”

“Yeah?”

“My girl went in there a few minutes ago to check her makeup. Could you check on her? It’s been a while.”

Well, that’s not awkward. “Sure.”

“Thanks. Her name’s Nemera.”

As she walked off, Min and Jay decided to head over to the wall by the entrance as it was the least crowded area of the club. They leaned their backs against the brick.

“Jay, I still can’t believe you didn’t tell me about your girl.” Min said.

“Sorry, Min. We try not to put it out there too much. Fans can get pretty crazy, you know?”

“Yeah, I understand.”

“Yeah...” Jay looked sad for a moment, but then he brightened up. “So what about you, Min? How’ve things been going with Sun-Hee?”

Min shook his head and sighed.

“Uh oh. Whassup? What happened?”

“She was dating Ricky behind my back.”

“No.” Min nodded. “Yo, that’s some disrespectful for real. I’m sorry to hear that, man.”

Min shrugged “I knew about it before we officially broke up and I spent most of that time just being angry. But now…” he shrugged. “I guess she didn’t mean as much to me as I thought she did.”

“Oh yeah?” Jay smiled wryly. He nodded in the direction of the women’s restroom and waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “I bet Keiba helped you get over her.”

The corner of Min’s mouth lifted in a tiny grin, but he would neither confirm nor deny his statement.

 “So is she your future girl?”

“Maybe.” Min surprised himself by saying. “We seem to be heading in that direction anyway.”

“That’s good. That’s real good. I’m happy for you, man. She seems like a nice girl.”

“She is. And thanks. That means a lot coming from you.”

“Mhm. That’s ‘cause I’m special.”

Min rolled his eyes. “Oh, you’re special alright.”

Jay smiled crookedly. “You know, my girl’s black too.”

Min looked at Jay with wide eyes. “What? No. You’re bullting me.”

“No from any bull here, bro.”

“You’re serious?”

“As a heart attack.”

“I didn’t think you’d be into black girls.”

“Well, I could say the same about you.”

Min laughed. “Touché.”

~*~*~

Keiba shimmied through the crowd (after all, it’s much more fun to dance through rather than push through) to get to the bathroom. She didn’t really have to go; she just wanted to give Min some time to catch up with his friend, but she figured a quick hair-check wouldn’t hurt.

Just as she was about to go through the door, one girl rushed out, knocking into her shoulder hard as she went.

“Ouch.” Keiba glared after her, wondering what that had been about.

 She pushed through the door and came to the immediate sight of one girl cornered against the wall with four other girls surrounding her: one had short pink hair; one had blue highlighted pigtails; one was wearing a bright red strip of cloth for a dress (and no underwear, Keiba could tell); and one had her orange-blonde hair up in a ballerina bun. They were shouting at the girl in an odd mixture of English and another language Keiba couldn’t identify, and they were taking their turns hitting her, not giving her the chance to fight back.

Memories Keiba had from being in similar situations quickly flashed through her mind’s eye. The next thing she knew, she was rushing forward and grabbing Pigtails by the collar of her shirt. She yanked her backward and she tripped over Keiba’s strategically placed foot. She fell on her back with enough force to stun her, but only for a little while.

Keiba balled her fist and cracked Pinkie across the face when she looked over to see what had happened to her friend. Pinkie screamed and grabbed her nose. She shouted something in whatever language they spoke, and tried to tackle Keiba, but being so small she wasn’t able to do much more than push her into one of the stalls.

Keiba’s interference left the girl to face the Ballerina and the Floozy alone, but that was much easier for her to deal with. So while Keiba and Pinkie disappeared into the stall, the girl tackled Ballerina into the wall of the bathroom as hard as she could and punched her jaw. Her fist throbbed, but the pain only fueled her anger. She reeled back for another punch, but was yanked back by her hair.

As soon as Keiba’s back hit the wall she rained an assault on Pinkie’s back with her fists and elbows and slammed the girl into either side of the stall a couple of times before she shoved her away. Pinkie lost her footing and fell in the space between the porcelain sinks, soundly knocking her head against the wall.

Floozy pulled the girl around and shoved her into the door of the handicapped stall. When she tried to rush her, Floozy kicked the girl in the stomach and pushed her back into the door with a loud thud. The girl grunted in pain, wrapping her arms around her stomach as Floozy came after her again.

When Keiba stepped out of the stall, Pigtails came out of nowhere and threw her weight at Keiba. They both fell to the ground with Pigtails on top, but she wouldn’t have the upper hand for long. Keiba grabbed Pigtails’ shoulders and rolled, switching their positions. The sharp nails of one of Pigtails’ flailing hands scratched across Keiba’s face, but the pain was a minor distraction.

Floozy pulled her foot back, but the girl surprised her by punching her in the stomach. When she doubled over, coughing painfully, the girl grabbed a handful of Floozy’s hair and lifted her face back up to eye-level. She then began to beat her into oblivion: throwing punch after punch, hitting her face every time.

Keiba swung her fists wildly, getting several good hits in before Pinkie started to cover her face with her arms. When that started to happen, Keiba stood up off of her. She watched as Pigtails struggled to her feet like a baby giraffe learning to walk for the first time, and brought her fists up, ready for more action.

The girl finally stopped her assault once Floozy had fallen to her knees, groaning in pain. She started to crawl away, giving the girl the very unwanted view of her pale, bare .

Pinkie yelled something, getting uneasily to her feet. Keiba, who of course had no idea what was said, interpreted it as: “Guys, let’s get the out of here before these black es kill us!” She didn’t think her translation was very far off.

Pigtails hesitated stupidly. She had a knot the size of a golf ball at the side of her head, but she looked like she wanted to charge at Keiba again. The -kicking she’d just received must’ve killed most of her brain cells.

“Lin!” Pinkie barked at her, helping Ballerina to her feet.

Pigtails spat unattractively at Keiba and the girl before she went over to Floozy and struggled to drag her out of the bathroom after their friends. When the door was shut behind them, the girl and Keiba relaxed.

“Hey, thanks girl. I owe you one.” She said, wiping blood from .

“Don’t worry about it.” Keiba replied.

“No seriously. It’s not every person that would help someone in my position like you did. Especially not a girl.” She remarked referring to the girl that had rushed out just before Keiba had come in.

“That’s true.” Keiba had to agree, for she too had firsthand experience. “It’s just... I really hate bullies.”

“Yeah I can tell.” The girl grinned, revealing blood-stained teeth. “I’m Nemera.”

Keiba’s eyebrows rose in surprise. Jay’s girlfriend was black? Huh, that was interesting. It wasn’t a pairing you see every day—especially not with a girl that was as thick as Keiba is. But even so, Nemera was really pretty—even with the bruises and scratches on her face.

“What?” She snapped, instantly on guard when Keiba didn’t say anything.

“Sorry.” Keiba replied quickly. “It’s just that Jay asked me to check on you.”

“Oh.” She relaxed and a smile replaced her frown. “He always seems to know when I need help.” She said, mostly to herself.

Keiba smiled too. “I’m Keiba.”

“That’s a cool name.” Nemera went to the sink. “It means ‘sunrise’ you know.” She the faucet.

Keiba tilted her head as Nemera washed her face. “Does it? How do you know?” She walked to the paper towel dispenser and got a couple.

“I like to write.” She replied. She filled with water, swished it around, and spat it back out pink-tinted. “I’ve come across your name once or twice looking for a name for one of my characters.” She explained. Keiba handed her the paper towels and Nemera accepted them with a grateful nod.

“Oh. Okay, so what does ‘Nemera’ mean?”

“’Leopard’.”

She laughed. “That’s pretty cool.”

“Thanks. I think so too. And by the way,” she pointed to her cheek. “You’re bleeding.”

“I am?” Keiba quickly looked in the mirror above the sink beside Nemera’s and examined her face. Indeed, there were two cuts slanting diagonally across her cheekbone. Blood had slid down her cheek and was starting to drip off of her chin. There were one or two red splotches on the shoulder of her shirt. She sighed and went to get some more paper towels.

“Cold water is good for removing bloodstains.” Nemera offered. She had some bloodstains on her too, but the coloring of her shirt made it difficult to see.

“Is it? Huh. Thanks for the tip.”

“No problem. So how do you know Jay?” Nemera asked.

“I don’t.” She folded the towel into a small rectangle and dampened it with water from the faucet. I just met him. My friend Min-Kyung introduced us a minute before I walked in here.” She explained, wiping blood from her skin.

“Oh okay. Yeah, Jay mentioned him on our way here.”

“Mm. I bet he did.” Keiba smiled.

Nemera sighed as she looked at her face in the mirror. “Ugh. I wish I wore makeup so I could cover some of this up.”

“Your face isn’t that bad.” She told her, rubbing another dampened paper towel against her shoulder in an attempt to get the blood out of her shirt. “Plus the club is pretty dark so no one will notice if they don’t look right at you.”

“He will though.” Nemera said, thinking of Jay. “He’ll notice right away…”

Keiba watched Nemera curiously. She was less concerned about the damage to her face than she was for Jay’s reaction to it? The average girl would react differently.

She asked, “So why were those girls cornering you anyway?”

“Oh,” Nemera smiled sadly. “Because I’m the famous Jay Park’s girlfriend.”

“So they were his fans?”

She nodded. “His crazy fans.”

“Oh… I’m sorry this happened, Nemera.”

She waved that away. “Don’t feel too bad, Keiba. I can deal with it because I know Jay needs me to.”

Keiba frowned in concern. “He does?”

She nodded. “Yeah. I’m not saying that he puts me up to it, and it’s not that our relationship is dysfunctional and that all this unnecessary drama gets either of us off. It’s just… I don’t want to leave his side. I’d do just about anything to stay by him. And if that means dealing with his ed up fans, I’ll do it. Cliché as that sounds…”

“Wow.” Keiba looked at her in awe. “I don’t think it’s cliché at all. Actually, I think it’s beautiful. You’re really strong, Nemera.”

She smiled in a sad way that said, “I’m not, but thanks for thinking so”.

“How long have you and Jay been together?” Keiba asked.

“We’ve known each other about eight or nine months, and we started going out a little while ago. But I don’t know if we’ll last much longer.”

“Why not?”

“Because there are other fans of his who’re willing to do worse things. I don’t care what happens to me, but Jay can’t stand when the people around him get hurt. I’m scared that something will happen and he’ll break up with me to protect me.” Her lip trembled and tears started to form in her eyes.

Keiba looked at Nemera sadly and rubbed her back, unsure of what she could say to that.

“Thanks.” She sniffled. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to swamp you with all of my problems.”

“It’s okay. I don’t mind at all.”

Nemera looked at Keiba steadily. “You’re nice, Keiba.” She murmured. “I mean really nice. I thought people like you and Jay didn’t exist anymore, but it’s like you guys appear out of nowhere and prove to me that there’s more to the life than what I’ve always thought to believe.” She stopped herself and looked at Keiba with a sheepish expression and a red tinge in her cheeks.

“Sorry.” She said. “I don’t know where that came from. But would you mind giving me your number?”

Keiba grinned. “Only if you’ll give me yours.”

“Of course.”

Once the girls exchanged numbers, and Keiba’s shirt dried, they left the bathroom. They saw Jay and Min-Kyung leaning against the wall across from them smiling and chatting, looking like a pair of supermodels. A lot of girls noticed and tried to flirt with them, but they were so into their conversation that neither boy paid them much attention which eased Nemera and Keiba’s minds.

“Is that Min-Kyung?” Nemera asked over the music.

“Yeah.”

“Oh he is cute.”

Keiba grinned. “He is, isn’t he?”

The girls decided to give Min and Jay more time to talk. They started dancing with each other, and Keiba was ecstatic to find that Nemera had moves similar to her own.

“So is Min-Kyung a boyfriend?” Nemera queried.

Keiba smiled but if she was looking in the mirror she’d be surprised to see the disappointment in her own eyes and the underlying sadness in her expression. She remembered her and Min’s almost-kiss and felt even more depressed.

“No.” She said, looking at him. “No, we’re just friends.”

And as though he knew what she was thinking, Min looked up and almost immediately met her gaze across the group of dancing bodies.

Nemera laughed suddenly, pulling Keiba’s attention away from Min.

“What?”

“Keiba, the way he’s looking at you doesn’t say ‘just friends’ to me.” Her grin was crooked as she added, “It says: ‘I want you’.”

---

Yay, new characters! Jay Park is my ultimate bias and my guilty pleasure. And he's in the chapter of my favoirte number too (9) -w-