The great, destructive wave that was emerging in the EXO fandom had finally been appeased after several days since the press from SM Entertainment was released to counter the impression of the leaked photos.  Unfortunately, although the announcement saved Chanyeol’s idol career from ruin, it did not stop the malicious remarks aimed at the young MMA fighter.  Even though she had the self-discipline to overlook those online comments, it was impossible to ignore the packages that were sent occasionally to the Road FC gym.  She knew she could not keep throwing those packages at the dumpster on her way back home.  It was only a matter of time before someone would find out.  If it came to such stage, then there would be zero chance for her to convince her oppas to let her stay on Roommate concurrently with Crying Fist and her training activities.  She knew she should have kept her distance from the start, but there was no going back now.

            She stuffed her gym strips and the sasaeng’s special package of the day in her backpack and headed out of the change room.

            “…thanks for he autographs.”

            “No problem, Hyung.”

            “Chanyeolie oppa?  W-what are you doing here?”  Her eyes widened in surprise.

            “To see my girlfriend, of course.” He smiled and had one arm over her shoulder.

            Embarrassed, she tried to wriggle out, but he only held onto her tighter.  She frowned at him.

            “Gayeon-ah, why did you keep dating Chanyeol a secret from us?”  Dowon asked.  “He’s a good lad, I would have approved anyways if you’ve told me earlier.”

            She caught a glimpse of signatures on a Girl Generation picture in Dowon’s hand.  She now understood that she was basically being sold for Girl Generation’s signatures.

            “Anyways, I’ll leave two alone.  See you tomorrow, Gayeon!  Bye, Chanyeol!” Dowon waved the young couple goodbye.

            “Oppa, are you out of your mind?” She punched lightly on his chest.

            He caught her hand, mischief in his eyes.  “That should be my line.  Were you really going to keep me a secret from others if I didn’t show up?”

            “Well, you shouldn’t be here.” She stated, biting her lower lip nervously without realizing.

            “Yah…” He said gently as he traced his thumb over her lips. “It’s because you keep doing such tempting things that I have to come here.  What if a guy approaches you not knowing that you’re already taken?”

            Blushing madly, she shied away when his touch lingered longer than she anticipated.  She wondered how he could make such bold display of affection as if it was the most natural thing to do in public.

            “Just go home, Oppa.” She didn’t want the others at the gym pouring out all of a sudden and being noisy.  Most importantly, she didn’t want to catch any of the sasaengs’ attention.

            “I haven’t greeted everyone yet.  Why are you so eager to push me out the door?”

            “Do that some other time.  Just go home for now.”

            He stopped firmly on the spot.  “By myself?  Aren’t you coming along?”

            She was getting frustrated and had the urge to give her surprisingly dorky boyfriend a low kick.  She didn’t think he would be so oblivious and carefree about the situation.

            “Is something bothering you?” Then he frowned, his voice suddenly became serious, “Or, did someone bother you recently?”

            Of course, Park Chanyeol was far from being a clueness, naïve guy.  She was afraid he would ask questions like these.  “N-nothing,” She hated her habit of stuttering, “It’s embarrassing.”

            He flicked her forehead, pretending to be mad.  “Yah, don’t you know just how lucky you are to have a boyfriend like me?”

            “I know, it’s just…”

            He sighed, “Fine, I’ll leave – but after you give me a kiss.”

            Her face became beef red.  “Always asking for something so embarrassing.” She muttered beneath.

            “What was that?  Oh, you want me to say hi—”

            “Wait.” She pulled his face forward and tiptoed to give him a quick peck on his cheek.

            He tried to mask his surprise of her sudden decisiveness.  He smiled when her eyes shied away from his.

            “There, happy now?” She let go of him.

            “Well…” He deliberated for a moment, “I guess it’s passable.”

            “Really, just go home already.”

            “Fine, but you owe me.” He pinched the tip of her nose affectionately.

            “W-what?” She thought he was just unbelievably cunning…However, she didn’t dislike it all that much.

            It was Saturday afternoon and Minwoo finally got a day of rest after filming almost for two weeks non-stop the initial two episodes of Modern Farmer.  Appalled by the disgusting amount of dirty clothes lying in the corner of the room, he decided to do the laundry.  However, when he got to the laundry room, he became slightly agitated at the mess hanging from the edge of the cabinets, seemingly about to fall at any second.  He let out a heavy sigh as he stuffed the clothing neatly back into the cabinets.  He shook his head in disapproval when he realized Gayeon’s cabinet was at least as messy as the guys, if not the messiest.  ‘That girl is more like a younger brother than a younger sister.’ He thought.

            As he pushed back the clothes to fit rightly back into the cabinet, a piece of crumbled paper fell out.  He picked up the note and thought there was something odd about it – a picture of a skull was transparent from the other side.  He was dumbfounded that the tiny fighter was interested in such things.  He flipped the piece of paper over and his nostrils flared up.  The note contained the following messaged, ended with the skull image:

            Stop ruining our oppa!  Go back to hell, u stupid !

            Almost instantly, he made connections with the recent leaked photos incident and this malicious note.  He fast-paced towards Room No. 1 and knocked on the door.

            It was Sojin who opened the door. “What is –”

            “Looking for Gayeon.” He cut her sentence abruptly and pulled her out of the room.  He locked the door. 

            “Yah, Park Minwoo!” Sojin pounded on the door from outside.

            He ignored her.

            “What is it, Oppa?” Gayeon stared at him blankly.  She was sitting on her bed, with a book in her hands.

            “We need to talk, now.” His tone was serious.

            “Er…You locked Sojin eonni outside.” The young fighter pointed out, confused of the situation.

            He handed her the piece of paper.  “When did this start?”

            Her body froze at the touch of the paper.

            “Does Chanyeol even know about this?”

           “Huh?” Her mind was snapped back to the present at the mention of Chanyeol’s name. She lowered her head.  “T-this has nothing to do with Chanyeol oppa.”

            “Gayeon-ah,” He sat on the bed across from hers.  “Does anyone know about this at all?”

            She bit her lips, fingers unintentionally rubbing the book cover nervously.

            “This is nothing something you can handle alone.  You should at least tell Chanyeol about it – he’s your boyfriend, isn’t he?”

            Her head shot up.  “How did you…”

            “It’s painfully obvious.” He sighed, recalling how the young idol had told to stay away from Gayeon.  Then suddenly, the young idol looked as though he was on cloud nine days later.  He had considered the possibility of being told off by some of EXO’s extremely obsessive fans, as the fandom seemed to be known for a few bad apples.  However, he had never expected to be told off by one of the EXO members, Park Chanyeol – the Happy Virus, no less.

            She blushed, secretly scolding her boyfriend in her mind for going overboard with the display of affections at times.

            “I don’t want to in unnecessarily.” He said, somewhat wary of Chanyeol’s potential level of jealousy.  “But do let me know anytime if you need backup.”

            “Oppa,” She hesitated, “You’re not going tell Chanyeol oppa about this, right?”

            “No, at least not for the time being.” He assured her.  “However, you better tell him soon.”

            “Thanks, oppa.”

            He ruffled her hair.  “Gayeon-ah, I wish you would act your age sometimes and let other worry about you openly.”

            Sojin chewed her inner cheeks, furious with Minwoo’s rude gesture.  She wondered what was so important and again, related to Song Gayeon.  She tried to listen in, but she could not fully make sense of the barely audible voices.  Then, the door swung opened.

            “That was rude.” She stated.

            “Sorry.” He mumbled quickly and got past her.

            She was stunned about his apology for a brief moment before following behind him.  She told him, “I don’t care about your likes and dislikes, nor your little Gayeon infatuation, but at least be mindful about our ‘love-line’ when you’re here.”

            He stopped in track and turned to face her.  “Don’t tell me you’re jealous.”           

            “A-as if!” She scoffed.  She crossed her arms defensively.  There was one question that was bugging her for a while and she didn’t know why she feared the answer to it.  Nevertheless, she straightened herself and asked, “Why did you suggest the love-line to the PD?”

            “Popularity.” He responded. “I got more exposures and it got you the debut, didn’t it?”

            “Popularity?  Is it just that simple?” She did not him believe at all.  “Why me?  You don’t even like me…So, why me?”

            He smiled and shrugged.

            She frowned at his easy attitude.  “You could have picked anyone else – like your precious Gayeon—”

            Just then, Minwoo remembered something.  “Sojin-ah,”

            She stiffened at the way he called her name so comfortably.  She didn’t know why her face heated up and her stomach swirled.  Park Minwoo was frustrating her beyond comprehension.

            “What do you think of Chanyeol and Gayeon’s photo incident?” He asked.

            She was taken aback by the question.  She felt her palms sweating. “What do I think…?  Why do you ask?”

            “No reason.  Just thought you would have an opinion since it is about Park Chanyeol and Song Gayeon after all.”

            “What are you trying to imply?  That I have something to do with the incident?”

            “You don’t?”

            “I don’t.”

            “Good, because you need to have a pure and clean mind for acting.”  He smiled.  “Take it as an advice from me as a sunbae.”

            She knew without a doubt that she hated Park Minwoo – the guy who acted as Song Gayeon’s secret bodyguard and the guy who saw through Ahn Sojin’s secrets with just one simple glance.  ‘Pure and clean mind?’ She loathed these words simply because it came from him .

            The world would go on spinning fine even if thousands of crimes were being committed a day.  Things would have turned out for the worse for the young lovebirds anyways, even if she had not gotten those photos.  She made herself believed this point – she was convinced on this point.  She hated Park Minwoo’s arrogance.  ‘Who does he thinks he is to judge me?’ However, she hated, even more so, how his words were getting to her – that she started to care what he thought.