Gayeon broke away from her partner and rested against the wall immediately after the first set of the afternoon training session was over.  Her chest raised and fell heavily at the lack of oxygen.  She had yet to regain the strength to fix her messy hair.  When her phone began ringing from a couple of feet away, she reluctantly crawled over to pick it up.

            “Hello?”  She lied on her back and answered the phone without even bothering to check the caller ID.

            “Hey Gayeon, got time to talk?” A male voice responded on the other line.  It was Minwoo.

            Immediately, she sat up.  The fatigue in her eyes vanished within seconds.  “Oh hey, Oppa!  What’s up?”

            “I just received a new job today from my manager…” He laughed nervously.  “It’s scheduled for tonight…”

            “Don’t worry about it.” She beat him to it.  She forced up a smile.  “I’ll probably be too tired to go tonight anyways.”

            “Actually, that’s what I thought too.” He sounded relieved.  “Sorry, I’ll make it up to next time.  Maybe after your match?  We can celebrate then.”

            “That sounds great.”  She agreed, while trying to hide her disappointment.

            “Alright, got to go now.  Talk to you later!”

            “Bye! Take care!” She finally hung up after he did.

            She knew the situation could not be helped.  However, she was still somewhat depressed about it.  After all, she had been looking forward to the outing with Minwoo throughout this week.  He had asked her to go star sighting with him as a form of morale support sometimes before her debut match.  She had agreed immediately.  Especially this morning, she had searched through her closet to match an outfit for tonight.  She realized she did not have many feminine clothing, but it still did not stop her enthusiasm to look her best for him, especially for such a romantic type of outing.  Of course, she also knew that Minwoo probably didn’t think much of it as a romantic outing.  So far, he seemed to still see her as a dongsaeng.  She sighed at this sudden thought.

            “Minwoo-sshi?”  Minseok asked as he handed her a bottle of water.

            “No.” She denied firmly with an annoyance in her tone.

            He gave her a disbelieved look. “It’s not like you can hide from me.  Currently, he is the only guy who can bring down your fighter spirit.”

            It was true.  She knew it was no use to hide from Minseok.  He was, after all, the guy who knew her best even with just one quick glance.  It was a comforting fact during the worst of the training sessions.  Although, at times she wished he did not know much, because he would keep bothering her about it.  His brotherly nagging at times was even worse than Dowan’s.

            “So how’s your progress with him?” He cut right through the chase.

            She shrugged.

            “No progress.” He hit on the bull’s eye.  Then he sighed.  “We have already warned you before, Gayeon.”

            “I know.” She muttered.

            “You’re still young, so it makes sense for you to go out there and see more of the world.” He continued.  “And we want you to.  You shouldn’t be trapped in the ring — no, your world shouldn’t just be the ring.  Though, I just wish you would fall for someone more normal and not for someone under the limelight.  You need normal.”

            Normal.  She found the word amusing.  Maybe Minseok had a point.  After all, her life had never been normal thus far.  However, when one fell in love, it was not like she could will herself out of it with a flip of a switch.

            Just then, her phone vibrated, indicating the arrival of a new message.  Though, she knew Minseok meant well, she was still secretly thankful that her phone had saved her from what might turn out to be another long lecture about life.  It was funny how Minseok like to lecture her like an old man, despite that he was only six years her senior.

            She let out a small chuckle at the message.  It was a picture sent by Chanyeol.  In the picture, he posed beside Gayeon’s debut match poster with his signature scissor hand.  It followed with a couple of text messages.

            Chanyeol:  Day 5 before debut…

            Chanyeol:  Song Gayeon, fighting!

            “Is that one of your roommates, Chanyeol-sshi?” Minseok asked.

            “Oppa!” She covered her phone and punched the older boy on the arm for his lack of phone etiquette.

            He winced at the pain.  He thought that he was used to it by now, but it seemed his dongsaeng had improved recently.  “Didn’t know you guys are this close already.  The show really doesn’t show much huh…” He commented.  “He seems a playful guy.”

            She suddenly recalled Chanyeol taking a bite of the kimchi omelette.  She mildly shook her head out of the memory.  “Yeah, playful indeed…”

            “You’re blushing.” Minseok had a disgusted look on his expression.  “It’s scary, you know that?  Did something happen between you two?”

            “I’m not blushing. It’s just really hot right now.”  She defended.  She pushed him hard on the chest.  “And what do you mean it’s scary?”

            “What a reaction…” He narrowed his eyes.

            “He is just a friend.” She quickly explained, knowing what was on the older boy’s mind.  “In fact, he’s a really nice oppa, unlike someone I know here.”  She emphasized the last part.  “But I guess you wouldn’t know since you weren’t here last time.  Oh yeah, let me show you something.”

            She showed him the photos of her aunt and cousin.  She smiled. “I don’t know how he did it, but he was able to find my aunt and cousin through just one trip.  You know what’s even more amazing?  My aunt and I are talking again.”  She continued. “What I couldn’t do all this time, Chanyeol oppa somehow make it possible…So I’m really thankful to him.”

            She went on and told him about the time when Chanyeol came to the gym to the time when he made the omelette.

            Minseok had a playful smile all this time while observing the younger fighter. “You brat.”

            “What?” She retorted with venom in her tone.

            “Why are you talking so much about this Chanyeol oppa all of a sudden?” He questioned. “Also, even I didn’t know about your aunt until today, but this Chanyeol oppa knows?”

            “I don’t know. Though, I told him about kimchi…” Her voice trailed off.  She wondered hard for the first time just how did he know?  It was a small convenience store that was out of sight from the main roads.  It would take an insanely long time to find it, unless if the person was a local in that particular neighbourhood.  She assumed that he would not have much time if he was filming the whole day.  So how did he find it, let alone finding out about her aunt?

            “Yah, what are you doing?” Baekhyun strolled lazily down the hall and saw Chanyeol taking pictures of himself again.  He noticed the poster his narcissistic friend was holding.  He raised his eyebrow. “Wow, you’re serious about her…”

            “What are you saying, shorty?” Chanyeol gave him a blank look and went to the fridge to grab some orange juice.

            “Don’t play dumb.” Baekhyun crossed his arms.  “So the last time almost getting hit by her aunt’s broom was not enough.  Did I mention that we even travelled all the way back to Jejudo the very next day just to find that place?  What are you trying to do this time to get yourself killed?”

            Chanyeol almost choked on the orange juice. “Do I look masochistic to you?”

            “Maybe you are.” His friend smirked.

            Chanyeol rolled his eyes at his friend’s crazy accusation.  He picked up his guitar and started tuning it.

            “You never chase any girl — girls just all come flocking to you.” Baekhyun stated.  “But the only time you decide to give a chase, you have to chase one who can beat you to a pulp at any time.”

            “You, my friend, are delusional.” Chanyeol remarked.  “She’s just a dongsaeng to me.  You know it’s her debut match soon, so all I’m doing now is just providing her some morale support.”

            “Keep telling yourself that.” Baekhyun patted on the musical genius’s back.  “No matter what you decide, you will always have my support.  Just try not to end up like me and Taeyeon.” He smiled sadly.

            Chanyeol understood what Baekhyun meant.  Like many celebrities who went public with their dating life, whether voluntarily or unwillingly, they had to deal with many inconveniences under the constant scrutiny of the media.  Baekhyun and his girlfriend even ended up in an argument not so long ago over the media issue.  However, he thought it would not happen to him.  After all, she was just a friend to him.  He also knew she was in love with Minwoo.  If that was the case, he wondered why she was still constantly invading his mind these days.

            As the week passed, Chanyeol continued to send Gayeon pictures, albeit most were goofy, in hope to ease her stress level before the debut match.  On the day of her match, he took a picture of himself just before he walked up to the EXO concert stage.  He sent the following message along with the picture:

            Chanyeol:  Now I’ll be on my way to my stage while you’ll be on your way to yours.  Let’s fight together!

            “Isn’t Chanyeol hyung’s narcissism too much these days?” Tao asked upon seeing Chanyeol taking photos with his phone again.

            Baekhyun shook his head and had his hand over Tao’s shoulder. “Who knows if it’s narcissism?”

            “What do you mean?” Tao was confused.

            “Let’s go guys! Let’s love, EXO!” Suho motioned the rest of his team onto the stage.

            The moment Gayeon was declared as the winner, she still found it a bit hard to believe.  She knew her opponent was more experienced in the mixed martial arts field, and that she was not one to be messed with easily.  If her opponent’s arm swing habit had not given way, she was not sure if the outcome would still have turned out the same way.

            When the excitement finally calmed down, she posed with scissor hand for a self-taken photo and sent it to Chanyeol.

            Gayeon:  TKO. Total debut victory!

            She knew that he was probably still on the stage and therefore would not see her message until later.  However, she felt that she had to let him to be one of the first people to know.

            Gayeon:  Oppa, knock out your concerts with style!  Fighting!

            She decided to send him one more message.  Though, she had to modify the message a few times.  Once she was satisfied with the wordings, she hit ‘send’.  Soon after she sent out the message, her phone rang.  The caller ID displayed Chanyeol’s name.

            “Congrats!” There were a lot of background noises.  It seemed Chanyeol had to shout into the phone.

            “Oppa!” She greeted excitedly.  “Aren’t you at the concert right now?”

            “Yeah! I….stag…”

            Gayeon covered her other ear and leaned closer to the phone.  “What?  I can’t hear what you’re saying!”

            “I said…din…”

            “What?” The phone line was cut off just before she could say anything further.

            However, after a brief while, she received a text message from Chanyeol.  She saw a self-taken picture of him standing near the edge of the stage platform with an unimaginable amount of fans behind him.  Finally, she understood he had taken his phone onto the stage and it seemed that they were close to the end of their concert as he was dressed in just a plain t-shirt.

            Chanyeol:  Let’s go celebrate!

            She smiled and shook her head.  She wondered just how could a celebrity of his status manage to get away with this?  Was he not afraid of dropping his phone?  She could only imagine how crazy the EXO fans would be to get a hold of his phone.

            Suddenly wanting to go along with his craziness, she sent him a picture of her doing the ‘OK’ sign instead of just plain text message.

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Author's Note:  Sometimes I think I should stick to writing horror stories (I used to...).  But no, I had to decide to try with romance. Initially I meant for this to be short story and would end it around 14 chapters....but so far, I have added two extra chapters from my blueprint.  Hopefully the pace of this story is not too slow for you so far.

Meanwhile, kinda happy to know that Gayeon won't be completely out of media's sight since she will be hosting a MMA reality show called "Crying Fist".  At least, I can watch this with my brother. lol

PS: Being the idoit that I am, I accidentally updated this chapter on my other story and had to delete the chapter immediately. T____________T