Friday night blurred into Saturday morning and one half of F4 laid in pain on the couch. Seokmin clutched his jaw while Vernon clutched, well, everywhere.  

"Woah woah woah. You two look horrible," Minggyu says after entering the lounge and seeing his two friends in their condition. Seokmin's almost always perfect face was now blemished by a throbbing purple bruise on right jaw, almost as purple as the violent sweater he wore. 

Vernon was sprawled out on the other end of the couch, ice packs adorning his body. Although he wore a track suit, the scratches on his face and the bruises on his cheeks were enough to indicate that he had been kicked around. That, and the fact that he moaned in pain every time Seokmin kicked him. 

"You," Minggyu pointed at Seokmin after depositing his keys onto the counter and standing in front of the them on the couch. "I understand. Eunyoung surely packs a hell of a punch. But you," he rested his hands on his hip, eyes looking down at the swollen Vernon. "What in the hell happened to you? Did you get in another fight with daddy dearest again?" 

Vernon shook his head, setting the icepack that was on his chest onto the glass coffee table to sit up halfway. Even though he managed to support himself, he still into the cushion of the couch. 

"When I left yesterday, you were fine." 

"That was at 4 in the afternoon. 7 in the evening though, things were definitely not 'fine.'

"I'm just glad I'm not the only one that got hit by a girl." Seokmin said, stealing one of Vernon's ice bags for his jaw. 

"You too? Who? How?" 

Vernon sighed, his bruises already aching at the thought of retelling last night's spin of events. 

"Well, the answer to my dilemma doesn't stray far from the cause of Seokmin's dilemma. You know your friend, Eunyoung?"

"," Seokmin said through his teeth at the mention of her name.

"Yeah, what about her?" Minggyu looked at Vernon with curious eyes, disregarding Seokmin's comment.

"Well the friend of your friend, beat me up." Vernon admits for the second time, feeling even less like a man than when he told Seokmin about it last night. "The girl is like S.Coups. She may have dainty hands but damn can that girl jab a guy where it hurts," Vernon shares, his hand rubbing the exact spot on his side where Nana pounded. 

"So you got drop kicked by Eunyoung... And you got beat to a pulp by Eunyoung's friend..." Minggyu repeated, fingers pointing at the two. "I feel like I ask this far too often, but, why?"

Vernon looked up, starting to recite the moments that led up to his current condition.

"Last month, I was out shopping with  Jaekyung, you know her, big s, big mouth, won't shut up,"

"Oh the entire male population at Empire knows her," Seokmin commented. Jaekhyung was what you would call, asian trash. The day Vernon made a rash decision to date her for was the day that her tin can of a trash can status upgraded to a new, electronic trash can. When he dumped her silicone though, that fancy trash can zapped into a trash bag. Now she's just another name in Vernon's list of 'hit it and quit it's. 

"Thank god you dumped her like my butler dumps the garbage every morning," Seokmin added, Minggyu still waiting on the story. 

"As I was walking with her through the watch section, in the mirror I saw a certain girl, about 5'2 in height with long, brown, locks,"
"Nana?"

Vernon nodded. 

"So you saw her at the mall. Doesn't at all even begin to explain why she put you through the BodyBeater2000." Says Minggyu, confusion on his face.

"Patience Young Minggy- OW" he winced, the injury to his chest throbbing again. "Yah give me that," he demands as he steals back the ice pack Seokmin stole from him.

"Anywho... Not only did I see her in the reflection, I also saw the bracelet in her hand, fingers working to rip the price tag off and succeeding.  The tag disappeared and so did the bracelet, right into her purse. Next thing I know, she's gone without a trace."
"So she shoplifted? So what, S.Coups does that every other week." Minggyu asks yet again, Seokmin groaning at Vernon's poor story telling. Sometimes the kid just doesn't know how to get to the point. Last night when he told Seokmin the same story, it took him a whole episode of a TV show just to get to the story over with. 

"Vernon-ah, just state your point and get over with it. The dragging of this story is making my jaw hurt." 

"Then you should try to stop talking Seokmin." Vernon joked, Seokmin narrowing his eyes. 

"But fine, the main point is: Minggyu-ah, it's safe to say you know me well enough. What's my favorite thing in the world?" Vernon brought up an all too simple question.

"Easy, girls."

"More specific."

"Ok, hot girls."

"More adjectives."

"Bad, hot, girls....?"

"Bingo. My favorite thing in this world are bad, hot girls... who, can be bad and still get away with it." Vernon boomed.

"And let me guess, Nana falls into all three of those categories," said Minggyu, with a hidden roll of his eyes. Classic Vernon, thirstier than a desert plant. 

"Exactly!"

"Just wait," Seokmon interjected again, "The next part he's about to tell made me crack up." 

"Shh, shut up Seokmin no one asked for you input. Anyways, yesterday when I saw her at lunch and realized that she was the one I saw shop lifting skillfully, there was like this force-"

"Ahem much cough cough," Seokmin coughed, a laugh coming from Minggyu. 

It was now Vernon's turn to stare daggers at Seokmin. "Every nerve in my body just told me I had to get the girl okay."

"Get her? Vernon, she's not a pair of shoes. You can't just buy her off the racks." 

"That's what poor people say. We -- I am not poor. So continuing, I made a bargain with Sarang, the girl crazy enough to do anything we want her too, as long as we gave her something of Coups in return," he stopped to put a finger to his lips, "shh, don't tell Coups."

Minggyu shook his head to the secret. 

"Sarang called Nana and several details later, I was able to get her -- and her only, into a room with me." 

"Uh huh,"

"With every girl I've been with, just being in the same room with me would have them crossing their legs. But no, she didn't give in that quickly-"

"Did you mean, not at all?"

"One more word Seokmin and I'm punching your other jaw. Let me finish my story," Vernon asserted, Seokmin surrendering. 

"I did my usual moves; introduced myself in a suave voice, gradually inched closer to her, ran my hand through her hair, but- and this is where all hell breaks loose, Nana turns out to be the only female on this planet invulnerable to me. Next thing I know, my hand that was her hair is being twisted back, and her other hand is punching all my important arteries," Vernon told shamefully.

For a moment after he finished speaking, the only reaction he got from Minggyu was a quiver of a lip. But it didn't take long for that quiver to explode into an outburst of laughter. 

"BAHAHAHAHAA," Minggyu chuckled unconditionally, falling into the leather ottoman to continue his outburst. "Dude, I can't believe you got beat up for trying to get into a chick's pants! Oh wait, I can! Hahahahahahaha," he continued, Vernon's eyes narrowing more and more at the laughing mess by the second. 

"Are you finished?" Asks Vernon, after two minutes of Minggyu's endless laughter. He continued to laugh for another minute, but finally stopped. Laughter resided and over with, he wiped his teary eyes and looked at Vernon.

"What did you hope she'd do? Melt into your arms as classic r&b played in the background?"

"I didn't hope. More like expected,"

"Bro S.Coups said it himself, the girl's a carbon copy of him. What in the world made you think that she would easily be wooed by you. And what in the world made you think that a girl like her wouldn't go into ninja mode after finding out that she had been lured into an empty dance room" Minggyu pointed out. 

"It's always worked in the past!" Vernon argued. Minggyu reached a hand out, patting Vernon on shoulder -- which was also bruised -- Vernon moaned in pain. 

"My bad." He apologized, soothing his shoulder. "You've been with so many girls that I don't even what to see your STD test results Vernon... How come you haven't learned that every girl is different?"

"Not the girls at our school. They're the same, they always have been." Vernon rebutted. "Empire High girls collapse at our feet with a snap of our fingers."

Minggyu glanced at Seokmin, then back at Vernon, like he had a point to prove himself.

"They did, but looking at you two right now, covered in bandaids and coated in pain reliever balm, it seems to me that there are two Empire High girls that don't collapse at the snap of your fingers, now do they?    

Seokmin and Vernon blink, realizing Minggyu's point. Empire High girls were the same, but, Choi Eunyoung and Im Naeun? They were different. And that had to be changed. 

"Now if you two will excuse me, I'm off to get some brunch with Coups at the Porridge Palace. Feel free to join," Minggyu says, feeling accomplished with his words of wisdom. 
As soon as his foot steps were no longer audible, Vernon and Seokmin exchanged looks. 

"When did he turn into Saint Minggyu?" Seokmin asks, snarling his lip. In his minds, gears began to turn to come up with the perfect payback for Choi Eunyoung. 

"No idea, but if he's a saint, then I'm quitting church." Vernon replies, sinking back into the comfort of the couch to soothe his injuries. As he stared at the white ceiling though, he kept seeing Im Naeun.... pummeling him in the face. He didn't know why or how, but he knew that he needed to get her out of his mind.