jeongguk is gone the next morning and aki carries on with her day, teaching three classes at the elementary school in the afternoon before dropping by the local grocery store for ingredients for the night's dinner. she always makes enough for two people, just in case jeongguk shows up at her door. usually, though, she ends up with a lot of leftovers in the fridge.
aki just finishes blowdrying her hair when stella gives her a call. her dear friend's voice is just as peppy as ever, and aki can't help but smile.
"stella! everything okay?" she says out of instinct, unsure if jeongguk has passed out there again.
"you think i'd sound this happy if your little troublemaker was here again?" she replies. "my boyfriend and i are hooked up with tickets to tonight's boxing match down by the warehouse, and we happen to have an extra ticket. you in?"
aki ponders the offer. she and stella haven't hung out in over a month due to their busy schedules, but a boxing match is the last thing she wants to watch on a gloomy night like this one.
"you're thinking of turning me down, aren't you." stella says in a significantly less peppy voice. if there's one thing that aki is weak for (other than jeongguk), it's stella. stella, who has helped her out so many times with jeongguk; stella who has snuck her free drinks when her boss wasn't watching.
"no. no, i'm not." aki says as sternly as she can, but it sounds almost as if she's trying to convince herself that's she's going. "let's go. i'll meet you outside my house in fifteen."
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to say that the warehouse was busy would be an understatement, to say the least. aki isn't sure if she has just always been ignorant to the sheer number of couples hanging around this area this late at night, or if it's the boxing match that everyone is here to see. though aki doesn't want to believe it, she has a hunch it's the latter.
"this way!" stella says, tugging aki out of her thoughts and through the entrance. stella's boyfriend, adam, a lean but well-built male almost two heads taller than aki, leads the way through the maze of people until they arrive at their destination.
"here we are. and just in time for the introductions of tonight's fighters."
the three join the masses of people encircling the boxing ring, and the crowd begins cheering as the MC gives a short speech before announcing the fighters of the first match. aki only manages a few claps, still not sure how she got dragged into watching grown men fight until the loser fall unconscious. she's already seen her fair share of blood and bruises, and she knows it isn't a pretty sight.
"is this thing even legal?" aki shouts over the music, glancing anxiously around for any sign of security or police officers but finding none. a burly man to her left knocks her off balance, and stella quickly steadies her.
"technically, no. but this warehouse space is legally available for short-term rentals like parties and the like, so as long as the police don't find out about the actual fighting part, we're clear."
aki groans, suddenly feeling tiny in the large room. the crowd silences suddenly as the MC begins talking again. "all right, i won't keep you all waiting in suspense any longer. let's hear it for our fighters!" the MC continues, "on the left is our long-time veteran fighter known for his incredibly quick knockouts by the name of park jimin! and on my right, we have jeon jeongguk, a rookie quickly rising in popularity and infamous for his speed and agility!"
"-- did he just say jeongguk?" aki shouts wide-eyed over the deafening cheers. she can feel her heart accelerate at the mention of his name, disbelief clouding her eyes. from the apologetic look in stella's eyes, she can tell that even stella had no idea about jeongguk fighting in tonight's match.
"i'm so sorry aki. i didn't know ..." stella begins, but then jeongguk - the jeongguk she knows and loves - steps into the rink, silencing the two of them all together. he holds a fire in his eyes, a look of determination and passion that terrifies her. jeongguk is taller and faster than jimin, but aki can't help but notice that jimin is clearly more well-built and would probably have a stronger blow.
the ringing of a bell commences the fight. aki watches in fear as jeongguk and jimin circle the ring, hands up ready to strike. jimin strikes first, throwing a nasty punch at jeongguk, missing by mere inches. jeongguk is quick to react, aiming for jimin's face with a few punches of his own, and jimin's cheek is painted a deep red from the impact. aki winces every time jeongguk is hit, watching as jeongguk's own face get bloodied and bruised.
both jeongguk and jimin are heaving for air when the bell ends the first round, returning to their respective corners. aki can't help but wonder if jeongguk will look for her later tonight looking like that, waiting for her to tend to his wounds again.
aki looks up as jeongguk wipes a smudge of blood off the corner of his lip, and it's in that moment that their eyes meet. jeongguk's eyes widen in shock at the sight of her standing amongst the audience, and there's something in his eyes that affirms his disgust with her being here. he's the first to look away, turning away from her and chugging the water that his coach hands him.
"he saw me." aki murmurs quietly.
"who saw who?" stella shouts half-heartedly as the two take the rink again.
jeongguk isn't the same in the second round, taking more hits than he throws, and jimin roughs him up pretty well by the time the bell rings again. jeongguk doesn't glance at her once during their second break, wincing every time his coach wipes the blood off his body. when the bell rings to start the third and final round, jeongguk looks visibly worse than his opponent. in the end, jeongguk puts up a strong fight, but the fire that he held from the first round is no longer there, and when the MC announces jimin as the winner of the match, aki isn't surprised.
"what happened?" stella cries in disappointment as the two fighters leave the rink. "jeongguk was going to win! you know jimin was no match for jeongguk, honestly, with those careless punches of his..."
"stella. he knows i'm here." aki tells her again, and this time stella understands her loud and clear. "you know how he tries to keep stuff like this away from me."
"it's not your fault you're here, and i'll make sure he understands, yeah? he's probably getting tended to right now in the back, but we might get in if we tell his coach that we know him."
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author's note: sitting in coffee shop with some coffee makes me so productive i wrote all this there and fiNALLY updating! also idk anything about boxing, so don't come at me if i messed up with terminology and rules etc. ,, (also can we talk about those guns in the top gif i had to ok) hope u enjoyed reading!! :)
