Fighter

Chapter 5

I can feel Dongho's hand creep higher up my shirt and I am trying to push him away but he is just too strong. He presses his body harder against mine, almost crushing me.
"Stop, Dongho! I said stop!" I try to push harder on his arms and chest.
Suddenly he flies away from me. I see Seyoon push him away. He steps in front of me his arms outstretched at his sides in a protective circle. "She said stop, and I think you should listen."
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" he turns his attention to me, "YOU'RE CHEATING ON ME WITH HIM?! HOW DARE YOU! YOU WHORE!" Dongho started to charge at me past Seyoon. But Seyoon gave him a good push back again.
This time he directs his attention at Seyoon. "ARE YOU TRYING TO TAKE MY WOMAN?! LETS GO PUNK! RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW! LET ME SEE WHAT YOU'VE GOT!" Dongho puts his fists up. But he is quite drunk and so his balance and reaction times are off. He takes a hard swing but Seyoon is able to quickly dodge it.
Seyoon takes a couple steps back all the while keeping me behind him.
I am frozen. His words hurt more than I let them know.
As Dongho swings toward Seyoon again I finally am able to move again. I hurry to place myself in between the two boys. Dongho realized where his fist was going to hit a moment to late and his fist connected with my face. I could tell he had tried to pull back but to no avail. It was still a good punch that knocked me back into Seyoon.
I could feel Seyoon holding me and trying to get me back onto my feet. I kept my eyes on Dongho. His eyes shocked, whether it was because he hit me or because I stepped in front of his punch I didn't know. When I was finally back on my feet I reached back and grabbed Seyoon's hand. I am strong.
"We are leaving. You should stay here and cool off. I'll see you at practice tomorrow." I slowly head toward the door, dragging Seyoon with me.
"Hey-" Seyoon tries to speak.
"Shut up." I whisper at him. I walk through the gym doors without looking behind me. I just keep walking. Dragging Seyoon behind me, I know that once I stop I am going to start crying. I can't cry. I can't let myself be weak.
"Slow down." Seyoon pulled me back with the hand I was still holding. As I was yanked back I tripped over myself and started to fall. But Seyoon caught me. I looked up into his eyes as he slowly pulls me to my feet. I am still in his arms and I couldn't hold back my tears any more. They streamed down my swelling face. I couldn't even cry, I wouldn't let myself. But the tears still fell.
"Hey, are you okay?" he reached out his hand and lightly touched the side of my face that Dongho had punched.
I flinched away. "Yeah I am fine." I wipe away the tears and step away from him. "uh, you should go home, I'll see you for practice next week." I turn and start walking away.
"Wait! You're face, and your ribs," Seyoon puts his hand on my shoulder.
I just shrug it off. "Listen I said this yesterday, what happens between Dongho and I is between us. Thank you for what you did in there but I had it handled." I take a deep breath and start walking away.
"No, I know what I heard. You were begging him to stop," He walked in front of me and turned to face me. "He was not going to stop. I had to step in."
"He would have stopped," I don't know if I am trying to convince him or myself at this point. "He was just drunk and angry. He thought you and I were, were going behind his back. I'll talk to him tomorrow and explain that nothing is going on." I shrug.
"No! No. This is so many levels of not okay. He just hit you, twice! Not to mention the number he did to your ribs. We need to-"
"Whoah, we are doing nothing. My boyfriend already thinks that I am cheating on him with you. I don't need to give him another reason to doubt that I love him." How dare he think that he has any right to tell me what I need to do?
"You still love him after what he did to you? After he hit you and you still think he loves you?" Seyoon reaches out and grasps my forearm. "That's not love, I-" he pauses and steps closer to me. When he speaks I can barely hear it, "I could show you what love really is." His face is just inches away from mine.
I can feel my momentary anger at him fade away. The past week had been so hard. I just wanted to feel something nice. I just wanted to forget the bad things that had happened tonight. I place the hand that he doesn't have a hold of on his chest. I could see myself leaning in; my eyes closing slowly. I could see myself in his embrace.
But I can't do that.
"I think it is time that you find a new trainer. I don't think I can practice with you anymore." The words come out of my mouth in a rush. As I speak I push back on his chest lightly and take a couple steps back.
"What?" His eyes are searching mine.
"It's for the best that we go separate ways. I can see if I can find a friend who has a training spot open and can take you on." I twist my arm out of his grasp.
"Are you going to go back to him?"
"Goodnight Seyoon," I walk around him and hurry away. I liked him, too much. Which is why I had to say what I said, it was for the best.
When I get home I hurry to the fridge and grab an egg. My eye is almost swollen shut. I roll the egg around on my cheek. As I head to the bathroom I get a look at my face. Oh my, I have got quite the shiner, an egg wasn't going to do much to fix this. Well it looked like I wasn't going to go to the gym tomorrow.
I want to check my ribs but I don't want to unbandage them. My ribs were feeling the best they had felt in days. I was probably going to get my first good sleep in days as well.
The next day I laid around the house and watched movies. With half of my face and torso more blue than skin colored I decided I would stay inside. I felt so good I decided I would stay home the next day. And even the next.
I was just finishing watching Rocky again when there was a knocking on the door.
When I went up to check it, I saw Dongho through the peep hole. Deep breath.
I opened the door, "Hey babe," I grin up at him. I look down at his hands. He is holding a bouquet of flowers in one hand and chocolate in the other.
"I am so sorry for the way that I acted. It was inexcusable, and it will never happen again. I was drunk and I should have never have said those things. Please, please forgive me." He gives me a sheepish smile. "I'll even make it up to you by taking you out to dinner. You go get all dressed up and we can go out and have a good time."
"Of course I forgive you. I know that you didn't mean to hit me or say those things. It was the alcohol talking." I smile back and place my hand on his cheek. "Let me go put some makeup on and a nice outfit."
See, Seyoon. I told you he didn't mean it, I think to myself. I put on my favorite blouse and some nice jeans.
"Alright where are we going?" I grab Dongho's hand and we walk out of the apartment.
"You know I was thinking that we could go to that new grill place down near the gym that just opened up." He swings my arm back and forth between us.
"Oh how nice," I always loved when he would do this. It was just something silly that he did and it always brought a smile to my face.
When we arrived at the restaurant I scanned around for a place to sit. Oh, no.
In a back corner of the restaurant is see Seyoon with a couple other guys laughing. I could only assume that they were the other members of his idol group.
"Dongho I think we should go somewhere else," I tug on his arm. He obviously hadn't seen Seyoon yet and I wanted to keep it that way.
"No, Why? This place looks great. We'll sit right here. He picks a spot in the middle of the restaurant. Dongho had his back facing Seyoon and his friends.
But that meant I was facing Seyoon. I tried to keep my head down and turned away from Seyoon and his group of friends. I was still angry at him for the way he had acted that night. Plus I didn't need Dongho to see him or fists would fly.
Halfway through our meal Dongho said something funny and while I was laughing I glanced over at Seyoon and his friends. Seyoon was staring at me and all his friends were stealing glances in my direction. I quickly looked away. He looked upset. His handsome face was furrowed as he kept his eyes on me.
"I'll be right back, I have to use the restroom." Dongho squeezes my hand and my attention is drawn back to him. I smile up at him as he gets up and walks away.
In the background I see Seyoon stand up. He is walking over to my table.
"What are you doing?" he sits down in Dongho's seat.
"What do you mean what am I doing? What are you doing? Do you want to get beaten up? You need to go back to your friends, or leave." I fold my arms in front of me.
"He has hit you, on multiple occasions, and you are still going back to him?"
"Please, leave." I look around to see if Dongho is coming back. When I look back at Seyoon all his friends have gotten up and are headed towards us. "Dongho has a temper. So why are you trying to test it?"
His friends finally get to our table. "Hi," says the first one, he has longer wavy blonde hair. "Seyoon, are you going to introduce us to your friend?" He smiles down at me.
"Uh, yeah. These are my members, Junhee, Yuchan, Byeongkwan, and Donghyun. They are in A.C.E with me." He points to each of them in turn.
"Hello," I bow in my seat.
"What the hell is going on here?" I hear Dongho's voice yell.
Shoot. I knew this was going to happen. I quickly get up and try to push Dongho back. "Hey lets go, he uh, he just came over to say hi," I glance back and Seyoon is standing now.
Seyoon speaks up, "No, I came over to convince her to break up with you. You don't deserve her!" his members have to hold him back.
I am then struggling to pull Dongho back as well. "You've been aching to fight me for a while punk!"
"Dongho, not in the restaurant. Let's go," I plead at him. He looks down and then looks around at all the people staring at us.
"This isn't the end." He turns around and storms out of the restaurant. I quickly follow after him without looking back at Seyoon.