Defend Love

Chapter 5 ( Rated M ) - Is This Love?

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A/N: Warning ---- This Chapter features a rape scene. Please do not read if you are uncomfortable with these type of situations.

Two months had passed since the fight between Minji and Jiyong, and Minji had been ignoring all of his texts asking her to hang out or if they could talk. He didn't send them often, because he knew that it would only end up pissing her off even more, but it was frustrating to him that he somehow managed to push Minji away further when he was only looking out for her. Minji, for the most part, wasn't ignoring Jiyong on purpose. Things had gotten infinitely better between her and Deukkie over the past two months, and other than a few verbal arguments here or there, he had been acting like the perfect gentleman again. Minji didn't want to risk ruining the relationship by texting Jiyong or meeting with him. It seemed that the only time things were bad in her relationship with Young Deuk was when it concerned Jiyong, so Minji figured it was better to leave him out of the equation.

Minji knew things were only going to get worse, however, because she had completely forgotten she had agreed to collaborate with Jiyong on a song for his upcoming mini-album. It wasn't until he had texted her yesterday, requesting that they begin working on it today, that she remembered her promise. She silently cursed the fact that she agreed to work with him. She was positive that the collaboration would probably make Deuk explode at her again. She was becoming more and more stressed by the thought of not only that, but at the slight chance that Jiyong would probably try and bring up her relationship again, and she wasn't exactly willing to discuss that.

So as a result of her stress, Minji once again found herself in the gym, running on the treadmill. She had been at the gym since 7 am, and it was now 8:30 am, but she still felt anxious and stressed so she had a feeling that she was going to be in the gym for a while. Or at least until she had to meet with Jiyong around 10. Turning her music up louder, Minji then proceeded to increase her speed and incline as she focused on releasing all of her anxiety. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Youngbae get on the treadmill two over from her. Wondering whether or not she should say 'hi', she suddenly saw him wave his hand at her and she paused her music and the treadmill before taking one of her ear buds out of her ear.

"Hey oppa," she greeted breathlessly as she unscrewed the cap to her water bottle and drank her water greedily.

"Hey Minji," Taeyang greeted as he hit different settings on his own machine, "How long have you been here?"

"Since 7," Minji responded and watched as Taeyang's eyes lit up in surprise.

"Do you always work out this long?"

"Yeah. Usually for about 2 hours a day, or longer if I'm stressed."

"That's insane," Taeyang murmured, "So I heard you and Jiyong were going to record together today."

"Yeah..." Minji said quietly.

"You guys will have fun," Taeyang said with a smile at her look, "Well I'll let you get back to your workout."

"Thanks," Minji said with a smile as she put her headphones back in and restarted the machine.

After about another hour of working out, Minji used the shower in the gym - being careful to wear her flip flops inside - and washed herself off before she redressed in casual clothes and headed up to the recording studio. She had about ten minutes until their scheduled session, but she had a feeling that Jiyong would be there already. Pushing the recording booth's door open, Minji was unsurprised to see Jiyong already seated behind his computer and clicking around on different programs. As she entered, he turned around and his face lit up with a huge smile. Minji had to struggle to catch her breath at the sight. How was it that Jiyong, and not her boyfriend, could make her have butterflies in her stomach?