He hated EXO sasaengs.

 

Not only did they bother the members of EXO, but they started to pester other SM artists. SHINee's Lee Taemin was starting to feel the terrifying wrath of the sasaengs right now. It was the third time that EXO sasaengs had chased him.

 

Why would they do that? Well, it was probably as simple as this: they wanted to get to EXO through him.

 

Currently, Taemin was running for his life—did he mention that it was already the third time he's had to do this? Not too far behind him were the screaming, relentless, and terrifying sasaengs disguised as average teenage girls. They were armed with their cameras and cell phones, no doubt taking footage of the chase.

 

After a few minutes of nonstop running, they finally fell far enough behind. Taemin was able to pause and take a breath. Just to be on the safe side, he took refuge inside one of the nearby apartment lobbies. He scurried down a hallway and sighed.

 

The fear of the sasaengs began to subside as he leaned against a wall inside; he was hidden from view from the outside, so the sasaengs wouldn't see him if they decided to look for him.

 

Taemin couldn't help but jump a bit when he heard someone walk into the building. He froze when he saw a young foreigner woman turn down the hallway he was hiding in; the blood drained from his face when he saw her shirt.

 

It was an official shirt for SHINee's latest world tour.

 

Her attention wasn't on him at first. She was messing with her sunglasses, clearly annoyed at the difference in light from just being outside. It wasn't until she was almost right in front of Taemin that she was suddenly aware that she wasn't alone. She flinched and stepped back a bit at Taemin's presence in the hallway, eyes wide.

 

"Whoa it's Taemin..." she whispered in shock, but shook herself and smiled apprehensively. "Hello...?" she offered in Korean. Taemin nodded to her, but brought a finger to his lips. She simply blinked at him before nodding slowly, clear confusion in her eyes.

 

Taemin looked her over quickly, taking note of her features—if she was turned out to be one of the sasaengs, he needed to remember her and stay away from her if he was ever unlucky enough to see her again. She was probably average height, had long, natural brown hair, and big, blue eyes; she also had a big bag on her person, with the letters B.A.P on it in bold, black letters, accompanied by a spaceship. Once he was done inspecting her, his eyes darted around the small hallway, looking past the girl for any more possible people.

 

"Oh, are you hiding from sasaengs?" she asked him, gasping in realization.

 

It drew Taemin's attention to her. He bit his tongue, hesitant to say anything, but nodded to answer her question.

 

She frowned and said, "I'm sorry, but they're still outside...they approached me when they saw my shirt and asked me if I had seen you."

 

"They're still out there?" he asked incredulously. The girl nodded slowly, turning and strolling back down the hallway. Taemin watched as she peered around the corner before she came back, clearly unhappy.

 

"A couple of them are still wandering around," she informed him.

 

"Oh..." was all Taemin could say. But, he realized with a sigh, at least the girl in front of him wasn't a sasaeng like the girls still searching for him outside.

 

The girl, still frowning, looked into Taemin's eyes and asked, "Are you going to be okay here?"

 

"Once they leave I will be," Taemin said bluntly. The girl pursed her lips but stayed quiet. Taemin watched as she fidgeted, and he realized that she seemed to not want to leave.

 

"Do you want to take a picture together?" he asked, clearly surprising the girl.

 

She blinked quickly, and Taemin's fears of the sasaengs were momentarily forgotten at the sight of the suddenly bashful girl. "Really? Can we?" she asked. "I don't want to bother you..."

 

"Sure! And you're not bothering me," he replied, smiling. "If anything, it's those...girls outside that are kind of bothering me."

 

The girl glared over her shoulder as if directing her anger to the sasaengs and muttered something Taemin didn't catch. She pulled out her cell phone from her pocket and looked to Taemin, who smiled again. He watched her in amusement as she slowly approached him; her face was growing red and her body was shaking slightly. In an attempt to , Taemin placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her to his side. She immediately tensed, and Taemin bit his tongue to keep himself from laughing out loud.

 

"Should we take a few?" Taemin asked smoothly.

 

"If that's okay..." the girl whispered, starstruck.

 

"Who's your favorite member of SHINee?" Taemin asked her in between pictures.

 

The girl paused before glancing up at him. "Um...you are..." she stuttered cutely, making Taemin's smile widen.

 

Taemin and the nervous girl smiled at the cell phone screen. He threw up a peace sign, saying, "You too!"

 

After a few selcas with the fan, Taemin had nearly forgotten his past few minutes of sheer terror and running for his life. Being able to tease the foreign fan and take the pictures had taken his mind off of the traumatizing event.

 

It would have been a good turn of events, but he suddenly heard a shrill, high-pitched voice scream, "Oppa!"

 

The foreign fan and Taemin immediately turned at the sound, both frozen in place at the sight of two young teenage girls in the apartment lobby. Screaming and squealing escaped their mouths as they suddenly rushed forward.

 

Taemin was surprised when the foreigner stepped forward. He stared at her, stunned; she was attempting to block the girls' way to Taemin.

"If you go down the hall and take a right, there's another exit," she said to Taemin quickly.

 

Taemin gazed into the girl's eyes and nodded, saying, "Thank you."

 

Taemin took off running, trying his best to ignore the screams that had turned from happy, psychotic squeals to aggressive shouting and hateful name calling. He had made it to the end of the hall and looked to his right. Sure enough, there was a door with a lit up "Exit" sign hanging overhead.

 

Longingly, he stared at it, but the sound of a startled, pained scream caught his attention. He whipped around to see what happened, and his heart felt like it had stopped. The kind fan who had tried to let him escape was being pushed and slapped by the two sasaengs. They were yelling at her, using profanity and calling her horrible slur names.

 

Something inside of Taemin wouldn't let him leave. He couldn't run, knowing that the girl was risking her own safety for him.

 

"Hey!" he shouted angrily. He rushed back to the scene, startling the sasaengs and the fan.

 

He wrapped an arm defensively around the fan's shoulders, trying to shield her. "Stop it!" Taemin barked at the sasaengs.

 

Their expressions showed that they were struggling to say something. It was obvious by the frustrated looks on their faces that they were confused and angry at what was happening. Instead, they decided to pull out their cameras and cell phones, snapping pictures of Taemin; they didn't even care if the girl they were hitting just moments before was in their shots or not. Taemin shied away from their paparazzi-like antics, but kept a close eye on his fan. She was visibly shaken by the turn of events. Her body was turned away from the sasaengs, her head low.

 

"Oppa why did you run?" one of the sasaengs finally spoke, whining obnoxiously. "You made us hurt this girl because you ran!"

 

"You shouldn't have done that!" the other girl agreed, stomping her foot.

 

Taemin could only grimace in disgust as they continued to spout garbage like this. Finally, he had enough.

 

"Leave us alone," he ordered. "I want to take this girl to the hospital."

 

"What?! Why oppa?! No don't do that!"

 

"Who is she to you oppa?!"

 

"She's a fan and I'm worried about her!" Taemin snapped, gently guiding the girl along with him as he started to walk. As if to prove his point, he firmly gripped her shoulder and shook her lightly; she lifted her head to stare at Taemin with tear filled eyes. Large, red welts were starting to form on her cheeks. "Are you okay?" he asked, now even more worried.

 

The sasaengs whined and growled with irritation as they started to follow Taemin. He walked with his arm still around the injured girl, an anger quickly raging inside him. It was one thing for a sasaeng to hurt him; he knew they could get violent, and though he didn't like the idea, he would have endured it. But it was another thing to see a fan of SHINee, to see HIS fan, getting hurt.

 

Once he and the fan made it outside, the sasaengs acted up once more.

 

"You're not REALLY going to take her to the hospital, are you?!"

 

"It's not like they can fix her--she was ugly even before we started hitting her."

 

"Yeah! Oppa, you shouldn't be touching such an ugly girl!"

 

They made a lunge for Taemin and the girl, and she screamed in surprise when they grabbed at her bag.

 

"She's not even a real fan oppa! She has another group's stuff!"

 

"Get away from oppa!"

 

The fan gritted her teeth and held tightly to her bag. Taemin snapped at the girls again, trying his best to shield the foreigner from their prodding and invasive advances.

 

"Let's go," he said to the girl in his arms, trying to block the frustrated cries of the sasaengs.

 

The fan nodded weakly. "Run..." Taemin whispered into her ear; this time, her nod was sharper and full of determination.

 

The two took off as fast as they could. It threw the sasaengs, and they screamed in anger and annoyance. Taemin was trying to slow himself, because his arm was still wrapped around the girl who was slower than he. After a few minutes of running, he was holding her hands and pulling her along through the maze of streets when they stopped. Taemin looked to the girl who was panting and gasping for breath.

 

"Are you okay?" Taemin asked her.

 

She nodded quickly, though she was still gasping; Taemin swore he could have heard her wheezing as well.

 

"I shouldn't have run off like that earlier in the building," he said. "You got hurt because of me. I'm sorry."

 

The fan's eyes raised to meet his, and there were big, fat tears threatening to spill over. "Does this always happen to you? Are they always this violent?"

 

"No..." Taemin answered, though he left out the last part of what he wanted to say: sometimes they're worse.

 

She violently shook her head then, and with a broken, relieved sob, said, "It's okay then."

 

"How is that okay?!" Taemin gasped. "YOU got hurt!"

 

"I don't want to see you or anyone else I care about get hurt!" she argued.

 

Taemin felt his jaw drop. "Are you an idiot?" he asked without thinking. "It may be okay for you to say that, but what about the people you care about? Do you think they would like knowing you got hurt because of them?!"

 

The girl flinched then. Taemin let out a frustrated sigh as he scratched the back of his head. He stared at the girl's face. The welts and scrapes on her cheeks, nose, and chin were still a bright, angry red. "Where else are you hurt?" he asked.

 

"They mostly hit me in the face...but they scratched my arms a bit too," she answered softly. She ran her hands along her arms and she was right. As Taemin looked to her arms, he could see flushed, irritated patches of skin.

 

"I'm definitely taking you to the hospital," Taemin decided. He took her hand in his and pulled her along. She tried to voice a protest before Taemin said sternly, "I won't be happy until you're better."

 

He dragged the fan through the streets for a few minutes until they came across a small clinic. Taemin strode in quickly with the timid fan in tow.

 

"Can someone help?" he called out when no nurse came to their aid immediately.

 

At the sound of his voice, a middle-aged woman—no doubt a nurse—appeared from behind the front desk. "What's the matter?"

 

"This girl got hurt," Taemin said, gently pushing the fan forward. "A couple of other girls were hitting her."

 

The fan turned to him in slight distress. The nurse eyed Taemin, but nodded quietly in understanding before saying, "Follow me."

 

Taemin nudged the girl further into the clinic, following close behind.

 

What am I doing...? Taemin wondered. He leaned against the wall of the room the nurse had led him and the fan into. The girl was sitting on an examining chair as the nurse was dabbed soothing cream on the girl's face and arms.

 

"Did you get hurt anywhere else?" the nurse asked gently. The girl shook her head and the nurse continued treating her.

 

It was a silent wait for Taemin. Or, it SHOULD have been a silent wait. The scene of his fan getting attacked over and over again played in his mind. He scowled, unable to shake the image out of his thoughts.

 

"Alright, it looks like the worst of your injuries will heal without any worries," the nurse explained nicely. "You seem like you have tough skin, girl."

 

Taemin cracked a smile as the girl flushed pink with embarrassment. He couldn't help but think how cute it was, seeing the girl get easily embarrassed.

 

"Now then, shouldn't we report this incident?" the nurse asked.

 

Taemin straightened his posture and was about to say something, but the girl shook her head. "I didn't get terribly hurt; they were just trying to scare me..."

 

"It didn't look like that from where I was..." Taemin grumbled, arms crossed.

 

"Either way, we need to keep record that you came here for treatment," the nurse informed. "What's your name and address? Just fill out this form right here."

 

Taemin watched as the girl was handed a clipboard. She stared at it for a moment before filling in the blanks. "Are you answering in English? I don't think the doctors or nurses will be able to read that," Taemin murmured to her.

 

He glanced over her answers, and froze in surprise. Aside from the childish, stiff handwriting, nearly all if the filled in blanks were written in Korean.

 

"What's your name?" Taemin asked. He noticed that her name was the only thing she had written NOT in Korean; he tried to figure out what the foreign letters spelled out, but he couldn't, which in turn meant that he couldn't read her name.

 

"___," the girl replied softly.

 

"___?" Taemin echoed. A smile crept onto his face as he said, "That's a pretty name."

 

A pretty name for a pretty girl, Taemin thought. He continued to stare at the fan, ___, and felt his heart flutter when her eyes met his. A warm, glowing feeling grew in his chest, and Taemin realized that this was probably one of the best days of his life. He got to meet ___, his fan, at the time he desperately needed someone. When he was running for his life from sasaengs, she seemed to appear like a guardian angel.

 

Taemin clenched his jaw in determination. He wouldn't run anymore. He could deal with sasaengs, so long as they didn't hurt fans like ___. He would rather risk himself for the fans who saw him as someone to care about. He would risk his well being for his fans. He would risk his safety for ___.