As soon as the word 'sasaeng' escaped her lips, Ava had all the members' 100% attention. They had already been focused on her - even more so now.

Various reactions were heard as they all tried to speak at once.

"What?!"

"How dare someone do that to you?!"

"Just let me get my hands on them." Jooheon's reaction was in keeping with his protective behavior towards Ava. His hands were raised and fisted as he glared fiercely at the far wall.

"Calm down, Jooheon." Kihyun tried to speak soothingly to the younger but his slightly gravelly sounding voice betrayed his own barely restrained anger.

"How can I be calm?" Jooheon asked through gritted teeth.

Shownu, just like before, tried to act like the leader he was. "Everyone just take a deep breath so we can figure out what to do." He looked at the others one by one. They were like tigers, ready to go on the hunt and pounce on their prey. He needed to think of something fast before one of them ran out the door and got themselves arrested for assaulting this person - even though that person would deserve whatever retribution they would release on them.

"We need to speak to Manager Lee." The leader looked at Minhyuk as he spoke. "Maybe he can release a press statement about our new photographer?"

Shownu bit his bottom lip in thought for a moment before finally saying, "I think that's a really good idea, Minhyuk. We probably would do something like this at some point anyway. The public would have to be told about this new foreign person showing up with us everywhere. Everyone would grow curious and rumors would begin to fly." He looked at the others. "I don't think any of us want rumors, negative or otherwise." They all shook their heads. "All right. I'll call manager hyung and see what he can do." He turned and left the room.

The other six relaxed a little and turned to look at her. She was huddled in her now-favorite armchair. She was getting quite close with the thing.

She looked at the faces staring at her and started to feel self-conscience. They were staring so hard at her, it made her feel like she might have something on her face. She hadn't eaten anything since breakfast though and had showered afterward, so food stuck to her face couldn't be the case. Maybe she really looked as pale as she felt? She coughed a little to clear .

"I'm okay now. Stop staring." Her voice, against her best efforts, came out much weaker than she would have liked. She her lips and blew out her breath. She stood up and moved her arms around a little. "See? I'm fine. Just a little sore." This time her voice had more strength.

Their expressions stayed the same and she closed her eyes in slight annoyance. She heard someone snort in disbelief and opened her eyes in surprise. She caught Changkyun's eyes and realized from his slightly blank face and the way his eyes were narrowed, that he must have been the one to make the noise. He quickly turned away and pulled his phone from his pocket. Did the kid ever do anything else?

A sudden thought had her blushing. Yes. He held sobbing females after they were beat up by crazy, stalker fans. She looked down in hopes of hiding her face from the members.

She replayed the moments when she had stood outside the ghost house entrance and cried. When she had heard the sounds of distant voices and realized more visitors were done with the tour, she had freaked out. Her emotions were everywhere and she had no idea what to do. Her legs had seemed to be frozen in place, preventing her from running far away. She was about to just fall to the ground and cover her head and pretend she couldn't be seen, when arms suddenly grabbed her and tugged her along behind them.

The arms had then pressed her gently against a wall and cradled her against their chest. She had wanted to push the chest away but it felt so good to be held she had stayed still and relished the comfort for a minute. Eventually she had forced herself to lift her head and felt her breath leave her body in shock. She hadn't really had a clue who had rescued her but the one face she definitely would not have thought of, was staring down at her.

Changkyun. I.M. Monsta X's rapper maknae. Her heart pounded. She couldn't get her mind to wrap itself around the shock. He hadn't let it have more time to assimilate the shock either. He had pushed her face against his chest once more, as the voices came closer and then passed them by.

She finally let herself totally relax and just leaned against him as she continued to cry. His hands started to rhythmically rub circles on her back, calming her.

After a while her tears slowed. She sniffed to help force the tears away and accidentally inhaled his slight scent. He smelled of soap and something else. It reminded her of new spring grass. It also had a calming effect on her. Spring was her favorite time of year.

She closed her eyes again and wiped her mind of all stressful thoughts. She had nearly fallen asleep standing up when the other six members suddenly burst around the corner.

They stopped short and their mouths fell open in shock.

She jerked back out of his arms and almost hit her head on the wall, stopping herself just in time.

Changkyun stared at her, trying to make sure she was all right, before turning to the others.

"Where have you all been? Hyungs, " he added, as an afterthought.

"Why? Did you really miss us?" Hyungwon asked in disbelief, his eyebrows raised.

Wonho scoffed. "Does it look like he missed us?" He looked at Hyungwon who shook his head, before continuing. "Of course he didn't. He was busy apparently."

The maknae straightened up, so he was standing at his full height. He glared at his two hyungs until they turned their heads away.

"Why were you guys gone so long, hyungs?"

Shownu finally answered. "When all the visitors started to exit the building, we were afraid they would recognize us, so we walked the other way so they wouldn't see our faces." He shrugged. "We were hungry so we got some food."

"Hyung. We just had breakfast two hours ago. How could you possibly be hungry?" Changkyun crossed his arms and looked at Shownu.

"We just were." The others nodded in agreement.

The maknae just rolled his eyes and stepped back to lean against the building.

" What were you doing?" It was the leader's turn to do some questioning now.

The youngest member's face flushed a little but he kept his head down in hopes of not having that fact seen by everyone. "Nothing," he muttered.

Shownu decided to let it go and turned to Ava, his face clouding with worry.

"What happened in there, Noona? We thought you were right behind us. We came to the end and you were gone."

She shook her head a little. " I-I..." Her voice trailed off.

"It's okay. You can tell us later." He ran his hand through his hair, making a few strands stand up. "But why didn't you call us? We would have come and helped you."

"I don't have a phone yet."

"We're going to remedy that."

And they had. They had bought her the latest Samsung phone and hadn't let her pay a penny of it.

A cough sounded, throwing her out of her memory of that morning and she looked up to see all six staring at her once again.

"Are you sure you're all right, Noona?" Kihyun's voice was worried. He looked searchingly in her eyes, as if he could discern the answer from them.

She nodded quickly, hoping that answering positively would put them at rest about the whole thing and stop staring at her. She hated having people focus on her. It made her nervous and when she was nervous, she did stupid things - like blurt out random idiotic thoughts, or drop things suddenly when she had had no problem holding on to them a moment before.

"I'm fine." She smiled to reassure them, but she didn't think it had worked because her face felt stiff and their expressions hadn't really changed.

She was saved though, for Shownu chose that moment to walk back in the room.

"I spoke with Manager Lee and with Minjun hyung. They both want to make a press statement about our new foreign photographer. They were both horrified that this happened to you, Noona." His face scrunched up into a sad frown. "Especially when we were supposed to be taking care of you." His face got even sadder. "This is our fault. We should have made sure you were with us. It is OUR fault you were hurt today. It is MY fault. I'm the leader. I should've been the one watching out for you."

She swore she actually saw tears in his eyes and she blinked in surprise. How could someone she had only met yesterday show so much concern for an absolute stranger? She didn't know but it brought answering tears to her own eyes and she swallowed, hoping to make them disappear. She had already cried on one person today. She definitely didn't want to make that number go up to two.

"No. I am an adult. None of this is your fault. Don't blame yourself." She stopped and glanced at the others. "None of you. This is not your fault. It's just one of those fluke things that could have happened to anyone."

"So. What did your manager and Minjun have in mind?" She asked Shownu.

He his lips and sighed, clearing his throat. "Manager Lee said since they want you to do your first photo shoot with us on Tuesday, they will release a statement on Monday. That way, when fans see us on Tuesday, it won't be a surprise to anyone. Hopefully whoever this was, will see it and back off."

"Okay," she said, nodding. "Sounds good." She reached up without thinking to pull on her earlobe, something she did a lot, and winced when her fingers brushed against her cheek. It still stung like nobody's business.

Seeing it, all seven boys turned solemn.

"Noona, I think you should go to the hospital and get checked out. Make sure nothing else is wrong." Jooheon stepped closer to look at her face and then gently took her hands so he could look at the marks on the arm that had gotten bruised.

"It's just bruised. It'll be fine. I've gotten worse. I took karate for four years." She shook her head in annoyance and glared at nothing. "I don't know why I didn't think to use it to protect myself. It's why I went through all the training. So I wouldn't get hurt again." The last words were whispered, almost as if she were speaking to herself, but they all heard them and it made them worried.

They looked at each other in alarm. It struck a chord with Changkyun and he thought of the night before when Ava had seemed to be having the nightmare and had been telling someone 'stop'. Did this instance of getting hurt have anything to do with what she had dreamed of ?

                                                                   ~~~~~~~~

Ava closed the door and leaned back against it. She felt drained even though it was only 3:00. So much had happened in the 30 hours she had been in South Korea.

Monsta X had offered to have her eat with them but she didn't feel like doing any more socializing. She just wanted to curl up under her butterfly comforter and stay there until she could forget.

So Shownu had walked her to her door. She was grateful to him for that. He really felt like another brother and she missed her four brothers so much already. But even the thought of her brothers couldn't blot out the memories of that long ago night.

Practically getting kidnapped and then assaulted had brought back the memories. Memories that she thought she had finally gotten over. It had been eight years. She hadn't had a nightmare in almost 18 months. She had thought she was healing.

Then she'd had one the night before. She had woken up slightly and thought she had heard someone speaking soothing words. She had soon drifted off again and slept peacefully the rest of the night.

Then today had happened. Tears filled her eyes and she slid to the floor and covered her face with her arms as she sobbed.

Would it ever go away?

~~~~~~~~

Hi, guys :) Have any of you listened to 'Stuck' yet? It is amazing!! I love it so much! 

I'll leave you with the cutie below - and I'm sorry if the image looks funny but isn't he so handsome? :')