A pair of dark brown eyes widens a fraction as his manager makes the announcement. SHINee will, alongside the other groups in SM, travel to London in June. The sound of excited murmurs can be heard from Super Junior and chuckles from SNSD as the managers exit the room. Even F(x) are thrilled about joining for another SMTOWN in Europe. SHINee are excited as well, some members more than others. Key talks with someone loudly but Taemin can´t really focus. Jonghyun bumps into him as he makes his way to their Super Junior hyungs but Taemin doesn´t notice. He stares at something in the distance with a pair of unfocused eyes.

Will she be there?

Eyes widen and Taemin shakes his head at the thought. That´s not possible. Taemin looks at the ground with a somewhat depressed expression on his face. Why am I like this? He scolds himself. He can´t expect a fan, a stranger he met once and felt strangely connected to, follow him across Europe. However, it´s her face he first saw when his boss mentioned Europe. He dislikes himself for feeling a little bit of hope. Taemin swallow his thoughts as he tries to return to reality and leave his memories of a cold February night in Paris behind. She might even gotten tired of SHINee and no longer consider herself a fan. Who knows?

Taemin´s chest feels strangely tight as he slowly joins the rest of SHINee in their joy over their chance to return to London once again. Onew is laughing soundly together with Key as they goof around with Super Junior. Jonghyun is also talking about it cheerily.

“It´ll be nice to meet our London fans again.” Key utters with a big smile on his lips. “C´mon SHINee let´s practice!”

Taemin hides his face behind his dark pair of sunglasses and scarf as he follows the rest of SHINee as they hurriedly move from their taxi to the airport.  It has passed two months since they got to know about SMTOWN in London and it´s now time to travel across the globe for a concert and to stay a few days in Europe. A lot of fans are there to catch a glimpse of them, hands reach for them, to say good bye or in an attempt to keep them from leaving Korea. High pitched screams can be heard but Taemin gives them almost no attention, nothing more than a polite smile and nod of his head, as he walks towards his destination. The fans mean no harm but it´s stressing him out. He can´t wait to get on that airplane and get about 12 hours of alone time. Well, as alone one can get on a flight together with several KPOP groups.

The fandom has been a bit crazy lately, with the growth of Privates fans scaring and stalking the idols, and the artists are more wary towards fans than usual. There have been reports of severe stalking, violence and bad language towards fans, which is a big scandal, because they can´t afford to be rude to their fans even though the fans sometimes deserves it. Who wouldn´t get angry if one got stalked 24/7? They´re in the spotlight and every mistake they make makes the magazines the next minute. Them telling a fan what they really think about the stalking could cost them their job.

Taemin releases a breath he didn´t know he was holding upon entering the safe area of the airport but he doesn´t seem to be the only one doing so. He takes of his sunglasses as they walk through the security check. Their managers take care of everything and it doesn´t take long before they're sitting in a part of the plane that´s slightly cut off from the rest. Taemin ends up sitting by the window next to Minho. He´s glad: Minho´s usually calm and quiet during flights. Well, if he isn´t talking with TVXQ´s Changmin. Luckily, Changmin and Junho are sitting further back with Super Junior. Taemin and Minho exchange a couple of words before Taemin plugs in his ipod. He listens to music while looking at a Korean to English guidebook for London. He´s silently repeating some of the English sentences there.

Eyes look out the window as the plane takes off but his thoughts are elsewhere. Brown eyes are unfocused as Taemin loses himself into his own world of thoughts. It doesn´t take long until he´s fast asleep.

The flight went smoothly and they landed in the UK, London on time without any complications more than that Siwon got stuck in the security check due to a misunderstanding. However, after everything was solved, they were stuck at the airport for some while due to the amount of fans waiting for them there. They´re all grateful for the support but it´s also a bother since they´ve been traveling for such a long time and are tired, in need of rest and above that: they´re starving.

It took about a half an hour for them to reach their hotel. Herds of fans are standing outside, and inside, waiting for them. Screams can be heard as their taxi stops. Fans´ faces are squeezed against the windows of the cars, making the glass all foggy and dirty. Jonghyun makes a surprised sound as he comes face to face with a fan even though they can´t see them due to the dark glass.

“This was unexpected…”Onew murmurs in awe but there´s a hint of dread in his voice.

“This is so cool!” Key is thrilled.

He waves to the fans with a big smile on his face. Key loves international fans and being outside Korea. He´s the one that can fully relax, smile and communicate with them without getting awkward. Taemin glances at his hyung silently as he feels a small bang of envy. A sigh leaves his lips as he feels how his heart is beating wildly in his chest due to many things. Fear, nervousness, excitement and…hope? Taemin bites his lower lip in attempt to forget about the butterflies in his stomach.  He thought that he was able to forget all about it during the two months of preparations for the concert but he hasn´t.

The police gather and help them to enter the hotel safely, acting like a barrier between them and their fans. Taemin smiles at them, waves a bit but he makes sure to move forward towards the hotel with determined steps while his gaze is searching for one specific fan in the crowd. He can´t find her. His chest turns ice-cold. He scolds himself for looking after her. The fans inside seem ignorant of their arrival, Taemin doesn´t know how since the fans outside are noisy, and it´s a lot calmer when they enter the hotel.  The people inside are chatting with each other. They might not even be fans but people staying here at the hotel.

Taemin let´s his gaze move over the people and his eyes widen, he loses the ability to breath and his whole body feels weightless as he spots a familiar face in the crowd. Dark brown eyes widen eerily at the sight of her. She´s standing in a group of female and male fans, talking.

“Taemin?” Minho asks him since the taller man accidentally bumped into him due to Taemin´s sudden stop.

Taemin can´t hear him, all he can see is her, and he moves towards the crowd of people slowly. Minho looks at the direction Taemin is walking as the younger man pass him by and eyes widen as the realization his him in the face.  A hand takes a hold of Taemin´s shoulder firmly: stopping him before he reaches the fans.

 “You can´t.” Minho warns him in a hurried whisper.

Taemin looks at him with something close to a glare for a second.  Minho´s eyes narrow a bit at this. Taemin returns to normal and offers his hyung a weak smile as an apology as he shakes his head. Taemin looks towards the small crowd of fans as he tries to meet her gaze but she doesn´t notice him. Not at all. Taemin doesn´t know why his chest tickles with irritation as she keeps on talking with one of her girl friends. A guy joins the conversation too.

 A high-pitched scream can be heard as one of the fans spots him and Minho. Taemin tenses. Minho is quick to act and he puts his arm around Taemin to turn him around. Taemin´s eyes are locked on her though and their eyes meet for a second as she looks up due to her surprise over the sudden yell. Her eyes widen at the sight of him but she doesn´t make a sound. They´re connected again but only for a small moment. Taemin is escorted away by Minho and is forced to break their eye-contact. Fans are screaming loudly by now.  He´s only able to breathe again as they´re in the lift. His gaze darts to the floor as he takes a couple of deep breaths.

 He can´t believe it. He told himself not to expect it, to forget about her, but she´s here and they met again. A sincere smile graces his lips for the first time that day and he covers it with his hand shyly, mind wandering.

The girls scream loudly but the girl flinches as she covers her ears. She looks a bit bothered by all the noise and ruckus but she doesn’t voice her complaints. Her mind is blank: all she can see are those dark surprised eyes staring at her.

Did Taemin really see me?

Did he …really… recognize me?

What if he actually remembered?

Her eyes are slightly narrow as her thoughts are running wild in her head. Taemin remembering someone, above that a fan, so plain like her would be too much for ask for.  She shakes her head violently: making her long tresses float in the air around her. She can´t lie and say she hoped he´d remember her. Her chest hurts a bit as she thinks about it. She touches her chest in silence. She didn´t want him to see her like this though: stalking him at his hotel like all the other fans but she had no choice. She´s worried what he thinks of her even though she shouldn´t. She won´t get the chance to talk with him again so what´s the point? She looks at the ground with a sad expression.

“What´s wrong?” The girl´s friend asks her.

She shakes her head silently. “Nuh-huh, nothing…” A weak smile covering her lips.

She takes slow, deep breathes with her hand at her heart as she stares in the direction Taemin just disappeared.  Her gaze grows distant before she turns to her group of friends. She first disagreed to come here to wait for the SM artists but her friends insisted and let her to choose to either wait here or at the airport. She didn´t want to bother them at the airport! She was a bit uncomfortable though since she´s clearly against bothering the artists in any way while her friends are more eager to do anything to make their idols remember their faces.

“Let´s go.” She tells them.

One of her girl friends´ eyes widen. “No, didn´t you see that SHINee just arrived? Let´s stay and wait for them to come out. We just got here!”

“Girls, what they need is rest, not being awake all night because of fans waiting for them here…screaming…” She tries to convince them with a displeased expression on her face as she regards some of the other fans who are fangirling loudly, disrespectfully.

It´s clear that she isn´t winning the argument with her friends and it seems that there´s this tension between them as well. A tension that has been building up during their trip to get to London and might as well have been there from the beginning.

“You´re so not fun. Go if you want to, but we´re staying.” One girl tells her while rolling her eyes at her.

The girl presumes she´ll stay with them since they´re in a foreign country and no one wants to travel by themselves. She didn´t expect her to actually be brave and independent enough to leave. The girl looks at them in a hopeless manner before she simply sighs to herself, turns around and leaves. She hesitated a bit, since walking home by oneself in London is dangerous for a foreigner, but she rather take that risk than to bother the person she would never want to hurt in any way.  She leaves.

What she didn´t notice was that one of her male friends was about to follow her but was stopped by the other girl who she argued with.

The darkness outside seems to swallow her as she leaves the hotel, walking towards her hotel all by herself

Taemin stares at nothing in particular as he sits down in his, and the rest of SHINee´s, VIP hotel room.  They and the rest of the SM idols just got back from a meal at the private dining hall and all of them got sleepy due to the great food.

Taemin´s mind in screaming even though he´s eerily silent. She came. She actually came. She stood there in the middle of the herd of screaming fans just looking at him silently. With those bright eyes of hers almost hiding behind her long bangs. His heart is beating wildly and he can´t understand why he´s reacting this way. She´s just a fan! No, Taemin knows that she´s not like the rest. Not that his fans are bad in anyway, it´s just that she´s bit special. Is it because of the way she comforted him when they were stuck several meters up in the air together? The way she protected him from his sudden and unexpected fear and near fainting experience? How she acted tough to not worry him further and did her best not to act like a fan until the end and ended up crying upon getting his sign? Is that why he hasn´t been able her from entering his thoughts since they first met?

A deep sigh leaves Taemin´s lips as he stares out the window.

“Taemin?” Key utters his name upon seeing him spacing out.

Taemin flinches as he sees how Key, Onew, Minho and Jonghyun has joined him in the living room. He looks at them with a wide open mouth as he for a moment has no clue what to tell them. He looks like a clueless golden fish gasping for air.

“What´s wrong?” Key asks.

“Key-hyung, that girl from Paris, she´s here.” Taemin breathes s an explanation.

 “Are you serious? Amazing, she´d travel to Paris and to London to see us!” Key beams.

“Oh, her!” Jonghyun nods as he remembers.

“The girl from Paris? Onew repeats with confusion.

SHINee always makes sure to try to look at all their fans, to make them feel noticed, but it´s hard. They´re always standing in front of an ocean of faces with no names. They can´t remember them all no matter how hard they try. But she´s different. Taemin realizes this more and more for each passing second.  

“Aaah, this makes me want to do my best tomorrow.” Minho smiles gently. His warm brown eyes are on Taemin since he knows how the younger man reacted to her presence. He thinks that Taemin is lucky to have such a fan cheering him on.

All five SHINee members smile as they look at each other with fire in their eyes. Onew joins them even though he´s a bit confused. He laughs goofily. He guesses he missed something important while he was resting when the others were in Paris a while ago.

“Let´s make tomorrow´s concert a show to remember!” Onew cheers.

“Yes!” They chant in a choir.

The members spread out to rest by themselves. Minho stands in the doorway, watching how Taemin keeps on staring out the window dreamily. He hasn´t seen Taemin act like this for a long time. Minho´s eyes widen a bit as Key walks him by with an eerie smirk on his face.

“I still owe you from that time…” Key murmurs to himself as he walks away, plotting something.

Minho smirks as he regards Key. This will be interesting.

The concert went smoothly. The European fans, alongside a few fans who traveled here from Asia, cheered them on with all their might. It´s always different to perform in front of an audience that´s not Korean only. There´re different rules and customs to follow but it´s a nice thing: they feel a tiny bit freer than usual.

They´re waiting backstage for the fans to leave the arena before they can prepare to pack things up and go back. SHINee are sitting down, sweaty and tired, but with pleased expressions on their faces.  Key takes long, heavy sips of his water bottle.

“I´m tired…” Key sighs as he runs his fingers through his sweaty hair.

“Me too...” Jonghyun agrees.

Taemin was able to do his best today due to the fact that he knew that his fans were watching him and the fact that she was there. He didn´t spot her in the crowd, that´d be impossible, but just the knowledge of her presence made him relax and calm even though he´s usually nervous in front of this kind of audience. He´s still not that used to non-Korean fans but the support shown at the concerts makes him want to do his very best for them as well.

“It´s time to go!” Amber from F(x) tells them as she passes them buy.

SHINee get up on their feet as they follow Amber towards the exit. They get back to the hotels safely but Key decides this is the only chance for them to do some sight-seeing before going back to Korea so he forces everyone to go out again. Taemin doesn´t complain since he´d hate to go back without any proper memories of this specific trip. He thinks the others are acting a little strangely though, they keep on exchanging secretive glances from time to time. Taemin shrugs as he guesses they think he´s too young to understand what they´re trying to hide from him.

Onew, Jonghyun and Key walk away, saying they got something to do leaving Taemin with Minho. Taemin sighs, did they just make Minho his babysitter? Minho laughs in a tense manner and Taemin pouts at him before he shakes his head. They stop to look at several landmarks in the centre of London, stopping a bit at each location in their wait for the others to return. Minho stands behind him as they look at a statue. Taemin looks at it in silence as he´s lost in his thoughts. It´s a beautiful landmark and the sight make him lose his breath a bit. He turns around to face Minho.

“Hyung, what is ….”Taemin stops as he notices that Minho isn´t there.

Taemin looks around wide-eyed but Minho can´t be spotted.

“Eh, where did they go?” Taemin panics as he finds himself lost by himself.”Minho hyung!!”

Taemin almost panics for a moment as he realizes that he´s alone in London and that Minho is probably lost somewhere alone too. He needs to find his hyung before something bad happens! Taemin starts walking. That´s when his phone starts vibrating. It´s a text message from Key.

“Good Luck finding your way back. We´re waiting at the hotel with a warm meal. Get home before it gets cold.”

Taemin´s eyes widen as he reads it. He can´t believe it at all. Irritation boils up inside of him. He understands that Key is having fun, playing some kind of joke on his expense, but it´s too much. What´s the point?  Taemin tries to call Key, and the others when he doesn´t pick up, but it seems as all of their phones are turned off.

 “Aish…” Taemin mutters through gritted teeth.  They took it way too far.

That´s when he starts to walk: trying to remember how he and the others got here.  He wraps his scarf tighter around his neck in an attempt to hide a bit as he pass by some people.  His heart is beating wildly in his chest. He´s a bit scared but is too proud to show it. He bets Key and the others will jump out from behind a corner and scare him any second now. But they don´t show up and it doesn´t take long until Taemin realizes he´s a bit lost. He tries to call the others again but none of them picks up.

“Ottoke…” Taemin murmurs. They´re his hyungs and he needs to be respectful but Taemin is planning some kind of revenge when he gets back. If he gets back. Taemin swallows his saliva nervously.

Taemin walks and walks and walks with no sense of direction, feeling utterly hopeless, when he suddenly hears a sound of high heels hitting the pavement. He looks up, trying to hide his face with his scarf, but forgets all about it pretty soon. A ragged breath leaves his slightly dry lips.

She slows down when she spots him, almost stops walking completely, before she hesitantly approaches him. It´s her again. Taemin feels how his chest flutters at the sight of her and he can´t stop the smile that grows wider on his lips. The anger he felt towards Key and the others fades as he realizes they might as well has something to do with this surprise meeting.  She stares back at him with a hesitant, twitching smile on her face as she turns towards him slowly. She seems to be equally surprised to see him as he is to see her but she seems even more surprised over the fact that he actually remembered her.

“We meet again.” Her words emerge like a silent gasp. “What are you doing here?”

Taemin´s eyes narrow a bit. It seems as if she wasn´t planning to meet him which would mean that she didn´t know about that the rest left him here. She looks at him with wide, surprised and curious eyes. She´s holding a small plastic bag in her hands. It seems as if she has been shopping for groceries.

“I…got lost.” He tells her in surprise, slightly hiding the truth. “And you?”

“I´m on my way back to the hotel.” She tells him wide-eyed. “I live close by, I just bought tomorrow´s breakfast for me and my friends.”

She´s all alone even though she probably arrived in London with a group of friends. This confuses Taemin. It´s not safe for her to walk home alone, he finds himself thinking to himself as he also wonders what kind of friends would let someone go alone like that. His expression turns bitter as he realizes that his friends also left him alone.

“Did you call your friends?”  She asks Taemin as she tries to help him out.

“No one is picking up…” Taemin tells her hopelessly.

She´s quiet for a while, as if she´s thinking about what to do, before she looks up at him with a gentle smile on her face.  

“I´ll get you back.” She nods in a determined manner.

Taemin´s eyes widen at her words and he doesn´t get a chance to complain since she takes the lead as she walks away and tells him to follow. She could have just left him there if she wanted, but she didn´t.  He didn´t even have to ask for help. Taemin follows her with rushed steps.

The girl doesn´t ask where he stayed since she knows about it and Taemin doesn´t question it. It feels like she would have been embarrassed if he did. It seems she feels bothered by the fact that they meet like that. He doesn´t know why though.

“Let´s take the bus, ok?” She tells him as she looks at him over her shoulder.

“I don t have any …” Taemin forgot his wallet at the hotel.

“Don´t worry, I´ll pay.” She tells him.

Taemin stays silent as he just follows her lead. It feels nice to have someone to take care of him when he´s a bit panicky, but he´s aware that the girl is keeping up a strong façade for his sake once again. It seems that she´s a very strong and caring person who wouldn´t want to hurt a fly. She looks at the time table for the busses as she murmurs to herself in what Taemin thinks is her mother tongue. Her face brightens up as she finds the correct bus time table.

“It´ll arrive anytime now, we´re lucky.”

“You don´t have to do this…” Taemin tells her. “I can go by myself from here.”

“I want to.” She smiles. “I would have hated myself if something happened on your way back… if I let you go by yourself.”

He glances at her discreetly from under his fringe. He doesn´t know what to say. He wants to thank her but he can´t find the right words. She seems happy but he´s still worried about being a burden to her.

The bus arrives after a while. She is focused on to pay the bus driver, talking English too quickly for him to follow what she´s saying. She has a small, almost unnoticeable accent, but he still can´t figure out where she´s from even though he heard her speak her native language before.

Taemin doesn´t feel good about her paying for him like that. He feels like a burden and that he´s relying on her never ending kindness. He gets the feeling that she´s a person who´s too kind for her own good.

They sit down furthest back in the bus and a long silence spread out between them. The bus starts to move and Taemin realizes he trust her completely. It makes him a bit shocked. He won´t be able to make it back without her but the thought that she might be tricking him never came to mind. Taemin smiles a bit to himself. He has never trusted a fan enough to actually become something closer to friends before. It hasn´t been possible. Taemin looks at her with a new expression. He flinches a little as she turns to face him and he´s quick to hide his smile.

“The concert was awesome.” She breaks the silence. “Thank you.”

Taemin grins at her proudly as he relaxes somewhat. “Thanks, I´m glad you liked it.” His chest grows warm. “Where did you sit?”

Her eyes seem to sparkle as she smiles at him. “Quite far back, not close to the stage at all but I had a great time.”

Taemin smiles brightly. Her eyes widen a little as she blushes and turns away. It seems s if she can´t control her fangirl self. It´s cute, Taemin thinks as his eyes follow her. She´s his fan, he knows about that, but he can´t help but not feel that bothered about it. She hasn´t tried to glomp, kiss, hug or even touch him since they met at the landmark and he knows she isn´t expecting anything from him. She´s helping him out of pure kindness.  

She smiles at him.“This is unbelievable! I´m sitting here with you, again, …”She murmurs dreamily but her smile fades slowly as she seems to think about something less pleasant. “My friends would never believe me.”

“You haven´t told them that you met us?” Taemin asks her with slightly wide eyes, curious about it.

She looks a bit shy as she simply shakes her head. “That moment was simply… too precious for me to ruin by telling the world about it.” She smiles weakly up at him as she seems to feel really silly.

Taemin is amazed at her words. He´s well aware that almost any fan who got that kind of meeting with him could easily use that to gain a “high position” in the fandom world, to gain a reputation or tell the media, but she kept it to herself all this time. A story about a rising idol being stuck with a female fan for 20 minutes in a small place could have created a big scandal in Korea. Now when he thinks about it he remembers that he was quite surprised that the story didn´t reach the Korean press. Taemin shivers at the thought. Fans would have hated her.

 Why did she keep it to herself? To protect herself from his fans´ wrath? Taemin thinks to himself with a concerned expression on his face.

“Call me egocentric but I didn´t want to share that moment with the rest of the fans…” She swirls some of her hair around her finger as she stares at the ground in embarrassment. “I just couldn´t. I couldn´t even write it down because it was so unrealistic, and, who'd believe me if I told them about it? None. And… I got a feeling that you´d be in trouble if I told anyone.”

Did she try to protect my reputation? The thought makes his heart start to beat faster in his chest. She wasn´t thinking about herself but about him? He laughs in an embarrassed manner, hiding his mouth with his hand, as he glances at her with appreciation. It´s his turn to get a bit shyer than normal.  He can´t understand why he reacts like this.

“Your friends´ wouldn´t believe you?” He repeats after awhile of awkward smiling. He wants to keep the conversation going.

Her smile fades again at this. It surprises him and makes him regret that he asked about it. The girl looks away a bit, as if she´s thinking about what to say, before she starts to talk. He gets a feeling that everything is not alright with her. Especially since she shows signs of that she rather helps him and compliments the concert than talk about her own troubles.

“…You know, the reason why I was alone at that ferris wheel in Paris this February, was because I just had an argument with one of my friends.” She tells him in a sad voice, meeting his gaze for a short moment. “I walk when I´m sad. I walk by myself, only accompanied by my music in my search for an answer to my problems and that´s how I met you. I couldn´t have asked for a better way to cheer up.” Her smile returns again.

Taemin nods in understanding. He doesn´t want to press her to talk more about it since she doesn´t seem comfortable about it at all. She smiles uncomfortably before she changes topic a bit.

“I saved this.”

She suddenly pulls out her wallet. Taemin looks at her in a confused manner as she shows it to him, but a smile grows on his lips as he sees the autograph he wrote her almost a half year ago. His chest gets warmer at the sight of the small piece of paper. Taemin couldn´t have guessed that a piece of paper with his name on it would mean that much to her when he first met her, that winter night after being forcefully pushed into an already occupied passenger cart of a ferris wheel. Taemin has never felt this treasured by a fan before. He´s blushing quite bad so he´s a bit grateful over the fact that the girl doesn´t really look at him right now.

It makes her smile.

“Taemin, I just want you to know that I´m grateful. You and SHINee´s music always manage to cheer me up when I´m down, you know?” She explains before she refers to their song  A-Yo. “When I´m down, I´ll just follow you. It has helped me a lot of times.”

She looks at him straight in the eye and Taemin feels how his heart suddenly flutters strangely in his chest. Her bright eyes look so beautifully serious and honest as she looks at him with a fondness he hasn´t seen before.  She looks a bit vulnerable, as if she just showed him her heart, as she turns silent and averts her gave to look through the bus window.

Taemin doesn´t know how to answer to that kind of confession so he stays silent for a while. “We´re stuck here… together…”  He murmurs to ease up the tension.

Taemin looks at her with an amazed grin on his lips as she turns to face him again. This is the second time this happens. He doesn´t feel afraid anymore. Being with her makes him feel calm and relaxed even though he´s lost in a foreign country with a…wait…he can´t really call her a stranger anymore can he? But can they be considered friends?

“This is becoming a habit.” She grins back at him happily.

“What´s your name?” He asks without thinking.

It´s only when he asked he realizes he doesn´t know anything about her. She´s like an enigma to him. Her eyes widen a bit at this and she opens and closes like a confused goldfish for a moment. Taemin looks at her in wait for a reply. That´s when the bus suddenly stops and a voice in the speakers can be heard. Her eyes widen and Taemin´s question is forgotten.

“Oh, this is our stop! Hurry, we have to get off!”

Taemin is surprised by the sudden change of events but he obeys and gets up to get off the bus. The girl gets off after him and looks around before she leads the way again. Her steps are quite rushed.

“Hide your face.” She whispers. “Fans will be waiting outside.”

Taemin does as she says. He takes on his sunglasses and wraps his scarf around his neck and chin again. He can´t help but tense a bit since he´s now ware that they might run into herds of fans. The girl pretends to be excited by something as she swirls around him to block some girls view as they pass. They start to walk faster when they notice that some girls turned around after they passed them. Taemin can hear how several steps follows them close behind. They´ve been spotted.

“Taemin ah!” A high pitched voice can be heard.

Taemin and the girl´s eyes narrow eerily at the sound. They know they can´t run, they can´t flee, but it´s scary. Taemin glances at her and his heart grows cold at the sight of her terrified expression.

“The hotel is just over there!” She tells him, pointing towards a building he recognizes straight away.

Jonghyun grins as he sees Taemin coming towards them accompanied by the girl. They´re semi-jogging towards them with a herd of fans chasing after them. They look terrified. Key grins to himself though, especially when the two of them gets in safe. The security guards keep the fans out and Taemin has to grab the girls hand and pull her inside with him as she´s about to stay with the fans. They´d kill her. Taemin is quick to shield the girl from the other fans glares by covering her face with his scarf.

“Key, what did you do?” Jonghyun asks his friend, nudging him a bit, even though he´s well aware of Key´s master plan.

The four young men stare at their youngest member as he interacts with the girl. They look quite close as they stand there, a bit panicky, as they talk with each other.

“Nothing…” Key grins back as he winks. “Taemin ah, come here before they´ll take pictures!”

Taemin looks up and nods. Jonghyun stares at Key with an amused grin. Taemin comes running towards them with the girl following behind.

 “You´re such an evil bastard!” Jonghyun tells Key with a broad smile on his lips.

“I know right?” Key laughs at Jonghyun before he fakes a kind smile when Taemin comes. “Welcome back, the food got cold though.”

Taemin pants loudly as he glares at his hyung. “Why?” He asks him in Korean.

“To pay back my debt of course.” Key answers in Korean as well.”For taking pictures of Paris for me.”

Taemin eyes widen. “How did you know she´d…?”

Key smirks at him as he avoids the question as he turns to the girl. Key has his secrets and he won´t tell anyone about it.

“Hi, thank you for taking care of our Taeminnie!” Key smiles at the girl.

The girl nods awkwardly towards Key. She´s nervous about the sudden  turn of events.

Onew just shakes his head at his friends´ foolishness. He was worried sick about Taemin. He´ll scold all of them later, especially for keeping silent about that fan. He had no clue what was happening when Key and Jonghyun suddenly pushed him away from Taemin and Minho earlier today. Onew regards the girl in silence as if he´s trying to figure her out. She doesn´t seem happy be here with them even though it´d be every fan´s dream. The girl notices his stare and tenses even more. She glances at Onew before she bows towards him.

“I´m sorry.” She murmurs in her broken Korean before she continues in English. “I didn´t want to become a burden by being seen with Taemin but…” She can´t speak properly. “I couldn´t leave him… I´m so sorry!” She bows again.

Onew blinks several times in surprise at her and he´s at a loss of words. He can´t make himself blame her for the ruckus that just happened. It seems as if she doesn´t want to become a bother in anyway. Taemin is surprised as well and he has an unpleasant expression on his face. He became a burden to her now. He put her in a tight spot.

“It´s not your fault and don´t worry. We have this under control.” Key tells her.

Her expression tells SHINee that she doesn´t believe them, not at all. She´s blaming herself. Taemin looks at her with a pained expression on his face. He wouldn´t have let her step on that bus with him if he knew this would happen.

“I should go.” She utters breathlessly.

Taemin can´t understand everything that´s being said since she´s speaking more quickly with Key. But he understands that she´s about to leave.

 “You should go by the back exit, come here.” Key smiles at her kindly before he glances at Taemin and murmurs “Do something!!” in Korean.

Taemin looks back at Key with a confused, uncertain, expression. He avert his gaze.They take her to the back entrance where there´s not as much people.  She thanks SHINee with a forced smile and a bow of her head as she prepares to open that door and leave. She turns to Taemin.

“Good bye.” She tells Taemin sadly. “…and I´m sorry.”

“No, no….Thank you, really. You helped me a lot.” Key glares at him to say something more before it´s too late. Taemin swallows his saliva. “Will I see you again?” He asks her hurriedly.

Key face palms himself. That was not what he wanted Taemin to ask her.

She looks up at Taemin with a surprised expression on her face as she opens the back door. She smiles brightly up at him. She gets no chance to answer though since someone, in the small crowd of fans who is at the back, screams something which makes her turn around. Taemin looks towards the fans. There are a group of people there watching the girl with mixed expressions on their faces. Some amazed, some angry and even upset. They seemed to have recognized her even though she´s still wearing Taemin´s scarf. The girl looks as if someone threw a bucket of ice-cold water over her. They´re her friends. She faces Taemin once more, bowing her head slightly as she makes sure no one can see SHINee through the doorway before she runs away to join her friends without another word.

Taemin opens his mouth in a silent protest but no words leave his lips.  His eyes are on her as she reaches her friends. The last thing he sees is how a tall guy grabs her by the wrist, stopping her, with an upset expression. Taemin´s eyes widen at the sight and his stomach turns ice-cold. Her bothered expression and that guy´s deep and upset voice are stuck in his head as Jonghyun shuts the door.

Will he ever see her again?Taemin looks the ground with wide, panicky eyes. SHINee are dead silent for a while as they stand there listening. Did the fans see them? There´s no sound outside so the five of them sighs with relief. It seems that there were a very small amount of fans out there. Hopefully they won´t make this a big deal. Who´re they trying to fool?

“Now, you´ll tell me everything, ok?” Onew enter his leader-mode. “What kind of story should we tell the press if, no when, they find out about this? Key?”

Key laughs weakly as Onew stares at him. Key feels a bit bad about what he did but he doesn´t regret it. Taemin deserved the chance even though he blew it up in the end.

“I´m sorry hyung.” Taemin and Key tell him in a choir.

Onew sighs before he smiles weakly. He can´t stay mad at them since he saw how stressed they were over the fact that a fan entered the hotel with them.

“I just hope it was worth it?” He laughs in a tired manner as he runs his fingers through his hair before he turns his back to them. I´m not looking forward to meet with our manager Onew face palms himself as he cries mentally.