Jessica walked through the hallways carefully. It was quite crowded—staff and musicians lined the hallways. She stared at the ground as she walked, unable to meet anyone’s eyes. Most people side-stepped for her, but she accidentally bumped into someone.

“Sorry,” she began, looking up, and then she couldn’t find any more words to say. It was him. It was the man who had been standing behind her. It was the man who had felt her up.

He grinned at her, his eyes searching her body. They were incredibly close, as she just bumped into him. He probably didn’t move on purpose, Jessica realized. When she bumped into him, he grabbed her arms. He hadn’t let go. Jessica almost panicked. What was she going to do? She wanted to escape.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder, nearly causing her to jump, before she realized whose hand it was.

“Hey, Sica-noona, you okay?” Key asked calmly, staring straight into the man’s eyes. He tightened the grip on Jessica’s shoulder, pulling her back. The man got the hint and let go, walking away.

“Y-yeah, I’m okay,” she replied, after the man left. “Now I’m okay.”

“Who the hell is he?” Key glowered. “How dare he—on national television—and then again backstage?” The SHINee member was so mad he couldn’t even form coherent sentences. For a second, they stood in silence. Key thought hard about who the man could be. Key was sure he recognized the man from someplace, but he couldn’t remember where. Jessica tried to calm down and put herself back together again.

“Thank you,” she said, breaking the silence. “Really—thank you.” Hearing the vulnerability in Jessica’s voice made Key cool off. This was something that had to be approached calmly, he realized. He couldn’t just hunt the guy down and kill him—no matter how much he wanted to. That would only make things worse.

“It’s no problem,” he replied. He hugged her, briefly. It couldn’t last too long—there were many people around. A long hug would induce suspicion. As he hugged her, he whispered in her ear, “We’ll fix this, noona. I promise. Me, Jonghyun, Minho, Onew, Taemin—we all know what that creep did. We’ll figure out who he is, and I swear we’ll get revenge.” Key quickly pulled away, not wanting to attract any undue attention. If this scandal lit up, it probably wouldn’t end well—especially for Jessica.

“I—I should go,” Jessica said, realizing that she needed to change before her next schedule. Despite what had happened, she was still busy, after all.

“Take care,” Key said. Jessica nodded, but it was easy to see that she was shaken. Despite her tough front, Jessica was a very vulnerable person. She was indeed an ice princess—a princess that could shatter from the slightest blows. Key wanted to comfort her more, but Jessica was already slowly shuffling away.

Walking towards SHINee’s dressing room, Key speculated how things were going to proceed from here. He had come out to use the bathroom. Now, he had to inform the other members of just what had happened—he needed to confirm their fears that Jessica was indeed felt up by that man.