He’d been dreading this day all summer: his return to Chungdamn High school.

He’d been ecstatic when school had ended for their summer break. It was a month of what he called peace; though not many would consider the life of a pop star peaceful. He’d spent the end of last school term working with his fellow group members on their latest album, which had been released in July. They all had done major changes to their appearances, mainly in terms of their hairstyles. He had hoped that his new hair would throw off some of the people that attended his school.

 After talking to the one of the other members of his group though, his hopes were shattered. The other man had flat out told him: “Your name and face are known all over the world, especially in Korea, and with the new video that just came out, they’re all going to know what you look like.”

Still, he was annoyed to hear it said aloud. Why couldn’t they leave him alone? He hated going to school. Girls would throw themselves or latch onto his arm, or they’d take pictures constantly. He use to complain but one of the commented saying, “Well you take enough pictures as it is with SHINee. Why do you care so much now?”

He’d just stopped arguing or reacting after that, though that didn’t help with the others. All the guys at school just bullied him. Pushing, and shoving, throwing bits of paper and erasers at him. He’d long stopped responding to it all. At first he had wished that he hadn’t been chosen at his audition.

“Taemin, what are you thinking?” He heard to his left. He turned to look at his leader, Onew, before turning back to the window, pressing his forehead against it.

 “Just about the hell I’m about to go back to,” he replied back, irritation oozing out every pore and dripping from every word.

Onew’s quiet chuckled was quickly followed by, “Think of it this way, you have to put up with it for three more terms and then you can do whatever you want.”

Taemin groaned, “But that’s not till February of 2012! What am I going to till then, hyung?”

The older man sighed, “I guess what you’ve been doing. Just ignore everyone and go about your studies. Don’t start any trouble. Don’t do anything that the tabloids could use against you or us.” Taemin sighed heavily. “Yah! Don’t be like that!” Onew continued, “You know how our manager is when the tabloids get their hands on something bad. Especially about us. They hardly ever have anything on us. That whole issue with Jonghyun’s girlfriend was bad enough. Imagine if they catch wind of you acting out or fighting in school. Imagine if they got their hands on video!”

Taemin sighed again, “Sorry, hyung. I haven’t done anything in the past; I don’t plan on starting anything now.  I just don’t know how much more I can take. It’s just gotten worse over the years. With my last year coming up, I’m expecting it to be the worst yet.” They turned a corner and his hell came into view. The mankae groaned, yet again, and leaned back in his seat.

Onew reached over and clasped the younger man’s shoulder, “Hey they can’t see you yet. So you still have a minute of privacy. Look, just keep your head up. These terms will fly by, just watch. Before you know it, you’ll have graduated and you can do SHINee full-time.” Taemin turned his head, still firmly against the seat, towards his hyung with a disbelieving look. “Who knows maybe something will be different this year. Maybe you’ll make a friend here that’s not a crazed fan or like the others,” Onew continued.

The red-head scoffed, “Yeah right, and I’m about to develop Rain’s abs and become the most loved and sought after celebrity.” 

He felt Onew’s hand began to shake slightly, probably from laughter, but in as straight as voice as he could muster, he replied, “I guess we all have something to hope for. Your hyungs and I want you to study hard and do well in school. So I’ll see you later. We’ll all be here to pick you up. We have practice for a show later.” Taemin nodded slightly as the car halted. He took a deep breath, reaching up to squeeze Onew’s hand once, and opened this door.

As soon as the door opened a swarm of people were upon him, a large bit of them trying to take pictures of Onew, others taking snapshots of him. He turned and waved goodbye to his hyung and shut the door, the tinted windows blocking him once again from view. As Onew disappeared from view, the flashes of cameras turned to him and it began again. He tried to make his way to the school doors through the dots in his eyes from the flashes. ‘You’d have thought that after two years people would be used to me going here. ‘

After a few shoves and shoulder bumps, he made it inside. He quickly found his homeroom and ran to it for safety. He usually waited to enter school right before the bell rang as to avoid as many people as possible. A few minutes later, people start filling the seats around him and the bell sounds. The teacher walks in and introduces herself and takes roll. When she came to his name, she looked up and stared at him. This normally happened. She winked at him and continued on calling the other names.

She finished roll call and proceeded to handout study schedules. They still had a few minutes of homeroom left and he’d be off to his first class. He felt something hit the left side of his head. Looking down he saw a bit of eraser sitting a few inches from his foot. He sighed, slipping into depression that only school brought. He placed his chin on the palm of his hand and thought of the performances that he’d given over the summer and smiled.

He was about half way through the steps of Lucifer in his head, when the door opened and a girl who appeared to be about a year younger than everyone in the room entered. She quickly walked to the teacher and handed her a note. As she turned to leave, her eyes landed on him and grew wide. He quickly smiled and looked down at his desk. ‘Aish, please don’t have a fan moment,’ he desperately thought. The sound of a closing door met his ears a few seconds later. He continued to stare at a spot on the corner of his desk till the teacher called out, “Lee Taemin, you’re needed in the principal’s office right away.”

He looked at her shocked, but nodded and gathered his things, making a hasty exit. What could the principal want? He’d never done anything wrong. His school record was clean! He began to mull over ideas when a door opened to his left and a girl walked out, fastening her bag and not looking. He had no time to react and ran straight into her, sending both of them to the ground. She landed on her side, her bag burst open and her belongings came tumbling out. He had thrown his hands out, his books falling to the ground amidst her things, to try and catch himself. He only succeeded in not crushing her but still landed half on top of her. They laid there; he was frozen, afraid to move.

He looked down at her to try and assess the situation. She had landed on her left side, her left arm pinned to the ground and her right hand on the floor beside her face. Her face was relaxed with the exception of her eyes, which were clamped shut. She lifted her right hand and touched his cheek and hair. Her eyes relaxed but stayed closed as she said, “Are you okay? Sorry about the door.”

He didn’t say anything, just laid there not knowing what to say. The shock now from the random caress she’d done. She just smiled and quietly asked, “Umm, okay. Sorry but would you mind getting off me. My left arm is starting to hurt.” He quickly sat back and offered his hand out to her to help her. She merely placed her right hand on the ground pushed herself up.

“You didn’t answer my question. Are you okay?”

Normally he wouldn’t think this as strange except for the fact that she was facing away from him. He leaned to his right and looked at her face. Her eyes were still shut but she was smiling this time. He experimentally waved a hand in front of her face about a foot away. She just sat there smiling, waiting for an answer. Dropping his hand, he quietly answered, “I’m fine. Are you hurt?” She immediately turned to face him, eyes still shut.

“Oh! I’m sorry. I was facing the wrong way. I’m fine. My arm is a little sore though. But I’ll be fine. Thank you,” she continued to smile as she gave him a little bow. She leaned forward, her fingers skimming the floor.

Taemin wondered why she didn’t just open her eyes and look around. He leaned forward and quickly gathered all the fallen items and sorted his out from the rest. “Here you go,” he said as he handed her the remaining items, “Sorry I can’t stay. I was called to the principal’s office and he’s probably wondering where I am. Bye.” With that he stood and proceeded to his original destination.

“Hey! Wait!”

He turned to find the girl still on the floor her hands skimming her belongings, her brows knitted together with worry. “Sorry to bother you, but…..” She bit her lip and continued to feel her fallen items. Taemin had never seen such weird behavior. Part of him told him to just continue to the principal’s office while the other part was too fascinated with the girl’s actions to go anywhere.

She turned towards him, and said, “I can’t find my cane. It’s white and it has a red tip. Do you see it anywhere?” His eyebrow shot up as he looked around the hall. Something about two feet to his left caught his eye.  Intrigued, he walked forward and picked up the object and examined it. It was small and looked to be folded. He would have examined it further but he remembered that he had to go the principal’s office. He walked back over to the girl and held it out for her. She didn’t move, just turned her head a little from side to side. He still had his hand extended out but she didn’t take the object from him. Maybe he needed to speak. “Here you go.” She jumped slightly at the sound of his voice but reached her hand out in his direction. As she grasped it, her fingers skimmed over his, if by accident, he didn’t know. She took it from him and ran her fingers over it and smiled.

“Gamsahabnida,” she said, smiling and bowing slightly as she gathered her things and moved to a bench. He watched, fascinated with her actions. He watched her for a few more seconds before turning and continuing on down the hall, looking back at the mysterious girl every few seconds.

Finally making it to the office, he quickly knocked and heard a low, “Enter.” He entered the room and bowed to the older man and sat in one of the leather chairs on his side of the desk.

Mr. Park smiled, “Lee Taemin. I trust you had a good summer? You seemed pretty busy.”

Taemin nodded once, “Yeah. It was busy. We had our second album come out, so we had to do a lot of promoting.”

A laugh emitted from the older man’s chest, “I saw. I’m glad to hear about your success. But I do wonder. How do the other students treat you?”

His face fell for a second before his mask fell back into place. “They’re fine. They still take lots of pictures but it’s mostly the newer students that do that. The older ones, I believe, have gotten use to me,” he gave a small, fake laugh as the older man watched him. He didn’t like lying to people, but he didn’t want to be given special considerations just because of his stupid classmates or his fame.

The man nodded and looked at his desk. “Taemin, I called you here today to ask you for a favor. There’s a new student starting today in your grade. She just moved in with her sister. This may seem like a strange request but she has special needs that we have to see to. Now I know with your ‘outside activities’ that it might hinder you from helping her. I thought that you’d like to be her .”

Taemin’s brow scrunched in confusion, “What kind of ‘special needs’?”

He sighed, “Well, when she was younger she got into a rather strange accident that caused her to lose her sight.” The red-head’s eyebrows disappeared under his hair at the man’s frankness. Mr. Park continued, “She’s blind. She needs an around school, someone to show her where everything is.”

He couldn’t come up with anything to say. “But- but- ……why did you choose me?”

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Okay so this is my first SHINee fic. So please be gentle!! ^_^;; 

Thanks to my awesome beta, Kate, whose been my beta and best friend for a year now. <3 She's been with me through my other stories and waits patiently for more chapters from me......cause I hardly have time to write. =(

But I will try my best to have a new update for you guys at least once a week. =) If not then you can chase me down and make me write it!! Lol.

If you have any suggestions for the story or any ideas of what you'd like to see tell me. 

I LOVE comments and constructive criticism. ^_^ 

And if anyone would like to make a banner for me, I'd love your forever!!! (Cause I don't have photoshop on my computer anymore. =( )Just message me or something. =D 

Here's your end of chapter treat!! (Yes I'll be posting one at the end of every chapter <3)

*Edit March 2, 2011* 

I started rescearching school terms in Korea and found out I had it all wrong. So you'll notice very few differences. I had based it off of American school systems. But it's fixed now. =)