Chapter 17

Onew was half-asleep in the back of SHINee’s van. 

He had gotten in late from his date with Lex last night and had been so overjoyed that it had gone so well that he couldn’t seem to manage to make himself drift off.

His eyelids dragged after the few hours that he had managed to snatch, but he didn’t care.  He was going to get to see Lex again today and they had their little secret of the rings which gave Onew a conspiratorial thrill. 

Onew’s phone gave three quick beeps – his text message tone.

He looked at the phone and saw Wife as the sender.  It was from Lex!

He flipped open the phone, but rather than a cheerful message, he was greeted with a simple, Find me.  I need to show you something.

It was cryptic, more so than Lex usually was.  What did she need to talk about that she felt the need to warn him ahead of time, and that couldn’t wait the hour until they were going to see each other?

Onew furrowed his brow, something was wrong.  He just knew it and he hoped that Lex was alright.  

*****

He tracked Lex down as she headed out of make-up.  Her eyes had flown wide upon seeing him and she had swiveled her head around real quick to see if there was anyone else around before grabbing his wrist and tugging off in the direction of the maze of hallways that filled the back of the studio. 

“Lex, what’s going on?”  Onew was genuinely confused.

Lex bit her lip, rounded a corner and stopping them. 

Once she had assured herself that they were outside of the reach of any prying eyes, she reached into her back pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, folded into quarters. 

“This was taped to my door this morning.”  Was the only explanation that he got.

Onew gave the unusually serious Lex a hard look before unfolding the paper.  One look told him exactly why Lex was so nervous.

Someone had seen them on their date. 

It was a picture printed out from someone’s home computer, but it had been taken with a high powered camera and the identities of those involved were unmistakable.  It was Lex and Onew last night, sitting on that bench and kissing after they had exchanged rings. 

“Oh man,” Onew whispered, tearing his eyes away and looking up at Lex and she stood with her hands clasped together, rubbing her right thumb over her left thumb nail.  “It’ll be alright Lex.”  He pulled her in for a quick hug that she did not automatically return, and then only half heartedly.

“They know where I live Jinki.” She said, a tremor in her voice.  “And there was a note written in marker.  It said, ‘Leave Onew-oppa alone! We can always reveal this picture!’”  Lex rubbed her forehead, “I took a picture of it before I wiped it off – I didn’t want everyone else in the building seeing it.”

Onew looked at the photo she had taken with her phone.  There was a little symbol drawn down under the message and Onew recognized it as something that appeared frequently on his fan mail.  All of it from the same girl. 

“It’s from a sasaeng,” Onew said calmly, passing the phone back.

“Those crazy stalker people?”  She asked, almost incredulously, “Really?”

“Yeah, they have been known to break into our apartments before, lay in our beds, take pictures in our clothing…”  Onew’s voice was matter-of-fact, having been dealing with the extreme fans for longer and more frequently than he would have ever liked.

“So, what does that mean?” Lex asked, sounding confused and a little scared.

Onew smiled at her and pulled her in for a hug, glad when she returned it right away.  “It means that they won’t reveal the picture.  Not really, because they probably think that it would in some way hurt my career.  They just want me to know them, to recognize them, that’s why they included their signature design.”

Lex’s voice was muffled by Onew’s shirt, “But I shouldn’t worry?”

“Nah,” Onew scoffed, “They’ll leave you alone.  We just have to be more careful on our dates.”

Lex nodded into his coat and took a deep, calming breath.  “Alright.”

They stayed there for a few more minutes before they decided to head back, knowing that people would start searching for them if they were away too long.