Chapter 26

Lex was sitting up in her hospital bed, Onew standing at her side with one arm draped protectively behind her back. 

Yet another police officer was there interviewing her about what had happened.

“Charlie?”  Lex asked looking genuinely confused and glancing between Onew and the officer.  “I haven’t seen Charlie in weeks.  No, it was a pack of girls who did this to me.”

“Girls?”

“Yeah, about six or seven.  High school aged, maybe college…”  Lex shook her head and then winced placed one hand against the bandage wrapped around her forehead.  “I didn’t know them, but I recognized a couple of them as fans who hung around the We Got Married! filmings.”

“You think your fans did this to you?”

“No,” she sounded sad, “Not my fans.”  Lex looked up sadly at Onew, her eyes apologizing as the realization hit Onew.

His fans – his fans – had done this.  This had happened to Lex because of who he happened to be. 

“Were these sasaeng fans Ms. Green?”

“Yes.  Two of them I’ve been seeing around since we started filming.  A couple more of them have filtered in over the past few months.  The rest of them I’ve never seen before.”

“Did they say anything?”

“Yes, but I can’t remember.  It was all in Korean…” Lex’s words stopped short, “I was just trying to figure out what the hell was going on, my mind was too focused on survival to spare any energy towards translating.  I just…I don’t know…”

“It’s alright ma’am.  Have you had encounters with these fans before?”

Lex wouldn’t look at Onew, and he knew before she answered just what it would be.  His heart sank – it was his fault.  It was all his fault.  For all of his fist waving about Charlie, it wasn’t the man’s fault at all.  Lex had gotten hurt because of him, because of her connection to him. 

“I’ve been getting some hate mail, much more since I started the show with Onew.  Most of them say things like, ‘He’s too good for you.’ Or ‘Leave him alone, you’ll drag him down.’  People would call out on the streets.  I had someone throw their drink on me once when I was out walking.  I’ve even found messages left on my door before…but I never took any of it seriously…I thought it sort of came with the territory…”

“Did you ever report any of this?”

“To my manager and my company, but they weren’t too worried either.  They’ve had much worse things happen to talent they’ve handled before so because they weren’t worried, I wasn’t worried.  They said it was 'just sasaengs.'” 

"Can you walk me through what happened, as best you can remember?"

Lex closed her eyes and Onew recognized the look of intense concentration on her face. 

"I was home earlier than I was supposed to be...maybe that's why I caught them.  They looked so shocked to see me when I came in so they must have got their hands on my schedule somehow and thought that I would be out."

"Why were you back early?"

"Filming wrapped early - PD and MC both got sick, probably food poisoning from the lunch – but it would be really hard to keep filming without them so we were going to go back and try filming the rest the next day.  Anyway, I walked in and was automatically face to face with one of the girls.  She'd been digging through the pockets of my coats...maybe she thought she would find money...I dunno."  Lex tilted her head to the right, her eyes still closed and brow furrowing deeper.  "She screamed and the other girls came running.  Before I knew it one of them had grabbed my shirt and I was being pulled into the apartment.  They threw me on the floor and someone tried to kick me but I rolled.  All of them were grouping around and I was scared – I just started kicking..." 

A few tears were starting to leak from Lex's closed eyes and Onew wanted more than anything to jump up and remove them, but he was transfixed, picturing everything in his mind and frozen in shock and fear at the images that assaulted him. 

"I got a couple of them in the shins before...someone pulled my hair and pulled me up and then I was on the couch and someone grabbed my arm," she touched her shoulder that was held against her torso with a brace, "they yanked it behind my back and I felt something pull funny.  I was disoriented for a moment but that was enough.  Someone sat against my legs and I couldn't kick and then there was just a bunch of fists and voices..." she trailed off, and finally opened her eyes to look at the police officer who watched her with compassionate eyes. 

"I'm sorry..." she whispered, "I can't remember much else...just the fight...I couldn't tell you who was doing what to me...but the one who grabbed me initially – she was the ringleader.  She called the shots."

The officer wrote that down and sighed, "You've been through a lot Ms. Green.  Now, just a few more questions and you'll be good to go."

"Of course," Lex answered, trying to smile but wincing as bruised muscles and sutured skin complained against the strain. 

“I know you said you couldn't pinpoint who attacked you in which manner, but you said you had spotted these girls around set before.  So you at least remember their faces from walking in, correct?  Do you remember their faces?  If we asked you to identify someone could you?”

“Yes.” Lex said confidently.  “I didn't see everyone clearly, but there are four of them that I remember their faces.  I won’t ever forget them.”  There was a small shudder that went through Lex and she looked away, her eyes dark and clouded. 

Onew reached out and grabbed Lex’s hand, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles.

She granted him a small, sad smile.

She continued in a small, tired voice, “Charlie is an , but he’s not abusive.  He wouldn’t have the balls to lay a finger on me.  It wasn’t him.”  Lex settled back against the pillows of her bed and the nurse who had been standing by shoed them all away.

"It's time for her to get some rest."  

Note: At the time I wrote this, there was a big deal in the news about JYJ and sasaeng fans.  I couldn't believe the lengths that these girls would go to and was amazed that they weren't getting in trouble legally for stalking.  I guess I have a habit of incorportating social issues that I don't like into my writing...like the gay issue in The Showdown...guess this is just another of those things from me.