“Excuse me. E-excuse me. Scuse me. Excuse-oof.“

Bobbing and weaving through hoards of fans was a difficult task when you were barely at shoulder-height with them. Even harder if they were tall enough to see over your head. You were either constantly being deflected off of their wall-like bodies or faced with the choice of whether you should take a risk and squeeze through the small spaces between them that most people wouldn’t be able to get through.

Having short legs . They could only carry me so close to the others before I would end up a good distance behind them in the sea of fans. It didn’t help that I tried wearing a stupid pair of heels today to give me some height. At all. Obviously, I was a little bitter at the moment.

Suho was usually kind enough to have me walk in front of him (even though I’m terribly slow and probably just make things harder for him) whenever we needed to navigate through a public place when they knew fans were going to be present. But we had somehow gotten separated in the midst of all the madness and now I was practically tripping through the crowd of rabid fans to get back to them.

“Excuse me!” I tried again, trying to squeeze through a particular group of rowdy teenaged girls.

“Excuse you!” one of the girls retorted, practically knocking me backwards when it seemed like I was trying to get closer to EXO than they were. She was donned in a t-shirt with Sehun’s face plastered all over it, with her other lackeys clothed in something similar. Each of them were wearing too much makeup in order to make them seem older, and the gallons of perfume they must have drowned themselves in could be smelled even from a distance.

“I’m sorry I just need to get through.“ I said, trying to bypass the girls that were most likely younger than me (and being incredibly rude to someone who was older than them). An arm shooting out in front of my face blocked my path.

“Uh, I don’t think so,” she snapped. “I don’t think you’ve noticed, but we were here first.”

“I don’t think you understand, I need to get through-“

“Didn’t you hear me? We were here first. And I hate to break it to you, but its not like our oppas will notice you anyway since you’re like, what, thirteen? Just back off,“ she sneered. 

That did it. I felt my jaw clench in aggravation. Though I wasn’t one to normally think about resulting to violence, I’d never wanted to hit someone so badly before in my life.

“Yah” I started, about to girl a piece of my mind, but was cut short when the girl’s mouth dropped open and her eyes widened in disbelief; her friends behind her erupted into a flurry of shrieks.

I was confused until I felt a large hand grip the top of my head.

“Yah, Shorty, I know its hard for you to see over the crowd, but the rest of the group is this way,” said a deep, familiar voice that belonged to the owner of the hand on my head. My previous mood of aggravation seemed to evaporate completely, and instead was replaced with disgust. Chanyeol. The only member of EXO I usually went out of my way to avoid.

Chanyeol gave a small bow and an idiotic grin to the group of girls when he saw that I had company. Their faces flamed up in a blush. I swear I saw one of them swoon a bit.

“'Scuse me ladies.” He said, already pulling me in front of him. He paused for a second, eyes honing in on one girl in particular. “I like your shirt,” he said to the girl in the group who had his face on her shirt. The girl eyes widened to the point where they looked like they would pop out of her head before they rolled back and she practically passed out into her friend’s arms. Poor girl, she didn’t even see it coming.

I tried rooting my feet before Chanyeol could push me any farther (though it really didn’t do me any good since I was pretty much overpowered). But I spoke before I could miss my opportunity.

“To answer your previous question, I’m actually nineteen. So here’s a word of advice: before you even think about getting your ‘oppas’ to notice you, you should probably learn to respect your elders first, because I’m pretty sure even Sehun is at least three years older than you.”

I barely caught a glimpse at the way the girl’s faces seemed to flush in embarrassment before Chanyeol was urging me forward, but it was enough to make me feel accomplished.

As soon as we were out of their line of sight, I shook Chanyeol’s hand off of my head, only to have him repeatedly put it back on again.

“Quit it!” I shouted in indignation.  

The jerk just grinned.

“Haven’t you heard? All small children must be accompanied by an adult. They’ve announced it over the intercom system repeatedly! I’m just following the rules since apparently, you can’t seem to.”

A growl made its way past my lips before I elbowed him in the abdomen (i.e. the only thing my elbows could actually reach to hit him with a brute amount of force). It was pretty much proven ineffective since the only thing I seemed to hit was toned muscle. Stupid SM training program. Stupid shortness.  Stupid Chanyeol and his stupid height.

He laughed like I had more or less tickled him instead of elbowed him in the stomach, but at least his hand was removed from my head.

I tried to walk a few paces ahead of him, but his damn long legs easily kept up with my short strides. All the while, a smug grin was plastered on his face. He thinks he’s so funny.

Jerk. I hope karma is a real to you in the future.

When we finally made it back to the others, there seemed to be a mass amount of worry and ruefulness coming from a one Kim Joonmyeon.

“I’m so sorry Mina! I didn’t mean to get separated like that! Are you okay? You’re not hurt are you?”

While his worry was appreciated, it was also quite funny.

“I think I’ll live, gramps,” I said jokingly. “Thanks for worrying about me though.”

His worry seemed to evaporate almost completely as he ruffled my hair in an affectionate gesture, causing me to squeak in protest, and pout while I tried to put the misplaced hairs back into place.

And even though Suho made sure to keep me close by after that moment, it seemed like Chanyeol was making it a point to stick unbearably close to me as well, much to my own chagrin.

His mere presence was enough to get on my nerves sometimes. 

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A/N: I don't know what it is about writing in first person that makes me write so sarcastically...

Anyway, I hope this wasn't too terrible (_ _)"

Hopefully the next chapter which includes background information on Chanyeol and Mina's relationship will be up soon.

Thanks for reading!