~Min-hee~

She should have asked for his number. That was cliché, and dumb, but she should have asked for it, because now all she was doing was staring at the price of milk. She'd figured on the way home she'd pick some up so she could engorge herself with cereal or chocolate milk. But she wanted to get home and call Tao to ask if he was alright, but he hadn't given her his number.

And he might do something stupid, he was scared, he was being stalked by a gang that expected him to commit cold-blooded murder. What if he caved? He wasn't that type of person, she was sure, but that other guy, the Messenger, he might push Tao too hard, hard enough for him to break under the pressure like a toothpick trying to hold back the ocean. Min-hee had gotten the hint that he was trying to give her, he was trying to keep her out of this. It made her skin turn icy cold, whoever he was working for wouldn't hesitate to have someone kill her, not even for a second.

She bit her lip, staring at the milk. It scared her too, the gang, she could feel herself shaking, everything seemed too real all at once. It was as if before she was living some fantasy where everything was good and fine and no one had problems, death wasn't a very real thing, no one fought. What a fool she'd been.

She finally opened the glass door to get the milk, deciding on a full gallon after figuring she'd just be back her two days from now if she didn't. The cold air from the refrigerated shelves didn't help her shivering, sending said shiver straight down her spine like someone was touching her. She knew there wasn't anyone there, that she was one of the only people in the store besides a handful of elderly people, but it made her look over her shoulder anyway.

She was being paranoid, the most paranoid she'd been in a while, she hadn't been this way since way back when her mom and dad were still part of her life, back when every second she wondered if this recent fight would lead to a divorce.

Having got her milk, she went down the cereal aisle, searching for something with chocolate, she thought maybe that would fix the almost permanent queasy feeling in her stomach. She knew the knot was from all this gang business, but chocolate was supposed to fix everything. She saw just the cereal she wanted on one of the higher shelves, so she went up to it, reaching for it, but not quite reaching high enough to actually reach it.

She put one foot on the shelf below it, sighing inwardly. This not reaching things sucked.

"Need some help?" She heard someone ask, taking the box of cereal down for her.

She was surprised, turning around to face him while he handed her the cereal. It was that guy with the eyeliner, one of Tao's friends. Baekhyun. He smiled at her showing an almost uncomfortable amount of teeth. His smile almost turning square in shape he was grinning so wide. He had a box of cookies under his arm, obviously not here for any sort of actual grocery shopping.

"Hey, I know you!" He said, then he put a finger to his chin. "Damn, I can't remember your name....uh, Michelle?"

"Min-hee." She corrected. "Thank you." She said, then bowed.

Baekhyun blinked, but with the eyeliner, it looked like he had batted his eyelashes at her. "It's not a big deal, just couldn't let you bring the whole shelf down. It was teetering, by the way, so you really shouldn't stand on it."

Min-hee nodded. Not one of her better ideas, she had to admit, but she wasn't thinking terribly clearly, her thoughts still on Tao and the gang or whatever it was he worked for, on Chanyeol who must be some kind of middle-man for them, on that name on that paper, on the fact that she could be a target now.

"Don't space out, it's alright." He laughed. "But, hey, have you seen Tao lately?" He rubbed his neck with his free hand. "I don't know if you guys are friends or enemies or whatever, but I haven't seen him since the party, and he won't answer my calls, or anyone's calls for that matter."

Tao must not want to talk to anyone then, or at least, he wasn't in the mood to talk to his friends, who probably had no idea what he was doing, not even the slightest inkling that he was dealing with shady criminals for money. Min-hee wondered if she should lie, tell some false truth to help Tao keep his secret. "I um...He hasn't been answering your calls?"

"No. Everything is straight to voicemail." Baekhyun shook his head, his brown wavy hair bouncing with the movement. "And I know he was pissed when he left the party, so I'm worried, and his girlfriend gave me an earful for so reason whatsoever." Baekhyun rolled his eyes.

"I wouldn't know how he was doing." Min-hee lied, just to stop the conversation before it got too involved, before she forgot who she was talking to, before something slipped. And it was very easy to almost slip when Baekhyun mentioned that girlfriend of Tao's. Min-hee had maybe seen the girl for about 3 seconds at the party, and heard her screaming at Tao for about 15 minutes straight. That was enough for Min-hee to hate the b*tch.

Baekhyun nodded. "Well, it was nice running into you anyway," Then he bowed. "Please forgive me for spreading a cupcake all over your dress."

Cupcake? Dress? Oh, yeah... "It's no problem, I forgive you." She'd completely forgotten about that, she still had to get home and treat the stain.

"Huh? Yeah?" Baekhyun asked. "Daebak!" He cleared his throat. "Well, that's good, I thought you were going to come beat me up too, and I've still got bruises from where Tao hit me." He smiled big again.

Min-hee smiled and started walking to the check out, the milk was heavy, she could hardly stand to hold it anymore, and her arm hurt in general from Tao yanking her off of Chanyeol. He really needed to watch how much of that strength of his he used on people, she got the feeling it might hurt for days where he grabbed her. It was strange how when he was hugging her, he was so gentle, but then in less then a second, he'd be rough.

She put the milk and cereal on the counter for the cashier to ring up, only realizing then that Baekhyun was still behind her.

"So you really haven't heard from Tao? I mean, he's a pretty talkative guy when you get to know him, can't keep a secret for anything." Baekhyun continued, putting the cookies on the counter.

Can't keep a secret. That was true, he had told her about all this a little suddenly, it surprised her. "I...no, I haven't heard from him, we're not exactly friendly." Not exactly.

After the cashier said the total, Min-hee went digging for her wallet. She patted herself down, looking for it. Damn, she'd probably left it home when she was in a rush to check on Tao. Min-hee, you are the most ditsy girl in the mornings. She sighed inwardly, about to tell the cashier she couldn't pay for it.

"I'll cover it." Baekhyun spoke up, laughing. "Forgot your wallet, Min-hee?" He took his own wallet out of his back pocket and handed the cashier a black credit card.

Min-hee looked down at the counter, unsure of where else to look in a situation like this. "S-sorry, thank you very much..." She pushed up her glasses. "You didn't have to."

Baekhyun's eyes widened. "Yeah I did, you look like you're starving, and it's seriously nothing." He grinned again. "Besides, we have mutual friends, right? Though Tao is good at playing it tough, like I said, he can't keep secrets, with his mouth or his body language. He likes you, and to be honest with you, I can't stand his current GF." Baekhyun shrugged with a smile.

Min-hee smiled too. She wasn't sure if it was because she agreed with him and was glad she wasn't the only one who thought that, or because Baekhyun wasn't some snobby rich kid and was sweet and kind which surprised her.

After the Cashier handed Min-hee her the grocery bags, she bowed one last time to Baekhyun, who just grinned widely and winked at her. then she walked out of the store, ready for the walk home. It wasn't far, she'd planned it so that this was halfway there, so it just ought to be good exercise. She was used to the walk by now anyway.

It wasn't like the nighttime, when everything was quiet, but it wasn't noisy either, it was too early in the morning to have a terribly large amount of people around, but usually there were a few people jogging or something. There wasn't this morning. The place was bare, and Min-hee found it increasingly odd.

She rounded a corner, taking her usual route home, humming a tune to herself. She couldn't remember the name, but it stuck in her head like glue, and she found herself always humming it when she was alone.

Then a hand came over her mouth, pulling her backwards. She screamed, but by that point it was muffled, and there was no one around to hear it. She dropped the grocery bags and reached up to pry the hand away from her mouth. A blindfold was put into her vision, blinding her completely as it was tied roughly. There had to be two people assaulting her, one couldn't tie a blindfold and hold her mouth at the same time.

She bit the hand covering her mouth until she tasted blood, but they didn't let go, they kept their hand clamped over her mouth, and she couldn't pull it off. Soon enough she felt hands pulling her arms behind her back, tying them together. She was losing this fight, greatly. She was going to be kidnapped, and there was nothing she could do about it, she screamed louder, even if it was muffled, she was frantic, scared, she didn't want to die.

"You know what this is about." A gruff voice whispered in her ear. She was instantly disgusted. But she knew what he meant. It wasn't about money, couldn't be. The first thought that came to her mind, was that this was what Tao was trying to prevent, this was exactly what he thought might happen.

Then suddenly, the hand let go of her mouth, yanking her sideways and making her fall to the ground. She had no idea what was happening, she couldn't see anything, the blindfold blocked everything out, but she heard that same gruff voice curse.

"What the hell?" Said a second voice. "Kid, you better beat it unless you want to end up--."

"I think you better beat it before this gets ugly. I really hate ugly." A third voice said.

Min-hee froze, she knew that third voice, maybe not that angry, but the voice was unmistakable--Baekhyun. She almost died from relief that someone had heard her screaming. But then she realized that he'd probably just get hurt, Baekhyun hadn't fought back at all when Tao had come after him.

The first one laughed. "That's a lot of weight to throw around for a guy wearing makeup, you're a terrible bluff."

Then Min-hee heard a crack. A loud, violent, sickening, crack. She whimpered. She hoped they didn't hurt Baekhyun, she almost wished he'd walk away and just call the police, just so he wouldn't have to get hurt for her sake.

Then she heard screaming, not Baekhyun, but one of those other guys. Was Baekhyun maybe...? Was he not bluffing? Could he really have meant what he said, having just sat there and took it when it was Tao doing the bullying?

"You'll pay for this, I'll remember your face, Pretty boy!" She heard one of them say. Did that mean they'd just run away? What did Baekhyun do?

She felt someone reach behind her head and untie the blindfold--Baekhyun. He was smiling lightly, looking just the same as he did before, not a bruise or scratch on him as far as she could tell. Then he reached and untied her hands too. "You okay, Min-hee?"

"I...I..." Min-hee started, then she burst into tears. It was too much. She was relieved, and scared, and she wasn't sure how to ever thank Baekhyun, how to even begin to recover from what had just happened, she felt so incredibly violated. She couldn't even stop the tears, and she didn't have the energy to wipe them away.

Baekhyun hugged her. "Shh, I know...It's okay." He gently rubbed her back, trying to get her to calm down, though she wasn't going to calm down, she couldn't. "Screw Tao and his not answering his damn phone, I'm taking you to him, I know this has something to do with him." He backed out of the hug to look her in the eyes. "He's taking responsibly and protecting you, okay? Whether he likes it or not."

Min-hee nodded, feeling numb and far away from herself.

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A/N: LONG CHAPTAH~! It had to be done ;) I only briefly proof read it :P

So yeah, Baekkie is pretty dang B.A. :3