Insanity

Lee Taemin stared out the window of a white van that gleamed in the pale sunlight.  His dark colored eyes happily followed along with the puffy, white clouds that gathered around the pale sun.  His heart danced to a very magical beat.  He just couldn’t wait to get to the town he had read so much about.

Minho glanced in his direction and his fine lips spread into a wide, stupid, mischievous grin. “What are you so happy about,” he nudged, knowing full well that his nudging was in vain, for he would never ever get a straight answer out of Lee.  Hopefully he tells me soon!  Ha! Fat chance and he knew it! Oh well, no matter how unproductive it was to hope, it was well worth it for silly, unknown reason.

Suddenly, something in the distance caught Lee’s attention.  A shadow, no, two shadows.  They were very faint in appearance and he wasn’t so sure he had seen really anything at all.  It could have been just his imagination.  His head was always so full of random stuff that caused him to come up with many of his “Hey, guys! I just had an idea!” and, more often than not, he always seemed to get himself into trouble in the end.

However, the van slowed down as it entered into a more crowded area, and his smile faded into a firm line of concentration.  Now that the van wasn’t going so fast, he noticed one of the shadows rush closer.  Curious, he turned his body as to where his front end faced the window, his right leg folded beneath him and his left leg pressed against the edge of the greyish colored carpeted seat. 

He squinted his eyes and pressed himself as close to the window as he possibly could.  Something’s wrong. “Please, pull over,” he mumbled, meaning to sound louder.  Why he hadn’t sounded louder was entirely beyond him.

Minho, who had continued to stare at him with that same grin of his, now let his lips slide into a confused frown as he raised his eyebrows at him. “What?” What’s his problem all of a sudden? Did he really just demand that we pull over? Could he trust his ears? He scooted himself closer to the maknae, turning ever so slightly to his right.

Lee noticed a much bigger shadow come up behind the smaller one.  He saw the smaller shadow yank forwards in the direction of the van.  He quickly rolled down the window and it was done just in time to hear a young woman’s voice. “GET OFF OF ME THIS INSTANT, YOU PIG,” he heard.

Frantically, Lee unbuckled himself. “Pull over right now, Onew!” He readied his thin, pale hands at the handle on the door, ready to open it at any moment and jump out.  Come on, please, just pull over! For some reason he didn’t understand, he felt that deep within his very own heart that someone was in trouble.  It could be just his imagination, he knew, but, hey, at least he tried. 

Onew, the leader and oldest of the group, spoke in a cool, calm voice. “Not now, Lee.  We have a schedule to keep.” Somehow he ended up driving the van.  Somehow, when a driver didn’t accompany the band, he always ended up driving.  Finally, after a moment of consideration, he sighed and rolled his eyes as he gradually pulled over onto the side of the road and came to a stop.  

In the very back row of seats, Key rubbed his eyes with a groan. “Jeez, Lee! Stop making so much noise,” he fussed in a sleepy voice.  What’s his problem?! He noticed the van had stopped and sat up, peeking just over the back of the row of seats in front of him.

Lee yanked at the handle on the inside of the door and swung the door open as he hopped out of the van and set himself into a full blown run.  He had no idea if the tiny shadow was still where his eyes had left it, but he ran in the direction he remembered he had seen it.

Minho stared after the maknae as he unbuckled himself. “Lee Taemin, what are you doing?!” It was too late, for his words were left just hanging there with the gentle breeze that played with his luscious, raven locks.  Where is he going?

It seemed to be dead silent with the exception of Jonghyun’s loud snoring from the front passenger seat.  Lee Taemin was behaving as if he had officially lost his sanity and he ran off ever so suddenly.  What would any of them do? Well, whatever it was, Lee was bound to get himself into some sort of trouble.

Onew unbuckled himself, turned towards Jonghyun and reached for him. “Hey, Jonghyun, please, wake up,” he said, shaking him ever so gently.  His left palm came into contact with something wet and he recoiled and wiped his hand on the side of his pants, making an expression of disgust. “Jeez, man,” he mumbled.

Slowly but surely, he opened his eyes. “What is it,” he mumbled.  The right corner of his lip and the right side of his chin felt wet and he carelessly wiped the wet away with the palm of his right hand.  Noticing the way Onew stared at him, his eyes widened and he shrugged. “What?”

Onew sighed as he tried to forget about Jonghyun drooling in his sleep as well as snoring. “Well, for one thing, you were snoring yet again, and you drool in your sleep, but that’s not important right now.  Right now, we have to go and find out where Lee rushed off to.”

Minho made sure that his cell phone was still placed neatly inside of his shorts pocket as he slid out of the van, slowly looking around. “I’ll go on foot.” I have this weird feeling that something is up.  Was he also losing his sanity? Then again, it was hard to tell whether or not he was even sane in the first place. 

Onew spun around in his seat and glared at Minho. “No, you will not!” We absolutely cannot afford to get split up in this strange neighborhood! The neighborhood they were just on the inside of was one of poverty and they had a scheduled charity concert.

Key grabbed his cell phone from the small compartment at his feet and slid it inside of his shorts pocket.  He then reached over, flipped the latch on the seat in front of him and folded it down. “I’ll go with him.” Better me than Jonghyun and Onew needs to drive the van, he thought.

Onew hesitated.  Should I let them go? The members of Shinee were very much like family to him.  He didn’t know what he would do without them.  Memories he held close to his heart appeared.  He didn’t want to, but he knew what he had to do.  His face softened. “Alright, but stay together.”

Key stared at him with raised eyebrows.  Gosh, he’s so worried that it’s laughable! “What are you so worried about? We have our cell phones.  They are international cell phones.  They should work here in America.” He knew full well that Onew was a total worrywart. 

Meanwhile, Lee heard voices as he came upon a man who appeared to be in his mid-thirties, yelling at a young person who appeared to be a mere child.  They didn’t look to him as if they were right smack dab in the middle of role playing or acting.  In fact, the young person looked as if she didn’t want to be there.  

The man glared at her as he approached her. “What the fuck! Why you…” He reached out and roughly grabbed her wrists, causing her to grimace.  The man got all up into her face, huffing and puffing. “Don’t you ever do that to me again,” he roared, his saliva falling onto her delicate flesh.

She glared defiantly at him as her ears burned with the man’s foul language.  She hated every single word he uttered to her and she absolutely refused the sickening deal that had been made concerning her.  She had spent hours the same exact day she had been sold coming up with ways to escape and now it was the afternoon of the very same day she had been sold. “Did anyone ever drown that tongue of yours in salt?!”

“Little bitch!” He released her wrists, got behind her, slid his right hand beneath her blouse and under her left bra cup.  His head lowered as his lips nuzzled at her neck. “You like that, don’t you,” he said as his hand tightened around her breast.  He licked at her neck as if it were some delicious snack for him.

Tears gathered in her big blue eyes and a shudder raced along her spine. “Please, stop,” she whispered, her words coming in a gasp.  Her stomach recoiled at the man’s touch.  I think I’m going to vomit.  Bile rose into her throat, burning the insides like fire.

Lee stopped and glared at the man.  He didn’t like what the man was doing to the young person. “Hey, you!” He stepped forward onto the front porch of a house that seemed to have witnessed years.  This isn’t right.  He had no idea how to fight off someone, but that wasn’t about to stop him from trying to do so.  The young person counted on him.

The young person gasped and stared at him with surprise.  She hadn’t noticed him right there.  Tears gathered in her eyes and spilled over onto her cheeks. “H-Help,” she barely managed to choke out.  She felt utterly defenseless at that point.  I hate it here so much! She would have much rather have been eaten by an alligator than to live the life of a slave.   

The man squeezed her breast harder. “What do you want?” He was a selfish, unstable man who always wanted to win.  He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he didn’t care.  The young person had been sold to him.  She was his property as far as he was concerned. “I bought this bitch fair and square.”

Lee gasped and his eyes widened.  He hesitated in his pursuit.  Wait.  Um…if he bought her, might it be stealing if I take her away from him?  Does it matter that she’s not happy being with him?

The young person shook her head.  She squeezed her eyes shut and gasped. “N-NO,” she screamed, tears streaming down her face and dripping from her chin.  She flailed her arms and kicked her feet, eventually freeing herself.  She tried to run away, but she didn’t get far before she collapsed onto her knees and vomited, all the images of the man’s penis staring her down.  I hate this memory!

Then, as if to banish those memories forever, she banged her head on the wooden railing.  That was when she noticed out of the corner of her eye a young blonde haired boy and a young raven haired boy approach and stopped banging her head.  Scared that they were there for her, she jumped off the side of the porch where the wooden railing was broken and dove beneath the house.

However, just as quickly as she had gotten herself out of sight, she noticed a huge shadow prowling about and ran back to where everyone could see her.  The man tried to grab onto her, but he ended up tripping and falling.  She just kept on running and she grabbed Lee’s hand, dragging him along behind her. “Thanks for trying to save me, but we have to run!”

Key and Minho stared at the fallen man for a moment and then turned their attention to where Lee and the young person had run off to.  A loud bang turned their attention towards the direction the young person had just run from and both boys gaped, eyes wide.

“Um, I think we’d better run,” Minho said as he grabbed Key’s hand and began to run, trying to run into a similar direction as Lee and the young person.  Okay, so, this is new. 

A few feet away, the young person grimaced as pain shot up from her right ankle.  That was when she remembered her jump from the side of the porch and groaned. “Oh, why’d I have to do that,” she complained.  The adrenaline rush must have covered up the pain until now.  She slowed down as the pain worsened. “Okay, I think that ruthless reptile has stopped following us,” she said breathlessly, listening very closely to any sort of movement.

Lee noticed her limp as he stopped and he stood there beside her, wrapped his right arm around her shoulders and pulled her to lean onto him. “Here.” The nearness didn’t make him feel uncomfortable.  He was helping someone out after all.  Anyway, she really smelled like flowers.

Her face heated. “Um, thanks,” she whispered to him.  Her heart pounded as she thought more and more of the touch of his arm around her shoulder.  That was when she suddenly realized something and jolted herself away. “Eeek! Um, I…I…” She stared nervously at his right hand.  His hand…  She took a step back and her right heel pressed on the edge of a rock and the rock pressed itself into the ground, causing her to fall backwards onto her rear.

Lee noticed her breasts bounce and it looked painful to him.  They were so big and it seemed as if they had hit her hard in the chest.  He suddenly noticed that the left spaghetti strap on her lacy, light blue blouse had fallen, revealing just the smallest peek of a silky, black bra.  He also noticed that she wore pale blue panties under her blue jean skirt.  His face reddened and he looked away.

She glared up at him. “You pervert!” Jeez, men are all the same!

He closed his eyes with a sigh and he sat down.  His heart raced and he struggled to keep the vibrating pulse all over his body slow.  Heat radiated from him.  It was getting hard to breathe and especially hard not to think of anything that would really make a girl mad.  He was glad that the young person wasn’t very close to his body.

Confused, the young person crawled towards him.  When she noticed how intense he was, she smiled and a calm light entered her eyes. “Thanks for saving me back there.” She closed her eyes with a sigh and a shrug, her smile falling away. “Reality can be so cruel sometimes.” Tears gathered beneath her eyelids and she sniffled.  I’m such an idiot! She pulled her legs towards her, wrapping her arms around them and burying her face.

Lee reached forward and wrapped his arms around her. “Talk about it when you’re ready.  Just take your time.” He smiled.  She must have been through something terrible.

She lifted her head a little and smiled. “My name is Ange Klevio.  I was sold off to that man, but I’m alright now that you came by and took me away from him.”

“Lee Taemin, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Ange.” He paused and thought for a moment, looking her up and down.  The young person looked like a little girl, she was so tiny.  However, not many, if any, little girls had boobs as big as hers. “You look really young.  How old are you?”

“24. Yeah, I’ve been told that many times.” She shrugged.

At that moment, the two heard rustling nearby and got ready to run just as Minho and Key popped their heads out from the brush.