1. Best Advicer

Debuted as a singer in a group, Jinki never really thought of trying to act in a drama. He was so content with his singer status. Yes, he acted in their music video but he didn’t really attract to the world of acting. Not before he got offered to star in a musical production that he started to think otherwise. Few years later, he got several offers for acting in dramas here and there, some of them were rejected because of his schedule with SHINee.  Jinki started to enjoy it, and that’s one of the reason he agreed to audition on the role of Lee Chihoon in Descendant of the Sun.

The script that he needed to act out for his audition came 2 days before his scheduled audition. They were in a middle of practicing for their comeback when it arrived. After reading it, the leader didn’t sure he knew how to play this role. There were some medical terminologies which he never heard of. Jinki started to worry because the clock was ticking yet he didn’t have the time to learn to the sunbae he knew, what with the comeback, concert practice and all the things in between. Dare to say, Jinki was stressed out.  Then, Minho came to save the day. At least, Jinki’s day.

They were having lunch after practicing, Jonghyun had suggested they should try the new restaurant few blocks down the road.  It was then that Minho realized the leader was nowhere to be found.

“oh, he’s practicing. He just got the script for his drama audition. He seems really eager to get this role. It is so not Jinki” the manager had told Minho. Minho knew better though, he knew that if his Jinki hyung wanted something, he would work hard for it. He was really stubborn, sometimes more than Minho.

Minho didn’t stay for longer with everyone else and decided to get back to their practice room first, claiming that he would bring the food to Jinki. When Minho arrived at the practice room, Jinki was alone in the room, he was scrolling his phone in one hand and the script in the other while mouthing words, Minho assumed they were lines from the script.

“hi hyung”

 The leader looked up to find the younger with a plastic bag in tow “Udon?” Jinki asked, he was hungry but he couldn’t waste any more time to practice his lines.

“yeah, I thought you hungry. I’m gonna serve it for you”

“Ah Minho what am I going to do without you!” jinki was about to cry then.

Minho served the udon and set it on the nearest (and only) table at the room. They’d be scolded if anyone knew they were eating at the dance practice room. “you’d die starving and you couldn’t act in this drama. Uhm, here you go”

“I’ll eat well, Minho ya. Thank you” said the leader before he started eating.  Minho took a look at the abandoned script while Jinki was eating.

Seeing how serious Minho was while reading the script (Minho’s eyebrows tend to scrunch in a certain way and his nostrils would flare every time he was too deeply immersed into something), Jinki chuckled lightly before he realized something. “Right!!!!!!!! Minho you acted in a medical drama right?” he said excitedly.

Minho hummed, eyes didn’t leave the script on his hand.

Jinki put his chopstick down, grabbing the younger’s wrist to get his attention “You have to help me”

Minho agreed right away of course. Minho told Jinki how to pronounce the medical terminologies he knew, and when they didn’t sure the way it pronounced, they googled it. As the rest of the members also the dancer team arrived at the practice room arrived, Jinki could pronounce all of the medical terminologies in the script perfectly. Minho promised to learn the script with Jinki later at the dorm.

You see, rather than teaching, Minho advised Jinki how to act for a certain scene on the script. Minho never judged whether it was right or wrong, he merely showed how he’d act the scene out. Minho didn’t teach Jinki like a teacher to his pupil, instead they learned and discussed the script together, like partners. Jinki would tell Minho his opinion and vice versa. It was really fun doing it with Minho.

Two days later, Jinki was jittery on the car to the audition place. His phone suddenly went off, it was a text from Minho. “do well hyung! I’ll treat you chicken if you landed the role” Jinki smiled at the text and the thought of chicken.

Long story short, they had chicken for lunch few weeks later, courtesy by Minho.

2. His #1 fan

Jonghyun is the biggest netizen of the group, everyone knows that. Jonghyun is the source for everything happened around the world simply just because he scrolls his phone too much for his manager’s liking. Sometimes he would too caught up in some serious news that the other four had to knock some sense into his brain (“don’t you dare to tweet it Jonghyun! No matter how much you against it. We might get into trouble. I’m begging you, please!”)

As a public figure, you’d always feel every eyes are on you.  Jonghyun, unfortunately, knows it all too well. Sometimes, he reads the article about themselves and scroll at the comment section. Jonghyun also knows he shouldn’t be bothered with the mean comments and just appreciate the good ones, but he can’t help it. There’s this distinctive look Jonghyun has in his face whenever he is on his phone and is reading mean comments about himself or about his lovely members.

 Jonghyun is one who gets a little too disheartened by the mean comments online. He is a sensitive one, everyone knows. It is Kibum who usually soothes the anger inside Jonghyun down, in Kibum’s way of course. The older would just smile at it, the smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. Minho, much to Jonghyun’s disliking, never fails to recognize it.

On those days, the lead singers tend to be really quiet. Minho doesn’t like it, so he’s going to get his Jonghyun hyung back to his usual self quickly. Not to mention they’re in the middle of promoting their new album also a world tour, and not to mention his radio schedules.

“A penny for your thoughts?” Minho whispers, they are in the car ride to the fansign. Jonghyun is looking outside the window, he’s not humming which means there’s something in his mind. Everyone else are sleeping, too exhausted from the previous schedule.

“hmm.. it’s nothing” Jonghyun brushes the younger off. Eyes still fixed the view outside the window.

“it’s not ‘nothing.” Minho sighs “it’s that article, right?”

Jonghyun’s body tenses visibly, he turns to see Minho “how do you-“

“I read it, and I gotta say they are the unluckiest and stupidest people on earth to ever think of you that way, you know. Jonghyun hyung, you are-“

“? Impolite? Stupid? Yeah I read it too Minho” Jonghyun cuts him.

Minho pulls the lead singer’s arm and holds it tightly, jonghyun’s eyes shift from Minho to their hands. “amazing. ask our fans, they would say the same thing”

“of course, they’re our fans”

“hyung, stop trying to please everyone because you can’t”

“I- okay Minho”

“and only listen to the nice comments okay”

“okay”

“oh and trust your fans okay?”

“huh?”

“just promise”

“okay Minho, whatever”

Few days later, Jonghyun is hosting blue night, as usual. “Message from Jonghyun’s #1 fan, no no no I didn’t make it up. I swear the message is from Jonghyun’s #1 fan here. It’s a little embarrassing though. Jonghyun’s #1 fan-ssi says…” Jonghyun reads it silently and the smile he has is the one that reaches his eyes “it says; thank you for being a comfort to us, you are amazing. don’t forget about it.”

3. Bestfriend.

Being an idol means not only your recent life, everyone is also curious about your life before all the heavy makeup and the shiny stages. They want to know how is the relationship between the members, and how was it before your debut. the most well known one is probably the story of Minho and Kibum.

They are the only same aged friends in the group, seeing how close they are now, people probably think they’ve always been that way. Much to people surprise, they weren’t. Kibum who is older by few months, thought Minho was too bossy even though Minho was his sunbae as a trainee. They fought a lot before, even after they debuted as a group.

Minho and Kibum never had the time alone to fix it what with the whole promotions as they were debuting  from the oh-so-well-known company all eyes were on them, and even if they had, they would avoid it with all their might. They knew despite their feud, they had to act like they were two really close friends who went through hardships as trainees together and have this strong bond between them. They did it well on camera.

Jinki and Jonghyun noticed the tensed air whenever Minho and Kibum were on the same room. The curt replies whenever someone asked the other. The older members didn’t know how to fix the issue. Minho and Kibum need to fix it themselves.

The chance to fix it came when they least expect it.

Jonghyun and Jinki had a radio schedule, Taemin went to his home so he could study better for the final exam, leaving only Minho and Kibum at the dorm. There was another reason why they had to stay at the dorm, Minho had a fever and Kibum was assigned to take care of the lead rapper. Kibum did protest it, saying he wanted to see his friend outside but the manager threatened not to give him any individual schedule for the rest of the month. Kibum gave up there and then.

“tell me if you need anything. I’ll be outside watching tv”

 Kibum was about to leave their shared room when Minho stopped him “we need to talk”

Kibum froze at that before he turned back to face the younger “no we don’t. you’re sick. You better go get some rest”

“Kibum…please” Minho’s voice was hoarse, somehow it broke Kibum’s heart.

The main rapper sighed, “okay okay let’s talk” he sat on the younger’s bed.

“I- I’m sorry. I was such a jerk back then. You right, I shouldn’t have acted like that.” Minho said as he tried to sit down and leaned at the head of the bed.

Kibum fixed Minho’s hair, he didn’t like how bad the visual look when he was sick like this. “me too, I should’ve respect you as a senior back then. I was too selfish, I have no siblings so I didn’t know how to you know, care about other people.”

“well, so we’re good now?” Minho lifted his pinky as a sign of “peace” and also a silent promise of staying together as friends forever. No more argument. No more cold shoulders.

Kibum chuckled and hooked their pinkies together “yes.”

Being the only same aged friends in the group has its own perks, you have your own partner in crime to do things like pranking the poor Jonghyunnie hyung while he was asleep. And they know they always have each other’s back. Minho always comes to see Kibum’s musical, and although Kibum can’t hear him among the loud cheer during the curtain calls, Minho always cheer for him the loudest.

4. His personal glue.

Taemin has always been the maknae. He is on his family, his parents and his hyung always pamper him with love and care since he was a little child. If little Taeminnie wanted something, they’d try to make it true. Old habit die hard, they keep doing it until the time Taemin told them he was going to audition for SM entertainment. His parents agreed to it, they didn’t have the heart to say no to their Taeminnie.

Two years after he got accepted as a trainee, fifteen years old Taeminnie debuted in a five members group called SHINee. And once again, he served the place as the maknae of the group. He’d be lying if he said he didn’t like it.

The members have developed the affection toward the youngest ever since then, they tried to be there whenever Taemin needed them. Jinki and Jonghyun helped him with his singing, Kibum accompanied him until late night to perfect his dance routine, Minho helped him with his homework here and there.  The hyungs took Taemin to school sometimes so the bullies wouldn’t get to him. Taemin was content with the way things went

Few years after their debut, the hyungs didn’t pamper him as much as they used to. Taemin personally showed them that he didn’t need them in everything he did, so they slowly let Taemin to do things on his own. At first, Taemin felt great because his hyungs finally considered him as a grown up. But it didn’t last long.

 Taemin felt so tired with everything that happened so fast in his life. Comebacks, variety shows, other filmings, more stage performances, until they recent world tours were starting to make him questioning things in his life. Yes, it was his dream to perform from one stage to another, but the cost behind it was just too much sometimes. He could barely see his parents, his friends started to leave one by one, he needed something to convince me that everything was worth the price. That something turned out to be someone, it was Minho.

It was the night before his solo debut stage. To say he was nervous, would be an understatement. He couldn’t sleep since few days before. There were a lot of anticipation for his solo debut and that made him even more self conscious about it. He wasn’t sure it’d satisfy them, he wasn’t even sure that he deserved to debut as the first soloist from their group. His hyungs weren’t there to tell him things he had to do, nor they’d be there to prevent him from saying wrong things. He felt so small. He was the maknae after all.

He was alone in the practice room, the other dancers were already excuse themselves to go home. Now that he was alone, he missed the ruckus whenever they were preparing for their comeback as a group.  He was lying on the floor, facing the ceiling as he was fighting the urge to cry. He couldn’t cry, not this time.

Taemin was breaking down into pieces that he himself didn’t know how to fix it.

There was a knock on the door, “Taemin please tell me you didn’t lose your phone again. I’ve been calling-” it was Minho.

Taemin’s wall broke down right there and then as he got up and went to the older guy, “Hyung!!!” he couldn’t stop the tears from falling.

Minho hugged the younger even tighter “Shhh Taeminnie, you did well”

Minutes turned to hours, Taemin was a little better by then. Minho, for even a second, never let the younger go. He had hugged him without uttering any words. They just laid on the floor, Taemin’s head was on Minho’s chest as the rapper’s arms circling Taemin’s body. They had always been close like this, anyway. 

“Why did you come?” Taemin asked, breaking the silence.

“hmm? Just to see my favorite dongsaeng” was Minho’s reply.

Taemin smiled, “you didn’t say that to every younger guy out there, did you?”

Minho shrugged teasingly “I don’t know, did I?” Taemin pinched him at his stomach. “ouch that hurts, Lee Taemin”

“I am your favorite, right?” Taemin just felt like he needed the assurance that at least someone favorite him among the others.

Minho pulled the younger even tighter that Taemin felt like his broken pieces were going to stick back together, “you are my favorite dongsaeng, Taeminnie”

Taemin won the first place on music core, Minho was the MC. If one didn’t know Taemin or Minho, they might think it was Minho who won the first place since he looked way more excited than Taemin who was flustered and couldn’t believe he actually won. Minho whispered “you won! I knew you would! You are my favorite, Taeminnie!” and hugged the younger really tight. Yes, Taemin thought, everything was worth the price. 

Happy 25th birthday Minho!!! 

(((p.s : I haven't proofread it, I did it in a short time hiks :c but I hope y'all like it)))