Jonghyun shifted awkwardly in his seat. He winced visibly as the impact of his knees against the underside of the desk made an audible sound, causing a few of the people in the room to turn and look at him. Turning to his right he smiled sheepishly at Taemin who was sat next to him and shrugged, as if to hide his nerves.

“Chill,” the dancer chuckled, “I don’t know why you’re worried.”

“I am chill.” Jonghyun protested.

Key, who was walking past the desk, snorted and looked down at the composer’s hands. “Sure you are.” He commented as he slipped into his seat next to the youngest member of the group.

Jonghyun stilled the movements of his hands self-consciously. Observing his cuffs he quickly straightened them back out from where he had been subconsciously picking at them. The previously pressed and neat material was already a little rumpled and worse for wear and he had only been wearing the jacket for around half an hour.

The composer was every inch the smart SM Entertainment employee today – well, the young, trendy kind of employee. He was decked out in a well-tailored suit jacket that had been into his arms by a stylist of some kind as he walked onto the set. This was over his own shirt which, being a printed graphic tee, was deemed stylish enough to leave underneath the jacket. He had initially fully buttoned the slate grey material as his father had taught him the one time they had worn suits together – they attended the wedding of his second cousin or something. However, the stylist had rolled her eyes and slapped away his hands, deftly undoing each and every one, leaving the suit jacket open.

Funnily, his bottom half looked far less dressed up. He was wearing his own, slightly worn and beat up slacks which featured strange crease marks around the knees and tattered hems. He had washed his clothes the previous night and had failed to realise that all his more stylish work pants took a long time to dry, thus he had been left with no option. The stylists had declared that they didn’t have his size pants available – Jonghyun had huffed in annoyance when he realised they meant he was too short – and it didn’t really matter as the desk would hide them anyway. Jonghyun honestly didn’t think the pants were too bad. A little old maybe, but they still fit him well. The women seemed to disagree, however.

The SHINee members were equally as well dressed, although less business chic and more casual. They were each dressed in clothes that fit the theme of their latest release, Odd. The album that was, thus far, Jonghyun’s greatest triumph. He had personally composed every single song for it, with input from various sources, and had been almost completely in control of all creative vision. He was incredibly happy with how it came out. That album was precisely why the group was there. They were to do a livestream to promote their new release to the fans and give a little background information on it; which was why, in their infinite wisdom, the SHINee members had suggested that Jonghyun also come on camera with them. The composer thought they were insane. He had been terrible on camera the last time – six years ago when he had appeared as the composer of Juliette and made a fool of himself. Jonghyun couldn’t actually remember the interview at all because of the adrenaline but he had seen replays and they still made him cringe in embarrassment.

“Ready to go?” Onew asked from the end of the table.

Jonghyun looked up in shock, not having noticed Minho and his boyfriend taking their seats, he was so lost in thought. He and Onew had planned in advance to sit at opposite ends of the long table the five were to sit at for the stream. It wasn’t because they didn’t think they could hide their relationship in front of an audience, but it never hurt to take a few precautions nonetheless.

Affirmative responses sounded from everyone at the desk and quite a few of the people in front of them too. There were a lot of people in the room, from stylists to camera operators, all there to make sure the live stream event ran smoothly.

“Jonghyun,” Onew asked, “you ready?”

“Hmm?” Jonghyun asked, still not fully mentally prepared for this, “Yes, I guess.”

“You’ll do fine,” Taemin grinned, slapping the composer on the back enthusiastically.

Jonghyun felt himself bend forwards from the force of the hit and sent a strained smile in his friend’s direction. He didn’t feel ready. Pulling the laptop in front of him a little closer towards himself he used it as a sort of makeshift shield from the cameras. If he looked at the screen he could almost pretend the massive devices weren’t there at all.

“Ok!” A voice called from off-set, instantly silencing the hum of background noise that Jonghyun hadn’t even realised was going on. “Let’s get this show on the road. We are live in 3... 2... 1...”

“Hello, we are SHINee!” the four singers chanted as soon as the red light lit up on the camera, bowing in their seats.

“Welcome to our livestream for the release of our new album, Odd.” Key started.

Minho continued, “Odd was fully written and composed by Kim Jonghyun, with input from all of us and all of you,” He gestured at Jonghyun at the end of the table. The composer blushed bright red and took an awkward bow, flushing deeper when he managed to knock his head against the screen of the laptop with a clunk. There was no way that action hadn’t been picked up by the cameras, he was going to be ridiculed by Jiwoong for weeks because of that.

“He’s a little clumsy,” Taemin took over, chuckling at his friend’s awkwardness, “but he’s a super talented composer. You might know him from our previous song, Juliette, or from one of the other songs he’s worked on whilst at SM Entertainment.”

Onew finished off the scripted section, “The point of this livestream is to give you all a chance to ask all those burning questions you might have about anything and everything-“

“Within reason.” Key said, wagging his finger at the camera in a comical way.

“Within reason,” Onew agreed. “Jonghyun here will be our resident question reader and will choose all his favourites-“

“Stole my job.” Key muttered. Jonghyun shrugged apologetically, causing Taemin to stifle a laugh behind his hand at the look of sincerity on his face when the rapper was clearly joking.

Onew continued as if there hadn’t been an interruption, “Disclaimer time: no bullying, no rude comments, no vulgar questions, no spamming, nothing offensive or you will be banned. Does that cover it?” He asked, looking at the rest of the group.

Although Jonghyun was in charge of selecting the questions, there was a team of social media experts on hand and, although they couldn’t filter any of the results before they reached Jonghyun, they were ready to quickly delete or monitor what did go through. This not only prevented anything from disrupting the livestream but also ensured they could note the user names and IP addresses of the offenders for future reference.

“Pretty much.” Minho agreed.

“Cool,” Onew grinned, “So now that boring stuff is done, let’s get right into it. Got any questions there Jjong?”

Jonghyun looked at the singer blankly for a second before remembering he was on computer duty. Looking down at the screen, he hoped his blush had faded to a level that wasn’t noticeable. He had gotten completely absorbed in watching the banter between the members. It felt just like when he was only a fan and watching them livestream. It was nostalgic and a little amazing. Quickly scrolling though the comments he stared at the list with wide eyes.

“Yes,” he finally squeaked out, “You could say I have some questions. You could also say I have more than anyone could ever answer.”

Key rolled his eyes in a long suffering way, “Then give us some so we can try.”

“Sorry,” Jonghyun muttered, looking down at the screen once more. “Ok, this one is from...” Jonghyun said something that might have been a word, then tried again. Huffing slightly he gave up on saying the person’s username aloud, “... a name I can’t pronounce, I’m sorry.” Jonghyun looked legitimately apologetic that he couldn’t say the name, “If this is your question, I’m sorry. So, they ask, Minho and Key, how did you practice your rapping for this album?”

“The same way we always have,” Key answered, looking at Minho for input. The two explained briefly how exactly they went about working on their rapping and the techniques they used before they looked at Jonghyun once more.

“Taemin’s Angel,” Taemin winked obnoxiously at the camera in a way that Jonghyun was sure would make the poor girl faint, “wants to know when Onew got so hot.”

“Wait, the question isn’t for me?” Taemin pouted, “No fair, she’s got my name in her username.”

“Might not be a girl,” Onew commented mildly. “Jonghyun proves that.”

“I’m pretty sure she is a girl,” Jonghyun commented, “I recognise the username.”

“In answer to the question,” Onew said, before the group could get too off track, “I slept a lot. I find sleep really aids in making someone look better.”

“You just like sleep too much.” Key commented, raising one eyebrow.

“I still maintain, it’s beauty sleep.”

“And you’re a pretty princess.” Taemin quipped.

“That I am.” Onew said, fanning himself like he really was royalty Taemin snickered and Jonghyun found it hard to hold in his own laughter. The man looked ridiculous. He looked even more ridiculous when Key reached around Minho and cuffed him across the back of the head, ruffling up his hair. Onew squawked in shock and pouted at his group mate.

“You have a terrible sense of humour too.”

The questions and banter went back and forth for a while. Jonghyun remained mostly silent, only speaking to ask questions when prompted. He didn’t want to talk too much; he knew the fans weren’t watching the livestream for some composer they’d probably never heard of. He’d have hated it too, if some random guy took all the screen time from his favourite idols. So he remained mostly passive.

However, he got one question that completely shocked him; so much so that he didn’t ask it when he was prompted.

“Jjong, you alive?” Taemin asked.

“Sorry I just...” Jonghyun trailed off running a hand through his newly dyed, white blonde hair. The blue-grey had been his favourite hair colour so far but it was so difficult to maintain that he had given up and reverted back to his old standard of platinum blonde. “This question is for me.”

“Look at you, moving up in the world.” Onew commented. Although his words were jokey, his tone and the way he was looking at Jonghyun conveyed nothing but pride and happiness for the composer.

“Music is my Life asks, what inspired you to write the songs?” Jonghyun said, looking up briefly at the other men at the desk. “So,” He started, hesitating as he was unsure how to begin. “So, I should start by explaining my job, I guess. I am a composer at SM Entertainment. I used to work on one-off songs or editing songs for broadcast or remixes or live shows. Things like that. Then, last year I got a promotion. Apparently someone,” Key coughed obnoxiously and pointed at himself, “Someone,” Jonghyun reiterated, chuckling, “suggested I would be a good fit for SHINee’s next album.”

“We already knew Jjong, of course.” Taemin grinned, “He wrote Juliette for us and we came back in contact after he came to work at SM.”

Jonghyun nodded in agreement. “So I was to follow them around to every schedule, every event, every practice and see how they live and work. Basically I was to learn who they were and what they were best at and incorporate all of that into the songs for the album.”

“Basically he was our stalker,” Key commented. “He was in our house, in our hotel rooms, I even met him in the bathroom once.”

Jonghyun blushed bright red as the other members hooted and hollered at that revalation. “Everyone uses the bathroom! It was a coincidence.” Seeing Key’s expression he knew the singer didn’t believe him, “So yeah,” Jonghyun continued, clearing his throat awkwardly, ignoring the continued snickers of some of the members, “I drew inspiration from them as people, their strengths and weaknesses as singers and performers and, more than once, we sat down in our little free time and I got them to bounce ideas off of me. What kind of songs they liked singing, what vibe they like, that sort of thing.”

“It was refreshing,” Onew commented, “We usually get given completed songs to perform and, if we’re lucky we even get to choose which songs they are, but we’ve never had a chance to guide the writing of any quite like this. It was a new experience for everyone. I know I feel a much greater connection with these songs than I do any others we have sung. I’m sure the others feel the same.” All the members nodded.

Jonghyun smiled softly, feeling incredibly touched by the group’s words. “I also used you guys’ ideas.” He said, directing his comments at the camera. Staring into the lens was still incredibly daunting, it was like it was staring at him, but he tried to maintain eye-contact as best as he could, “I would read all the SHINee fan sites to see what you guys thought of different things and tried to incorporate many of those likes and dislikes into my music.”

“You just wanted an excuse to go on those websites.”  Key muttered.

“You just wanted to read the weird fanfiction,” Taemin joined in.

Jonghyun knew that that comment by Taemin would be causing many fans to go into total meltdown. He knew many fans liked to pretend that their favourite celebrities were unaware of the fanfiction, the weird fanart and everything else a little strange that they created. By saying that, Taemin had just confirmed that he knew and it would lead people to believe that he had also read them himself. Blushing slightly he shrugged in a motion that was neither agreement nor disagreement.

“I went to the Tokyo concerts too. Those days I stood in the crowd and queued up like every other fan. I used all of your ideas to build an album I hope you will all love.”

“It made the whole album so much more about the fans than our last ones. This is an album written for you guys to enjoy and we worked really hard to make sure you would love it as we did.” Minho said, smiling softly at the camera.

Jonghyun took this as his cue to stop talking and turned back to the laptop as the SHINee members began discussing how they had recorded the songs and what had inspired the choreography. He saw a few comments go through that insulted him in some way or asked who he thought he was, to be taking the screen time from SHINee. However, they were mostly buried underneath messages of support. It was a little humbling and a little amazing to the composer. He was finally being accepted as part of the SHINee fandom. It was something he had been striving for for years and to finally have that moment, it was fantastic. Each and every person leaving a nice comment honestly thought Jonghyun was worth their effort to compliment and that felt fantastic. Smiling widely, he began scrolling through for some more interesting questions to ask.

“This one is from my old friend Stuck Onew-“ Jonghyun began only to be cut off by a snort from Taemin.

“That name is genius.” The younger man chuckled, waving his friend off when he looked at the dancer, concerned. “Stuck Onew.” He repeated, punctuated by giggle and little snorts.

“I think it’s a mighty fine name.” Onew commented.

“Of course you would.” Key said, as if that was obvious. Which, Jonghyun mused, it probably was.

Seeing that Taemin had finally calmed down, the composer continued, “StuckOnew,” Taemin made another little snorting noise but Jonghyun ignored it and moved on, “wants to know if it was awkward having someone you don’t know following you around.”

“Far less awkward than having a camera crew behind us and we do that often enough.” Key said, making eye contact with Jonghyun and quirking an eyebrow he shrugged uncaringly. “Plus, he’s pretty easy to get along with.”

Jonghyun felt a rush of happiness at that statement. It was probably one of the nicest things Key had ever said about him. The two males could be considered sort of friends now however they were still awkward and a little wary of each other. So, to hear something like that out of the aloof boy’s mouth certainly felt good.

“Onew and Taemin had been friends with him for a while before he came to work for us,” Minho commented, “So it was like having another friend come around. It was very relaxed.”

“I actually stole him from Onew,” Taemin chuckled, jerking his thumb towards his leader, “He was Onew’s friend first and I decided he was too cool a guy to be friends with someone like our leader. So I stole him.”

“You think I’m cool?” Jonghyun asked, feeling touched.

“Of course you’re cool.” Onew said, looking across the desk to his boyfriend. Looking back at the camera, he spoke to the audience, “He’s super relaxed and knows when to stay out of the way. He’s actually helped us out more than once. Like one time when a staff member dropped all the scripts for a shoot. Jonghyun volunteered to sit and put them all back in order for us.” Jonghyun remembered that, it had taken hours. The staff member had been so thankful she had taken him out for dinner that night resulting in a lot of teasing from his friends and sister. “He also was available to talk whenever we needed it. I know Taemin often went to him to discuss issues he was having.” Taemin blushed lightly but clapped Jonghyun on the back and nodded at Onew’s words. “Jonghyun’s been a pleasure to have around. I’ll miss having him with all the time.”

Jonghyun looked down at the table, feeling a little choked up. He felt like a pathetic child right now but all their words were getting to him. He loved all these guys, especially Onew, and to hear those sentiments echoed back to him was just amazing. Looking up at the laptop screen, ignoring the wetness in the eyes and the thickness of his tongue, Jonghyun quickly found another question.

“This one is from LoveSHINe.” He said, his voice a little strangled. Taemin reached an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close as the blonde continued to ask the question. “They want to know, when can we next see something from SHINee?”

“Sooner than you think.” Onew said as Taemin fully hugged the composer, patting his back and offering him a grin of support. Jonghyun chuckled wetly and wiped his eyes, seeing the other three members of SHINee looking at him in support. Grinning at them he signalled his apology and gestured Onew to keep talking.

Onew did as was asked, talking to the camera whilst Jonghyun pulled himself together once more. The composer, eyes now dry, watched as the leader of SHINee effortless chaired the livestream. The easy banter between him and the other members was adorable and amusing in equal measure and he knew the fans would be eating this up. As the staff announced ten minutes left, Jonghyun turned back to the laptop determined to find a good question to end the stream on.

 

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CHAPTER NOTES: It's a long weekend in Korea, due to Children's day. Thus, I am heading to Busan to make the most of my 4 days of no work. So I'm afraid there won't be another update until monday. 

But hey, I'm keeping with my less than once a week updating schedule. I like that.