“I don’t like it,” Kibum sighed, moving the beret about on his head of luscious hair as Jonghyun watched on cluelessly. Minho, who was also observing with wry amusement, could sense Jonghyun’s tired exasperation at Kibum from a mile off. In Jonghyun’s eyes, each beret Kibum had spent the last hour trying on had been the same as the last, and he really didn’t know how Kibum had managed to amass such an extensive collection of them. He just knew that he was bored senseless of the whole affair.
“Kibum, are you still trying on those things?” Jinki muttered, padding in with a steaming mug of hot chocolate. As Taemin and Minho lay at opposite ends of the sofa in the comfortable lounge, they were gaining the best of the electric fire’s heat, whereas Jonghyun and Kibum were stuck in the corner, by the mirror, becoming increasingly annoyed for different reasons.
“Yes,” Kibum sighed, “I just can’t decide which one looks the most... Dashing. The most... I don’t know... Sophisticated.”
  "It’s a tough life,” Minho nodded sarcastically, earning a grin from Taemin as he flicked through his magazine aimlessly. The orange glow of the room gave it such a homely feel, despite the fact he was still having difficulty growing accustomed to their new apartment.
“Oh my God,” Minho muttered, the near-muted buzz of the television providing a pulsing soundtrack to his horror. Taemin followed Minho’s gaze to Jinki’s feet, as he fell upon the armchair perpendicular to the couch.
“What?” Jinki queried, sipping his drink merrily. The silence was almost deafening as the four men stared at him, wide-eyed.
“I think my grandfather has those,” Minho murmured.
“I think my grandmother does,” Jonghyun confessed.
“Oh, Jinki, please tell me you are not wearing what I think you’re wearing,” Kibum begged, removing his beret as if to hide it from Jinki’s inherent fashion disaster.
  Jinki blinked down at his tartan slippers in confusion.
“I feel ashamed,” Kibum muttered, shaking his head and leaving Jonghyun to sit between Minho and Taemin. Jonghyun closed his eyes, resisting the urge to lecture Kibum on manners and time-wasting and why leaving his berets in a pile in the corner was not good organisation, but he refrained, because, finally, Kibum had finished, and he could relax.
  "They’re just slippers,” Jinki frowned, analysing the old, worn shoes like they were a new piece of choreography he had to learn. “I don’t see what the big deal is.”
“The big deal is,” Kibum explained, brushing his hair aside, “you’re a young man. You’re supposed to be out impressing women and getting drunk at this hour, not curled up on an armchair with hot chocolate and... Tartan slippers. That’s the job of the elderly.”
  "Firstly,” Jinki argued, matter-of-factly, “you’re being ageist. Secondly, I don’t go out partying. And, thirdly, on a night off, I prefer comfort to getting drunk and being sick in a plant-pot, thank you. Besides, you’re all here too, so don’t be a hypocrite.”
“We’re here,” Minho admitted, “but we aren’t wearing those.”
  “Leave me be,” Jinki argued, waving an arm. “I’m almost twenty six. I’ve enough on my plate without you all complaining about my foot-wear.”
“Imagine if he’d worn those in the video for View,” Minho joked, “they’d look off.”
  "Or on our Odd Eye stage,” Taemin added, “I don’t think they’d achieve the mysterious look he was going for.”
“Do you think his fans know he’s like this?” Jonghyun asked.
  "Probably,” Kibum answered, “I mean, he is the infamous old man of SHINee. Next his joints will be going and he’ll have to do the dance sitting down.”
“Ha-ha,” Jinki stressed, amusedly unamused. “Very funny.”
“It is a bit funny,” Taemin shrugged, as Jinki contemplated his slippers sadly. Such was the look on his face that Taemin almost felt guilty.
  “I just wanted to be comfortable,” Jinki sighed, “and slippers are comfortable. Can I not be comfortable? Is that too much to ask?”
  "Awww,” Kibum sympathised, “you’ve upset him, Minho!”
“What, me?! You were the one who started it!”
“No I wasn’t, I was trying on berets, you were the one who said ‘oh my God.’” Kibum’s impersonation caused both Taemin and Jonghyun to smirk.
“You’ve all upset me,” Jinki stated melodramatically. “And to think on