Hearing Seunghyun singing - badly, but on purpose - made Seungri remember that they had another performance to do the next day. Being part of another performing group was really beginning to get to him, as it meant that he was doing double the amount of promotions. Sure, it was probably good for his fitness, but it made him a lot more tired a lot of the time. From his position sat on the floor, he really didn't even want to think about moving, never mind having to dance and sing.

Although he could hear the others messing around above him, he didn't have the energy to get up and join in. Usually he'd be in the thick of it, being bullied teased by the other members, but if he stood up, he was fairly certain that his legs might not be able to take it.

Fortunately - or unfortunately - the others came to him, in the form of them all lying on top of him. Seungri complained and huffed more out of habit and the knowledge that the others did it simply to see his reaction, rather than any genuine annoyance. Being squashed like this under a pile of giggles didn't even faze him any more. Not that he would let the others know; they enjoyed trying to annoy him far too much for him to take their fun away.

Eventually the other got off of him, and he could finally breathe again. While Seungri caught his breath, Jiyong suggested that he and the others should get going. Seungri checked the time on his phone. It was midnight, definitely getting late. If any of them wanted to have a chance at all of not being zombies tomorrow, they should all really think about sleep.

As he was saying goodbye, Seungri was perhaps rather more emotional than he would be normally. He hugged each person as they left, which was usual for him, and made them laugh at him. He couldn't help it though. He'd really missed just spending time with them during the time he was away, and that was the only way he could let them know that, since they'd think he was insane any other way.

**

Usually dancing came so naturally to Seungri. He could practically do it in his sleep most of the time (and he may have done sometimes. Jiyong would never let him forget about that). Today, though, he just seemed to be having an off day. For once he was experiencing what it was like to have two left feet - his legs and even arms simply weren't cooperating.

Fortunately it was only 'Loser' that he had to dance to, so it wasn't as obvious to the fans that movement was difficult. Hopefully. It was still more straining than it should be though.

Walking off the stage, Seungri wiped sweat off his brow. The performance itself hadn't been particularly difficult, but doing twice the amount of work as the others in either group to practice was beginning to take a toll on him. He could hear the others talking in front of him, but he didn't have the energy to catch up and join in with them.

All he could think was that he really wanted - no, needed, a drink. He was usually thirsty after performing, but this time it was more immediate. His feet dragged along the ground, feeling like two leaden blocks and pulling his legs down. His head began to ache, and in the haze he simply made his way to the first dressing room he saw with a familiar name.

Stepping into the room, he made a beeline for the water bottles he could see sitting on a table on the opposite side of the room. After chugging at least half of a bottle, he finally looked up and saw his immediate surroundings. For a couple of seconds he couldn't see anything wrong with what he saw. It was just Taemin, Kibum and Jonghyun looking at him..... oh. OH. Right. He wasn't part of this group here. He didn't even know them here.

What a great first impression he'd just made. He smiled at them, trying to act like he'd totally meant for this to happen. Kibum tentatively approached him. "Seungri sunbaenim... what can we do for you?" He asked with a smile. Something about it just didn't sound right. Knowing Kibum better than that, Seungri was fairly sure that Kibum would be mentally wanting to ask him what on earth he thought was doing, and it felt odd to know that Kibum didn't feel comfortable enough around him to do that here.

Then the name he'd been called fully sank in. For the entirety of his time in the other world, Seungri had only been called Seunghyun by the members of SHINee. Although he was more used to being called Seungri than Seunghyun in general at this point, it still didn't feel right coming from them. Besides, he wasn't older than most of them - he wasn't even used to being called hyung by them, never mind being addressed as formally as sunbaenim.

Although yeah, it was the right way for them to address him, it didn't feel right, knowing that he was friends with them in a way. He began to wave his hands around. "No, please, just call me Seungri." Jonghyun looked curiously at him. "Are you sure, sunbae?" Seungri nodded perhaps more vigorously than he should have done, but at least it would get his point across.

Taemin smiled. "I enjoyed your performance, Seungri-ssi." Immediately, Seungri began to over think the statement. Was Taemin just saying that? He'd tried his best to not look like he was tired, but had he succeeded? Or was Taemin being completely serious and had genuinely thought that he and the rest of Bigbang had done well? The Taemin that he knew was always enthusiastic, and seemed to always be genuine, but given that things were different here it was difficult to tell.

Taemin's gentle cough brought Seungri out of his musings, and he realised that Taemin was waiting for him to say something about his compliment. Seungri decided to take it as a simple compliment and smiled back. "Thank you!" He said. "Um... yours was good too." Jonghyun looked at him oddly.

"We haven't done a performance yet today, Seungri-ssi." Uh oh. Even without having the direct complication of his inter-universe travel, he'd still managed to mess up and embarrass himself. "Ah - I meant that in general I like your performances. Your music in general. I like it a lot. In fact..." Seungri trailed off when he realised that he was rambling. Not a particularly good way to make people think that you're a cool sunbae, or to think of you as a friend worth having.

Seungri relegated himself to smiling again. Kibum seemed to be having an unusual lack of energy, since the Kibum that Seungri knew would have not shut up. This time though, Jinki, who had been sat with MInho not paying much attention, took the lead. "So.... have you been enjoying your comback? It's been a while, hasn't it?" Seungri felt more grateful than he should have done for Jinki knowing what to say.

"Yeah, it's been good. It's been like three years since we came out with a full album, although of course we've all had solo music since then. I've definitely enjoyed being onstage with them again." The words just tumbled out of Seungri's mouth. "I- " he began to speak again, but was cut off by Jinki checking the time on his phone. "I think it's about time, guys," he said.

Of course, Jinki was the leader here. It was his job to make sure that the members did as they needed to, not Seungri's. It felt odd to know that - it sometimes felt as though SHINee were truly his group, under his leadership.

Taemin stood up and bowed. "Thank you for spending time with us, Seungri-ssi, but we have to go now." Seungri hastily bowed back. "No, thank you for putting up with me," he said. Realising that they didn't have a way to contact each other, he quickly pulled his phone out. "Put your number in my phone."

Taemin looked surprised. "Are you sure? You don't have to feel like you have to, Seungri-ssi -" Seungri cut him off by pushing his phone into Taemin's hand. "Of course I'm sure! You can talk to me any time!" Seungri could feel himself getting more desperate to be sure that he could be friends with the members of SHINee here too.

Kibum and Jinki left, while MInho and Jonghyun waited at the door of the dressing room as Taemin put his number into Seungri's phone. Seungri could feel that they were anxious to get going, and the anxiety was getting to him, he didn't want to keep them waiting. As soon as Taemin was done, they all left, including Seungri.

Walking down the corridor to the dressing room he should have gone to initially, he sent a quick text with his name in it to Taemin's phone. Hopefully he'd get to talk to Taemin some more here.

As Seungri opened the door to the Bigbang dressing room, the one that he was supposed to go to, Daesung and Youngbae looked up from their conversation, and Seunghyun and Jiyong did not. All of them were back in their normal clothes and out of make up. Seungri flopped down in a chair next to Youngbae, and began to contemplate also changing.

"Where have you been? You were meant to be here half an hour ago!" Daesung had leant over Youngbae to talk to Seungri. For once, Seungri could answer this kind of question completely truthfully. "I was just with some friends, that's all!" Daesung looked irritated still. "But did you really need to spend so much time with them?"

"Well we only became friends recently... I was getting to know them?" Technically it was true, his friendship with the members of SHINee was fairly recent in either world (from his point of view, anyway).

It seemed as though Jiyong had noticed their conversation. Abandoning his conversation with Seunghyun, he came to stand over Seungri in full leader mode. "We've been waiting for you to get back so we can go," he said, "it's been half an hour. How could anything else be more important?" Seungri squirmed under the leader's scrutiny. "I was just with some friends," he muttered.

Jiyong continued to glare. "I was in the dressing room of SHINee, okay?" Seungri said defiantly. This seemed to only cause confusion in the others. Jiyong exchanged glances with Youngbae. "But you've not shown any interest in them before? Even though you've had chances ?" Youngbae asked slowly. Seungri couldn't understand why they were so against him making friends with new people. Why was he being interrogated?

He was momentarily distracted by what was playing on the TV on the wall. It showed a live feed of what was happening onstage, and just as they said, it was SHINee's turn. Everything about it was so familiar. The dance and song itself weren't exactly the same - a few words were different here and there, and some of the dance moves were less complex, but overall it was the same as one of the songs that Seungri had got used to seeing over the last few weeks.

It even felt odd to not be performing it. He found himself humming along to it, even though the sound on the TV was turned down low. Surprisingly, he wasn't sick of it yet.

Seungri was brought back to the conversation at hand by Jiyong punching him. Rubbing his arm, he defended himself. "It's a catchy song, okay? Those are my new friends." He pointed at the TV. Jiyong sighed, and walked away. It seemed as though he wasn't doing to be quizzed on his friends any more, although Seungri wasn't quite sure why he had been in the first place.

As the next group took the stage, Seungri lost interest in watching what was going on onstage, and realised that it was really time for him to get changed and allow the others to leave too. He quickly changed into less stage-y clothes. Daesung and Youngbae seemed to appreciate it, but despite Jiyong's initial irritation, he didn't seem to care too much.

Maybe he would be able to make this friendship work after all.