So this update is later than I was planning for it to be, my laptop's been acting up recently and it made it difficult to write. Anyway, thank you to everyone who comments and subscribes, it means a lot :) Enjoy :)

Seungri skipped around his apartment, making sure things were clean. While he'd known the others long enough to not need to make a good impression, it still helped to be as clean as possible while having other people over. Besides, if his place wasn't tidy, Jiyong would tell him off - it was like they'd never left their dorm sharing days sometimes.

The sound of a doorbell rang through the apartment. Making his way over, Seungri grinned as he opened the door. Without him even saying anything, Jiyong barged into his apartment, making his way to the living room. "So what's the plan?" He called over his shoulder to Seungri, who was trailing behind him.

"I'm not sure yet... I thought I'd wait 'til everyone got here, then we could decide?" Jiyong nodded at what Seungri said, and sat down on one of the sofas.

Naturally Jiyong took control over the TV, and began to flick through the programmes. Seungri sat back and began to eat some of the snacks before Jiyong got to them all, waiting for him to pick a programme. Eventually he settled on a rerun of a music show, and they watched with mild interest.

"All these idols are so young, Jiyong hyung... look at them!" Seungri commented. Jiyong raised his eyebrows, and playfully hit Seungri.

"We're still young too, you know - and you're even younger than me!"

Seungri laughed loudly, since Jiyong was technically right.

"I know, but look at that!" Seungri pointed at the TV screen as one of the young idols successfully pulled off a backflip as part of their choreography. "It's been ages since we did anything like that."

"Nah, I think we could pull that off, " laughed Jiyong.

While it was true that Jiyong could have done that years ago, the mental image of Jiyong attempting gymnastics now had Seungri hunched over laughing. "Let me know when you actually decide to do that, Jiyong hyung," Seungri wheezed out.

"Maybe I won't, but our fans still love us," Jiyong argued, picking up his phone. After a few clicks, Jiyong turned his phone around, and Seungri could see that he had up the comments on their music videos on YouTube.

They took it in turns to read out comments that they saw, most of them being supportive. Jiyong was right, their fans did still love them. It made Seungri even prouder to be part of this group.

Eventually they heard another ring of the doorbell, and Seungri got up to answer it, in the knowledge that while he was letting whoever was here in, Jiyong would eat at least a quarter of the snacks that had been put out.

It was Youngbae and Daesung that had arrived, both of whom were less inclined to make themselves at home as much as Jiyong was.

Seungri let them in and shut the door. As they entered the living room, Jiyong held a bowl of peanuts out to them with his cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk's. Rolling his eyes playfully, Seungri took a handful and sat back down.

Youngbae and Jiyong immediately began talking like the gossipy middle aged women they secretly were, and Seungri knew better than to interrupt them. He decided to busy himself with refilling the bowls of snacks that Jiyong had decimated, and Daesung followed him into the kitchen.

"So how has befriending SHINee going?" Daesung asked.

Seungri stiffened. Why did Daesung have to bring that up when it was something he'd been trying to forget? Yesterday hadn't gone well at all, and he'd been looking forward to this meetup as a way to forget about it.

He gave a non-committal shrug. "Alright, I guess."

Daesung frowned. "But you were so eager to be friends before? What changed?" He asked.

He shrugged again, filling a bowl with crisps. "I don't know. I'd just rather focus on the friendships I already have, y'know?" He turned to Daesung holding the bowls. Daesung smiled widely at what he'd said, and slung an arm around Seungri's shoulders as they walked back through to the living room.

A thought rose unbidden from the depths of his mind. I bet the Seungri in the other world would love to be in my position. Seungri shook his head to try to get rid of the thought, and to focus on this universe for once.

As he and Daesung sat down in the living room, Jiyong and Youngbae seemed to be bickering over something. Leaning over to see what Jiyong was gesturing at on his phone, it appeared to be the music video of a girl group.

"I'm telling you, I could definitely do this dance!"

"And I'm telling you that you definitely couldn't!"

"What exactly are we arguing about, guys?" Seungri interjected.

Youngbae glanced up. "Jiyong thinks that he could do this dance, but I know for sure that he really couldn't. What do you think?"

Seungri began to scrutinise the dance, but before he could reply, the doorbell rang. Seungri took the opportunity to escape the argument, which resumed as soon as he stood up.

Seungri opened the door for the final time, letting Seunghyun in. "You're the last here, you know," Seungri informed him, although Seunghyun could probably have figured that out from the shouting coming from further in the apartment.

Seunghyun pouted, and Seungri laughed at him. Moving past him, Seunghyun bounded into the living room. "So, what did I miss?" He asked enthusiastically.

Seungri snorted. "You missed Jiyong thinking he's younger than he is, that's it."

Jiyong began to protest. "No! I don't think that, I just don't think that it would be too difficult to do this," he waggled his phone in Seunghyun's direction.

Seunghyun grabbed Jiyong's phone and watched the video that was still playing on it. He grinned, and began to do an approximation of the dance, complete with excessive wiggling that Seungri was sure wasn't in the original.

The four of them laughed, as Seunghyun clearly expected them to, and then they laughed harder when he tripped over the coffee table moving backwards. Seunghyun lay on the floor laughing for a minute, and they found that in itself funny too. Seungri'd missed this.

**

Seungri shoved a large portion of his food in his mouth. He'd eaten very little all day, and Youngbae's suggestion of going for food after practice had been well received by all of them. For a few minutes all that could be heard was the sound of the five of them eating, until the sound of Seunghyun's giggling broke through.

Looking over, Seungri saw that Seunghyun had pushed the food on his plate around to make the shapes of a face. Seungri facepalmed a little, but couldn't help but laugh too.

Spending time with these members was so fun, and Seungri, without even realising it, began to wonder if they were more fun than the SHINee members. He quickly shook off these thoughts, but the niggling doubt remained in the back of his mind.

**

"Seungri!" Seungri spun around as he heard his name being called. He hadn't expected to hear it, he didn't think there was anyone he knew in this shop already. "Seungri oppa!" The person called his name again.

Then he spotted a young girl walking speedily towards him. He stopped what he was doing and watched as she nearly ran into clothing racks in her haste, while simultaneously rummaging in her bag. Clearly she was a fan, then.

When she reached him she pulled out her phone. "Will you take a selfie with me, oppa?" She asked, batting her eyelashes at him.

Seungri smiled - fans were always nice to meet, even when they were way too young and trying to flirt with him. "Of course!" He was tired, but that wouldn't stop him from being nice to the fans.

He stood while she positioned them to take the selfie with the perfect lighting and positioning, moving them both around several times. When she had the perfect setup, the selfie was finally taken. The fan seemed pleased, and Seungri was pleased for her.

The fan bowed in thanks, and scampered off back to whatever she'd been doing before she'd spotted him. Seungri smiled as he turned back to his clothes shopping.

Not only had he enjoyed making a fan happy, but they'd wanted to see him as Seungri, not as Seunghyun, part of SHINee. Being back was good.

**

Seungri looked around. It felt almost surreal to be in this environment again after so long being without it. The music was loud, perfect for drowning out his worries about the nature of the universe, and people around him were dancing, a perfect way to focus on the now.

He began to dance, for once not thinking about anything else other than it. His time of reflection was cut short, however, by someone tapping on his shoulder. He turned around to see a man he didn't know stood behind him. "Seungri-ssi... sorry to disturb you, but I just wanted to let you know that I really admire you and your dancing." Seungri smiled. It was great to hear himself being called Seungri by strangers again. Slightly odd after all these weeks, but extremely welcome nonetheless. He bowed slightly, thanked the stranger for the compliment, and he moved away.

"Seungri!" He heard his name being called over the music. He looked over to see Jiyong gesturing at him to come over, and so he did - carefully, around the other drunk people in the room.

"What is it hyung?" Seungri asked. Jiyong shrugged.

"I dunno, I just wanted my favourite dongsaeng here," Jiyong answered. Seungri beamed. Not only was he being called Seungri, he was a favourite dongsaeng.

Taking his phone out, he began to manoeuvre both of them into position for a selfie, Jiyong being unusually compliant. Just as Seungri was about to take the picture, he noticed movement in the background of the shot, and - yep, their selfie now had Seunghyun hyung pulling a face in the background.

This just made Seungri laugh, and in an impulsive move, put it on his instagram. Despite it only looking like a simple picture of friends having fun together, for Seungri, even in his slightly tipsy state, it seemed like so much more as he stared at the picture.

It was a bit part of his life here, and one that he had missed. These were friends that he'd known for a long time, and he'd begun to ignore them in favour of new ones.

Maybe it would be better if he never went back? It would certainly solve the problem of Taemin's feelings for him, and he'd definitely got tired of cleaning up after his own mistakes. Seungri internally shrugged, and took another sip of his drink. Now wasn't the time for an existential crisis, and so he put his phone back in his pocket and went back to enjoying himself.

Most of what happened at the party was a blur of fun. There was a lot of dancing, as much as Seungri could do. Dancing to Bigbang songs with the others was particularly clear - dancing with no pressure and just for fun made a big difference. The drink helped too.

Seungri wasn't even sure what time it was when he was bundled into a car, although he thought that it might be turning light outside. He continued to giggle, leaning against whoever it was that was with him in the car, hardly noticing when he was pulled out of the car either.

Somehow he was back in his apartment, and he stumbled through into his bedroom.

Seungri fell back on his bed, giggling. Today had been fun - it had been ages for him since they'd done anything like this. It felt good to have alcohol in his system, stopping him from worrying about... whatever it was that he had been worrying about so much in these past few weeks. What was it again? Oh yeah, Taemin.

He began to giggle again, although he wasn't quite sure why. Maybe it was because he still didn't know what to do about that, or maybe it was just because he missed his friend.

His eyes began to feel heavy, and despite the knowledge that he was still dressed in his party going outfit, which really wasn't that comfortable, he couldn't help but feel sleepy. He allowed himself to drift off, happy.