An alarm blared in Jonghyun’s ears as he jumped into consciousness.  Reflexly, he hit the snooze button. Lying in bed for a few more moments, he jolted himself back awake after dozing off again.  Sighing to himself, he dragged his tired body out of bed that morning.  Dance practice was always ridiculously early in the day, and now it was even worse that they were all jet lagged in Los Angeles.  

     Maybe if they were cut a break every once in a while, the group would quarrel less.  And over such pointless things, at that!  Such as making one mistake during practice and the choreographer yelling at you, what to eat for brunch, what was on their schedule.  Just the thought of one more hour’s sleep sounded like the most heavenly thing Jonghyun could think up. 
     On the way out of his room, he accidently kicked something hard.  Looking down, as pain rushed through his foot, he saw the curve of Taemin’s bony .  Jonghyun suppressed a Korean swear word that was just on the edge of his lips.  “Wake up, Taeminnie!” he said in a flippantly cheery tone.  “You know, Tae, there are these things called beds that we have here in the suite.  You know what you do with beds?  YOU SLEEP ON THEM SO PEOPLE DON’T TRIP OVER YOU.  WHY THE HELL ARE YOU ON THE FLOOR?”  He didn’t care that he had hurt his own voice.
     Taemin started to stir on the floor, nestled under his warm little bundle of blankets that he had pulled over his head.  A muffled sound that somewhat resembled a “Bwa?” came from the squirming material.  A puffy little face appeared, squinting at Jonghyun.  “What do you want?” 
     “Time for practice,” Jonghyun said, while kicking him again.  He winced a little since his toe was still sore.
     “No, it’s Saturday.  It’s our day off,”  Taemin argued.
     “Saturday was yesterday, genius.  Remember, we spent most of it on a plane?”
     “It’s Sunday?”
     “No, it’s Thursday, Taemin.  Because Thursday comes after Saturday.  Yes, it’s Sunday!”
     “I deny this fact,” he said with a pouting of his lips and scrunching of is eyes.  “Leave me alone.  I don’t care what anyone says.  I’m too tired to get up today,” Taemin’s voice was so muffled from him curling up back inside his cocoon that Jonghyun could barely hear the last sentence.  

     “Listen, either get up or I get you up.  I’ll be back in ten minutes,” Jonghyun’s tone was flat.  “Or, if you’d like, I can take Key’s Vogue and tell him you took it.  That’ll wake you up.” 
     “You wouldn’t,” Taemin’s voice sounded betrayed even in it’s sleepy tone. 
     “Oh, but I would.” 
     With one last great groan, he sat up, rubbing his eyes.  “Okay, I’m up.  You can leave now.”
     With a sigh, Jonghyun made his way to the bathroom to take a shower and get changed into his practice clothes.  This was the perfect example of how they all acted in the morning.  No one really wanted to cooperate.

     Onew sat at the kitchen table, his hair still damp from the shower he just took.  Diligently, he worked away at the bowl of rice in front of him.  Oh, how he dreamed of having just a little chicken or even kimchi mixed in with it, but he was told to keep his weight down.
     Instead he tried to focus on the fact that it seemed like his band mates were moving even slower than usual this morning.  It was probably the long flight to L.A. that had done it.  They never coped that well with jet lag.  He wished they could all just get along, though.  Onew was probably the worst with early morning dance practice sessions, but he always tried his best to stay cheerful and supportive.  After all, he did have the title of leader.
     Minho traipsed out of the room that he shared with Key.  Onew could tell it was even taking the early riser of the group more time to wake up today. 
     “Anyong!  Did you sleep well, Minho?”
     “Ah, ne, hyung.  Is it dance practice today?”
     “Looks like it, but perhaps the choreographer will cut us a break today since we’re in L.A.  I really hope we get a chance to look and walk around.  I’ve always wanted to experience California...”  Onew trailed off, staring at his food.
     Minho stared at his odd hyung for a couple of seconds and then decided to get some breakfast himself.
     “Hey, is Key up yet?”
     Minho made a sort of snorting sound.  “Yeah, right.  The diva has to have his beauty rest,” he said with a facetious tone. 
     The room went quiet.  Onew knew that Minho and Key didn’t always get along that well, that‘s why it baffled him as to why their manager wanted them to room together.  I guess it was their manager’s way of trying to get them to bond.  Though Onew could see it was making things even worse.  Plus, he wished he had someone to room with as well.  He didn’t like sleeping alone, especially away from home. 

     While Onew continued to pout over his breakfast, Jonghyun opened the door of the steamy bathroom.  “Hya, are you all ready to g-?”  He spotted Onew, rice hanging out of his mouth, and Minho, who was he preparing a cup of instant noodles, and stopped himself mid sentence.
     At that moment, Taemin hopped out of his room, his legs tightly bound in the blanket he slept under.  “I’m ready to go when you guys are.”  His face was still puffy with sleep.
     Jonghyun shook his head.  “Where’s Key?” 
     “Still sleeping, I’m sure,” Minho said, still fuming in frustration.

     Key’s sleep was filled with a dreams of Jonghyun.  They had been at the beach together, and were building a sandcastle.  Key was watching Jonghyun closely as he always did.  Jonghyun suddenly got a mischievous sparkle in his eye.  Leaping out of his seat in the sand, he tackled Key to the ground, smashing him into their sandcastle. Key squirmed and laughed his loud laugh in protest.  His heart felt as though it would jump out of his chest at any moment, though.  Digging his hand into the sand, he flung a pile of sand onto Jonghyun’s back.
     “Hya!” Jonghyun said, his eyes still sparkling in the sunlight of the beach.  “Are you trying to get sand down my pants?”  His expression was slightly irritated looking, but a smile covered whatever annoyance there was.  Jonghyun grabbed as much sand as he could and immediately started trying to shove it down Key’s pants.
     “Jjongie!  Stop it!” Key giggled, when suddenly, he felt a punch in the stomach.  Completely confused, and before he could figure out just why Jonghyun would have hit him, he awoke to his dark hotel suite.  A pair of feet stood before him.  They were familiar feet, at least. 
     Slowly, he looked up, his stomach churning a little in embarrassment.  Jonghyun stood there with a puzzled look on his face. 
     “Key, what what in the world were you dreaming about?  You were giggling like a little girl...”
     “Ne?  Ah.. ani-ya.  It was nothing.  Was I... er... was I talking in my sleep or something crazy like that?” he asked nervously.
     “Sort of... you kept repeating ‘stop it‘ between giggles.  Was someone tickling you or something?”
     “Oh, um... I can barely even remember,” Key lied. 
     Jonghyun started to make his way out of the room, mumbling something that sounded a lot like “adorable,” but Key figured it was just his imagination at work. 
     “Anywho, it’s time to get up!  We need to be at the dance studio soon.”
     “Okay, hyung!  Thank you for waking me up,” Key said that last bit quietly. 
    
     When all five members had finally made it out of their rooms and into the main living area, their manager appeared.  Apparently, he had a key of his own to their room.  No one gave it a second thought. 
     “So, I just got news that the director of GMF records wants to see you guys today.  So, I called and canceled your dance practice.  To those of you who haven’t showered today, go do so.  To those of you who have, go change into some nicer clothes.”
     “Hi, nice to see you, too,” Key mumbled under his breath.  Though, he was still relieved that they didn’t have to go to dance practice today.
     “But now I have to do my hair now, too,” Jonghyun whined.  “And I have to do it right after I get out of the shower.  Ahh, whatever.  Just, everyone, give me ten minutes.”
     “Who’s the diva now?” Key laughed.
     Jonghyun shot him a pointed look with his puppy-like eyes. 
     “What time do we need to be there?” asked Onew.
     “In an hour, but it’s just down the street,” the manager replied.
     Onew shot up from his seat and ran to his room, immediately throwing his his neatly folded clothes right and left.  “What do I wear?  What do I wear?!  Ugh, I’m going to have to ask Key for help, since apparently I never know what I’m doing when it comes to clothes.”
     “Keyyyyy!” Onew yelled.  Key was already at the door.  “I know, I know.  Jinja...”  Key, with one look at the pile of clothes on Onew’s bed, grabbed a pair of dark blue pants and a light blue v-neck.  “Wear your leather jacket over it.  Seriously, I don’t even know why you need me to do this.  It’s so simple.”
     Onew stuck his tongue out in response, acting like the maknae of the group, as always.  “Thank you, eomma!”
     Onew quickly got dressed and by the time he had made it out of his room, so had Minho.
     “I wish Key would stop trying to tell me what to wear...” Minho mumbled.
     Onew reluctantly replied, “Well, he is actually pretty good with fashion...”

     “Yeah, I guess so...”
     At that moment, Jonghyun ran out of the bathroom, a big smile on his face.  He looked exactly the same as when he had gone in, except for his clothes.
     “I thought you had to do your hair,” Minho voiced what they were all thinking.
     “What do you mean?  I did do my hair.  It looked terrible before.  That’s why I usually wear a hat to dance practice.”
     “Oh... erm... okay, then,” Minho tried his best not to laugh at his hyung.  Sometimes he felt the only sane one out of the bunch. 
      After much waiting and countless levels of Angry Birds, Minho was relieved to see that they were all finally ready to go for the day.  Outside, he felt completely awake and alive in the sunlight of California.  It helped him forget his frustrations with the rest of the group.  He did love them like brothers, and was especially close to Taemin, but just like any other family, there were times when he wanted nothing more than a little space from them. 



Hope you enjoyed, guys!  More to come soon~