Chapter 5, Meeting Mr. Park Jungsu 

 

The next day was the last day before assessment week started, which meant it was the day the boys were going to meet with their mentor. 

 

Jonghyun, for some reason was really excited to introduce Key, Taemin, and Minho to Mr. Park, or Leeteuk as he liked to go by. Jonghyun woke up about three hours before his alarm was set for and decided to go work out until seven and then see if anyone wanted to go grab breakfast with him. Jonghyun grabbed his headphones and his phone, trying not to wake up the sleeping Taemin, who he knew was very grumpy in the morning. Jonghyun went over to his closet and pulled out his running shoes and a sweatshirt. Because it was still dark in the room, he ended up putting his shoes onto the wrong feet. Jonghyun struggled to walk and it didn’t help that Taemin’s bag was lying in the middle of the room. Jonghyun tripped over the bag, falling face first onto the wooden floor, waking up Taemin. 

 

“Asdhkajfhdskjf Jonghyun hyung! 5am?!?!?!” 

 

“I’m so sorry Taemin ah, it’s just, your bag was in the middle of the floor...” Jonghyun felt really bad for waking Taemin at 5 am. Taemin was sitting up in his bed, cutely rubbing his eye, “Fine. Hyung, since you woke me up, you have to buy me breakfast while you’re out.” Jonghyun laughed and nodded. “Alright Taemin ah, it’s a deal. Oh and if Minho by some miracle is up tell him to come work out with me, neh?” Taemin rolled his eyes and inwardly scoffed, “I knew he liked Minho hyung.” 

 

After Jonghyun’s workout was over at 7 am, he headed back to the flat to see Onew and Key drinking coffee, but finding no Taemin or Minho in sight. 

 

“Where are the two little ones?” 

 

Key huffed with a defeated look on his face. “They won’t wake up, but I think Minho is awake, he is just ignoring me.”

Onew piped up, “I tried tickling Taemin, but he still wouldn’t get up. He didn’t go to bed late, why is he still sleeping?” 

 

Jonghyun looked guiltily at the two. “Um...I sort of woke him up on my way out so he’s probably missed out on his sleep.” 

Key shot a glare at Jonghyun but Jonghyun just sheepishly grinned back, making Onew laugh at the two younger ones. “Do you guys enjoy bickering all the time?” 

 

Key put down his coffee cup and stood up to go brush his teeth again. “It’s fun but its evident dinosaurs can’t compete with my intellect.” 

Jonghyun rolled his eyes at Key. He was surprised at the amount of times in just 2 days, he had rolled his eyes at Key’s comments or arrogance. 

 

Onew got up from the table to try to wake up the others once more. Jonghyun stopped him before he could walk out of the kitchen. “Key’s good for you. You can balance him out.” Onew blushed at the comment. “Y...yah! Don’t think I don’t notice how you look at Minho!” 

 

Speak of the devil. Minho was standing in the entry way to the small kitchen area with messy hair and Kerorro pajamas. 

 

“Too cute,” Jonghyun thought. 

 

“Do you look at me often, Jonghyun hyung?” Minho said with a smirk. “You wish!” Jonghyun retorted and then ran away. 

“Very mature of you Kim Jonghyun!” Onew called after him. “Aigoo. So, Minho. Ready to meet Leeteuk?” “Yeah. I hear he’s really cool.” “He is! He’s really young so he can relate to us and we meet in the recording studio a few blocks away from the flat. It’s a really cool place and if you’re interested in music, you’ll be in their eventually.” Onew then looked up to Minho’s face expecting complete awe from his great description, but found that the tall boy had fallen asleep standing up. “Complete and utter opposite of Jonghyun. Keke,” Onew thought. 

 

After everyone was conscious and Minho was now relying on caffeine to keep him awake, Onew and Jonghyun led the way to Leeteuk’s office which was in the school operated recording studio a few blocks away. The boys entered the building and walked down a long hallway. At the end were the tinted glass double doors with the ISAgifted logo printed on them. Onew pushed open the heavy door and allowed the rest to walk into the studio. Minho, Taemin, and Key were in awe of the studio. The beautiful sound room, the soundboard, the lights, the microphones, and the overall design were modern and amazing. At the other side of the studio were more glass double doors which led to the mentor’s office. His name plate on his office door read Assistant Music Instructor and Recording Studio Manager Mr. Park Jungsu. It was quite the official name plate. The boys stood quietly chatting when the office door opened revealing a very young, very well dressed man in wide rimmed glasses,suspenders, and oxfords. Key had to commend the guy’s style. 

 

“I finally have a full mentor group!!! Look at you guys! So handsome and tall and...tired looking, but none the less, you seem as anxious as I am! I am Mr. Park Jungsu but PLEASE call me Leeteuk. Mr. Park makes me sound like I’m really old. I already know these two knuckleheads so please introduce yourselves to me and...tell me what your favorite color is!” 

 

Jonghyun and Onew were laughing along with Leeteuk and beamed at their new flatmates who looked extremely nervous, even though hands down, Leeteuk had to be one of the nicest people on earth. 

 

Key rubbed the back of his head, knowing he should just start in. “I’m Kim Ki Bum, but you can call me Key and my favorite color is pink.” 

 

Leeteuk nodded. “So nice to meet you Key! I’ve heard plenty about you! I love your blonde hair. So unique.” Key loved the compliment. 

 

Onew made his own mental note about Key liking pink. 

 

Leeteuk then turned to Minho. “You, tall one, what’s your name, man?” 

“Choi Minho. And my favorite color is blue.” 

 

“Ah blue. Serene as can be. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Minho! And might I say, you have quite the charismatic stare.” 

Minho chuckled. 

 

“And you, boy who smells like Banana Milk in the best possible way, what’s your name? 

“Lee Taemin. I really like the color white.” 

 

Leeteuk squeezed Taemin’s shoulders with both hands and stepped back to look at his mentor group. “Wow! I hope when we travel around the city people think I’m related to a handsome bunch like you! So let’s see. You all come in and pop a squat and I we’re gonna talk for a while and then we can go eat!” 

 

The boys all smiled. In his office space, there were only two chairs besides his, but there was also a cushion on the wide windowsill that also served as a chair. Jonghyun took the first chair while Onew offered Key the other one, eliciting an eye roll from both Jonghyun and Taemin. Minho took the window seat and stretched his long legs which reached the other side of the window frame. Jonghyun tried not to stare. Onew stole Leeteuk’s chair before he could get to it, so Leeteuk stood against the window behind the desk. Taemin awkwardly sat in the middle of the two chairs on the floor. 

 

With everyone comfortable, so to speak, Leeteuk began. 

 

“So you all were chosen to come to ISA because you’re damn talented.” Leeteuk grabbed a clipboard that had each of the boy’s profile. “Ondubu! You’re back for your third year my god, time goes by so fast. I remember when I was a student teacher here and Onew was a little ISA freshman. Onew here is, like all of you, music centered. As an example, last  year he was placed in classes which he had one of his fellow flat mates in as well. Advanced Music Theory which he had with Jonghyun, Technical Performance which he had with Siwon, who graduated, Advanced Placement Lyric class, which he had with Jiyong, again who graduated, and lastly, he had Music Recording and Sound Mixing with Joon, who now is an athletics mentor here at ISA. However, he was also assessed for electives which are also apart of your schedules. Onew placed in Japanese, English, and  Organic Chemistry electives. You can see that you will be completely immersed in music but also, based on your assessments, will be placed in electives to become more well rounded. This is very similar for Jonghyun. Last year his electives were Graphic Design, Improvisation, and...”

 

Leetuek trailed off in what seemed like embarrassment. Jonghyun then finished his sentence. “And cooking. There was a power outage and the computer entered cooking into my schedule but I was having way too much fun so I just stayed. I can make perfect crémbrulee now.” 

 

The boys all laughed hysterically when Onew chimed in, “You can’t make instant ramen but you can make fancy French deserts?!” Jonghyun smiled sheepishly at the others but then averted his eyes from Minho because he didn’t want to blush at the sight of his smile or laughing. 

 

“Okay okay! So anyway...Key! You are great in performing arts, singing, of course, and oh! Studio Art! I can bet that along with your musical classes, you will be put in put in the Studio Art and Photography elective, perhaps dancing, and maybe cooking since it says here you’re proficient in that too.” 

 

Key nodded feeling a bit overwhelmed. 

 

Leeteuk continued. “Minho. You perform, you rap and sing, and wow! Photography and football eh? You have plenty of electives you could be assigned that would be great for you! And Taemin! Dancing, performing, singing, and piano! Wow. Guys, you are seriously talented! I’m so lucky to have you in my group!”

 

Leeteuk then went around and hugged each of them. Then Taemin remembered something. 

 

“Why did you ask us our favorite colors?” 

 

Leeteuk perked up once more, looking excited again. “So we can get team sweatshirts in each of our favorite colors! I’m thinking we need a new team name!"

 

Jonghyun sighed in relief. “Yes please. Not that I hated our old name, but c’mon.” 

 

Key asked, “What was this famed team name?” 

 

Onew sighed heavily. “Well we had a guy, three years older, who was named Choi Siwon. He basically named us after...well...his expressive eyebrows...” 

 

“What?!” 

 

Leeteuk sighed like Onew and Jonghyun had. “Yes. We were the Recording Room Shibrows. We could never live that name down. That rascal thought he was the handsomest thing on the planet.” 

 

Key laughed. “Well can we please have a better name than that?!” 

 

They all agreed. Finally after 10 minutes of discussion, they decided. They got to work on making a sign to hang up on the outside of the studio showing people where their new mentor group bat cave was, as Jonghyun called it. 

 

The name for their team was an English word. Jonghyun desperately wanted to show off his English handwriting skills that he claimed to have. He was quite proud. 

 

When they were hanging it up, Key and Onew, who were very good in English noticed something about the sign. 

 

Key scolded Jonghyun. “Yah! Dinosaur! You spelled Shiny wrong! You spelled it phonetically. It’s S-H-I-N-Y! Not S-H-I-N-E-E! Aigoo!” 

 

They decided on “shiny” originally because Leeteuk said they were all shining stars in his eyes, and while super cheesy, it sort of struck a chord with all of the boys as a very heartfelt name. 

 

Taemin smiled at the sign. “I kinda like SHINEE. It’s different.” 

 

 

 

 

 

And so the group of five plus Leeteuk now known as the shining SHINEE headed off to lunch. 

Key then realized, “Assessments were tomorrow. Dear God.” 

 

 

A/N: Gosh I haven't updated for ages. Hope you enjoy! Plot begins now^^