Today wasn’t just a normal day. Oh no, today was an extremely important day. Today was the day of the fabulous Almighty Key’s birthday. Waking up to the darkened room, the triple threat could hardly contain his excitement, knowing that his band mates would soon burst through his door, exclaiming their joy. He slowly began the countdown in his head. Five, the footsteps approached his door. Four, giggles and shushes were barely audible. Three, a hand was quietly placed on the golden doorknob. Two, a small “One, two, three,” was heard through the thin door. One, four ecstatic bodies rushed into the darkened room, bringing life and light in with them.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, UMMA!” Key’s face lit up, seeing the large fruit custard placed in front of him by his dongsaengs and hyungs. Looking down at the kiwi covered cake, Key strained his eyes at his futile attempts to make out the red lettering that had merely meshed into blobs of color.

“Umma! You’re getting old!” Taemin’s voice cooed up as he put on his best aegyo face to cover the actual insult that he threw out. Scrunching up his face a bit, Kibum served a swift hit to the dancer’s head, resulting in a very loud cry of misery, wearing a smug look of success.

“I’m not getting that old! I mean look at Onew hyung; he’s old!”

“YAH! I want nothing to do with this!” The leader crossed his arms, pouting at the extremely amused band, questioning how a bunch of twenty-year-olds could have the mindset of kindergarteners. “Okay, none of that matters today, all that matter is that it’s our precious Umma’s birthday!” The room erupted in cheers as the birthday boy blushed a bit. Dipping his finger into the custard, Key let the sweetness dance amongst his taste buds, not hesitating to show his affection for the sweet treat. Leaving his eyes closed, Kibum was unable to defend himself from the incoming strike of Jonghyun’s hand.

“Aish, you love me, not that stupid custard cake.” This brought laughter from all other members, seeing as the lead singer of one of the largest Korean groups was getting jealous... of a pastry. Allowing a sly smile to reach his face, Key gave the elder a small kiss on the cheek, reassuring his love, which ultimately satisfied the elder. That was until his face was adorned with the accessory also known as custard. “YAH! YOU BASTARD!” Quickly scrambling out of the confinements of his bed, the triple threat made a mad dash for safety. “GET YOUR BACK HERE, KIBUM!” Soon the morning turned into a thirty minute game of Tom and Jerry, resulting in a few broke vases, a couple of bruises, and a mess of custard that never quite made it into anybody’s mouth. Minho was seated next to the eldest, his arms circling the waist of the youngest, all three watching the chase continue, their laughter ringing throughout the room.

“See, Onew hyung, I told you any type of cake would be a horrible idea.”

After the two calm down

Silence engulfed the room, as the two were now dead on the floor trying to catch their breath. However, the other three showed no sympathy, kicking the two lovebirds in the gut. Onew took the leadership role that he was assigned.

“Yah. Get up, we need to celebrate Key’s birthday, and laying on your lazy asses isn’t celebrating.” Scoffing at the elder, the two started running off their complaints of how the other members did not run twenty miles around the dorm. But in the end, the two were quickly

overruled and shoved into two separate showers before their lunch started. Kibum decided that, as the king of the day, he would take his sweet, sweet time making sure to spend extra time to blow dry and straighten his hair. He made sure that his eyeliner was extra straight, his foundation to be the exact over his face. Pulling on his jeans, the birthday boy looked down to see his beloved bracelet. All the members of Shinee had the same bracelet, a different color rubber band for each member, which was attached to the molded metal word Shinee. Looking down at his own yellow one, the diva squint his eyes, having the same problem with the metal wording as he did the red frosting.

“Aish, I really need to get glasses or something.”

“YAH! MISSING MEMBER OF GIRL'S GENERATION, GET YOUR OUT HERE, IT’S BEEN AN HOUR!” The diva rolled his eyes, not bothering to rush to button up his white shirt yelling back to the door that they can wait because it is his birthday after all. Purposely, inch worming his way to his dresser to retrieve the rest of his accessories. Carefully placing in his earrings, the triple threat heard his leader’s proclamation, which in turn caused him to rush out the room as though a flock of fan girls just busted through his door. “KEY!! MINHO AND TAEMIN ARE MAKING OUT ON THE COUCH NOW AND HE WON’T GET HIS HANDS OUT OF TAEMIN’S PANTS!”

“MINHO-AH! GET YOUR HANDS OUT OF TAEMIN’S PANTS BEFORE I SAW THEM AND YOUR BELOVED FAMILY JEWELS OFF WITH A DULL RAZOR!”

Once they arrive at the café

Arriving at the hole-in-the-wall café two hours later than expected, the SHINee members were already exhausted due to the amount of fan girls they had to outrun.

“Whose smart idea was it to walk?!” Immediately all hands pointed at their maknae, who had already started his aegyo attack on the lead singer.

“But hyung, we need to help save the planet!” His hands were curled into balls on each side of his face as he blinked many more times than necessary. The act ended quickly as Key gave the youngest a good whack in the head stating that they should be more concerned with saving him rather than the planet. Laughter filled the small room they put in their orders, each member began messing around with each other. Taking a moment away from the group, Key looked at the sight in from of him. Taemin was sitting in Minho’s lap telling some outrageous story with huge arm motions and exaggerated faces. Looking to the right, the triple threat caught the sight of his two hyungs trying to get their spoons to stick on their noses like some five-year-olds.

“Hey! It’s my birthday! Shouldn’t you be focused on me?” Key put on his infamous diva face, his hands glued to his hips as he stared each of s down.

“Why of course, Your Majesty, we will be at your every will and call, completing every task that is assigned to us no matter how hard or outrageous,” Jonghyun ended his performance with a large bow, making sure his front foot was propped up. The positions didn’t last long, however, as a resounding smack filled the ears of all the members, who instinctively turned to see a bum-rubbing Jonghyun and a rather satisfied Key.

“What? He was asking for it!” Chuckling as he shook his head, Minho held both his hands up, stating that he did not want anything to do with the two’s lover's quarrels. As the volume rose in the room, the group lost all composure, turning into a large group of brothers poking fun at each other until their food was presented in front of them.

“WAIT!” Taemin’s sudden outburst forced the other four to jump out of their seats, taking defensive position around the supposedly endangered maknae. “We need to put a candle in Key’s food.” The worries of the group dropped to the ground faster than someone could say a word, the member’s deadpanning at Taemin’s overreaction to such a little problem.

“Aish. And I thought someone shot you in the leg or something.” The eldest ran a stressed hand through his ruffled hair, small cusses and sighs slipping out of his mouth as he took his seat, stabbing his steak with a bit more force than necessary. Minho didn’t just stab his own food with a knife, but he also stabbed the table... right next to Taemin’s hand. Staring down at the wide-eyed dancer, Minho mumbled something about giving him a reason to scream like that. Once

the five settled down a bit more, Key looked down at his pasta, which now indeed was adorned with a lit candle.

“Taemin… why do you carry around candles with you?”

“Why not?”

“Well… um… just eat, maknae.” Taemin dug into his macaroni and cheese with much pleasure, seeing as he had gotten his way once again. The group ate in silence, all too busy indulging in their food to make conversation.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KIBUM!” Taemin’s outburst once again forced the group to jump out of their skins, ending with hard glares thrown at the younger.

“Minnie-ah. We’ve already been over this. It is Key’s birthday,” Minho’s ran a soothing hand down the younger’s back before using the other to grip the younger’s face, “but that’s no excuse to scream like you saw Heechul and Hangeng doing it in the back of a car.”

“MINHO!”
“YOU WOULD SCREAM LIKE THAT IF YOU SAW THAT!”
“YOU CAN’T CORRUPT OUR TAEMIN LIKE THAT, THOUGH!” Kibum gave his motherly glare, daring the rapper to shoot back, which like any smart man, he did not follow through with.

“But, I want to give Key his birthday gift!” Taemin whined, placing a rather large pink box on the table, which Kibum did not hesitate to dig into. Lifting the large leather jacket, Key’s eyes watered in joy, seeing the effort Taemin put in his gift as real leather is not cheap. Turning to his son, the triple threat glomped the youngest in a huge hug, thanking the youngest for his hard work. Pulling away, Key stared into the gray eyes of the maknae, pushing his hair out of his face like any other mother would do.

“My turn! My turn!” Looking over the noseless Jonghyun, Key took the purple bag with much anticipation. But before he could dig into the bag, something restricted his arms from moving.

“What’s going on… why can’t I move my arms...” Key struggled harder, tugging his arms as though they were tied with rope. Looking over to his band mates, his face fell into a frantic state, “Minho… what’s going on… Jinki... where are you going??” The image is front of him was blurring, colors meshing together, objects losing their shape. Looking down at what was supposed to be the SHINee bracelet, Key was only further confused with the image. The bracelet was not yellow, nor did it say SHINee, but rather it was white… and said hospital.

“UMMA! COME BACK! IT HURTS SO MUCH! I CAN’T FEEL MY LEGS!” Tears blurred his vision as Key turned to the youngest, not being able to make out every detail of him, but rather just the silhouette. Looking closer, the diva saw his precious son’s legs bent in ways that it shouldn’t, his spine sticking out in at different angles. “Umma.. it hurts… umma.. make it better.. UMMA HELP!” Failing to reach out to the younger, guilt washed over him, having to watch his little boy, in so much pain and yet he couldn’t touch him. He couldn’t help him. He couldn’t help Onew who was silent and still on the floor, half of his body covered by a large object. He couldn’t help Minho whose head was turned a full 180, one of his legs fifty feet from where he is, caught in a large metal object. And most of all he couldn’t help Jonghyun, who was still crying out, whose bloody hand was struggling to reach his own.

“Key... what’s going on… why can’t I touch you?” Turning to the voice, Key grew more frantic, tears now filled his eyes as he struggled to reach out to his lover. “Why... why can’t I see you… Key... who’s taking you away...”

“I DON’T KNOW! JONGHYUN DON’T LEAVE!” Kibum started thrashing around, his arms struggling to move with his legs flailing about. “JONGHYUN, COME BACK!” Looking to his lover once more, Key was finally able to rip away from his constraints… only to walk into a world of darkness.

Two hours later

“What happened?”

“We found him peeling his fingernails back, laughing and holding conversations, but no one else was there with him.”

“Did the name Taemin, Minho, Onew, Jonghyun or any variation of the names appear?”

“Yes, Ma’am, how did you know?” Looking into the padded room that contained the sleeping idol, the doctor removed her glasses, placing the lab write-up on the counter.

“This patient is a special one, he used to be part of the idol group SHINee. He was in a car accident ten years ago with his band mates. He was the only one who survived.” The intern's eyes grew large in realization; being younger, he had only heard stories of the tragic group known as SHINee. They had just reached the peak of their fame having successfully debuted in the US, their english verison of "Replay" spiking to number one making them the first idol group to do so. Not to mention they were already well established in all of Asia and most of Europe and the Americas. The group was going to be a legend, as their latest album sold over 30 million worlwide. Yes they were on top, until everything crashed. “Yes, this is that SHINee, the SHINee that made history and were still in their prime years,” the doctor spoke up, answering his unspoken question, “the five were going out for his birthday, the road was slippery from rain that afternoon, their leader, who was driving, lost control of the car, and bam, they were all dead in seconds. All except for him.” The boy looked to the sleeping man, sympathy filling his body, as he finally understood the entire situation.

“So, he went crazy from survivor’s guilt. All these events are alternates to the day of the crash, aren’t they, Ma’am? He's imagining different situations where they could have all lived.” The woman stayed quiet, simply nodding her head at the conclusion. “But, why does he peel his fingernails? Is it the same reasoning behind self-harmers? What do they have to do with the situation?” A small solemn smile filled her face as she turned to her intern once more.

“They're his gifts, sweetie. He was unwrapping his gifts.”