Onew returned the same day he left. With his coming, the other members gathered in the kitchen and unpacked the food that their leader had bought for them. They were just too exhausted to cook.

“We should start practicing ‘Jojo’. We start performing it in a few days you know,” Onew mentioned as he pried off the plastic lid of some container.

“Ugh. Please don’t talk about work to me right now Hyung,” Key whined.

The older boy ignored him, “Let’s all meet up in the dance studio tonight.”

Grumbling met his ears, but he knew that they all would come to practice later.

A few hours later after they had been properly fed and somewhat rested, five guys met in one of the small mirrored rooms that they had converted into a dance studio.

Taemin and Minho were stretching in a corner. Key was fiddling with his clothes while walking around absently. Onew was changing into sweatpants in another corner, while Jonghyun did some vocal exercises while walking back and forth.

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road,” Key clapped his hands together once before walking out into the open space of the room. Jonghyun went to the spot the choreographer appointed him to.

BEEP. The music started.

The fire boy put the remote down on the ground and then kicked it to the side.

They danced it once, making a few mistakes here and there.

The song ended and they reset to do it again.

Even though they had just learned the dance a few days before, their minor mistakes made them more frustrated than normally.

Key played with his bracelets as they reset once again. “I’m just too tired for this…,” he mumbled. Nevertheless, he returned to his starting position.

After the fourth time around in which Jonghyun accidentally stepped on Taemin’s foot, Onew put a rest to the serious dance practice. “Let’s just start trying to sing it and just move to our positions.”

The back track played and a few of them held fake mics.

Minho held the fake mic up to his lips and said with half the effort he’d normally give,

“I know that…
I gotta get over you…
That’s right, that’s right”

Jonghyun faced forward.

“Look, just look at that look
She’s almost like me, saying how it’s easy to forget”

Taemin stepped forward while Jonghyun stepped to the side, but instead of stepping into a free space, he bumped into a crouching Key who was supposed to have moved to the side.

“I don’t want to believe it," Taemin sang.

Key was rubbing his broken bracelet between his fingers. It had fallen when he fiddled with it in absent thought. His favorite bracelet…the one she made for him.

“Oh..ah… A restless night”

Key straightened up while tightly holding the bracelet in his hand.

“I’m so sick of my head hurting…,” he whispered his lyrics.

Onew, instead of stepping forward like the choreography required, walked towards Key and put a hand on the boy’s shoulder while singing softly,
“I get on my knees,
Hit my chest,”

Onew squeezed Key’s shoulder so hard, normal people would be whimpering by then. The middle member squeezed his eyes shut at the rising emotion.

“and even if I cry,
Can something that c-can’t be done… be done?”
Onew’s voice cracked with his verse.

The back track went on with their voices flowing quietly around them but nobody was singing anymore. Taemin stood awkwardly while looking at the ground. Minho looked up at the ceiling, not wanting any tears that might surface to fall. Jonghyun, Key, and Onew stood together with a storm cloud overhead.

Jojo! When the sad music flows
I think of you.
JoJo!Why can’t I erase
A heartless you
Hey…My JoJo! Love… Yes JoJo! Stay…

Jonghyun choked out his lyrics,
“What did I do wrong? I, I was blind!”

Hey..My JoJo! Love…Yes JoJo! Stay…
I get trampled by both of your eyes
I, I was blind

Key, in a fit, threw the bracelet away from him and then covered his eyes with his forearm.

Minho’s low voice washed over them.

“So many nights, I wonder why
What can I do to make it right?
Everything will be all right
So JoJo, just tell me why…”

Onew’s voice on the back track sang,
I don’t want to cry. Oh…ah…
My abandoned heart gets scratched deeply.

And he didn’t cry. No, he channeled that emotion into the violence that he instinctively should have done months ago. The poor wooden chair in the room was kicked in frustration, resulting in splintered wood across the floor.

Taemin’s voice filled the room and said boy covered his ears and squeezed his eyes shut.
I’m so sick of my head hurting.

Key’s voice echoed his thoughts.
Even if I fill it up and empty it again
Can something that can't be done, be done?

JoJo! When this bitter music stops
I want to send you away. Eh eh eh!
JoJo! Why can’t I, why can’t I
Erase a heartless you.Oh oh oh!

Hey…My JoJo! Love…Yes JoJo! Stay…
What did I do wrong? I, I was blind
Hey…My JoJo! Love…Yes JoJo! Stay…
I don’t know yet.

Baby…!
JoJo, do you know?
The heart here is also cold!

Baby, baby,
why did you leave?
I cry and become exhausted

Waking up from a dream
JoJo! When the sad music flows
I think of you! Eh eh eh!
JoJo! Why can’t I erase
A heartless you! Oh oh oh!
JoJo! When this bitter music stops
I want to send you away! Eh eh eh!
JoJo! Why can’t I, why can’t I
Erase a heartless you!

Smoke rose to the ceiling, and Taemin’s nose twitched. He looked up to observe a burning sound system that effectively put an end to the music.

“But in the end, we still can’t send her away…,” Onew whispered, fists clenched.

In her room, the girl rummaged through her duffel. Her hand touched an object that was the same size and shape as what she was looking for. Pulling out her mp3 player, she brought it to the bed and sat down while scrolling through her playlist.

‘I really don’t know anything about them anymore…But I thought I did. Back then…’

She put her earbuds in. Her finger hesitated before she pressed play.

Whoah (I know that…)…my baby…(I gotta get over you) my love…my heart…!

For most of the song, she just laid on her bed while staring at the ceiling.

Erase a heartless you…

‘It’d be better if we could just erase each other from our lives…,’ she thought.

At the same time both the female and the demons downstairs said out loud, “But we just can’t.”

____________

Thea's corner

So this isn't really edited either, but I'm sick of getting so far behind. Eventually I'll go back and edit.
Ugh. So I was trying so hard to not screw up the timeline that much. If you had noticed, I had some real events in this fic to give you an idea of the time. Then I looked up today when they performed certain songs and I was like 'NOOO! Dammit!' because some things that I wanted to put in occurred before Minho in Vancouver's date, and I know most of you won't care if I mess with the dates, but what matters is that I CARE! So yeah...first performance of "JoJo" was, I think, Dec. 11, 2009 on Music Bank.

Posted 24 Nov. 2011 (but it's like 5 minutes 'til the 25th...)

P.S. HAPPY THANKSGIVING for those of you who celebrate it.

P.P.S Lyric translation taken from http://fulllyricseng.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/shinee-jo-jo-lyric/ because I probably can't understand more than 4 words of Korean.