WARNING: CRAPPY NONSENSE AHEAD.

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“Is that camera following me?” Joon asked, staring pointedly at the camera that was in the upper corner of his and Mir’s shared bedroom.

It had been almost an hour since the trucks and vans from the crew had arrived and they had been introduced to everybody. The PD had given everyone their rooms and told them where all the static cameras would be. Of course, there wouldn’t be cameras in the bathroom.

Oh, and they would only be there during the first day. The crew would take them down after filming everybody’s reactions to the rooms.

But they would have an annoying group of people following their every move (which Taemin had been so against, as he had voiced throwing a tantrum during the introductions).

After being explained how the show would work when not doing any competition (they would have schedules with their band as always, but after that, they would go to either their house or the TV station, so that they could get their own human leech camera to follow them around), the PD gave Sehun the keys to every room in the house (because giving them to Kai would be a big, big mistake) and the MCs showed everyone their new bedrooms.

So here they were, everyone getting settled in their new, temporary rooms, and tidying up.

Or at least, that’s what Hyukjae was doing, because not everyone was as organized and neat as him.

Some of the contestants were looking around the house, talking to the other singers, arguing about their closet space or just staring at each other in an uncomfortable silence.

And then, there was Lee Joon, main dancer of MBLAQ, visual (he’s got the face and the abs) and a pretty decent vocal too.

He would be a good catch if he weren’t so unbelievably stupid.

“Hey, Mir, is that camera following me?” He repeated without looking away from the camera.

Mir was busy dumping all his clothes into one of the drawers of the closet and organizing (not really) all his other stuff into a messy pile on the bathroom counter and the night table beside his side of the bed.

Right.

They hadn’t mentioned the King-sized beds yet, had they?

Well, yeah. They had King-sized beds. Which wasn’t that much of a big deal, actually, considering some of them shared beds with their band-mates.

But for some of them, it was a big deal.

Namely, those who had a boyfriend but couldn’t make proper use of the bed (nope, Taemin was not talking about sleep here), those who weren’t used to sharing their bedroom with anyone, and those who had been through a nasty break-up and hadn’t seen each other in four years.

“Yes, hyung, the camera is following you.” Mir answered. He would have commented on Joon’s stupidity, but there was a cameraman behind him and another one at the doorstep.

“Lee Joon, you should probably get ready for this evening,” Cameraman #1 said.  “We are having the welcoming party in half an hour.”

“We will be filming everything”, Cameraman #2 said, holding down his huge camera from his shoulder.

Still without looking away from the camera, Joon nodded, creeping inside the shot. He sprang out of the camera’s range and then sprang back in again. “Look, Mir!” He exclaimed excitedly. “This thing is following me!”

He slowly moved to his left, and the camera soon followed.

“This is amazing”

“Are we ever going to talk to each other again?” Yunho said.

He and Jaejoong were sitting each on a side of the bed, not facing each other. There was a huge window on the walls, so Jaejoong could pretend to be really interested in the wildlife that was supposedly living outside.

If there ever was any wildlife to begin with.

The first thing Jaejoong had done when he went in the room was grab a marker and paint the lens.

He wasn’t planning on apologizing to the crew.

Starting to get annoyed by the sound of Yunho playing with his suitcase (because dragging it around with his foot makes some horrible screeching noises), the boy scoffed.

“We haven’t talked in four years and we’re going to start now just because we’re in the same room?” He laughed. “No, I don’t think so”.

Nah, me neither, the leader thought.

“Oh, okay then.”

A thought flashed through Yunho’s mind, and he hastily turned around to his former band-mate. “How are Yoochun and Junsu?” He asked, stumbling over his own words while trying to get them out of his mouth.

Jaejoong stopped frowning. “They’re doing good, and…” Jaejoong cut himself. “ I thought I said I didn’t want to talk to you?”

Yunho shrugged, pushing the red suitcase with his foot again. “You did, but you’ve never been good at staying quiet”.

“And you know that how?” Jaejoong frowned.

The other boy laughed bitterly. “Oh, please. I do know, trust me”.

Not really catching his former leader’s meaning, Jaejoong gave him a condescending look. “Psh. Whatever”.

“Smile, Sungjonggie!” Myungsoo said, looking at the maknae through the camera lens.

To say that the second youngest in Infinite had quite an obsession with Sungjong would be a complete understatement.

And if someone didn’t believe it, they would just have to go see the full wall on Myungsoo’s room, which was covered in pictures of Sungjong.

Not that he was stalking the boy or anything.

No, really.

Kim Myungsoo was not a stalker.

He just might have a too big little soft spot for Sungjong.

The maknae was next to the window, smiling back at him and posing for the camera.

Their room was on the first floor, next to Hongki and Jonghun’s one. But unlike theirs, that was all black and white, looking really cool and mature, theirs was a bit more colorful. Still in black and white, they had a plant that gave color to the room, which, combined with the undulated headboard, gave the bedroom a more diva-ish look.

Which fit Sungjong perfectly, if Myungsoo dared say so himself.

So, here he was, taking yet more pictures of the cute maknae Infinite had managed to snatch for themselves.

In Myungsoo’s opinion, Sungjong was the most adorable person he’d ever met, what with his cute face and diva-ish personality.

If he didn’t know better, he’d say Sungjong was the combination of Kim Heechul + Kim Kibum (SHINee version) + Jo Kwon.

Wow, now that was a scary thought.

Anyways.

The point is, the maknae loved taking pictures or being the model for someone else’s.

And Myungsoo loved photography, so it just made sense.

There.

Another reason to why the visual was not a stalker.

Stalked people didn’t see the pictures that were being taken of them.

And Sungjong LOVED to go to Myungsoo’s room to see his own face on the walls.

“Hyung, this place is amazing!” The younger boy said, giving him a bright smile. He turned around and started opening and closing closet doors, drawers and muttering about which side of the bed would be best.

Myungsoo put the camera down and looked at the pretty decorations their room had. It wasn’t like their neighbors’, which gave each room its own personality.

Myungsoo really liked that.

“This place is amazing indeed” He quietly said, smiling at Sungjong, who was already posing and asking for another picture.

He raised the camera to his face again.

If there was something that annoyed Hyukjae more than Donghae hopping and jumping on his bed, was Donghae hopping and jumping on his bed while there were still clothes on it.

“Fish!” Hyukjae was screaming. “You’re ruining my clothes and messing the bed!” He raised an arm to pull Donghae down.

The other boy had already fallen from the bed twice, the second time landing on the magazine pile in the corner of the room and making a big mess out of it.

Which of course, with Hyukjae being the neat freak he was, gave the main dancer a nearly- and an overwhelming urge to main and kill somebody (namely his best friend).

The only thing that stopped him was the fact that his sister would go all crazy-shipper-fangirl on him and murder him in the most evil, cruel way if he caused the Eunhae-couple to disappear.

And he did treasure his life, thank you very much.

So, after a while, he managed to kick Donghae out of the bed (a skill he had learnt from EXO’s Little Dear Luhan, of course), even with the sacrifice of the cushions that also fell from the bed when the fish jumped down.

Their room was actually very cool looking, actually. It was the only room in the basement, so they had a staircase that went directly to one side of their bedroom. The stonewall gave it a more homey feeling while still keeping the awesome and modern style.

But nearly everything else was white, which would be horrible to clean when they came back all dirty and muddy from the sporting events of the competition.

Because Eunhyuk tended to be a lazy- after doing sports, which meant he wouldn’t clean.

And Donghae tended to act like a crazy bunny on steroids all the time.

And that usually turned out to be a deadly combination.

“Donghae! Seriously, man, stop jumping down the stairs and start cleaning up all your stuff!” He turned to his band-mate, just in time to roll his eyes at the other boy jumping down seven stairs at the same time and obviously landing on his , which made him roll like a Buffalo on the floor.

“OW! OW, OW, OW!” Donghae started crying. “Eunhyukkie! That hurt so much!” He looked at his best friend through tear-filled eyes.

“” Hyukjae muttered, going to the princess’ his best friend’s rescue.

“Okay, so now we’re going to have a little competition between the couples” Kai said. “See this as some bonding games, if you will” He smiled evilly.

            They were all sitting down on the grass in front of the house, with the exception of the MCs, who were standing the nearest to the house. “We’ll do the typical couple games, so there’s nothing to worry about” Sehun said.

            The PD had told them the cameras would be there only during their first day, to show the fans their “competition dorm”, but since then, the house would be their safe haven, not having to, and Hongki quoted, ‘pretend to be a couple’.

            Needless to say, someone was really happy (basically 2Min and the not-couple Yunjae), because they could both make out and have lots of in their double bed with the sophisticated brown covers and walls, which, according to Taemin, were asking to be part of some hot, steamy sessions.

            No, not talking about the sauna.

            Back to the topic…

            “You’re obviously going to be paired up by couples, so you don’t get to choose partners,” Sehun continued, walking next to a huge box that was awkwardly placed in the middle of the field.

            He grabbed another box (inside the big box) that contained a lot of paper scrolls and walked back to the group.

            “Shall we begin?” He asked, offering the box to Kai, who just took one scroll and opened it. He smiled at what it said.

            “Hmm… That’s a good start!” He said, leaning over to Sehun so he too could read it.

            “That’s a good one for starters” He agreed. “Guys, how much do you like Pocky?” He looked at the not real yet couples, turning over the paper so they could read what it said.

            Oh, crap, everyone thought.

            “Are we ever going to escape the curse of the kissing games?” Donghae asked nobody in particular, groaning in dislike and rolling like a Buffalo on the floor again.

            Kai smiled at his hyung. “Well, let me think abo- No, you probably won’t” He tilted his head to the side, acting cute.

The couple sat down on the grass and motioned everyone to sit in a circle.

            The cameras quickly went to stick their lenses in between everyone’s heads, to make sure they didn’t miss anything and make great profit of the show.

            Moving with the hand a camera that had hit his head, Kai spoke. “Well, who wants to go first?”

            Silence.

            Duh.

            “Okay, since there’s so much people volunteering, we’ll choose ourselves!” Sehun said, throwing an arm around Kai’s shoulders. “Let’s see… brother-in-law, what do you say?” He looked at Taemin (and the cameras followed), “do you want to go first?”

            Taemin looked at him as if he’d grown a second head.

            Well, obviously, . I want to kiss mah boyfriend.

But wait, I don’t want to go first. But if I do, I get to kiss Minho, right? Taemin thought.

            “I guess…?” He said, unsure.

            “Perfect!” Kai jumped. He passed the box full of pocky to Minho, who was… just standing there.

            Do I have no say in when I want to kiss my boyfriend or not? The rapper thought, already accepting the box.

            He got one and held it in between his teeth, Taemin already getting close and starting to eat the candy.

After half-an-hour of embarrassing nearly-mouth-on-mouth contact with fellow band-mates (or not) and being first-hand witnesses to the MCs’ ‘recently made public’ love (a.k.a. seeing them each other’s faces because Kai just wanted to annoy his twin by kissing his boyfriend while Taemin couldn’t kiss his), the competing couples were back at the house.

            They hadn’t only played kissing games, but also all other sorts of variety-show games.

            Hongki had especially had fun during the ‘Of course’ game. There hadn’t been any teams there, but instead it was an everyone-against-each-other game.

            It turned out that being Kim Heechul’s best friend had some perks, after all.

            Mainly not getting hurt by Key and Sungjong’s comments.

            Holy crap, that kid could kick some serious .

            Taemin, the evil maknae in the making, had also made a great opponent, taking down Mir, Minho, Jonghyun and Myungsoo before losing against Jaejoong, who had turned into a heartless in those three years since TVXQ! split, in Hongki’s opinion.

            No, he wasn’t being mean to Jaejoong.

            Okay, maybe a bit.

            But he had really turned into a cold, heartless person!

            He had nearly made Yunho cry when he’d gone against him. And Hongki didn’t know what he meant when mentioning half of the things he’d mentioned, but he was pretty damn sure that it had something to do with SM and the band’s break-up.

            Yunho had been fairing pretty well, not really trying to hurt his ex-band mate with his words, until Jaejoong had mentioned Changmin.

            And again, Hongki didn’t know what exactly had happened there four years ago, but apparently Changmin was a sensitive topic when Jaejoong and Yunho were talking to each other.

            That made him think, it must have been the first time they’d talked to each other since the break-up, since they hadn’t exchanged a word during the other games.

            Now that was a very effective way to start talking and get rid of any bad feelings.

            As if.

            They were probably in an even more awkward silence than in the beginning.

            But oh, well. It wasn’t any of Hongki’s business anyway, so he decided to leave it as it was.

            All his thoughts were interrupted when his phone started ringing.

            He got the cellphone from his back pocket and answered without bothering to look at the number. “Hello?”

            “MOMMY! Tell Seunghyun to stop messing with my stuff!” Minhwan’s voice rang from the phone. He pulled the device away from his ear (he didn’t want to become deaf, thank you very much) and answered.

            “Honey, can you pass the phone to Jaejin, please?” He asked sweetly.

            “Listen, you brat. If something happens to Minhwan while I’m gone, I’ll cut your balls off and feed them to Heebum. Got that?” He said once the maknae had given the phone to the bass player.

            He heard the other boy gulping loudly. “S-sure, hyung. I’ll take care of things here.”

            “Good.”

            Jonghun came out from the bathroom drying his hair with a towel. “Whom are you talking to?” He asked, sitting on the bed next to his band mate.

            “Just the kids.” Hongki answered with a smile. “I just told Jaejin I would castrate him if he let anything happen to my baby.”

            Jonghun laughed loudly at the other’s answer. “That is so like you!” He said. After a moment calming himself down, he continued. “Well, Hongki. Are you ready for tomorrow?” He asked.

            Hongki nodded. “First day of shooting, we’re having the first game tomorrow.” He said.

            “And we’re going to kick some ” Jonghun added.

            …

            Oh, whom are we kidding? We’re totally going to miserably fail, they both thought.

            “Bye, Onew-hyung!” All the other (because it was all of them except Onew) members of SHINee called.

            Half an hour ago, while he was watching Minho holding Taemin to make sure he just didn’t jump him, Key remembered that four out of five members of SHINee were in the competition.

            That left the world’s most amazing leader all on his own.

            Poor thing not.

            He would have to stay in the dorms all by his little self, with Key’s adorable and fluffy dog to watch over, not having to look over four younger brats, having a lot of free time because their schedules would be shortened now that four members were in a show…

            …

            Wait.

            That didn’t sound bad at all.

            Having the house to himself?

            Being lazy all day?

            …

            Stupid leader had got himself free vacations!

            And he hadn’t even thought about discussing it with s!

            So now they were calling to make sure he didn’t get too comfortable during these weeks that they would be gone.

            “Bye, guys. Don’t worry about me” Not that we were going to, Key thought, “and focus on the show, okay?” The leader’s happy voice said.

            “Oh, and Taeminnie. Don’t get the crazies around Minho, okay?” Onew laughed, causing Minho’s face to go red.

            The maknae just laughed along with Jonghyun and ignored his boyfriend, who was now close to being the color of the Communist Manifesto. “Oh, don’t worry, hyung. I’ll make sure we’re not caught”.

            Laughter came from the cellphone “I’ll take your word for that, Tae.” The leader said. “Now make sure to get some rest and that goes to Taemin the most and be prepared for tomorrow”.

            The four members nodded, which looked pretty stupid because Onew couldn’t see them.

            “Will do. Bye, hyung!” Jonghyun said, reaching out to end the call.

            They got off the black covers of the bed he and Key shared, and the real couple headed towards the door.

            “Oh, Taeminnie baby.” Key called, his inner mom revealing her(?)self. “Make sure to put all your clothes in the closet and wear PJs tonight, okay?” He said.

            Rolling his eyes at the other boy, Taemin turned to face him. “Yes, mom.  Don’t worry, I’ll keep my clothes on tonight.” He smiled mischievously, looking at Minho and holding his hand.

            When they disappeared from sight, Jonghyun let out a short laugh. “Why do I get the feeling they’re not going to get much sleep tonight?”

“Yeah. Thank Shisus God they’ve taken down the cameras.”

Sehun looked at his boyfriend from the doorframe. “What are you doing? I thought you were already asleep?”

            Kai turned to look at him from the phone. “I can’t sleep hearing the shower” He turned back to the task in hand. “And I’m texting Taemin-hyung.”

Sehun sat down near the other boy and looked over his shoulder to read their conversation.

“You know you’re not allowed to read my conversations, right, maknae?” Kai said without looking away. It was true, but since he saw him smiling, Sehun figured it didn’t hurt if he continued to read.

SoyUnDorito: And I’m sorry to tell you that I hate you and Sehun right now, twin-boy. :S

RaisedByWolves: I just did what I had to, hyung. It was all for show! ^^

SoyUnDorito: … Okay, maybe. But I’m totally telling on you! And I’m going to let out the beast Key on you.

RaisedByWolves: Sure, hyung.

RaisedByWolves: I’m going to bed now, so just sleep (I MEAN IT; SLEEP) and be prepared for tomorrow.

SoyUnDorito: Can you give me a hint about tomorrow’s activities? You know, in the sake of friendship and brotherhood and all that crap. Because that way I won’t lose and embarrass myself in front of my boyfriend and the whole country and have to go live like a hermit in some Caribbean island where I have to fight against lions and wolves that want to eat my sheep that live in a cave that has magical stones that give me superpowers that help me defeat the lions and wolves that want to eat my sheep that live in a cave that has magical stones that give me superpowers that help me defeat the lions and wolves that want to eat my sheep.

RaisedByWolves: That made literally no sense, hyung. It’s time to stop and go to bed.

“Holy crap, is Taemin-hyung always like that?” Sehun asked when he finished reading the long nonsense paragraph that the SHINee member had written.

“If it’s past midnight and he hasn’t banged his head on a door yet, then yes. That’s Taemin-hyung suffering from crazies.”

If someone saw Sehun’s eyes at the moment, they would be amazed at how big they were. Not because they were always big, but he was stunned.

“Are all of our seniors crazy?” He asked. “I have a bad feeling about your answer”, he added when Kai smiled.

“Oh, yes, baby. We’re all nuts.” He laughed, trying to imitate Heechul’s bat screech. “And tomorrow, we’re going to take the crazies to a whole new level.”

“… Remind me again why I agreed to do this?”

Yes, this is really crappy. I know.

But it had to be done, they can't just suddenly jump into the competition.

SO!! I've nearly finished my exams, and hopefully I'll be free to write all summer now.

Some chapters later, I'll ask for your help to choose the Best Couple and some other category winners. But that will be after you get to see the competition activities.

And the drama, of course. Can't forget about the drama.

I'm still trying to figure out some good storylines for some of the couples. Sekai won't have a storyline, because they're just there to MC and look over their hyungs, make sure doesn't hit the fan that hard LOL.

Oh, and Taemin, OFC.

Anyways, I'm leaving you guys now...

Leave lots of unicorn blood!

xoxoxo

Laura

PS: FINALLY!! I POSTED THE CHAPTER'S MAIN IMAGE!! YAAAAY!!