When Onew went to bed that night, not a worry plagued his mind.

 

He washed up, got into Ara's softest pajamas, drank a glass of hot milk, and snuggled beneath the thick covers, closed his eyes.

 

...

 

It wasn't until he fell asleep that everything hit him like a tidal wave.

 

 

"Jinki."

 

"Lee Jinki."

 

"Wake up."

 

Onew's eyes snapped open, and a gasp for breath left his lips. He sat up in darkness, and looked around.

 

At first, he couldn't see anything, just blackness around him.

 

"Hello?" He tried to stand, but suddenly felt something beneath him. It moved-- no, THEY moved when he tried to stand up, and he fell back upon them. They moved rigorously beneath his legs and his bottom.

 

"What is that??!" Onew looked down into the darkness, but only saw nothing. The things, whatever they were, stopped moving when he did, but Onew could now feel them beneath him, seeming to hold him up in the darkness.

 

In his opinion, they felt like hands. There were four on his bottom, if they were, and there were many more on his legs and his feet, holding him up, but not holding him in place.

 

Before he could think about it more, a faint light began to fill the area around him, causing him to look away from the darkness below him and to start looking around him at the light that now surrounded him on all sides. As the light grew brighter, Onew's eyes widened.

 

Pictures. They filled the area around him, black and white and flickering. Onew was in awe; it was like there was a projector shooting these images out into the dark, forming a perfect circle around him so that the pictures surrounded him on all sides.

 

He began to look around at them, before his lips parted in surprise.

 

These were pictures of SHINee. All five members. There were so many pictures, old and new. His eyes landed on a predebut picture of them, and he stared at it.

 

They all looked so young. So innocent; they had silly smiles and nervous eyes, and they all had a horrific taste in fashion... Except for Key, of course, but his clothes looked like they were going to swallow him up. Onew felt a smile tug at his lips; they didn't know what they were getting themselves into. Taemin's bowl haircut, he remembered, was his pride and joy at the time.

 

"It'll make me stand out!" Onew gasped, as he watched the picture begin to move, and Taemin began to talk. He turned to all of them with a comedic desperation in his eyes, looking for approval.

 

"Huh? Huh?" Taemin nudged Minho. "What do you think, Scary Eyes?"

 

Onew choked back a giggle. Scary Eyes?

 

Minho, who was much taller than Taemin at the time, stooped down mockingly and ruffled Taemin's hair. Taemin started shouting, his pubescent voice cracking.

 

"Whatever you say, Mushroom Head." Now, the other three members began to laugh as well. Kibum, as he was known back then, giggled a little before shooting a warning look.

 

"You are so rude,"  he managed, and crossed his arms. Jonghyun was bent over in laughter, and he stood up straight while flipping his hair.

 

"You totally deserve it, Maknae."  Jonghyun turned to the last member, who was standing off to the side.

 

It was Onew, or Jinki, at the time.

 

"Right, Jinki-yah?"  Jinki, who seemed to be in a trance, suddenly blinked and straightened up.

 

"I, uh, YEP, whatever floats your ship....Boat," he finished, before smiling a cheesy smile. The others stared at him.

 

"You need to get that checked out," Jonghyun finally commented. Jinki shrugged.

 

"I've always been this way. I blame genetics!" Onew declared, raising a finger to the Heavens.

 

Onew smiled at the five of them, shaking his head. They were a bunch of misfits who barely knew one another; it took Taemin two weeks after that photo was taken to stop confusing Jonghyun with Jinki and Jinki with Jonghyun. They had their first fight that evening after dinner, resulting in broken dishes and an angry manager, he remembered.

 

Regardless of the awkwardness, he smiled at the memory. It was fun. The clip stopped, and it froze as the photo that was taken that day; all of them smiling, up close to one another, yet professional. It was one of their supposed-to-be-released predebut photos.

 

Onew eyed it a moment longer, before another picture began to move out of the corner of his eye. He looked toward it, and again smiled.

 

This was taken from when they had just gotten their Lucifer era hairstyles. They were back in their dorm, sitting in their living room.

 

"Hey Taemin..." The camera, Onew assumed, turned to Key, who was looking at himself in his phone while sitting on the couch.

 

"Yeah?" Onew jumped at how close Taemin's voice sounded, before he remembered that Taemin had recorded them that night as a memory of the "Worst Hairstyle Era Ever."

 

"How long do you think this will take to grow out?" Key ruefully rubbed the side of his head, which was shaved just hours before, and bleached platinum blond. He pouted as he it gently, wincing as his scalp was still tender from the bleach.

 

"I don't know--"

 

"Taemin-ah."

 

"What?" The camera quickly turned from Key towards the hall, which was poorly lit and showed nobody there. "What??"

 

Then Minho appeared, and Onew gasped. His hair was so short! He came closer, before frowning and narrowing his eyes.

 

"Will you wipe that smirk off your face?" Taemin began to giggle, and Minho began to come closer.

 

"Come here, you little--" His sentence was cut off by Taemin's squeal, and the picture became blurry as Taemin ran with the camera across the room. Then the camera focused again, and this time it had the other four members in the screen. Key was still examining himself in his phone, Minho stood behind the couch with his arms crossed. Jonghyun was watching television, and Onew was texting on his phone.

 

"Look at these cutiepies," Taemin giggled. They ignored him.

 

"Just the typical KPOP stars in their natural habitat. Here," The camera focused on Onew. "We have Dubucus Sangtae...Neous. Dubucus Sangtaeneous, who is texting his one and only love, the goddess of the moon, Luna, who..." Taemin began to snicker. "Will come to realize that Dubucus is actually a female and Luna does not swing that way." Onew looked up from his phone, casting a glare at Taemin before looking into the camera.

 

"I don't know," he smacked his lips, his long hair. "I think this is a very chic look. I feel fabulous; the color is just perfect for my skin tone, and the style is contouring my face in a way that makes me badder than all these other girls." By this point, Taemin's camera was shaking from him laughing so much, and Onew pouted his lips and gave a "peace" sign.

 

"I mean, I guess if you see yourself that way, then good for you." The camera shifted from Onew to Jonghyun, who hadn't taken his eyes from the television. Taemin gasped.

 

"A wild Jonghyun appeared!"

 

"What will Taemin do?" Onew asked. "Feed Kimchi, throw rock, interrogate, or run?" Key's laughter was heard in the background.

 

"I hate you," Jonghyun growled.

 

"Jonghyun, how do you feel about representing your species in the KPOP world?" Taemin asked. Jonghyun tore his eyes from the TV to look at Taemin.

 

"What are you talking about?"

 

"The porcupine population is very disappointed in your ignorance," Taemin replied. Jonghyun's face turned red, and he gritted his teeth.

 

"I'm going to shove that camera up your ," he threatened. 

 

There was a pause, before Taemin said, "Did you get that idea from a fanfiction?" Then Jonghyun grabbed the camera from Taemin's hands, causing the maknae to squeal.

 

"Well, look at you!" The camera turned to Taemin, who had cowered in a corner. Taemin blinked, before standing up straight and looking into the camera. "You look like a girl."

 

"No, I don't!" Taemin flipped his golden hair, before running his fingers through the long strands. "I look amazing, better than all of you!"

 

"Psh, yeah right!"

 

"I'm going to crush ovaries with this style," Taemin asserted.

 

"Watch your mouth," Key called.

 

"'Ovary' isn't a bad word," the maknae retorted.

 

"Do you even know what an ovary is?" Minho's voie sounded. Taemin paused, thinking.

 

"It's like a... Like a kidney, right? Like guys have kidneys, and girls have ovaries. They're the girl version of kidneys and they make girls pee and stuff."

 

Key began to cackle in the background. Minho was now down the hall, hollering in laughter.

 

"Very close, Taemin." Onew stammered, humor in his voice.

 

"You're a hot mess," Jonghyun choked out. "I'm shutting this thing off!"

 

The image froze, and Onew was in tears from laughing so hard at the video. They were all so ridiculous, even years after debuting. He reached up and wiped the tears from his eyes, his face hurting from smiling so much.

 

He looked around after a moment, seeing if other videos would play, but they didn't. They remained as pictures, circling around him.

 

Then, a loud bang made him jump and he looked straight ahead. Everything went black again. The bang reverberated into silence, until Onew could hear a low humming.

 

What is that sound...? Onew leaned forward, before leaning backwards. The sound was all around him, and slowly growing louder.

 

Then he recognized it, as the hum turned to a call, then a collection of screams. It was almost deafening; Onew was about to cover his ears, but something else happened first.

 

The darkness below him began to light up, in an aquamarine haze of blue. Thousands of aqua-blue stars ascending until they were at his level. Onew squinted at the nearest one, before gasping and recognizing it as a lightstick. He looked down to see more, thousands of lightsticks miles below as far as he could see. His eyes widened.

 

Where was he? Onew looked around at the sea, not seeing an end to it, before he jumped at another bang. Again, he looked ahead.

 

The screams grew louder. In front of Onew, an area began to light up, and as it got brighter, Onew gasped.

 

It was a stage. And the lights above the stage began to illuminate five people, five of which he recognized...

 

But four of which were supposed to be up there. The fifth person, he realized, was Ara. Onew blinked.

 

He was in his own body, and Ara was in hers...

 

But they were in the wrong place.

 

Then there was silence. The screams stopped for a moment, before they turned angry.

 

"Who the heck is that?!"

 

"What is a girl doing with our oppas?!"

 

"Where is Onew?!"

 

Onew gasped, before the hands began to move hysterically beneath him. The crowd began to move, and Onew let out a yelp as he was thrown off balance.

 

"Get her!"

 

"I'm going to slit for being next to my Jonghyun-oppa!"

 

"Imposter!" As Onew looked frantically at the stage, which was now shaking, he saw the other four members simply stare at Ara, who was staggering left and right, trying to stay on the stage. She was screaming.

 

Then, before Onew could see more, the hands that held him up dropped him, and he fell.

 

Down, down, down, through thousands of stars. It was a quick drop, but the stars never ended.

 

Wake up.

 

Wake up.

 

Then the stars disappeared, and Onew stopped falling but he didn't touch ground. He merely found himself standing in front of a single blue door. There was nothing else around him but this door, and he stared at it.

 

Then he jumped back when there was a knock on the other side. Gingerly, Onew stepped closer to it, and opened the door.

 

Onew found himself on the other side. He had to look up to meet his own eyes, and he realized that he was back in Ara's body.
 

"I... I can't do this anymore..." Ara looked down at Onew, eyes wide with such a fear that it curdled Onew's guts. "Please help me..."

 

Onew blinked, startled by the emotion in his own eyes. He drew a shaky breath, before stepping back.

 

"Jinki, please..." A tear fell from the left eye. "I'm not you. You need to wake up and see what you've done."

 

Onew stared at himself, unblinking, before he stepped forward. Reaching out, it looked like he would take himself in his arms...

 

But instead he jerked back, and slammed the door in his own face.

 

 

It was the bang that woke him up. Onew jolted awake and sat up straight, panting and looking around frantically.

 

He was still in Ara's room, and nothing was touched. He was unhurt, and he looked Ara's body over.

 

Then he sprang up, running and stumbling through darkness to the bathroom, where he fell over the toilet and threw up.

 

 

 

 

~*~Author's Note~*~

Oookay, so I lied about this being a shorter chapter; I honestly thought it would be... But I got carried away with the two scenarios, I guess. XD

So a LOT went down in this chapter; I hope you guys aren't too freaked out by it. haha I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see y'all soon ^^