~~Chapter 020~~

Onew patted his hair down once more before following Taemin out of the SHINee van. This would be the last recording of SMTOWN: The Secrets and Joys. It saddened him that this show was already concluding because only he had many fun moments with the SM family.

"Hyung, I wonder what challenge we are having today." Key said, looking at the silent, dreary setting for the episode. Onew stepped in front of Key, trying to find a better glimpse of the set. He almost bumped into Jonghyun, who was busy texting.

"Jonghyun, who are you texting?" Onew wondered, peeking at Jonghyun's phone.

"No one." Jonghyun responded, hiding his phone. Onew frowned at him and nodded, ignoring Jonghyun's recent behavior. He had been very secretive lately. He had also been coming home late, fabricating excuses that he had a schedule though he did not, according to the organized "manager" Minho.

"Fine. You can have your privacy." Onew stated, catching up to Minho and Taemin, who were speed walking into the building.

As SHINee stepped inside the building, they spotted Girls' Generation, half of Super Junior, Park Sunyoung, and f(x).

"Where is the rest of Super Junior?" Key asked Heechul.

"They were assigned to another challenge. That is being aired, too." Heechul answered.

Key nodded in understanding. A single light in the commodious, dark hall. A voice bounced off the walls.

"Greetings SM idols. Today is your final challenge. With teams that two leaders will choose, you will be locked in two rooms, one for each team, with a single sky light window on the ceiling and several useful materials. The materials will be the same in each room. Each team has to try to get at least one member to the ceiling of the room and open it somehow, either with the materials we give you or their mind. Whichever team opens the window first wins. Everyone understand?" 

"Yes." Everyone gradually stated, looking at each other. 

"The rooms are to your left and right. The leaders SM has chosen are SHINee's Onew and Park Sunyoung. Sunyoung and Onew, please step forward and begin the search for your teammates." 

Sunyoung and Onew obeyed and stared at each other. This was the first time they were not on the same team for a challenge. 

"I choose Girls' Generation's Jessica unni." Sunyoung said.

"I choose Girls' Generation's Taeyeon noona." Onew said, his eyes fixed on Sunyoung.

"Super Junior's Kyuhyun oppa." 

"Super Junior's Sungmin hyung." 

"f(x)'s Krystal."

"Girls' Generation's Sunny noona."

"Super Junior's Kangin oppa." 

"f(x)'s Victoria." 

"Girls' Generation's Sooyoung unni."

"Super Junior's Leeteuk hyung."

"Super Junior's Shindong oppa."

"Super Junior's Yesung hyung." 

"f(x)'s llama."

"Girls' Generation's Hyoyeon unni."

"SHINee's Key."

"SHINee's Minho."

"Girls' Generation's Seohyun."

"Girls' Generation's Yuri unni."

"Girls' Generation's Yoona."

"SHINee's Jonghyun."

"SHINee's Taemin." Sunyoung and Onew concluded the teammate choosing.

"That's it. Now, everyone when I say go, please run to your respective rooms. Sunyoung's team, your room is on your right. Onew's team, your room is on your left. 1, 2, 3, Go!" 

The idols ran into their rooms. 

In Onew's team's room:

"Wow, there is a lot of stuff in here." Amber said, inspecting the materials. There were paperclips, toothpicks, cotton balls, flashlights, blankets, rope, and other useful items. 

"Why would we need flashlights? Its pretty lighted here." Taemin wondered.

"There are some obstacle you will face, such as power outage and so on, when you are in this room." A voice stated. 

"I see." Leeteuk said. He picked up a rope and looked at the window. 

"How are we supposed to get up there?" Taeyeon sighed, following Leeteuk. 

"Unni, we have to think." Seohyun paused, scanning the room. Her eyes brightened at something at the corner of the room.

"Look, a ladder!" Seohyun cheered, running towards it. Suddenly, the lights flickered and turned off. 

Onew picked up the flashlight he was next to and shined toward Seohyun.

"Seohyun, can you see?" Onew asked.

"Yes. I can, Onew oppa." Seohyun responded. Key turned another flashlight on and the group examined the other materials in the room. 

Sunyoung's team's room: 

Sunyoung picked up a flashlight and held it in her hands, hoping the lights would not turn off. 

Unfortunately Sunyoung's team was not provided with a ladder and had to make do with a strong rope and durable metal hooks that were plastered to the ceiling. 

The tallest members of the team, Sooyoung, Yuri, Kangin, and Kyuhyun were struggling to tie the rope to the hook, by throwing it into the air, hoping it landed on the loop of the hook.

"Yah, Yuri! You're just messing us up. Go help Minho or someone." Sooyoung teased. Yuri gave Sooyoung a look and walked away. She stopped near Sunyoung and smiled at her.

"So, Sunyoung. What shall we do now? We can't really do anything until they get at least one rope onto the ceiling." Yuri pointed out.

"Let's continue searching for interesting things, unni. Hopefully, we'll find something to allow us to climb the rope. Currently, only Minho oppa, you, and I can climb it quickly. This is not the time to practice climbing ropes." Sunyoung suggested. 

"Yuri! Sunyoung! Look!" Hyoyeon and Jonghyun held up several plank-like wooden pieces with screws attached to them.

Sunyoung rushed over and perused them carefully.

"Jonghyun, we can use this for the rope." Sunyoung said.

"Really? How?" Jonghyun asked. Sunyoung took him to the side and began to explain to him, while Hyoyeon and Yuri found other materials. 

Onew's team's room:

"Taeyeon noona! I found it!" Onew held up a screwdriver. He handed it to Taeyeon who gave it to Yesung and Yoona. The two of them were working on the ladder which had a few loose screws on the bottom steps. The lights has immediately after they malfunctioned before.

"Aiish. This is going to take forever." Sunny remarked, looking at the time on the wall clock in the room. Victoria, Sunny, and Sungmin were examining Taeyeon, Yoona, and Yesung's work, as there was nothing better to do.

"Once they finish up the ladder, we'll be done quickly." Sungmin stated.

"That's true." Victoria agreed. Suddenly, the lights flickered again.

"Guys! Get the flashlights near you again!" Amber called from another side of the room.

"We just lost the lights. We wouldn't lose them again, would we?" Sunny said.

"We might." Onew pointed out, clutching two flashlights. He handed one to Sungmin and told him to stand near Amber, while he stood near Yesung and Yoona. However, the lights made no more flickering movements and Onew relaxed. He watched Yesung and Yoona conclude the ladder fix up and smiled.

"Hey, we're done!" Taemin clapped his hands.

"Who wants to go up first?" Onew called. 

"You should." Yoona said.

"I want to though!" Amber exclaimed.

"So do I!" Leeteuk shouted. 

"Yah, you'll just do something to mess up our plan. Relax." Yesung scolded.

"Yesung! I am the leader of Super Junior! You must respect me!" Leeteuk ordered. 

Yesung rolled his eyes and the two followed into a bicker. Key proceeded to stop the two.

"Seohyun, you can go." Victoria suggested.

"Yeah, I'm a little clumsy anyway." Onew blushed.

"Me?" Seohyun pointed to herself.

Victoria and Onew nodded with confidence. Unlike Onew, Seohyun tended to keep her balance around the stage and dorms and was graceful in everything she attempted.

"Okay." Seohyun stepped forward.

"Seohyun, Fighting!" Amber and Key cheered. 

Sunyoung's team's room:

Sunyoung pulled tightly and Minho gave her the thumbs up.

"Noona! It won't work. You have to do it tighter." Minho frowned again. 

Sunyoung sighed and the light bulb turned off for the first time. 

"Krystal! Go get the flashlight!" Jessica exclaimed. She began to frantically walking around. 

"Yah, relax." Hyoyeon said to Jessica. 

Krystal rushed back and shone the light on Minho and Sunyoung.

"Shindong oppa, can you hold this for a moment?" Sunyoung asked. 

Shindong nodded and walked to Sunyoung when Jonghyun stopped him. 

"I'll go. You continue working." Jonghyun said. Shindong stared at him for a moment, before agreeing.

"Jonghyun? Where's Shindong?" Sunyoung questioned. 

"I wasn't doing much, so I told him I could help you." Jonghyun replied.

Sunyoung smiled and nodded. She left him to hold the rope and found the item she was looking for.

The lights resumed and Shindong and Sooyoung had just finished tying the second rope to the ceiling.

"That's great!" Sunyoung and Jessica cheered.

"Someone needs to test it. Krystal, I think you're the lightest here. Can you test it?" Yuri suggested.

"I'm scared of heights though." Krystal pouted.

"Its okay. Who wants to try it though?" Sunyoung asked.

"You do it. You are the lightest after Krystal." Jessica said. 

"Okay." Sunyoung nodded and looked at the window. She took a deep breath.

"You don't have to if you don't want to." Jonghyun smiled. 

"I'm okay." Sunyoung assured. She stepped onto the first makeshift ladder rung. It seemed sturdy and Sunyoung went onto the next two. 

"Sunyoung, here's a flashlight." Kyuhyun called. 

"What?" Sunyoung turned her head around to reach for the flashlight. Her foot missed the sixth rung and she slipped, her hands letting go of the rope. 

Onew's team's room:

"I'm so hungry." Yoona sighed. After struggling for a while on how exactly to open the window, the team had taken a rest. 

"Noona, what are you doing?!" Onew exclaimed at Taeyeon. She was throwing a tape measure in the air, hoping that it would hit the window.

"Don't do that! If the window glass really breaks, the glass will fall down and potentially hit someone." Leeteuk advised.

"If only Sunyoung was on her team... We would've won already." Yesung sighed.

Onew raised his eyebrows at Yesung's comment and frowned. "I think we are fine with our teammates. We have scholar Seo, Leeteuk hyung, the Almighty Key, aegyo maknae Taemin, Taeyeon noona, Leader Victoria, Aegyo King and Queen Sunny and Sungmin, and everyone else."

"You just saw what Taeyeon noona did and you're still considering that she is a good teammate?" Yesung smirked. 

"Yah! Yesung, do you want to die? I heard everything you said! Thank you for saying that I'm a worthy teammate!" Taeyeon glared at Yesung and turned to smile at Onew. 

"Okay. We have to do something about this window. Everyone, our break is over. Go find something that would be useful for opening a window. Windows usually have screws, so we can use the screwdriver. Other options would be acceptable as well." Victoria, like a leader would, ordered. 

"Yes General." Taemin saluted, mocking a soldier.

"Great. We have to beat Sunyoung's team." Victoria urged.

"What if they are close to done? They do have Minho oppa, Yuri unni, Hyoyeon unni, Krystal, Sunyoung herself, Kyuhyun oppa, Kangin oppa, and Sooyoung unni. So basically, their only black holes are Jonghyun oppa and Jessica unni. Our black holes are everyone except you, me, Onew oppa, Seohyun unni, and Key oppa. Everyone else's thinking skills are average. Sunyoung chose wisely, while Onew oppa chose physically strong people. So, we better hurry if we want to do well." Amber addressed to Victoria, her eyes trailing the room for something. 

"We can only hope to beat competitive Sunyoung and her equally competitive team." Onew said to himself, overhearing Amber's conversation.

SMTOWN: The Secrets and Joys to be continued.... 

Author's Note:

Hello everyone! It's been a while since I've spoken to you guys, right?

I missed being able to update a little quicker! Now, everytime I update any of my stories on AFF, I can only manage to update one, unless I'm not very busy(which is rare). 

Anyways, how was this chapter? It has a lot of the old SM idols(SJ, SHINee, SNSD, f(x)....). I didn't include EXO and DB5K because then there would be too many people and I'll probably forget to mention of the names of the groups in the story. Also, I'm more familiar with these SM groups. 

Not much LuNew action here :(

Be ready for the next chapter because there's a surprise! ;)

Also, I'm so excited for Taetiseo's comeback!! Kyaa~!!! Whisper was a great pre-release track! The Holler MV teaser was so...different. I feel like TTS would maintain the classy and '80s pop kind of concept like they did with Twinkle. It's like they fastforwarded their style to the future, lol...

Also, I cannot wait for Krystal's drama, My Lovely Girl!!! I love the storyline and the cast! Krystal, Hoya, Rain <33333333

Okay, let me revert to my author mode again. 

I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! 

Bye bye!