A/N: OMG, what is with these OT5 feels all over the place? Is JYJ's master plan to get our AKTF hopes to a fever pitch before they enlist so the years without them are even harder to bear? (Yes, probably. How can these guys cause me so much emoshinki but yet I still love them so much?)
In any case, enjoy the new chapter. And thanks so much for the love and support you have given me thus far :D 

BEGIN

Jaejoong was grateful that he had taken every moment he could with Yunho on the day between their birthdays, though he had wound up limping over to Yoochun's the next day and spending the day in bed with a heat pack on his back while Yoochun snickered at him. As soon as they were back to C&M, it was one thing after another. First, Jaejoong had to spend half of his time in meetings with Hi Stan and the production crew fixing up his song, and then the five of them were chained to the vocal room dividing up parts, mastering harmonization, and going over the smallest details of their performance from their facial expressions to their enunciation. It didn't help matters that Jaejoong associated the lyrics of the song with having with Yunho, which would occasionally distract his focus at the wrong times, to the annoyance of their vocal coaches and the production team.

As soon as they made good progress with the song, Hi Stan handed off a new demo tape for the next single they wanted him to work on. For this one, the chorus was already written, so he just had to help out with the verses, but it was still a challenge since he was much better at ballads than dance songs. All the same, he was in much higher spirits since his time with Yunho, and had a much easier time concentrating than he had when he'd first tried to write “Hug."

On top of all that, Yunho's video with Gaeun was released, and there was a huge outpouring of interest in their group. Yunho was the obvious target since everyone had seen a lot more him then they had of Jaejoong on his outing with Soorin, and naturally the video had done a great job of portraying his handsome looks and charming smile. Everyone moved on from bashing Saehee to speculating about the remaining four members of the group and what they'd be like. There were a lot more school girls lingering around the C&M building when they went in for practice, but since there were ten male trainees in total, they had no way of knowing who was debuting and who wasn't other than Yunho. To Jaejoong's relief, not too many people seemed interested in pairing Gaeun and Yunho together just because of the music video they'd starred in together. Yunho's baby face kept him from looking his eighteen years, and at twenty-two, Gaeun came across as much older

When it moved into Spring, Starkiss started coming back to the practice room regularly. Gaeun's music video and curiosity over Soorin as a songwriter had bumped up their public approval again to the point where they could hazard a summer single, even though Minjun's fanbase were still furious over Saehee's continued existence. It was nice to see them together after so long, and for Soorin's part, she did look a lot livelier than she had been before, if you could call it that. She was emoting a lot more, and according to Brie, she'd even started working with the vocal coach on strengthening the inflections in her speaking voice so she didn't sound so flat when she was being interviewed.

When Soorin came back to the company, she made a point of seeking Jaejoong out, as well as Yunho. To their surprise, she bowed down formally in front of them.

“I'd like to apologize for not looking after Jaejoong-ssi better when he was in my care,” she said, raising her head to Yunho. “I'm sure I caused you both trouble, but I was glad he was there. Next time, though, I will be more careful.”

“Next time?” Yunho asked tiredly.

“Of course. We are friends now.” She patted Jaejoong's shoulder. “I would prefer not to be on bad terms with my friend's boyfriend. It causes tension, doesn't it?”

“Er...?”

“So the three of us should get together some time and do something fun so there is no tension. I still want to write a song with Jaejoong-ssi, but I don't want there to be difficulties, so please look upon me favorably, Yunho-ssi.” She bowed to him again. “For now, good luck to you both. Hwaiting.” Even though her inflections had gotten better, it was still one of the flattest cheers Jaejoong had ever heard.

Yunho turned to look at him. “She's a little crazy, isn't she?”

Jaejoong shrugged. “I'm not going to deny it.”

“Still, it makes sense a little bit that you two would be friends. And if she doesn't want there to be any 'tension,' maybe that's a good thing. It means she isn't planning on interfering.”

“I told you, she's not after me.”

“I know, but as someone who is, it's just a little bit hard to believe.” He narrowed his eyes. “By the way, what the hell happened with Chansik ah since the MT?”

“Ah... what do you mean?” Jaejoong asked, unconvincingly.

“I mean, he's always liked you more than me, but when has he hated me this much? Is this Changmin's revenge for me making up those stories about you feeding Chansik ah three course meals, or something?”

“Could be,” Jaejoong said weakly. That situation hadn't seemed to have gotten any better over the past few months. While Shinwon did have the privilege of being Chansik's closest friend among the trainees, Chansik was much more occupied in glaring holes into Yunho's head than seeing him as anything more than that. He wasn't being outright mean, or anything, but the atmosphere when he and Yunho were both in a room together did tend to be noticably frosty.

“Well, I guess it doesn't matter. I'm not his leader anymore, so I can let it go. Speaking of which, has Hi Stan nim mentioned anything about how deciding our name is going? I thought we were supposed to have a meeting about that today?”

Jaejoong shrugged. “I haven't heard anything about it, other than that almost everyone in the company is involved with it. Apparently they want something unique. There are a lot people debuting these days, so it has to be a name that stands out.”

“Oh. I thought they might go for 'Sunkiss' since Starkiss is our sister group. Actually, I just wanted to hear Changminnie introduce himself as Sunkiss Changmin.”

“Is it really worth it after you factor in being known as Sunkiss Yunho?”

“...probably not.”

Changmin himself poked his head into the break room. “Hyunsoo nim's calling us in. You two ready?”

“Yeah. Let's do this.”

Hyunsoo nim's suit was a burnt orange today, so Jaejoong assumed that he had reached a decision about their name if it warranted one of his special occasion suits. He gestured for them to sit down in front of his desk, where Junsu and Yoochun were already waiting.

“I've been keeping up with your progress,” he began, nodding at the five of them. “Your vocal teachers are thus far the happiest, but be careful not to slack on dancing. Junsu and Yoochun, you have the most to improve on Japanese proficiency, so be sure to make studying a priority. Jaejoong, all your variety teachers say you come across as subdue for half of your training, and hyperactive for the other half. Either has its charms, but consider sticking to one or the other so you don't wind up confusing anyone when you debut.”

“Yes, sir,” the chanted.

“But we're not here for that. As you know, we've been working out the name for your unit, keeping in mind several factors. Marketing, positioning, and of course finding a concept that suits your unique charms. We are well-known for being the company behind Starkiss, but with your debut, we hope to be respected for our music in general. We would like to tie you into Starkiss's concept to stay true to the fans' expectations of us, but only loosely so that you have the freedom to grow as you choose.” He pulled out a notepad and drew Starkiss's logo: a pair of smiling lips with one star at the bow, one at the bottom, and one at each corner. “They are four stars. You will be five.” He drew five stars at odd intervals on the page, then connected them with a W. “Recognize it? It's a constellation called Cassiopeia.”

“Isn't that a bit of a girly name for a boy group?” Junsu asked.

“I agree. But stars themselves are just stars. It's what connects them that makes them constellations rather than individual, lone bodies in the sky. Cassiopeia stands for the bonds between the five of you and the bond you'll have with your fans. With that, you'll tie nicely into Starkiss, and you'll be free to have a unique group name of your own.” He scribbled something else down on the piece of paper and passed it to Jaejoong.

They were Chinese characters, but he didn't know enough to read them outside of their Japanese pronunciations. “To-ho-shi-n-ki,” he tried. He didn't know what that meant, or if he should have used an alternate pronunciation, but that was the closest he could get.

“Correct, but it has a Chinese pronunciation as well. Tong vfang xien qi.”

“Bless you?” Yoochun asked uncertainly.

“Sounds like a bit of a mouthful to pronounce,” Jaejoong said.

“That was my thought when I first heard it from our Chaozhi,” Hyunsoo nim said brightly. “I happened to overhear him singing an old Chinese song from his mother, as he often does. The lyrics sounded quite pretty, so the old music producer in me asked him to translate. It was a lovely song-- a poem almost-- about the sun rising over the old empire. And so the sun comes to greet us every morning, rising resplendent like a god in the east... I liked the sound of that quite a bit. Our five stars rising like gods in the east... of course, that wasn't quite the way it was expressed in the poem, so I asked Chaozhi for different ways of translating the concept. Tong vfang xien qi was the version that struck the most with me. Of course, I understand that's a bit of a tongue twister for us, but there's nothing wrong in using the Korean inflections- Dong Bang Shin Ki.”

“Dong Bang Shin Ki,” Yunho echoed. They all looked each other. Jaejoong liked the story behind the name, but he wasn't sure how immediately their fans would be able to catch onto it without hearing the exact same words Hyunsoo nim had said to them.

“Of course, it is a bit complex,” Hyunsoo nim continued. “The kind of name that will need an explanation during the rookie period. However, there is importance in providing that explanation. A lot of groups have names with little meaning behind them, or else a meaning without much interest. Your fans will remember your story and remember the rising gods of the east. What do you say?”

“It's better than 'Sunkiss',” Changmin said, glaring at Yunho. “I honestly don't think it makes sense immediately, but when you discover the meaning, it's kind of cool.”

“I think so too,” Yoochun said. “The Korean version rolls off the tongue.”

“I don't know if you could call all our members gods, but we'll work on it,” Junsu said.

Jaejoong and Yunho looked at each other and nodded. “We'll take it.”

Hyunsoo clapped his hands together. “Wonderful. We do have one more thing on the agenda. Since it's confirmed that you five will be debuting and you've all approved your contracts, there's no reason to delay placing you into a dorm. I understand that it's burdensome for the three of you who continually have to bus back and forth, and for Junsu who is paying for his current place out of pocket. We've been in talks with real estate agents, and we feel as if we have a good location to move you into. The five of you will all have to share a room, however. Will this be a problem?”

“We're used to it,” Junsu said. “But there will be separate beds, right?”

“There will be. It'll be a bit cramped, but that will give you the encouragement you need to earn enough for a bigger place. It isn't set in stone yet, and of course we'll need to be in touch with your parents, but it's something to keep in mind.”

“I hope they do set it in stone soon,” Junsu said once they were back out in the practice room. “To be honest, I can't afford my own place for much longer.”

“Still,” Changmin said, “the five of us in one room? Won't that get burdensome?”

Yunho shrugged. “That's the way it goes. Start at the bottom and claw our way up. It'll beat the bus every day, honestly. Plus-” he glanced at Jaejoong- “it makes it easier for us all to be together.”

“Cross out 'us all' and insert 'me and Jaejoong,' and then you'll be telling us how you really feel,” Yoochun snorted. “I think most of us have a limit to the amount of time we can spend together per day.”

“We better work on extending that limit, then, because we're going to cross it and then some.”

It was evening by time they finished up for the day. Even though it was late, the nights had been steadily getting warmer, and they didn't have to wear their coats out as often anymore. Hyunsoo nim still recommended that they wear face masks when exiting the building since there were a handful of people who might try to take photos of them before their debut, and he wanted C&M to be in control of whatever information leaked, so they snapped those on before heading out.

Sure enough, there was a small group of girls hanging out just outside the building's premises, holding up their cellphones. Yunho lowered his voice. “If they start to follow us, we'll have to split up,” he whispered. “Jaejoongie's walking back to his house, so we have to make sure they can't find it.”

They walked past slowly, but the girls didn't follow, though they did continue to watch them with their eyes and cellphone screens. The five of them remained quiet until they were well past their initial fans, and then Junsu turned around. “Thank you, Cassiopeia!” he called out with a wave. The girls looked at each other in confusion, then tentatively waved back.

“They have absolutely no idea what that means,” Yoochun reminded him.

“But they will soon,” Junsu said brightly. “They will.”

0o0

A month later, they ended up approved for their very first dorm. It was only a few blocks away from where Jaejoong lived, and not all that much further from Junsu, so they were the first two to move in. After dropping their boxes off in the hallway, they went through it room by room together. It wasn't incredibly big, but there was enough room to have all five of them plus their manager there together. The main room had a couch set and TV and branched off into a corridor style kitchen with a full set of appliances, though they hadn't bought any ingredients or cooking tools for it yet. There was also a back room arranged like an office, which they'd all agreed to clear it out and set it up as their music room. Yoochun was bringing back his keyboard, and Yunho the recording equipment Jaejoong had gotten for him previously. Having it set up in their dorm would make it easier to free up the company's rooms more often for the other two vocal groups since their DBSK unit had been monopolizing both those and the dance practice room recently.

Finally, he and Junsu headed to their bedroom. It was just as cramped as they guessed it would be. There were three beds on one half of the room and two on the other, but the beds on either side were so close to touching that you'd have to practically leap over them to get to the back of the room.

“It's so much better than where I was living before,” Junsu said cheerfully. “You can actually see the floor! It does seem kind of empty, though. I honestly didn't bring a lot to put into it.”

“What did you bring?”

“Just clothes and CDs, honestly. I left everything else behind when I moved in the first place. Figured I really wouldn't be needing it. How about you?”

“Pretty much the same. According to Saehee noona, we'll be getting plenty of clothes from stylists and endorsements, and then decoration gifts from fans, so we should probably leave the house open for that.”

“Shouldn't be difficult. We're still students, so it's not like we have too much. We'll have to go grocery shopping though, unless Changmin's planning on bringing his wife, the fridge.”

They got to work setting up their things in the closet, and by time they'd finished unloading the majority of their clothes, they heard the tell tale rumble of Yunho's pick up truck outside the house. “They really drove that all the way into the city?” Junsu snickered, peeking out the window. “I bet there's a lot of people here who've never seen anything like that before.”

Yunho and Auntie Minjung got out of the front, followed by Yoochun and Changmin from the back. Their things were corded up in the truck bed, but like Junsu and Jaejoong, they hadn't brought all that much with them. It was a new chapter, after all, and it just seemed so much easier to start it from scratch. As Yunho had said, they'd already dragged with them what they really needed to take: each other. Everything else wasn't even close to being as important.

“How big is it?” Changmin asked, leaping up the steps. As always, his bag was the biggest. He'd either brought the contents of his fridge with him, or he'd packed it with miscellaneous random content like he had for the MT.

“Go see for yourself,” Junsu said, reaching out to ruffle his hair. “There's nothing in the fridge, by the way.”

Changmin glared at Jaejoong as if this was his fault, then scampered off to explore. Auntie Minjung and Yunho came in next, carrying Yoochun's keyboard between them.

“Aigoo, Junsu and Jaejoong goon,” she said, smiling. “There's two faces I haven't seen awhile.”

“How have you been, Auntie Minjung?” Jaejoong asked.

“I'm all right. A bit sad, but that's how it goes. I was going to have an empty nest if he went to university this fall, so it's just a bit earlier than expected.”

“It's not so far that you can't visit,” Yunho reminded her.

“Oh, yes. The prospect of driving that truck all the way back up here is just thrilling.” She rolled her eyes. “Direct us to the room where you want this, it's getting a bit heavy.”

Jaejoong led them back to what would be the music room. Auntie Minjung and Yunho set it down on the floor and stretched out their arms.

“You two boys can talk a little,” Auntie Minjung said. “I'll grab Yunho's guitar and suitcase. They aren't terribly heavy, so I'll just be a minute.” She patted Yunho's cheek. “Go on and see your new house.”

“I've been meaning to ask this for awhile now, but have you told her?” Jaejoong asked quietly. “About us?”

Yunho shook his head. “She's been pretty much a second mother for my entire life, but there's certain things she doesn't like to be involved with if she feels its my parents' concern. If I told her outright, she'd have to start lying whenever my mom calls and asks about my love life, which is more often than you'd think. Auntie's a very straightforward person, and lying doesn't come easy to her. It would be better if she didn't actually know anything specific for certain.”

“But does she guess, do you think?”

“I don't know. She knows me better than anyone, so maybe. I'm not really worried about her knowing because I think she'll disapprove, or anything. She's always wanted me to make decisions by myself and not be led around the nose. But my parents...”

“I get it,” Jaejoong said quickly.

“As for right now, they don't even know you. I'm not sure how sold they'd be on it, but I'm sure they'd love you, at least.” He smiled. “They'll come for our debut stage, when that happens. You can meet them then.”

“No pressure.”

“Just remember that my parents aren't me. You already have the love from the person you really need it from. At least I hope you feel that way.”

Jaejoong nodded. He did feel that way, he thought. He owed it to himself and Yunho to feel that way. As much as he didn't want to pull Yunho down with him, Yunho had already told him before that he wasn't in this alone. He wasn't the only one in love, so it wasn't entirely his fault. No, he corrected himself. It isn't a fault to begin with. That's what Yunho said to me.

Yoochun walked into the music room and ran his hand across the silent keys of his keyboard. “You guys done in here? I want to see our bedroom.”

“There's not much to see,” Jaejoong said, shaking his head as if to clear it. “It's over here.” He ushered them down the hallway. Junsu had already claimed the bed closest to the back of the room, and Changmin the one in the middle.

“This will take some getting used to,” Yoochun said, sighing. “Will we have to crawl over each other every time we have to go to the bathroom?” He glanced at Yunho and Jaejoong. “And you two, you're not going to try to-”

“No we're not,” Yunho said loudly. “And if we do, we'll just kick the rest of you out and lock the door.”

“It's really not bad,” Junsu insisted. “I mean, I get that everyone else has been living at home until now, but you could be living on the floor with roommates who can't clean up after themselves. It could be much, much worse.”

Yoochun climbed over Changmin and claimed the bed in between him and Junsu. “I guess it isn't bad,” he said. “It'll probably even be fun. And it's really finally happening. We've recorded the debut single. Jaejoong hyung's submitted the second one for approval. We're learning our stage dances. Hyunsoo nim wants to launch the website, member teasers, and fan cafe in August and debut us in September. That's only a few months away, when you think of it.”

“This time last year, Jaejoong hyung hadn't even run away from home yet,” Junsu mused. “A lot really can happen in a short amount of time. Who knew that some random runaway city boy would stir up so much trouble? No offense, hyung.”

"No offense taken."

"But here we are now. Kind of incredible when you think about it." Junsu suddenly lept up on his bed and waved his hands. “Hello, we are Dong Bang Shin Ki!” he called out in a loud voice.

“What are you doing?” Changmin asked.

“We haven't practiced that yet. Yoochun's right, debut isn't far off. We should get used to introducing ourselves like that.” He leaned down and helped haul Yoochun to his feet. “Come on, you too!”

Yoochun rolled his eyes, but took Junsu's hand and also pulled Changmin up. Jaejoong and Yunho looked at each other and also got up on their beds.

“Hello, we are Dong Bang Shin Ki,” they said in unison. As weird as it felt to be saying those words to absolutely no one, it still gave Jaejoong chills to hear it. He looked at all s, and they smiled back at him. It wasn't just saying it, he realized. They were Dong Bang Shin Ki now. It had felt good because they were only giving way to the inevitable, and stepping into the skin of the people they had already become.

Every day and night with you
I take your hand
Every day every night everywhere
Now we feel connected and verified
Now, let the story begin