RECAP

As though his fortress gave him energy to type wildly that night, he ignored all signs of the members coming in and out of the room just to see if he was still aware of the world of reality and continued cruising around the fan site.

- - - - - - - - - -

The door of an unawaken member creaked open slowly. Minho craned his neck out to see if he would serve as a disturbance to Onew’s slumber. Seeing his leader was still asleep, he tiptoed his way towards the bed, careful not to hit anything in the small and quaint room.

“Hyung…” he poked Onew’s shoulder. Onew remained unmoved, still with his hand buried underneath the pillow and grunted slightly. The time showed on his watch pressured him to get Onew moving. Throwing away his cloak of invisibility, Minho shook away the need to be quiet and stealthy and pushed Onew’s body to sit at an upright position.

“Ahh what is this? Minhooo get off me!”

“Hyung, we have a meeting this morning! You better get your off bed and let’s move!”

Onew sat in his seat, facing the members of SHINee, their manager and a few people of higher authority in SM Entertainment. The conversation being thrown around the room was a blur to him as he was shifting from wake to the world of dreams alternately. It was the few times gravity took toll and made his head that was settled onto the palm of his hand fall off that made him keep his state of mind in the room.

Taemin sitting across him was praying and sending telepathic messages asking him to wake up. The meeting wasn’t anything formal for them to dress up or anything of such. But Taemin knew both their ‘Lucifer’ promotions and their upcoming concert were sure to be a complicated combination to deal with. He was simply hoping their leader who would give them guidance would at least be able to open his eyes and ears to listen to a short meeting.

The magnae knew of the leader’s recent habits. Staying up at night, not sleeping until the wee hours of morning, always going down to grab a snack or a drink and the constant distant he kept with the members. It was as though the laptop was a pull point for the chicken crazed man and he was pushing himself away from the members of SHINee.

“And I suppose that’s it for today. Get some rest guys, your comeback for Lucifer is coming up next week and you guys need to at least be awake for that to happen,” with a bang on the table, the fist of their manager met the surface only inches from Onew’s face which had already touched the table, fully resting. “Yes?” he asked the now awakened man, blinking his eyes widely. “Meeting dismissed.”

With a small groan, Onew stood up on his feet and started to make his way towards the door like the other SHINee members were.

“Jinki, see me for a bit, yeah?” the man who banged the table before called him over. Onew nodded reluctantly and signalled to s before walking towards his manager.

“We have a bit of a problem and I want you to listen well.” Jinki nodded. “Here’s the thing, ‘Someday’ was plagiarised.”

Onew’s eyes shot open. The ballad solo he was offered a few weeks before rang into his ears. The thought of the cheating composer gave him high hopes in singing a song with only his voice into the microphone vanished.

“What? Are- are you sure?”

“Damn sure I am. I’ve heard it, no way you can pass it without being noticed. And not just that. Minho’s was said to be inappropriate. Jonghyun’s and Kibum’s weren’t approved.”

“But that just leaves Taemin’s dance solo. We can’t put on centre stage only one solo performance. The crowd would expect at least Jonghyun and mine to be there.”

“Yes, I know. I’m telling you this because I don’t want to drop a whole bombshell on them. You’re the leader and you need to get them focused on the comeback stage and only that. Tell them to leave their practice for the concert.”

“What about Taemin?”

“Him too.”

“But he practices practically every day. In the kitchen, before we eat, he just dances randomly to the choreography planned. The others can’t practice theirs at home because they’d get complaints from our neighbours because of the noise.”

“Fine fine, let Taemin have his fun-“

“-But that’s giving him hope with his solo!”

“Alright shush, just… Just make them focus on Lucifer for now. I know they’ve practiced their solos before but just stop everything.”

“But why aren’t you telling them this? Surely they’d ask me questions.”

“You know how they seemed when I gave them their music sheets and lyrics and everything?”

“Jumping with joy.”

“Exactly. I know Lucifer itself is already pressuring them so I really don’t want to add oil to their fire. It’s not that hard, Jinki. Just pause everything. Make them feel calmed. And you, sir, get some sleep.”

Onew walked towards the lobby of SM Entertainment’s headquarters. He saw the rest of SHINee loafing on the couch, waiting for him. Sighing, he walked towards them with much confidence. Trying to hide the load on his back and on his eyes, he gave a wide grin and called them to head out. The simply hand wave of a gesture was familiar to the members of SHINee, seeing the same signal their leader has been giving them since their debut.

“Why did he want to see you, hyung?” the fashion pro of them, Kibum asked. The others switched their glances of curiosity to him in unison.

“Oh well, he said that we should concentrate on our comeback for now. Leave the concert preparations and well… just give our very best for Lucifer.”

“So we’re not going to continue practicing for the concert?” Minho asked second with his deep voice and slightly scrunching eyebrows.

“Yeah. No worries, one by one. No hurry, just take it slow. We don’t want to be too tired between the two happenings do we?”

“Guess not. We’re practicing Lucifer tonight then?” Jonghyun asked.

Onew nodded with an assuring smile.

As he sat down and smelt the scent of their van seat, he closed his eyes. Feeling tired and sorry for himself and SHINee. From the excited conversations they threw around the dinner table about their solos, he knew well that they were more than eager to perform on their own stage in the upcoming concert. He’d hate to crush their expectations and shrink the smiles on their faces. His heart ached even thinking about it.

Then came the thought of his responsibility. He hated secrets that he would have the privilege to hold as their leader. They were more like curses than privileges to him. He never had any medium to express his thoughts about the load of confidential news he gets.

His mind drifted off to his senior; the leader of Super Junior that was Leeteuk. He wondered how Leeteuk endured holding in for fourteen members when he was already tired of taking care of five members.

Sighing, he fell asleep with the sound of small laughs of Taemin and Minho in the backseat. 

Subscribers + Comments = ♥