It's early morning, my eyes are barely open. The longing for sleep continues to wash over me, but I fight it off as the blonde sitting next to me chastises the shorter one, whom was snoring just moments before. And he's right to do so. There is no time for sleeping.

The sky is a periwinkle, the sun barely poking its head over the horizon. It's so dark inside our tinted van that I can't see the two members sitting in front of me, talking to keep each other awake. The van slows to a stop as we approach our destination: the studio. We bustle out of the car and secretly pass around a can of soda to keep us awake. We drink quickly, for if the manager catches us, we'll be lectured. Soda kills the voice, he says.

We walk down the brightly-lit hallway before turning into an even brighter room. As we squit, we bow to the employees and technicians inside. Immediately, we form a tight circle so we can see each other. After receiving our instructions from the manager, Jonghyun leads us in vocal warm-ups. When we've warmed up, we sing the choruses of a few of our songs, criticizing each other.

"Taemin, try to sing a little louder when we get to that repeated phrase. We're all singing over you."

"Jinki, you're flawless, but you're voice is cracking on those high notes. You might need some water."

"Key, you did much better on that section from last week! Let's run through it one more time just to make sure you have it."

This continues until everyone is mostly in tune. Then the instrumental tracks begin to play, and we run through each song on the manager's list. After hours of singing, when our throats are completely sore, we take a water break and rest for a while. After about twenty minutes, the tracks start again, but this time we dance. We criticize each other again.

"Minho, watch Taemin during the chorus. You two are a little out of sync."

"Jonghyun, you're looking kinda lazy. We're all tired, but you're gonna have to fake it."

"Jinki, I really hope you're not going to fall tonight. Poor thing. Let me help you up."

After a few more hours (and a few more dangerous falls from me), we're allowed to stop for the day. We load ourselves back into the van, our bodies aching. I ignore the pain as we head off to our next activity: an interview.

Don't get it wrong, we HATE interviews. Sure, we love answering the questions that our fans want to know. But we'd rather talk to them personally. We'd rather get to know them instead of them learning everything about us.

We arrive at a TV set and hurry out, eager to get this over with. Taemin pulls on Key's sleeve and complains that he's hungry. We haven't eaten anything since our makeshift breakfast at 3AM. The manager says he'll go out and get food. I request chicken. The manager just glares.

Walking upon the set, we squint in the bright lights. The MC welcomes us as we go over a few notes with him. Then we're sent back out to walk in again, this time for the cameras, in the sea of fake applause. We sit upon the stools on stage and listen to the MC ramble on and on about our accomplishments. I watch as Jonghyun steals a glance over at Key. Not so much fanservice as it is a small, overprotective gesture to make sure he's not flirting with the cameramen.

The MC then begins asking us questions, mainly the same ones we always hear: What's your favorite song off the new album? How are your Japan promotions coming? What is your ideal type? Yada, yada, yada.

The interview drags on for a long, painful hour. Once we've finished, we have to wait as SM officials come in and start to edit out all the parts where we slipped up and said more than what was necessary. As we exit the set, the manager hands us our now-cold lunch. It's not chicken.

We eat our lunches in the van, chopsticks, sauce, and all. The manager yells that we'll be fired if he finds one stain on the seats (We do have spills. But Key has taught us numerous ways to get stains out of several different types of fabric). The van pulls up to a shopping mall, surrounded by screaming fans with posters and signs. We're ushered out of the van by huge security guards and plowed through a small walkway leading to the mall.

Once inside, we are escorted to some tables in the center of the mall. Each of us sit at our own table with a lifesize poster of our own face. A group poster lingers behind us. We are each handed a permanent marker by an official, and then the doors open. And in they come.

A mob of screaming fans, probably a couple thousand strong, run towards us, guided by the best security guards in the world. The barricades in front of our tables are now flooded with press, flashing cameras, and fans that weren't lucky enough to get tickets to the signing. One by one, fans come to our tables with an album or a poster. We sign as quickly as possible and exchange light conversation with our fans.

"Hey there. Thank you so much for buying our album. Please continue to support us!"

"Hi! Where would you like me to sign? Here? Okay, here you go. Thanks so much for the support."

"Hey! What's your name? Can you spell that? Alright, there you go. Pretty name, by the way. Thanks for supporting us!"

While I'm not signing, I'm waving to the fans behind the barricades and smiling for the cameras. When it begins to get dark outside, the security guards start pushing the fans through, and then we have no time for talk. Just a smile and a nod as we sign at the speed of light. Once the last fan is through, guards us out and into the van.

"Vocal warm-ups, please," the manager mutters to Jonghyun as we're driving down the road.

Key grabs my shoulder and I turn to mirror the excited look on his face. Whenever the manager has us do vocal warm-ups in the van, excitement always crashes over us like a wave. It's time to get pumped.

As we warm up our voices, the van turns into a tunnel and we slowly go down into the ground. We stop in a dimly-lit lot and jump out of the van quickly.

"Remember to stretch. You have one hour," the manager warns, and we race up the stairs (I, luckily, do not fall even once).

At the top of the stairs is a door, and we end up in a hallway of a building. A woman at the end of the hall smiles over at us.

"SHINee?" I nod. "Right this way, please."

The woman leads up to a dressing room, and we immediately kick out the noonas sitting in there. We then change into our beginning-of-performance clothing. I wish I could tell you about all the magical adventures of the dressing room, but honestly, I value my job. And my life. So I won't speak of anything like that.

After we're changed and our hair is perfect and the make-up noonas have fixed our faces, we walk down the hallways together. We're quite silent, only speaking when we run into sunbaes and dongsaengs that have come to cheer us on. A security guard and the manager catch us and lead us to a door. Each step to the door makes the pounding of a bass line louder and louder.

The door opens, and we're swallowed by the roaring ocean of pounding music and screaming fans. It's dark backstage, but we can easily see each other as we shake in excitement. The back-up dancers join us in a short prayer before they run off to get ready. The manager approaches me and hands me a microphone. I am confused since we're all wearing microphones already, but...oh wait. No way.

I look over the faces of my group and they smile at me. They all look proud as they cheer me on with their eyes, urging me to go. I shake my head and Taemin looks up at me.

"Together, hyung?"

I smile brightly at Taemin and nod, happy he feels the same way. Taemin takes Minho's hand and cheerfully leads him up to stand by me. I look over and see Key and Jonghyun's hands together as they follow behind. We all stand in a tight circle, smiling. It's a huge honor, and it's even greater if we get to do it together.

"Hana," I whisper, looking over my members. "Deul," Taemin leans into Minho's shoulder, overcome with excitement. "Set," Key tightens his grip on Jonghyun's hand, both already emotional.

"Annyeonghaseyo! Welcome to the SHINee World!"

The screaming of the fans become deafening as I hand the microphone back to the manager and take Taemin and Key's hands. We share a moment together before rushing out onto the dark stage, the only light coming from the fans' glowsticks. Even though I can't see their faces, I know the members are just as excited as I am. And as the lights come up and the music starts, I see the fans have the same emotions.

There's nowhere they'd rather be. There's nowhere Key, Jonghyun, Minho, or Taemin would rather be. There's nowhere I'd rather be.

Welcome to the SHINee World.

~~~~~

Hello, everyone! And thank you so much for reading the first of many in my SHINee Oneshot project! At least, I hope you read it, and you're not just skipping down to the A/N section. That would just be...wrong. Haha.

I know what you're thinking. SAVVY. WHY THE HELL IS THIS SO SHORT?

This is the shortest oneshot I've ever written. And it is short because I tried to just get this one out of the way so I can start on the better ones. :) SO THIS IS A TEST TO MAKE SURE YOU GUYS LIKE THIS IDEA. :D

And here's another thing you're thinking. SAVVY. WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH ALL THE OCEAN METAPHORS?

Well, for one thing, I think I may be beach deprived. Even though I live literally 30 seconds away from the beach. I need to go see the ocean one of these days. And also, when I thought about the loyal relationship between SHINee and their fans, I thought about that beautiful pearl ocean at ever concert. So I thought I'd throw a lot of that in there just for kicks. ;D

So, here it is! Please comment, and BE HONEST. If it , tell me it . I thrive off of criticism, I really do.

Thanks again for reading! I love you all! Stay tuned for the next one: Love Like Oxygen. It's 2min! :D