A/N: Hello! Sorry for taking so long! Like I've said, I want the story to be as realistic as possible, so I've been spending a lot of time researching and rewriting parts, so I'm sorry if I made you guys wait a lot. Hope this chapter makes it up to you guys. it's like 4k words =P. Please keep supporting this story! I love you guys!!

On with the story!

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  Silence seemed to have become the new defining word for Shinee’s dorm. With Ki Bum and Jong Hyun, the two nosiest members in Shinee temporarily ‘out of commission’, the only sounds that can be heard is the more often than not the muted TV and Tae Min bustling around in the kitchen, like now. ‘Hyung, lunch is ready,’ wiping his hands on the pink apron that Key usually wears, Tae Min gestured to the dining table.  Min Ho and Jinki who were watching, more like staring at the TV nodded half-heartedly as they moved to sit down for their meal. ‘Smells good, what did you make?’ Min Ho asked with a forced smile. ‘Egg rolls, rice and Kim Chi soup, nothing fancy,’ Tae Min shrugged as he set the dishes down, he stood there a couple more seconds and asked, ‘Should I call Jong Hyun hyung?’

   At the mention of Jong Hyun’s name, everybody in the room turned to look at the closed doors of Jong Hyun and Min Ho’s shared room, the omnipresent silence found its way into the room once again. ‘Jong Hyun ah!’ Jinki yelled out of the blue, shocking the two youngest, ‘Lunch is ready!’ Tae Min subconsciously bit his lip as they waited for a reply, if Jong Hyun felt kind enough to give any. ‘I’m not hungry.’ A muffled coarse voice replied. Whilst Min Ho and Jinki seemed satisfied with this answer, Tae Min responded almost impulsively, ‘But you haven’t eaten anything since yesterday!’ The older two turned to stare at their youngest, as if to say ‘are you crazy? Just leave him alone?’ All the maknae could do was give a weak shrug, which was followed by Jong Hyun’s reply, ‘Good then, I can just starve myself to death! Why do you guys care!?’ For a moment, no one in the dining room moved, then suddenly, Tae Min abruptly walked into Young Soo’s room and came out with a key, they master key. He then grabbed a bowl of rice, roughly placed a few slices of egg rolls into the bowl and the bowl of Kim Chi soup and literally, barged into the locked room. By the time Min Ho and Jinki had gotten their wits about themselves, all they saw were the door slamming in Tae Min’s wake.

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  The room smelt strongly of alcohol and through the small slit of sunlight that leaked past the curtains of the room, Tae Min could see a bottle of empty Johnny Walker sitting next to the lead singer. The youngest took a few steps forward and set the food down in front of Jong Hyun, ‘Hyung, eat.’ Jong hyun who had been staring at the floor growled, ‘I said I’m not hungry.’ Half-expecting the maknae to back down, Jong Hyun was surprised when Tae Min proceeded to shove the bowl of rice into his hands, ‘I said, eat.’ ‘And I said I’m not hungry! Just let me starve to death dammit! And stop pretending like you care!’ Jong Hyun exploded. A brief moment of silence settled itself as Tae Min clenched his fists once, twice and three times. Then suddenly…

  ‘Kim Jong Hyun, get a grip!’

  Tae Min grabbed the collar of the forlorn man in front of him. The lead singer of Shinee, forced to look at the maknae in the face gave a short laugh, ‘Heh, no “hyung” Tae Min? You hate me now too don’t you? Did you poison the food?’ Jong Hyun's words hung coldly in the air, Tae Min's eyes narrowed as he stared into his hyung's eyes, searching for a trace of something, anything, but...’You’re not my hyung, you’re not the Jong Hyun hyung I know.’ Tae Min slowly let go of Jong Hyun's collar and sank down onto the floor, visibly upset, energy spent. An unsettling silence grew in the room as the previous tension faded; all that could be heard were the breathing sounds of the two teens and the soft sound of Tae Min's fist clenching and unclenching.

  ‘I don't hate you hyung,’ Tae Min started with a sigh, no longer angry and instead sounding tried, but Jong Hyun was unresponsive. Unconcerned with the lead singer's indifference, Tae Min continued, ‘None of us hate you hyung and we don't blame you for going out with Se Kyung noona. We're just...disappointed. You should have handled things better..-‘ ‘BETTER? BETTER!?..’ Jong Hyun jumped to his feet and grabbed Tae Min’s collar with a heated glare, ‘Pray tell all-knowing Tae Min, how was I supposed to have handled things better huh!? Tell Se Kyung that I’m gay? Or better yet ask her if she could pretend to date me? Or go against SM and let Shinee disband? Or should I have told Ki Bum to let me two time him because Lee So Man said so? Tell me Tae Min because I really need to know, how I should have handled things better. How, Tae Min, how, HOW!?’ Jong Hyun finished his outburst while furiously shaking Tae Min, who despite being taller was not as strong as he was.

  ‘I…I don’t know hyung,’ Tae Min answered weakly with his hands on Jong Hyun’s trying to stop the lead singer from throttling him, ‘I don’t know.’ As if noticing that he had crossed the line, Jong Hyun slowly let go of Tae Min who took a few deep breaths after being let go. ‘See, you don’t know either, the how do you expect me to-‘ ‘Hyung, I wasn’t finished,’ Tae Min cut him off. ‘I don’t know, but that doesn’t mean that together as Shinee, we don’t know. We’re disappointed that you took on this burden by yourself when you shouldn’t have, we’re upset that you don’t trust us enough and chose to keep this from us.’ ‘I’m..I’m sorry k? But it’s not like I haven’t been trying to fix things! I’ve been trying to talk to Ki Bum but he keeps avoiding me!’ ‘Sigh, this is kind of what I meant by you could have handled things better. You’ve been trying to talk to Ki Bum hyung like nothing’s wrong and when you obviously have not settled things with Se Kyung noona. If you really wanted to resolve things with Ki Bum hyung then you should have put him in first priority instead of letting Se Kyung noona get in your way?’ ‘How exactly have I let Se Kyung get in the way?’ Tae Min rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly, ‘In case you have not noticed hyung, everytime you try to talk to Ki Bum hyung, Se Kyung noona calls and the worst part is that you pick up.’ ‘So you’re trying to tell me to ignore her calls? Ignore her? But she’s innocent! She already has to deal with our antis bashing her on the café, she needs me to comfort her! She needs me to be there for her! Are you telling me to let Se Kyung crash and burn just so that I can resolve things with Ki Bum!?’

   Hearing Jong Hyun’s response, Tae Min inwardly wondered if he should follow Yun Ri’s good example and slap his hyung but decided against it, ‘So it’s ok to let Ki Bum hyung crash and burn in Se Kyung noona’s place.’ Jong Hyun did not know what to say to that. Tae Min remained quiet to let his words sink in, but that did not last for long before a shout was heard from the living room. Both men stared at each other with confused looks, figuring that something’s wrong, Tae Min decides to check out the source of the commotion, but not before leaving Jong Hyun with a few words, ‘You screwed up Kim Jong Hyun, so stop wallowing in self-pity and clean your act up, you were obviously in the wrong, fess up and deal with it. Nothing’s going to be resolved if you lock yourself up and starve yourself to death. Hurry up and eat, the food’s going to get cold.’ Jong Hyun looked at the retreating form of Tae Min, his words still echoing in his head and wondered, ‘When did our maknae grow up?’

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Young Soo’s POV:

  ‘Talk to Kim Yun Ri, check.’ I ticked one more item off my mental checklist as I made my way to the elevator of the Shinee dorms. I know I needed to start thinking of this place as home, but with the tension that was mounting in the house, it was a daunting task, speaking of which the next thing on my check list, ‘Talk to Jinki about making important decisions without my consent.’ I knew that it was important to establish authority in the group before I took any action to remedy the situation and in order to do so; I needed to put the current leader, Lee Jinki, in his place. Besides, it is half his fault that I now have this nasty bruise on my cheek, if he had not called Yun Ri then Ki Bum would not have been brought away and dad would have nothing to get upset about, more than usual that is. As the door of Shinee’s dorm, ‘my home,’ I corrected myself, came in sight, I took out my key and mentally ran over the lines of my soon to be ‘talk’ with Jinki.

3^rdPerson’s POV:

  The door of the house opened and Min Ho and Jinki who were pretending to watch TV (which seemed to be all they ever do anymore) turned to see their new manager walk in. ‘Hyung welcome back,’ they chorused. Young Soo nodded and put his bag down near the entrance. ‘Jinki, can I have a few words with you?’ Jinki nodded and motioned for Min Ho to leave, but Young Soo stopped him, ‘It’s alright, he can stay. I think we all agree that honesty is a habit we should establish around here?’ Young Soo said diplomatically, the leader of Shinee nodded suspiciously but said nothing. ‘It’s nothing much really, I just wanted to tell you that I would appreciate it if you inform me of any important actions you take in the future, especially with regards to other members,’ Young Soo stated casually but the serious tone that underlined the sentence was not missed. ‘What actions are you referring to exactly? Can you please clarify?’ ‘Such as calling Kim Yun Ri to pick up Key without my consent,’ Young Soo answered smoothly. Min Ho looked between his two hyungs worriedly; he sensed a fight starting.

  The words that escaped Jinki’s mouth after this were not what Young Soo had anticipated. Lee Young Soo had expected the gentle leader of Shinee to nod, maybe crack a small joke at the situation and laugh it off and agree to his terms. ‘I didn’t know that I needed your consent, or anybody’s for that matter, to call the family of my members.’ Young Soo knew immediately that Jinki was challenging his authority. It was a make or break situation, ‘Well, now you know. My consent is required towards every action that any member of Shinee takes.’ Min Ho held his breath as he watched the fight he knew that would be starting, unfold. ‘Who do you think you are?’ Jinki muttered through gritted teeth. Young Soo smirked uncharacteristically, ‘Your manager.’ At that the usually gentle leader of Shinee lunged forward and held Young Soo by the collar, ‘You,’ Jinki started, face dangerously close to Young Soo’s, ‘are nothing but an outsider here. You have NO RIGHT to tell me what I should do and how I should look after my members.’ Instead of backing down, Young Soo in return , grabbed Jinki’s collar and whispered with an equally menacing glare, ‘I am your manager that SM assigned to me, you will listen to me if you know what’s good for you.’

  ‘Hyung don’t!’ Min Ho yelled, but it was too late, Jinki had already thrown a right hook onto Young Soo’s uninjured cheek. ‘SM can go itself! It’s all SM’s fault that everything’s so ed up right now, so I don’t want to hear you pulling rank on me! Bad enough that your dad is the cause of all this, now you, his son, waltzes in here and expects us to be at your beck and call? you!’ Jinki all but yelled. Getting punched twice in a day obviously left Young Soo in a bad mood as the next thing he did was throw a punch at the younger man in front of him, though he was careful not to hit the face. They did have a goodbye stage that night. The leader of Shinee doubled over as the punch landed on his stomach, Min Ho tried to catch him but Young Soo’s next words caused Min Ho to let go of their furious leader. ‘SM’s fault? Ha! Don’t be blaming the company when we’re just trying to cover up your mess! It’s your own fault for letting a gay couple sprout up in your group!’  Jinki’s reply was another punch but this time also to their manager’s stomach, ‘What’s wrong with two people loving each other huh! Just because we’re idols doesn’t mean we can’t love!’

  Deciding that there had been enough violence for the day, Min Ho, using his height advantage, got between his two hyungs and tried to keep them apart. At this precise moment, Tae Min chose to walk out from Jong Hyun’s room and stared at the scene in front of him suspiciously. ‘Ah..Tae Min,’ Min Ho said from between Jinki and Young Soo. ‘What's going on?’ Tae Min asked, though he had a pretty good idea in his head about what was happening. ‘Nothing, don't worry everything's fine!’ Min Ho waved his hands awkwardly, trying to gesture that nothing was wrong. ‘Yea!’ Young Soo and Jinki chorused, ‘Everything is fi-‘ ‘NO IT'S NOT!’ Shock settled onto everyone's faces in the room as the maknae's shout echoed in the room. ‘Wha-‘ Min Ho began but was cut off by Tae Min who snapped, for the second time that day.

  ‘NO, EVERYTHING'S NOT FINE! Stop lying to yourselves, stop lying to me! THINGS ARE NOT OK! Stop saying it is! I'm not THREE, I can see that something's wrong, I'm not blind you know!’  Tae Min ranted in one long breath. The three accused stood still on the other side of the room, guilty. ‘Jong Hyun hyung has locked himself up in his room out of depression, Ki Bum hyung is semi-permanently living with Yun Ri noona and all you guys can think about is sit down and fight amongst yourselves!? I know things aren’t going good for us right now and we all have a lot of pent up frustrations, but this doesn’t mean that we should be at each others’ throats! You!’ Tae Min pointed at their leader, ‘You are the leader, the oldest amongst all of us, at times like these you should be keeping the group together and get us to work through this trial together! Instead you just let Jong Hyun hyung lock himself up and left him alone to suffer from his depression, you don’t even try to talk to him or any of us or work things out! Shinee’s falling apart and you don’t even seem to give damn!’ ‘I-‘ Jinki started but Tae Min had already moved on,

  ‘And you!’ Tae Min pointed at Young Soo, ‘I don’t care if you got hit by Lee Soo Man and is pissed, as our manager you should be managing OUR emotions, not taking yours out on us and picking a fight with Jinki hyung! I don’t care if you’re Lee Soo Man’s son, but you’re our manager, which means you should be on our side and taking care of us, dealing with issues from the company for us! It’s precisely because our ex-manager was not on our side that this whole drama ensued! As our manager, you should respect or at least try to understand the way we deal with things and how our group functions, and not just walk in and start expecting us to work the way you want us to!’ Young Soo looked at the floor, ashamed, because all the things Tae Min had said were true, though a small part of him wondered how Tae Min knew that he was hit by his father.

  ‘And you Min Ho hyung,’ Min Ho looked at Tae Min shocked, he had not expected himself to be on Tae Min’s ‘people to yell at’ list. As majority of Tae Min’s anger have ebbed away, his lecture towards Min Ho was not half as harsh, ‘Min Ho hyung, I know you  want to protect me, but you can’t just do so blindly. You can’t keep lying to me that everything is ok when they obviously aren’t. Can you imagine how insecure I am, to know that things are not going well but to keep being kept in the dark? I need to grow up too you know? We’re Shinee, if there are any challenges, we’re supposed to go up against it together, as a group and not individually, and I say this not only to Min Ho hyung but all of you.’ The 3 hyungs looked at each other embarrassed from having to be lectured by the youngest of them all. ‘I’m sorry,’ they chorused. ‘I’m sorry about hitting you and also about the things I said, they were out of line, Tae Min’s right, I was just taking my anger out on you,’ Young Soo apologized. ‘No, I was at fault too, I should have settled things with you more civilly, and I shouldn’t have ignored Jong Hyun’s situation,’ Jinki apologized as well. ‘I’m sorry too,’ Min Ho said, ‘For keeping you in the dark Tae Min and also for not doing anything. ‘At that, Tae Min broke out into his usual smile, ‘Good!’

  Tae Min honestly felt bad for yelling at his hyungs, but after listening to his 3 hyungs settle down and discuss about their next course of actions to fix things, Tae Min was glad that he did what he did. It was of little surprise that goodbye stage that night went a lot smoother than the day before, for Shinee, things were finally looking up.

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Yun Ri's POV:

  I sat still in my seat in the first class, disbelief coursing through my system. I can’t believe I was honestly on the plane to Taiwan after swearing to myself I would never set foot on that place again. Normally, I would be emoing about my situation but my current predicament made it a little impossible for me to think about much of anything. To my left was Ki Bum and to my right was Jong Hyun, which basically spelt disaster. ‘Ki Bum I-‘ I heard Jong Hyun say and then my cousin would immediately grab my arm like an over-enthusiastic 3 year old and say, ‘Oh my god! They have scallops on the menu! Yun Ri you love scallops right! Lets’ order that!’ This exact scene has repeated itself more than 10 times and it was only an hour into the flight. I vaguely wondered if I would even survive the trip, in a feeble attempt to save myself, I begin forcing Jong Hyun to pose for my photos, after all, since I was hired to take photographs, I had jolly-well do the job I was paid to do.  The temporary peace though was short-lived as I saw Ki Bum giving me his infamous puppy dog pout that got him everything, or at least when I’m concerned.

Ki Bum’s POV:

  I knew that Yun Ri was doing her best to distract Jong Hyun for me, but those glances that he keeps casting me is driving me insane, those glances that spoke of apologies and sorrow and most importantly love. I turned to Yun Ri and gave her my infamous puppy dog pout that she always fell for and counted down mentally, ‘5…4…3…2…1’ ‘Ugh! Kim Jong Hyun, we need to talk!’ Yun Ri stood up suddenly, causing everyone in the cabin to stare at us, which was actually just the rest of Shinee and our crew. In an attempt to avoid the media, SM had booked the entire first class just for us, which I’m glad for. I watched in partial amusement as Yun Ri dragged my boyfriend, is he still my boyfriend? Off to where the toilets are, she turned around and stuck her tongue out at me, I mouthed a ‘sorry’ to her and saw her mutter something along the lines of ‘you’d better be’.  I knew it was a brilliant idea to get Yun Ri to come along.

Yun Ri’s POV:

  I stared at at Jong Hyun, an uneasy silence hung between us. I don't really have anything to talk to him about, that was just an excuse to get him away from Ki Bum. The awkwardness made the cramped walk way seemed narrower than it actually was. Jong Hyun stared back at me, waiting. I quickly wrecked my brains for something to say. "You know, I don't hate you," I began, a weird look flitted across Jong Hyun's face, but I chose to ignore it in case I lost the train of thought about what I am about to say. "I don't think any of us hate you for what you did, hell we're not even blaming you, we're just.." "Disappointed," Jong Hyun finished my sentence for me. I gave him a puzzled stare, "Yea, disappointed...how do you?" He let out a big sigh, "Tae Min said the exact same thing two days ago." "Oh." I was surprised to hear Tae Min's name come out of his mouth. Who knew the maknae had it in him, though I suppose he has always been mature for his age, he had to be to willingly give up his childhood fort his career. ‘In this case, you probably know what I’m going to say already, so I won’t say anything, but I’ll ask you one thing, do you still love Ki Bum?’ Though I knew the answer, Jong Hyun’s piercing stare as he looked into my eyes to answer my question still scared me a little, ‘Yes I do, with my life. I love him more than anything in the world.’ ‘More than Shin Se Kyung?’ ‘I don’t love her.’ ‘But you’re placing her at a higher priority than Ki Bum.’ ‘She’s a victim of my mistake too,’ Jong Hyun replied after a few seconds of thinking, I had expected this, if only he did not say what he just said, I might have considered helping him talk to Ki Bum. Sigh, we really need to get rid of the Se Kyung factor.

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Ki Bum's POV:

  ‘Ki Bum, can I sit here?’ I looked up to find Min Ho staring down at me, diverting my attention from Yun Ri and Jong Hyun. I nodded. He took Jong Hyun's seat and fumbled to adjust the seat settings after noticing that his legs were cramped in the small space. I let out a giggle, Jong Hyun's short stature is bringing even other people trouble. Finally as Min Ho got comfortable, ‘So how have you been?’ ‘Better I guess?’ ‘Really?’ Min Ho asked me, I sighed, at times like these I wonder if he is really the second youngest out of Shinee, he seems to know everything. ‘No, I’m not doing well, are you happy now?’ ‘No.’ I gave him an incredulous glare, ‘What!?’ ‘Am I supposed to be happy that you’re not doing well?’ I stuttered for a moment before settling on glaring at him. ‘We got yelled at by Tae Min yesterday,’ I heard Min Ho say out of the blue. My head snapped up to stare at him, ‘For real?’ Surprisingly, a smile spread itself across Min Ho’s face, ‘Yea. We got yelled at for running away from the problem.’

  ‘Running away from the problem…’ I thought to myself. Was I also running away from my problem? I stretched my neck to look at Jong Hyun. Min Ho’s words brought my attention back to him, ‘Ki Bum ah,’ ‘Yea?’ I replied half-heartedly. ‘Don’t forget, you’re the Almighty Key,’ he said. Hearing my stage name, I froze, I hated it when people reminded me that I was supposed to be a perfect idol when I’m down. As if sensing my unhappiness, Min Ho patted my shoulder, ‘I’m just reminding you that you can do anything.’ He shot me one of his charismatic smiles, but it’s the kind he saved for us members when we’re down.  ‘I can do anything…’ I repeated in my head, and suddenly, all the hell I’ve been through this week doesn’t seem that daunting anymore. Mentally thanking Min Ho in my head, I looked at him, who was getting ready to get out of Jong Hyun’s seat and gave him my cockiest smirk, ‘Of course I can. I’m the Almighty Key.’

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  As soon as Min Ho came back from talking to Ki Bum, Tae Min asked, ‘So how did it go?’ Instead of answering the question however, Min Ho flashed the maknae his infamous eye smile and Tae Min slumped back onto his seat, relieved. Part 1 of their ‘Fix Shinee up plan’ is successful. The two enjoyed a moment of peaceful silence before Tae Min turned to Min Ho and said, ‘Because we’re the youngest.’ Min Ho nodded, ‘Because we’re the youngest.’