Jonghyun, his phone nervously in his hand, stood at the door of their dorm, gazing around at the small dorm that he and the other members of SHINee had called their own for about three years. 

The walls held so many memories...both good and bad, though mainly good. They had argued a couple times, mostly over stupid things, because they were tired, sore and sick of seeing eachother's faces twenty-four hours a day. The manager had beaten them once or twice, not at all like the night before.  The manager and the company representitives had screamed at them for screwing something up and some of their sunbaes from the older groups at the company had gotten drunk inside these walls - which hadn't been pretty for any of them. 

But the good times...ah...those were what the wall held most of.

Like the time Kyuhyun-hyung had challenged Yesung-hyung to Karoake, or when Roo had stashed Key's shoes somewhere and it had taken the five of them days to find them, or when they won their first award, when they debuted with Replay and had stayed up for hours just talking about it and how they could improve in their next concert, when he had tried to make dinner and he had ended up putting far too much curry and had tears stream like waterfalls down the member's faces...

Jonghyun sighed, biting his bottem lip in hope that the horrible feeling in his stomach would go away.

Why does this have to be so hard?

He remembered the first day that they had come to this little dorm. None of them were truly comfortable with one another yet - especcialy Minho and Taemin, since they were the youngest, and for hours it had been awkward just being in the same room. 

Jonghyun and Key, naturally with being the two most outgoing it seemed out of all of them, had tried to break the ice but it had still been increbily awkward.

Jonghyun then had found it hard to follow Onew. He was used to being the leader figure of his group of friends back at school, because he was the oldest, and it was a tough change to have to be lead and having to follow. It had been hard to stamp down on the alpha-male part of himself but he had managed - and realized that he liked following a lot better than leading. There was a lot less responsability and it was nice to let Onew make the decisions and to have someone to give him advice.

He remembered how young they all were - and realized how much they've changed since then. 

Jonghyun forced himself to look away from the dark room, gulping hard.

"I'm going to miss you guys...take care of yourselves. I'm so, so sorry for everything. Thank you for being their for me...A-and I...I love you. All of you." He adjusted the bag on his back with difficulty. His hands were shaking too hard to do anything right.

Tears in his eyes, Jonghyun hardened his heart and stepped out of the protective warmth of the dorm and took his first step into the cold, outside world, away from his teamates and from his dreams. 

"WHAT?!"

Minho awoke from his warm sleep to the sound of Key's alarmed cry and groaned.

Damnit...why does he have to be so loud in the mornings?

The teenager glanced at the clock warily, not really wanting to see the time. He remembered being woken up by Jonghyun last night when he ran into the wall trying to find his way around in the dark, but that was all he could remember. He had been too tired to remember much.

The clock read 5:17 and Minho suppressed a moan of annoyance.

Why is everyone determined to wake me up at insane hours of the morning?

Figuring he should get up and make sure Key was okay, although most the time the older boy did this he was complaining to the world that they were out of flour, Minho reluctantly made his way out of the room.

He noticed before he left that Jonghyun was already awake, his bed made, and that Roo, his dog, was still sleeping soundly.

Jonghyun was always the first one awake, so it was completely normal for him to already be up at this hour.

Minho found Key in the kitchen in the process of cooking breakfast. He had his back turned to him, and the porridge  he had been cooking lay abandoned and bubbling on the stove.

"Hyung, the food-"

Key cut him off mid-sentence by shoving a letter to his chest.

Minho fumbled for the leader, confused. Kibum's eyes were filling up with tears and Minho felt his heart sink, fall to the floor and shatter mercilessly.

Oh God, he thought. SM fired us! Oh God, no! We're done for, it's over - 

Key sniffed loudly.

"Jonghyun's gone." He whimpered.

Well...that sure wasn't what he had expected to hear.