The SHINee boys entered their dorm in a bitter mood.

  That was all thanks to their prior meeting with their president, who ordered them to brush up their Japanese “until you’re really really really fluent” before their upcoming concert tour in Japan.

  It’s not like they didn’t like to learn it. They have done it before, and they had all the basics down. It was just that there was suddenly so much to do in a very short period of time.

  “Why can’t we have a translator help us out? Or Yunho-hyung and Changmin-hyung? Or the So Nyuh Shi Dae girls?” Jonghyun complained.

  Onew glanced at him tiredly. “I already told you a thousand times. We have to do this on our own because our effort would seem more sincere that way. Have you forgotten what our president said?”

  Jonghyun just grumbled in reply and slumped deeper into his armchair.

  “For our fans, we have to do this, even if it is by ourselves,” Minho exclaimed determinedly, and pumped his fist in the air.

  The others just rolled their eyes at his ‘heroic’ enthusiasm. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know that,” Key said dismissively.

  Minho narrowed his eyes angrily at him.

  “Look, why don’t we start by,” Onew began, picking up the TV remote and somehow successfully easing the tension, “watching some Japanese programmes? We’ll get some enjoyment out of it, too.”

  “Good idea, hyung,” Taemin said, closing his eyes and rubbing his temples.

  The first Japanese channel Onew came upon was NHK which showed a documentary on a group of fishermen in Okinawa and how they make a living.

  The boys tried watching in silence for five minutes before Key voiced out sarcastically, “Yah, Onew-hyung, is there anything more boring than this?”

  Onew scowled and changed to another channel.

  Thankfully, the next channel was showing Hey! Hey! Hey!.

  “Ooh! Let’s stick with this!” Key said excitedly. “They usually have interesting guests. We have to get used to the variety programmes’ lingo anyway.”

  The others perked up and continued watching, but they totally didn’t expect one of the guests to be one of their own fellow stars in the Kpop world.

  “We also have KARA!” the show host exclaimed, and the five girls, all smiles, filed out while waving to the audience and the camera.

  Key blinked. “Okay,”