“Hey guys!  That elevator stuff was weird!” Taemin exclaimed, obviously over their little shock for now.  Jonghyun and Key had just opened the door, startling Onew.  The others were sitting on the couch, waiting for the two to arrive.  

Minho seemed agitated, tapping his fingers nervously on the arm of the chair.  Onew had a blank expression on his face, and his eyes were wide.  Key thought that Taemin might have been in shock, as he was a little too excitable, given the circumstances. 

“I think we need to discuss what just happened,” Jonghyun announced, taking the loveseat across from the couch.  Key joined him, and Jonghyun noticed his hands were still shaking.   He carefully slid his hand back, wrapping it around Key’s.  Key shot him a grateful look, and Jonghyun smiled back, hiding their clasped hands from the others’ view.

“Where do we even start?  I mean, what the heck just happened?!” Minho broke the silence. 

Onew looked over at him, startled at the outburst.  “I’m with Minho.  But let’s go over the details first.  Can someone write this down or something?”  

Taemin jumped up and ran to his room.  Key smiled a little, knowing exactly what he was going to retrieve.   His board.  It was a present Key had gotten him for his birthday last year; a huge easel-like object with what could be described as giant post-it-notes attached.   So far, Taemin had used half of the pages, filling them with doodles and notes to himself or the others. 

Sure enough, Taemin bounded back in with the bulky board, setting it down next to Jonghyun and Key’s chair and taking out his marker.   “I’ll write!” he declared, a little unnecessarily. 

Onew chuckled halfheartedly and continued, “Okay.  So let’s review, shall we?  First of all, we know that something has locked us in here.” 

Taemin scribbled that down, writing the heading “What We Know” above it.  Minho piped up again with, “Yeah, sure.  But where is here?”

Jonghyun replied, “Our apartment building.”

“In another dimension?” Key added.  He looked around at the others, silently asking for their opinion. 

“That seems like a good assumption to me,” Onew agreed. 

Taemin wrote that down as well, still under the same heading.  Then he asked a question of his own.  “But why are we here?”

Jonghyun scratched his head, trying to remember what the voice had told them.  “Um…she said it was some sort of competition.  Like, between all of us.”

Key nodded.  “Yeah, she said she was looking for the best one.  What does that even mean?”

There was silence for a moment, and Minho avoided Key’s gaze.  Key looked at him quizzically, and Minho sighed.  “It’s like a tournament.”  When the rest of them stared at him, he sighed and continued, “Come on.  None of you thought that way?”

Key felt his cheeks warm a little bit as he realized that that is exactly what he thought, and he felt Jonghyun squeeze his hand in reassurance.   He kept quiet as the others shook their heads, and Minho sighed again. 

“Gosh.  Okay.  I think it’s like a gladiator tournament,” he said, watching their reactions.

Onew’s face was puzzled.  “Huh?”

Taemin knew what he was referring too though, and he clarified for Onew.  “He’s talking about that movie we watched!  Gladiator!  Where they would fight each other for sport or entertainment!”

Onew’s jaw dropped.  “Are you saying we have to…fight each other?”

“No!” Key cried, glancing over at Jonghyun quickly. 

Jonghyun squeezed his hand again to calm him.  To everyone, he said, “I’m sure it’s nothing that extreme.  And since this girl-“

“Hold up.  What do you mean, ‘girl’?” Minho interrupted.

Jonghyun raised an eyebrow.  “Did no one else realize that the voice was obviously a girl’s?”  They all shook their heads, except for Key, and Jonghyun rolled his eyes.  “Well, that shouldn’t really surprise me,” he joked to lighten the mood a little. “I am the only one here who knows about the female gender.”

It was Onew’s turn to roll his eyes, and he redirected the conversation back to the problem at hand.  “Taemin, create a new heading.  One for ‘What We Don’t Know’.”  Taemin did as he was told, marker poised and ready to continue on command.   “Right now, we do know that this is supposed to be some sort of competition.” 

Scribble, scribble.

“What we don’t know, though, is what the goal is or what the game contains.”

Scratch, scratch. 

“Wait,” Key broke in, “We do know the goal.  She said she wants the best member of SHINee for herself.  As in, forever.   There’s only one of us who can win.”  He bit his lip, fearing their response.  Fearing that his words would be the start of the thorn that split the five apart. 

To his relief, Taemin immediately exclaimed, “Well, we’ll just have to find a way out of this.  We’re obviously not going to betray each other.  You’re like my brothers.”

Onew nodded, and Jonghyun smiled too.  Minho offered a grimace.  Key’s nerves were stemmed for now, but he feared that if this contest turned bad, they wouldn’t be so quick to stick up for each other. 

Jonghyun felt the other’s fear, so he moved the discussion along to another topic.  “So Taemin, you can cross oust the goal and write it in the other column.  I guess we do know what that is.  The only thing left is what this game contains.” 

“Yeah,” Onew agreed.  “What are we supposed to do?”

The five members of SHINee looked at each other seriously.  That was the question of the day, wasn’t it? 

What were they supposed to do? 

A/N: Yay! Another update.  I actually think I know where I want this to go for the next few chapters.  Woohoo! :) Thanks for subscribing and commenting, you guys!! I appreciate it! <3