“Aish, every bone in my body hurts,” Hyun Jin complained good-naturedly as she sipped her fourth bottle of water. Sunhwa nodded, already on her sixth refill. Although she wouldn’t admit it, everything burned, but she was a bit glad it did. She knew she had gotten out of shape after dance crew at her high school had ended and welcomed the chance to become fitter through SHINee’s practices.

They were currently on their seventh hour of rehearsal and Sunhwa was starting to get the hang of the steps. Oh seongsang-nim had let them have a ten-minute water break, but sternly forbade them to sit down to keep their blood flowing.

“Argh,” a groan came from next to them. The girls looked over to see Sulli leaning down and stretching. She popped back up and smiled cheerfully at them. Sunhwa noticed that everything she did was cheerful.

“Annyeong!” Sulli said, bowing slightly despite the fact that they were all sweating buckets. “I’m Sulli. I know that we introduced ourselves before, but I just wanted to do it again informally. Is that all right?”

Hyun Jin smiled back. “Annyeong, and it’s totally fine!” She paused for a second and added a bit enviously, “You don’t seem very tired, Sulli.”

“Oh, trust me, I’m tired,” Sulli replied, fanning herself. “This is even worse than Super Junior’s practices, right Luna?”

Luna smiled shyly at them, and took a big gulp from her water bottle. “Neh, definitely,” she agreed.

“You danced with Super Junior?” Hyun Jin was clearly impressed. Sunhwa was too, but she was better at not showing it.

Sulli waved a hand airily. “It was just a stint.”

“Have you worked with many idols?” Sunhwa asked, curious.

Sulli smiled wider as she noticed that it was Sunhwa’s first time talking to her. “A few…Luna and I have been dancing professionally for a few years now.”

“A few years?” Sunhwa was impressed. They were working with very adept people. “You probably didn’t even need to audition, then.”

“Not really,” Luna admitted. “SM just called us up and asked us to dance with this new group here.”

“Wait…then we’re the only people from the audition?” Hyun Jin realized.

Sulli and Luna nodded. The former grinned and said, “I’ve heard that President Lee thinks very highly of you. He rarely lets people in on first audition.”

“Wah,” Hyun Jin exclaimed. She poked Sunhwa in the arm. “Did you hear that?!? We’re special.”

“That’s right, we only take the very best,” a voice said. Jonghyun had sauntered over to them and he threw a flirtatious grin at Hyun Jin and Sunhwa.

“Yah, Jongie, it’s only the first day and you’re already flirting with them,” Key admonished, making them laugh.He had yet to look at Sunhwa that day without a glare, just like how he had acted before. She was just glad he wasn’t ordering her around like he had at Paradise.

“Hyung was always a ladies’ man,” Minho said matter-of-factly.

Jonghyun ducked away from Minho’s noogie. “Aish, all of you always bullying me.”

Onew bowed respectfully to the girls. “I hope you are enjoying rehearsal so far.”

“I wouldn’t necessarily say enjoying,” Sunhwa muttered under her breath, but the boys caught it and laughed.

“You all are really good, though,” Taemin praised. “We’ve already had a week of practice. I wouldn’t be able to pick up the steps that quickly.”

“Taeminnie-ah, don’t lie,” Minho said. “You were the fastest out of all of us to learn the dance.” He ruffled his dongsaeng’s hair good-naturedly as the latter blushed.

“He’s the dancing machine, right?” Sulli remarked. “Even though he’s the maknae.”

The boys of SHINee nodded.

“Can you freestyle for us?” Luna asked timidly.

Taemin started to shake his head, but the rest of s started pushing him around. “Come on, you know you want to,” Key said.

The maknae consented and busted out an array of popping moves as Sunhwa and the rest of them watched in awe. Sunhwa carefully observed his technique and learned a few new things. Taemin was a little bit older than her, but she was thoroughly impressed with his abilities.

Just then, Victoria appeared. “Annyeong, Key oppa,” she said, batting her eyelashes in a completely fake manner.

“Annyeonghaseyo, Victoria,” Key said, subtly moving farther away from her.

Sunhwa noticed that Victoria had been in the corner the whole time, texting on her phone or who-knows-what, and had only c0me over to see Key. She internally rolled her eyes. There was always that one person…

Victoria pouted. “Key oppa, why are you using formalities with me?”

Sulli, Luna, Hyun Jin, and Sunhwa caught each other’s eyes and knew they were all thinking the same thing.

“Because you’re a backup dancer, and that’s it,” Key muttered.

Oh seongsang-nim clapped his hands (seriously though, did President Lee tell them all to do that? Sunhwa thought) and announced, “Break time’s over. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re starting at the second chorus. Get into position.”

As Sulli brushed past Sunhwa and Hyun Jin, she whispered, “Just ignore Victoria. She’s been like that for as long as I've known her.”

Sunhwa looked over at Luna, who was listening, and the blonde nodded vigorously.

“Blergh,” Hyun Jin remarked the music started again.

-

As soon as rehearsal was over and Manager Kim had dismissed them with stern instructions to drink lots and lots more water, Sunhwa gathered what remaining energy she had left, changed in the bathroom, and dashed out the door to work. SHINee had to stay back for another three hours, and she kind of pitied them. Although she loved dancing and loved this new job, the burn in her legs…or well, everywhere, was not quite pleasant.

She waved goodbye to Sulli and Luna and threw a thumbs up over her shoulder at Hyun Jin, who was shouting that she would call her later.

And with that, Sunhwa went to work.

Extra-long chapter to make up for the wait. :) And did anyone notice my fabulous new poster? It's beautiful...I finally figured out how to put it up! Whee!

Have a good weekend, everyone, and I hope you liked the chapter. ^.^

- tigress