It was day seven of rehearsals, and Sunhwa, the rest of the dancers, and SHINee had just finished. SHINee had a few more hours of recording, but they were all happy that practice had ended early for them that day.

“It feels weird that my muscles aren’t burning that much,” Taemin remarked as he wiped his face with a towel.

“I don’t know about you, but my thighs are about to explode,” Sulli moaned, massaging her legs as they did warm-down stretches.

Luna laughed. “That makes absolutely no sense.”

“Dancing machine, we’ll leave you here to practice more if you want to that badly,” Minho said, shoving Taemin lightly.

He stuck his tongue out at Minho and bumped him back.

“Yah, kids, break it up,” Key commanded, adapting his umma tone. “Or no dessert for you tonight.”

“Umma,” Taemin whined, using his aegyo (and that was a force to be reckoned with, Sunhwa had discovered after he asked her to get his water for him once). “Hyung is bullying me.”

“Son, how many times do we have to tell you,” Jonghyun said, using a “fatherly” tone and jumping onto Minho’s back. “You can’t bully your dongsaeng. He’s delicate.”

“Hey!” Taemin shot a glare at Jonghyun.

“Says the guy who wears five-inch insoles.” Minho dumped Jonghyun off his back.

“You wear insoles too, you beanstalk freak!” the latter shot back.

Onew rolled his eyes good-naturedly. Sunhwa sometimes sympathized with him, seeing as he had to put up with those boys 24/7. But at the same time, she saw the brotherhood that they shared, and kind of envied them. They would always be there for one another no matter what, and it wasn’t every lifetime you got four best friends.

“Hurry up!” Onew barked jokingly. “I want to get chicken before we go record.”

Everyone laughed, and Sunhwa was about to stand up and leave for work when Manager Kim strode through the door.

The dancers immediately bowed to him, but SHINee didn’t, seeing as they were on a pretty comfortable basis with him.

“Annyeonghaseyo,” Hyun Jin chirped.

Manager Kim waved a hand at their bows. “Girls, you don’t have to do that anymore. We’re in this together and you’re part of the SM family now. Arraso?” Sunhwa was surprised to feel a little bit of warmth inside her at those words. She hadn’t expected the feeling of teamwork and fellowship that came with working at SM…and she kind of liked it.

“Hyung, what’s up?” Jonghyun asked.

“You’ve been doing well in practice so far, Dae Hyun-sshi tells me,” Manager Kim said, looking at the choreographer, who nodded in return. He sat down on the floor, something that Sunhwa noticed that he was quite fond of doing, and gestured for them to do the same.

“We have scheduled another month and a half of practice before debut,” he said seriously. Everyone nodded. That wasn’t that bad of a time frame for rookies, but they would need to work hard to be completely ready for the performance. “We really need to clean up the choreography by that time and have it sharp. And you guys,” he addressed SHINee, “need to be singing well live by then.”

 “If we keep working at the pace we are at now, I know we’ll do well at debut. Arraso?”

Murmurs of “arraso” drifted around.

“The dance uses pairs, and we can’t just partner you up randomly. There would be no fun in that, no real chemistry for the people to see,” Manager Kim continued, eyes twinkling. Sunhwa was reminded of that twinkle Hyun Jin got sometimes. She warily listened on.

“So tomorrow, we’re giving you the day off at Lotte World to see your chemistry and what pairs we’ll use,” he said.

“Jinja?!?” Hyun Jin squealed, along with Sulli.

“You’re completely serious,” Minho deadpanned.

“Omo, this will be so fun!” Taemin said, smiling happily.

“A day off…” Jonghyun was getting a faraway look in his eyes.

“Of course, there will be cameras following you to get footage,” Manager Kim added.

That dampened the mood somewhat, but no one really cared. They were getting a day off to spend at Lotte World, at their leisure. What could be better than that?

“Kamsahamida!” everyone said, bowing hurriedly at Manager Kim as he left. He smiled and waved before disappearing.

“KYAA! Doesn’t that sound so fun?” Hyun Jin said to the other girls as they packed up.

“We’re still doing it for work, though,” Sunhwa reminded her.

Hyun Jin pouted. “Don’t be such a party pooper,” she said, to which Sunhwa only grinned.

“Do you think they’ll be following us closely?” Luna wondered.

“Does it matter?” Sulli celebrated happily. “We’re going to Lotte World with SHINee!”

I don't really like this chappie...maybe it's because I feel like it's way too clichéd. Oh well. I had to stick Lotte World in there somewhere. :P Hope you all have a good week!

- tigress