“What is going on? What did he mean by ‘running through the program?’” Sunhwa demanded half fearfully and half bewilderedly.

“We’re going to be recording!” Hyun Jin said, squealing a little after the statement.

Sunhwa didn’t really see the significance of that. “Um…recording for what?”

“A practice video for ‘Replay’!” Sulli’s voice piped up next to them as said girl appeared, smiling cheerfully. Luna, who was with her, waved and her blonde hair bounced.

“So…” Sunhwa still didn’t get it.

“Aish,” Hyun Jin frowned at her friend. “It’s a dance practice video. SM puts it up on their YouTube channel and everyone gets to see it. It’s the beginning of promotions, silly.”

“It may or may not be a big deal,” Luna added sunnily. “Lee Soo Man is here, and we’re in the cloud room for today, too.”

They were in the famous cloud room, Sunhwa realized as she turned around and saw the white-on-blue walls. She couldn’t count how many times she had watched videos of Girls’ Generation or Super Junior in this room and longed to be there herself. This room meant that you were somebody in the SM world, and simply being there gave Sunhwa a sense of surrealism.

“Someone call a medic, she looks like she’s going to faint,” Sulli teased and hooked an arm around Sunhwa.

Sunhwa shook her head and smiled a little. “I’m fine. I’m just…really excited.”

“Good!” Hyun Jin said, beaming with delight. “Let’s go!”

-

“When he said ‘practice video’, I didn’t think it would require more than three hours of shooting,” Sulli gasped, panting heavily.

“Look at SHINee, they look absolutely exhausted,” Luna nodded toward the group of boys who were currently getting briefed about something by their manager. Onew was nodding seriously, but the rest of them were barely on their feet.

“I heard that they stayed up late recording,” Hyun Jin said sympathetically. “Their schedules are only going to get busier from here.”

“Hmph,” Victoria, who they had completely ignored the presence of, flipped her ponytail and gave a little snort. “They were trained for this. I would be surprised if none of them could handle it.”

Sulli rolled her eyes and snapped, “I bet you wouldn’t be able to do this, Victoria. Do you know how much work they have to go through? Jonghyun tells me sometimes that he doesn’t have time to sleep. So think before you open your mouth.”

At this unexpectedly vicious retort, Victoria opened , blinked a little, and closed it. “I have better things to do than talk to you,” she finally said, and glared at all of the girls before stalking away.

“Waa, Sulli unnie daebak,” Sunhwa said, clapping and grinning after Victoria was out of earshot.

Sulli blushed a little and bowed jokingly. “But seriously though, I don’t know where that came from.”

“I do,” Hyun Jin said, wiggling her eyebrows mischievously. “I think you were thinking about a certain boy…”

“No! No one,” Sulli defended.

“You know there was,” Luna sang, jabbing her friend with her elbow. “I think a bling bling dino was in your thoughts.”

“He’s not a dino!” Sulli said, and then realized that she had given the game away and clapped her hands over .

“So it is him,” Sunhwa remarked, grinning.

“Who is it?” a familiar voice asked, and Jonghyun appeared, draping an arm around Sulli like always and smiling crookedly at them. The rest of the boys followed, Key spitting toward Sunhwa, “Peasant.”

“Diva,” she answered boredly.

Sulli blushed furiously and denied, “No one! No one at all…”

Hyun Jin gave her a look that clearly stated they would discuss this later, and then changed the subject. “So isn’t debut in two weeks?”

“Neh,” Taemin nodded, his bowl haircut flopping adorably. “Manager hyung was just telling us about our schedules. We have to do well on the debut stage.”

“I’m sure we will,” Minho assured him. “We’ve been working too hard not to.”

“Oh seongsang-nim told us everything has to be perfectly in sync,” Onew added. “Everyone has high expectations of us.”

“Let’s not think about this anymore,” Luna decided. “It’s too stressful. Bad for the skin, you know.” Everyone laughed at her statement, and the mood became considerably lighter.

“So, Jongie, how many insoles are you wearing today?” Minho asked casually as the cameras prepared for shooting again.

“Yah! Choi Minho!”

-

“Last time, guys. Pretend like it’s the debut stage. Fighting!” Oh seongsang-nim closed out practice with these words.

Everyone groaned a little but got into position. SHINee each now had mikes, and they were singing live. The first time Sunhwa had heard them, she was impressed. Their vocals sounded almost the same as the recordings.

As the first drumbeats sounded from the speakers, Sunhwa prepared herself to give this last performance her all.

-

Oh seongsang-nim clapped, and for maybe the first time that day, smiled at them. “Circle up!” he called. “I have a few more things to say.”

The dancers and SHINee gathered in a circle around their choreographer, each of them wary of what he was going to say.

“So debut stage is tomorrow,” Oh seongsang-nim started. “I know you all have been working very hard, and I’ve seen you improve tremendously in the past month and a half. I tell all of you honestly,” he said, looking into each of their faces, “that you are quite possibly the most talented group at debut that I have seen so far.”

“Don’t get cocky, now,” he added quickly as he saw Jonghyun’s face light up foolishly. “But I just wanted to give you that encouragement. You should all do very well tomorrow; there is nothing to worry about. Just keep your focus. I look forward to working with you for the rest of your careers.”

Oh seongsang-nim paused and then smiled. “How about a ‘fighting’ on three?”

“Hana, dul, set…”
 

“FIGHTING!”

The group broke apart, tired but satisfied with the day’s work. As Sunhwa packed up her bag, Victoria sidled over to Key. “Key oppa, do you want to get some dubbokki with me?”

Key looked at her for a second, face unreadable, and then said bluntly, “Aniyo.”

“Why not?” Sunhwa heard Victoria whine disgustingly as she stepped out the door with Hyun Jin.

And curiously, for some reason, Sunhwa felt maybe even a teeny bit more satisfied than before.

-

“Why are you following me?” Sunhwa asked as she opened the door of the SM Entertainment building and started down the street. It was after practice and very late. Practically no one was on the dark streets.

“Shh, Sunhwa yah, don’t talk so loudly! People might hear you,” Jonghyun said in an excessively stage-whispery manner.

Sunhwa rolled her eyes and started to say, “You’re even louder than I – mmf!”

Jonghyun clapped a hand over and whispered in her ear, “What did I tell you? Now let’s go to Paradise.”

Sunhwa’s eyes glared viciously at him before she his hand, causing him to squeal and release her, and continued down the street.

“Yah! She me!” Jonghyun shrieked at Onew and Minho, who were next to him.

Minho shook his head. “Maybe you shouldn’t do that, hyung.”

Onew just grinned cheerfully at Jonghyun. “Come on, let’s go get some chicken!”

-

Taemin ran in front of Sunhwa as they reached the restaurant and held open the door for her. “Oh…thanks, Taeminnie,” she said, smiling briefly at him before entering.

“No problem,” the maknae squeaked. As soon as she was out of earshot, he hurriedly smoothed down his hair and looked at his reflection in the glass window. “Do I look okay?”

“There isn’t anyone around here to look good for,” Key snorted, arranging Taemin’s bangs carefully despite his words. “I can’t believe I let myself be dragged over here. It’s the night before debut, for goodness sakes’!”

“It’s not until early in the afternoon tomorrow,” Jonghyun assured as he moved behind Key to massage his shoulders. “So just relax, yeobo.”

“Oh, yeobo, you know just what to say,” Key said, his voice turning sugary sweet and batting his eyelashes at Jonghyun.

“Gross,” Minho gagged behind them, but Taemin grinned and joined the charade, tugging on Onew’s sleeve. “Hyung, omma and appa are going at it again.”

“Hm? That’s good, now help harabeoji decide what chicken to get, neh?” Onew absentmindedly patted Taemin’s head.

Threw a little JongKey in there for you guys. :P Sorry about the bad quality of this chapter in general...

A huge thank you to everyone who has stuck with me so far, I love you guys!

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- tigress