Harboring a feeling of déjà vu, Sunhwa stood in front of the manager of Paradise’s desk for what seemed to be the second time in…what? Two weeks?

“I received your medical reports from Dae Hyun-sshi,” he said, shuffling papers in the same manner that he had before.

“Neh…” Sunhwa said carefully. She had not informed them of the reason of her absence – there were other things to be worried about at the time. But it was kind of important that she keep this job, also, because it provided a nice addition to her paycheck. Plus, Sunhwa liked working at the restaurant. There were worse jobs.

“Question, Sunhwa yah,” the manager said, looking up and straight at her.

“Neh?” Sunhwa replied, feeling very much like she was trying to tightrope walk over a gorge and a wind had suddenly started blowing.

“Are you feeling better?”

“…Ah…um…yes, kamsahamida…” Sunhwa mumbled, drawing her gaze to a suddenly very interesting spot by her foot, missing her manager’s expression of approval.

“Fine. But are you up for work tomorrow?”

Sunhwa nodded eagerly. “Of course.”

“The doctor hasn’t completely released you yet,” he warned, shuffling papers yet again, “but you’re stronger than you look. Just don’t overstrain yourself, arasso?”

“Arasso,” Sunhwa agreed.

And with that, she went to serve the first shift.

-

Sunhwa dashed into the SM building with her ever-present duffel bag slung over her shoulder, just having run from Paradise. She changed hurriedly into sweats, but when she opened the door to the old one that SHINee had occupied, a couple of trainees stared back at her. Sunhwa hastily closed the door and hurried away.

Dang it! Why don’t they ever tell me where they’re going to practice? Sunhwa thought with exasperation, pinching the bridge of her nose. Everyone else seems to get the memo just fine.

After spending ten minutes trying to find the right practice room, Sunhwa was finally directed to a room on the fifth floor of the building by the receptionist (who she had to convince that she wasn’t some fangirl trying to kidnap her idols). She stepped out from the glass elevator and marveled at the overall cleanliness and modernization of the floor. The fifth, sixth, and seventh floors were reserved for the best and most successful SM groups, like Super Junior and Girls’ Generation. SHINee was moving up in the world, quite literally.

Sunhwa allowed a small smile of pride to grace her lips at the thought of the five hard-working boys she knew, and knocked tentatively at the door of the room where faint strains of “Noona Neomu Yeppeo” could be heard.

The music cut, and after a moment and sounds of scuffling, Key flung open the door. “What do you want? Oh…it’s you.”

Sunhwa simply gave him a look and brushed past into the practice room. She marveled at it: a huge, shiny (pun intended) floor-to-ceiling mirror stretching across the whole wall, solid wooden floors that wouldn’t make their shoes squeak when they danced, and bright lights that studded the ceiling.

“Isn’t it great?” Taemin beamed at her as he noticed her staring and swept a proud arm, like a realtor showing off his best home.

Unconsciously, Sunhwa realized that she had missed seeing that smile. But mostly, she had missed practicing.

“Welcome back, Sunhwa,” SHINee’s manager said to her with a kind smile. He gestured to a chair on the side. “Why don’t you sit?”

Sunhwa dropped her duffel bag and glanced at him. “Why? Aren’t I going to be practicing?”

“You didn’t tell her?” This question was directed at Sulli and Luna, who looked sheepish. “Well, you see…” Sulli began, rubbing the back of her neck. “We knew that if we told her, she would be really upset.”

“Tell me what?” Sunhwa demanded, turning her piercing gaze on the closest victim: Onew. He gulped and shuffled away from her as he said, “Um…well…manager hyung doesn’t want you to practice quite yet…”

“Why not?!?”

“Sunhwa yah,” manager oppa said gently, and subtly gestured behind his back for Hyun Jin to guide her to the chair, “You just got released from the hospital today.”

“Don’t interrupt me,” he said when Sunhwa opened to object. She closed it, glaring slightly and allowing herself to be sat down. “For the sake of the performances we have coming up, I want you to rest for the next two days.”

“Two days?” Sunhwa said incredulously. “Do you know how much rehearsing I could get done in two days?”

Instead of answering, the manager oppa turned to SHINee. “Look at this persistent attitude she has,” he admonished them. “You guys should be more like Sunhwa.”

“Mianhe, hyung,” Jonghyun grinned in a not-so-sorry way.

He waved a hand. “Anyway, Sunhwa, the point is that your body hasn’t completely recovered yet, and we want you to be at 100 percent before going onstage. Arasso?”

“Don’t make me sit on you to keep you down,” Hyun Jin warned, wagging a finger.

“It’s for your own good, maknae,” Sulli chimed in.

Sunhwa pouted and internally wrestled with herself before conceding, “…arasso.”

“You don’t know how lucky you actually are,” Jonghyun whispered to her as Dae Hyun seongsang-nim commanded that they would dance the song five times through perfectly, or else.

-

“Sit with us!” Jonghyun pulled on Sunhwa’s arm as she turned to leave their table.

“I can’t,” Sunhwa informed him. “I have another table to serve.”
 

He looked around and spotted another waitress. “Hey, you!”

Said waitress squealed and pointed to herself. “Me?”

“Neh,” Jonghyun flashed her a dazzling smile. “Can you go serve my friend Sunhwa’s table for me?”

“Of course!” The waitress squealed again before dashing off.

“See? Done,” Jonghyun spread his hands.

Taemin pulled out the chair next to him and coaxed, “Come on, Sunhwa yah.”

“Go on,” Onew gestured with his fried drumstick, smiling with bulging cheeks.

Sunhwa sighed and plopped down into the chair grudgingly. “And what am I supposed to do? Watch you guys eat?”

“Talk with us, silly,” Minho smirked at her before spearing some more salad. “It’s been a while.”

“More like three days,” Sunhwa remarked, starting to absently fold the elegant gold-colored napkins (with the word "Paradise" tastefully emblazoned) on the table.

“That’s a long time to us, without seeing our favorite waitress,” Jonghyun said.

“Oh, stop,” Sunhwa wacked him with a napkin.

Taemin wisely changed the subject. “So I heard you bought a new apartment?” he asked, eyes bright.

“Hyun Jin unnie told you, didn’t she?” Sunhwa said.

He laughed. “Maybe. And she interjected the whole time what a ratty place it was and how you should have moved in with her.”
 

“Do you like it?” Minho asked.

Sunhwa thought for a moment. “Yeah, I do. I’ve wanted my own apartment ever since I can remember.”

Taemin nodded. Unbeknownst to Sunhwa, Hyun Jin had told their manager about Sunhwa’s family situation, and he in turn had told SHINee about it, cautioning them never to bring it up. The maknae’s heart tugged to hear about her difficulties in life, but he admired her for being so strong.

Sunhwa’s voice pulled him out of his daydreams. “And how’s rehearsal?”

“You would know, you sit there and watch us,” Jonghyun scoffed.

“It’s not the same,” Sunhwa sniped back.

Minho shook his head. “You’re the only one that would ever be angry about missing rehearsal,” he said, and then tacked on as an afterthought, “except for maybe Taemin.”

“Hyung!” Taemin reddened, two bright spots appearing on the apples of his cheeks. It was quite cute, actually. Sunhwa didn’t notice and instead was stealing glances at Key, who steadfastly ignored her and focused on his food. Was it Taemin’s imagination, or did she actually look disappointed by Key’s inattention?

Nah, Taemin decided. The feud between Sunhwa and Key didn’t have any rational explanation to it, and both Minho and Onew hyung had warned him to stay out of it. Besides, Taemin contemplated, it’s not like Sunhwa really likes Key hyung anyway.

Brightened by this thought, Taemin bravely said in what he hoped was a nonchalant manner, “Sunhwa yah, are you going to Hyun Jin’s party this weekend?”

Sunhwa stopped, her finger in the middle of creasing a fold on a napkin. “Um…I don’t know?”

“Aww, come on!” Jonghyun poked at her with the of his chopsticks. “You have to come!”

“We’re going,” Onew said brightly, “and our schedules are definitely busier than yours.”

“You’re only going because of the food,” Sunhwa pointed out.

Onew shrugged unashamedly. “Only partly, though.”

“Besides,” Jonghyun pressed, “it’s not often that your best friend graduates from high school. You wouldn’t want to miss that, would you?”

Now backed into a corner, Sunhwa turned to her last possible ally: Minho. He couldn’t possibly like social gatherings as much as the rest of them, could he?

Minho just gave her a look that said, you’re not getting any help from me. “You should go, Sunhwa yah. He has a point.”

Sunhwa buried her face in her hands. “Fine,” she finally said, exasperated.

“Yay!” Taemin clapped excitedly. “We’ll see you there, arasso?”

“…arasso.” With that, Sunhwa left the table, but not without taking one last glance at Key. Ever since the grocery shopping incident, he had acted the same way: disregarding her existence.

-

It was around three in the morning when Sunhwa’s phone vibrated loudly, causing her to startle awake.

“Who dares disturb my slumber?” she growled to herself before stumbling out of the futon and unceremoniously falling to the floor. Whatever, she thought and dragged her body to the small desk where her phone continued to vibrate.

I should have known. Sunhwa flipped the phone open and winced as the bright screen announced that Hyun Jin was calling her.

“What?” Sunhwa barked grumpily into the receiver. She really wasn’t much of a morning person and even less of an early morning person. But then again, who is?

Hyun Jin, apparently. “Omo, Sunhwa yah!” her voice chirped cheerfully back.

Sunhwa ran one hand through her disheveled hair. “Do you even know what time it is?”

The voice on the line paused for a second before answering, “Oh. It’s exactly three fourteen.”

“What is it?” Sunhwa mentally decided that there was no use arguing with Hyun Jin, especially this early in the morning. She only seemed more hyper than usual.

“Oh yeah!” Hyun Jin squealed. “So you’re coming to my graduation party Saturday, right?”

“Neh.”

“So I was thinking, I need a new dress. I mean, it’s my graduation, right? And I want to look good for it. There are going to be a lot of photos, and I don’t want to look back one day and think, wow, I look hideous. Because that’s, like, one of my worst fears, you know? Being old and realizing that I totally did not put enough effort into my appearance when I was younger.” She shuddered delicately. “And plus, everyone’s going to be there, especially SHINee, and everyone from school is super excited – ”

“Unnie,” Sunhwa interrupted, “you’re babbling again.”

A moment of silence. “Oh, I am? Anyway, the point is, we should all go shopping together Friday to get ready!”

Sunhwa facepalmed. This is what Hyun Jin had called her at three in the morning to tell her? “Wait, who’s ‘we’?” she asked warily.

“The backup dancers, of course!” came the giddy answer. “You, me, Sulli, and Luna. Except for Victoria. I don’t particularly like her very much.” Hyun Jin’s voice dropped. “Don’t tell her I said that.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Sunhwa sighed. She secretly wondered if Hyun Jin had had too much sugar...or was it coffee? “Is that all?”

“Meet me at my house at noon on Friday. Actually, I’ll just come and pick you and the rest of the girls up. We can go to the boutiques near my house and have a sleepover and then I can do your makeup! This is going to be so much fun,” Hyun Jin gushed. “Okay, I gotta call the others now. Love you, bye!”

Sunhwa closed the phone slowly, somehow more confused than when she had woken up.

Meh, she thought, shoving the rest of her thoughts to the back of her mind and crawling back to bed.

-

The loud horn blared for what must have been the fifth time. “I’m coming, I’m coming!” Sunhwa muttered to herself as she put her battered converse on (she loved those shoes) and hurried out of her apartment, making sure to lock the door.

Slinging her overnight bag across her shoulder, Sunhwa stepped lightly down the stairs to the parking lot. Friday had come quickly and the week had been a blur. Manager oppa had finally allowed her to start practicing on Wednesday, and between working at Paradise and rehearsal, she didn’t really have time to do anything else but sleep. SHINee was looking tired too, from attending all their schedules, but Jonghyun had assured Hyun Jin that they would definitely be at her party. Taemin had smiled widely and waved at her as she left rehearsal that day. Despite still being her partner, Key had done a wonderful job of ignoring her completely.

“Took you long enough,” Sulli called from the front seat as Sunhwa climbed into the car next to Luna.

Sunhwa stuck her tongue out. “At least I didn’t spend two hours doing my hair, like someone,” she retorted.

“Are you mocking me? I think you’re mocking me,” Sulli teased as the engine revved and the red Jaguar tore out of the parking lot.

“Unnie, stop it. We’re going shopping!” Hyun Jin grinned into the rearview mirror as Sunhwa stifled a groan.

OTL OTL sorry for the extremely long wait...I had a retreat to an island (super fun) and now I'm in China. School is starting soon, though T.T

Even though all I seem to be doing in my author's notes is apologizing, I've already written some more chapters and hopefully they'll be up soon. I know my updating rate is disappointing; sorry! :(

Okay, anyway, thank you to all my loyal readers for sticking with me :D Each subscribe and comment motivates me to keep writing. Opinions are always welcome, so go ahead and tell me what you think in a comment! Hugs and cookies to everyone! <3 :)

- tigress

P.S. I will now include some things from my "cute" SHINee folder in apology. Enjoy~