After a semi-awkward family dinner with Jinki included, Kibum had taken to showing Jinki every SHINee video he could find. The boy was positive by now that their Jinki was Onew, and the way he just seemed to know the songs without any memory of the years that band was performing was more proof in Kibum’s mind.

“Kibum, you should let Jinki rest. It’s almost your bedtime anyways.” Chun Hei used the moment between videos to break the news, which earned a whine from the boy. “You can do this again tomorrow. But until then, out.”

“One more video, umma. Okay?” She nodded her head before walking off, and Kibum turned his attention back to Jinki. “And he has a ‘condition.’” Kibum couldn’t help but smile a little when that stirred something in Jinki.

“O-oh.” He was surprised by that, and Chun Hei could tell. “I can give you my number so he can call whenever he wants…” Jinki didn’t really know what to say about it, but he tried to come up with something, anything.

“He’d like that. Thank you.” Chun Hei gave one last smile before walking towards the doorway. “I’m going to make breakfast. The bathroom is just down this hall on the left in case you forgot from last night. Kibum should be coming here with some clothes for you in a few minutes.”

“Thank you. For everything.” He couldn’t even begin to put into words how thankful he was for the family, but Chun Hei just shook her head and told him to clean up before coming to breakfast, and then left.

As soon as the four heard Onew’s mother through the phone, Jonghyun was racing to pick it up. When he did, he placed it on speaker while the others crowded around. “He’s okay?”

There was silence for a second, as if she didn’t know how to answer. “He’s safe.” That didn’t answer them, and they noticed.

“Is he hurt? Where is he?” Minho, the only one who didn’t seem close to tears, took over the speaking now.

Kibum raced to the door when he heard knocking, opening it like his mother had told him to. But he definitely hadn’t expected the members of SHINee to be standing there with an older lady he guessed was Jinki’s mother. “C-come in.”

He got a few smiles from the members as they filed in after Jinki’s mother, and Kibum wasted no time guiding them to the living room before running off to get his mother. Some of them couldn’t help but laugh at how excited the boy was, but Kibum didn’t pay attention to that as he stood in the doorway to his parents’ room. “I was right! SHINee is here for him too!”

The couple shared a look, but Kibum was already running out of the room. When they realized he was gone, the two walked out of the room a little faster than they would have, knowing damage would already be done no matter how fast they raced there. But they were proven wrong when they appeared in the living room to Kibum offering all of them anything to eat or drink, being a perfect kid for once.

“Onew-hyung is here?” Taemin’s innocent question to Jonghyun and Jinki’s mother didn’t go unnoticed by anyone.

“He is!” Kibum handed out the waters he had gotten for everyone and went to hand the last one to Key before freezing, staring at something down the hall behind the singer.

“What is the…” Key looked over his shoulder before freezing too. The person walking down the hallway could have been Jinki, but his face was all covered in bandages and his hair was burned to different lengths, though the color and wave to it was the same. And there was the bandages that were visible around his chest even under the shirt and that went all the way down the arms supporting the body on a pair of crutches.

And there was the cause of the crutches itself; the cast that covered Jinki’s left leg from hip to toe. “Onew-hyung!”

The person stopped walking as the others turned around to face him, and Chun Hei and Dae-Ho realized just where this is going. The wife hurried to get over by Jinki and wrapped her arm around his back to get close enough to whisper something in his ear. Jinki’s eyebrows furrowed, but he nodded and whispered something back to her before slowly but surely turning around and hobbling back into the room.

“What do you mean, he doesn’t remember anything after 2005? How can he be missing eight years of memory?” Minho was the one to break the silence after the news was told to all of them, and he spoke what was on everyone’s minds.

Dae-Ho sighed and looked to his wife for help. She took over explaining to the boys and Jinki’s mother. “His Jeep hit a mine and it exploded, lighting the car on fire. From what Kibum told us, the whole thing flipped over a few times before hitting another mine that sent it flying into the air. But Jinki flew out of the car when that happened, hitting his head when he landed.” She saw Kibum nodding from the side that she had gotten the events of the day right, so Chun Hei continued. “When a person experiences a hit to the head, there is always the chance of complications, which can include memory loss. With a hit like Jinki experienced, death would have been more likely.” Most of them winced at the thought of losing their friend, brother, and son for life, but she was just stating the facts. “Memory loss is like the best case scenario for him. There is a possibility the memories will come back eventually, but how long that could take is unknown. It could be a few days, a few years, or even never.”

“He doesn’t remember you guys, but somewhere in his mind, he knows your songs.” Kibum piped up from his seat away from the others, and SHINee turned to look at him. “I was playing some of your songs and he could remember some parts of them. He even knew the Onew Sangtae song without me playing it at all.”

“He doesn’t remember us?” Taemin’s voice was heartbroken as he finally realized the harsh truth of it, but Kibum was there whispering something in his ear to calm him down before he broke down. At some point in this, Kibum’s parents led Jinki’s mother to his room, leaving the members alone in the living room with Kibum.

“I’m guessing you’re a fan, since you seem to know so much about us.” Jonghyun studied the kid, wondering if he was going to end up being crazy about them. He’s been living in the same house as Onew for a day already.

“I like you guys, but I’m not any crazy fan. They are just creepy.” He faked a shiver at it, and his joke got a little laugh from all of them. “What are you going to do since Onew-hyung doesn’t remember you guys?”

“Umma, it’s okay. I’m fine.” Jinki didn’t know what else to say as his mother was crying into his shoulder as she hugged him tight, and he was barely fighting back wincing at the contact with all of his cuts and burns. “Really.”

It was impossible to understand what his mother was trying to say through the tears, so Jinki just held her as tight as he could without hurting himself, letting his mother cry into his shoulder. It was eventually Chun Hei who helped his mother up so that she could speak with the doctors on what would come next. When they were gone, his thoughts wandered back to the people sitting in the living room with Kibum. They called me hyung, so they must know me… But I don’t know them.

He still knew he had to talk to them though, so Jinki carefully stood on his own and grabbed the crutches to go back to them. As soon as he started walking down the hall, the voices from the room paused. When he walked in, the four were staring at him while Kibum just gave a small smile. “Jinki-hyung, these are your friends.”

He heard the hyung part and smiled a little at that, but was still focused on the sympathetic and pitying looks he was getting. Sitting in an open chair, he looked around at them and realized none of them would speak if he didn’t start. “Look, I know we were probably close friends for you four to come all this way to see me, but I honestly don’t know who any of you are.” It was blunt, too straightforward for him to like, but it got the point across without dancing around it, and that was what Jinki knew he had to do.

But that one phrase was breaking the hearts of all of SHINee. “I don’t know who any of you are.” He doesn’t remember us…

Kibum looked from the shocked idols to Jinki before crawling over the couch to get close enough to Jinki to whisper into the elder’s ear. “They are SHINee. You are the fifth member.”

Jinki could swear his heart stopped at that. “I-I’m what?”

“You’re our leader, our friend, our missing piece, our Onew-hyung. You’re everything.” Taemin’s way of wording it broke not only Key’s heart as the umma of SHINee, but everyone’s at how broken he sounded saying it.

Jinki looked at the broken boys in front of his before sighing. “I know I must have been friends with you before all of this, so I might as well be again. But can we just start this over? Everything, since I know nothing about any of you?” He got a few sad nods, and smiled a little at that. “Then, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Lee Jinki, but you can call me Onew.”

The way he introduced himself as if he had no idea who any of them were was killing Key slowly, but he knew that his Onew-hyung really had no memory of him. But he was resolved to make that up. All of them were. If you have no memories of us, we will just have to make new ones.