The group spent a good five minutes in the cave. The eerie sounds started to creep into their minds, making their imaginations run wild. The cave wasn’t completely dark since it was more a tunnel than a cave so the other end also had light shining in; still it was dark enough for them to fear what could be lurking in the shadows.

“Let’s go back…” Taemin said practically pressing himself against his hyung’s back now. The vulnerable maknae started to tear up at the idea of the boogey monster coming to eat him. “Let’s go, let’s go.”

“It won’t be long.” Kibum told him setting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

A few bats hung from the ceiling cloaked in their wings. Since it was morning, they were fast asleep. Still, they stepped quietly afraid they might wake up the furry creatures. Other than the sound of their footsteps, the noise of water dripping from the stalactites could be heard.

“This place is a little creepy, huh?” Onew pondered with a quivering voice. “Maybe we should listen to our Taemin and head back now. I’m sure your mom’s worried…”

“Stop being such party poopers, we’re almost at the end. See? The light’s getting brighter and brighter!” Kibum argued pointing to the bright light far off at the end of the tunnel. There were some twists and turns so they couldn’t completely see where the light was coming from exactly, but it was bright there so they assumed it was an opening.

Minutes passed and the anxiety growing on the oldest and youngest was growing. They started to jump at the slightest of noises and sights. It seems that they were right to have feared the cavern since the light ceased from the other end, and a growing silence resonated in the cave.

“Hyung…?” Taemin squeaked trying to feel in front of him.

Around the corner of a wall emanated a sparkling aura. The group, desperate for light, closed in on the object. They peeped from behind the wall to find a stone shining radiantly on the floor. Kibum bravely stepped towards it and picked it up in his bare hands.

“Let’s use this to guide our way back.” He told them confidently holding his nose high in the air. The crew followed closely behind him as he led the pack back to the outside.

After a few heart quickening minutes, they finally reached the exit. They welcomed the warm sun light overhead thankfully. As soon as he got out of the cave, Onew ran towards the sand and knelt down to hug it. Kibum held the stone high into the air.

“This stone is magical!” He exclaimed. “We owe so much to this rock.” After Onew’s little ceremony, he rejoined the group and took the stone into his hands.

“Since this rock saved us, I think we should do something for it!” He suggested scratching his head. “We’re always together right?” Everyone nodded in unison as though the answer was completely obvious. “Then we should name ourselves Shiny; after this rock.”

“Shiny? As in S-h-i-n-y?” Jonghyun questioned disgusted. “That’s so stupid…”

“Then you think of something better!” Onew retorted throwing the rock at his dongseng’s head.

“Ouch!” Jonghyun yelped rubbing his now throbbing bump. “We can still call ourselves that, just… spell it differently? It looks stupid with a y like that…” Everyone frantically nodded their heads up and down except for the very confused Taemin. He had not quite grabbed a grasp on English yet considering his class was only taught the alphabet so far.

“S comes after H!” Taemin told them proudly. “And then, and then… I comes after H too! And N comes before H!”

“Actually, Taemin, N comes after H.” Minho corrected him. He pulled a stick from the side and started to write down the alphabet in the sand. “Here’s N.” He pointed towards the letter, then towards H showing him the distance between them.

“Ahhh…” Taemin uttered understandingly. “Okay, hyung! I’ll remember from now on.” Minho beamed at his cute dongseng and rustled his hair gently.

“Back to the topic…” Kibum started, eyeing out the two youngest with dagger-like eyes. He turned his attention back to the other two. “Well you know the word see in English? Like I see you, not the blue sea. Why don’t we change our y to two e’s?”

Jonghyun scratched his head confused. “So what will it look like…?” He asked.

“Do I really have to spell it out for you…?” Kibum swiped the branch that Minho had used earlier and started to write in the sand himself. “S…h…” After a few seconds of moving the branch left and right, up and down, he was finished. “Like this.”

Everyone looked down at the work with approval. “Wait, why did you make the first four letters big and the last two small?” Onew questioned pointing out his lowercase e’s.

“Huh? Small? What do you mean? Those are two big e’s.” Kibum told him confidently.

“No… this is what a big e looks like.” Onew said writing down the capitalized E with his finger.

“Oh… well, whatever, this looks better.” Kibum said looking on at his work with pride.

“What does that say?” Taemin pulled at Minho’s pant leg.

“It says Shiny.” Minho explained. “But they spelled it differently from the English word.”

“Huh?”

“Normally it would be spelled s-h-i-n-y, but Kibum changed it to s-h-i-n-e-e.” Minho said. Taemin just looked up at him emptily. “You don’t get it, huh? You will later…” The maknae blinked his eyes a few times before running off to the rest of the group. “You were the one that asked…” Minho let out a big sigh before tagging along behind Taemin.

“From now on we will be known as SHINee!” Onew shouted raising his fist with his arm at a ninety degree angle. “We are shining SHINee.” The rock still sat in his enclosed hand.

From then on, the five were known as SHINee: five shining lights that can radiate brightly in any darkness. To name themselves that after such a small event…  how random, huh?