ref: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG5YbdO1cvY

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„So how is our baby these days?“ Jong asks while we sit in the visiting room.

“What do you want me to say?” I snap back. He sometimes irritates me with his casualness although I know he’s not as shallow as he appears to be. We all have our coping-strategies I guess.

“Well, when did you last see him?” he asks.

Guilt creeps into my mind once again. It’s been two month already. And then it had only been a short visit. One of the nurses in the common room had turned up the volume on the radio while they played “Can’t leave”. And although it was Changmin singing, not us, Taemin started to sob. I tried to comfort him but he trembled uncontrollably and when I hugged him he almost screamed and told me to leave him alone.

“I’m not sure that I can do this anymore”, I say.

Jonghyun looks startled for a second. Then he nods.

“Must be hard on you, too.”

-----

I remember our early days so clearly. Much clearer than our last. We had a long way to go from the day I first talked to Jonghyun thinking he was my Hyung. I had often met him on my way to singing classes, sometimes stopping in front of the room where he was practicing. In those days I couldn’t really process that this rough looking kid actually had a voice like that. And I was envious because high notes came to him so easily, where I had to fight with my breaking voice every now and then.

It was only much later that he confessed to me, that he had also listened to me sometimes and liked the traces of traditional singing that I struggled to get rid of.

When they told us, we were chosen for the same team it took us less than a week to work out how we could deal with each other. He accepted me as the leader and I was fine with his tendency to stand in the spotlight and talk crap.

Minho joined us shortly after. He was no rival in the singing department so both, Jong and I, were happy to welcome him into the slowly forming group. Because of his looks and athletic built the management decided to cast him as visual for our team. He didn’t mind and concentrated on rap. He was good at dancing too although you could always see that he was more of an athlete than a dancer.

Next to join us was Kibum. He was a bit of an outcast with his strong Daegu accent. Most students were from the vicinity of Seoul and many looked down on people from the South, calling them peasants and criticizing their manners. Key was indeed a bit hazy about honorifics due to the customs of his region and he had trouble to keep up with practice since he still had to live at home while he was in middle school and had to cram the training into what was left of the week commuting between Daegu and the Seoul studios.

I had seen his audition tape actually expecting another singer. Instead I saw a highly talented dancer who despite the examination appeared much more comfortable in front of an audience than among the students.

I’ve always been clumsy myself and no stranger to bullying. So I could relate. But what really appealed to me was his attitude to always be sociable no matter what they gave him. I’d never seen such an optimistic kid before.

While Jonghyun and me were surprised about the management’s choice and looked at Kibum with a mixture of curiosity and expectation, Minho was blatandly hostile. Although they were the same age, Kibum actually a couple of month older, Minho kept treating him as his Hubae, his Junior in training. Key neither understood nor accepted that and both Jonghyun and me were too busy with our own practice to try to clear the air between those two.

It took them years to overcome their differences which at that time were only the tip of the iceberg.

But with Taemins arrival we slowly started to work as a group. Although Minho was taken aback by unexpectedly losing his Maknae status, he immediately was very fond of our Baby. That’s what Taemin became the minute he was introduced to us. Although shy he couldn’t oppress his face-splitting smile that melted all of our hearts. And this innocent airhead woke all kinds of protective instincts in us.

Until Taemin joined us I had looked upon Key as our main dancer. He was training hard and exceptionally fast to pick up choreographies. But Taemin was really something else. His stick-figure features became graceful and smooth as soon as the music started and he could never stand still for long.

But different from what I expected, Kibum didn’t fight for the position. He actually supported Taemin a lot and looked after him.

Slowly but surely we grew together and emerged as SHINee. With Jonghyun and me as main vocals, Taemin as main dancer and Minho as visual and rapper there was no specific position left for Kibum. So he didn’t specialize at all ... and that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how “almighty Key” came into existence.