The next time I visit Taemin he’s still in the wheelchair ... of course. I’m probably making a weird face again because he laughs and says:

“Hyung, what’s up? Did you expect me to come at you with the Sherlock stride?”

I laugh too, because he looks light hearted and well. He’s much more realistic about his condition than I am.

“I might be able to walk again with crutches”, he tells me, “if I’m lucky. But at the moment I’m not even sure I’m feeling anything.”

I don’t ask him the question. I’ve been avoiding to talk with Taemin about Kibum altogether and he didn’t bring it up either.

But then we suddenly talk about SHINee. I can hardly believe that after more than three years I can talk to Taemin about old times. He’s eager to share a lot of thoughts with me. It’s as if the tiny glimpse of hope has opened the gate that held back all the emotions and memories.

Somehow we end up discussing “September” our last and biggest hit. He sings the opening passage and his voice is still the same, just a little husky which makes it all the more beautiful. I’m almost jealous although I deliberately stopped singing after what happened.

---

The concept of “September” was the symbolic fight between summer and winter. Kenzie had originally planned the song as part of a mini-album like a modern version of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”. But it proved to be too big a project since SM was urging us to produce a hit song and things developed slowly into something like a pop opera.

So Kenzie grabbed some talented co-writers, used the autumn part of her original script, rewrote it and rewrote it once again, added a string-quartet and then an entire orchestra and put the whole thing on a dubstep beat with symphonic breaks in between. Changmin wrote the lyrics together with Jonghyun and Minho and then Rino Nakasone started working on what turned out to be the most awesome and daring choreography of the decade.

Kenzie had suggested to rearrange the well-known SHINee setup and make Taemin lead vocal for the song. The management was sceptic but Jonghyun and I both thought it was a great idea because Taemin’s voice was perfect for the part and they finally agreed.

In fact the main theme is the struggling summer that doesn’t want to go and although his mature image wasn’t as sunny as his teenager-self Taemin still was the summer, late summer, September, still warm and bright and pretty.

At first the concept was to go from youngest to oldest and make me the lurking winter. But Rino had planned two opposing dance-solos and that left only the choice of either Minho or Key for the winter part.

“Do you remember Minho’s face when Rino Songsaengnim showed us a couple of steps in slow motion and explained the choreography?” Taemin asks me with a big grin. “He was like ‘the awkward moment when mission impossible becomes reality’.”

Yeah, I remember. We discussed all kinds of settings. Taemin dancing both parts as a kind of black-and-white doppelganger or just making the choreography easier. We even considered a SHINee featuring EXO’s Kai collaboration.

“I talked to Kai the other day”, Taemin says obviously thinking the same thing and I’m genuinely surprised they’re still in contact. “We were discussing their new trailer and he told me they’d been copying parts of the “September” choreo. And then all of a sudden he mentioned Key Hyung.”

“He talked about Key?”

“Yeah, well, he said ‘he was really something’ and when I asked him further he explained that he’d been trying to copy the solo for a week working up the worst muscle ache of his career. And when he’d finally managed to dance through the whole thing he thought it looked ridiculous.”

Actually the idea of featuring Kai had been the most popular among the management and although we would have preferred to make it a SHINee only project we were almost ready to agree when Rino suddenly said “I think Key can do it.”

Everybody including Key was surprised but Rino insisted on a practice test.

“Did you believe Key Hyung could do it?” Taemin asks me.

“No”, I confess immediately, “not after you said, it was too difficult.”

Taemin nods. Then he adds: “I couldn’t have done it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” He shakes his head and then smiles. “It wasn’t all that complicated but the entire solo is danced in an extremely low plié with sudden high jumps in between and weird twists and spins. I didn’t have enough power in my legs to master that. I tried, I was curious, but I made the same experience as Kai. It looked plain ridiculous.”

“But how come ...”

“Every high class dancer has certain means of expression”, Taemin interrupts, knowing what I want to ask, “they can be sharp and to the point or wide range. Both Kai and I thought we were pretty all-round but failed at this solo. Rino Songsaengnim told me, she had watched live performances of SHINee while working on the choreography and although she concentrated on me she discovered Key’s unique ability to capture all kinds of expressions. That’s why he looked so good doing girl-group dances. He somehow made it work for him.”

“So she actually wrote the part for him?”

“I think so”, Taemin confirms, “and he took it seriously. He even worked out for more leg-power.”

“You’re kidding me”, I say.

“No, just ask Jonghyun he caught him once and almost got killed for it.”

We laugh again and it feels so good to laugh with Taemin.

When I leave he nudges me smiling and says: “Stop making me feel like a wounded puppy. I wouldn’t have danced forever.” I’m taken aback and then he goes on: “Don’t you know I’m older than him?”

It’s true. He’s almost 25, one year older than Kibum.