043.
"I've decided what I want for Christmas," Jonghyun says a week before said special day, a gleam in his eye.
He's addressing the room at large, projecting his voice like he's on stage and ready to wow an audience. Instead, only Jinki looks up, a patient smile on.
"Yes?"
Jonghyun's smile grows wider before be bounces over happily, grabbing both of Jinki's cheeks and squeezing them until he squeaks, and then kissing him loudly and obnoxiously, wet sounds audible.
"Get a room," Kibum says boredly as he turns a page and Jinki turns red.
"Yes?" Jinki repeats, dazed, when he's allowed to breathe.
"Get a couple tattoo with me!"
"What." This time the sound comes from Minho in the corner, pumping weights as he watches TV. He drops the dumbbells on the floor as he turns to Jonghyun.
"Yeah, what?" Kibum repeats.
Jonghyun's offended, lowering himself to sit on Jinki's lap.
"You don't think it's cute? Sweet? A sign of our everlasting love?"
"I think it's stupid. And permanent. And a very bad decision. Wait." Kibum puts up a hand, rolls his eyes and picks up his phone. After a moment, it beeps, and he holds it up. "And manager-hyung agrees."
"But, Jaejoong-hyung! Yoochun-hyung! Youngwoon-hyung! What about their tattoos?"
"They, unlike you, have taste and flair. And this air of awesome which you, unfortunate bandmate, lack, in a disturbingly large amount."
Jonghyun continues glaring at Kibum who's looking back coolly, like he's observing a rather repulsive booger. Jonghyun wriggles when he realises Jinki's poking him in the side.
"I think it's sweet," Jinki breathes into his ear, and Jonghyun grins.
They can't exactly sneak out when they want to to get themselves inked, so they wait it out, Christmas passing in a blur of more promotions and performances.
"Are you still gonna do it?" Kibum asks as they wait for their signal to get on stage.
"Yes, and you can't stop us." Jonghyun's chin is upturned, and Jinki finds his hand to squeeze. They trade a small smile.
Kibum's sigh is soft, but penetrating.
"Okay, but get it somewhere you can hide."
There has to be something wrong with him, Jonghyun thinks desperately as he bites his lip to keep in the tears. Jinki tugs at his arm and Key looks at Jonghyun in alarm.
"What? You can't cry now, just before a performance! STOP IT, STOP CRYING. I DEMAND YOU STOP CRYING!" Kibum whispers desperately before Jinki kisses Jonghyun softly on the cheek, and just like that, he stops.
"Well, that was sickening," Taemin says cheerfully before a techie motions and holds back the curtain, and they square their shoulders and go onto stage.
Their first free day and their manager accompanies them to the tattoo parlour, disgruntled as he waves them through the door, checks left and right, pulls his hood up, and hurries in after them.
"This is ridiculous," he says as they start poring over a thick, leather-bound book full of designs. "Who says, 'I want to get a couple tattoo with my bandmate!'" He shakes his head before Jonghyun flicks over and gasps softly, whispering excitedly to Jinki beside him.
They pull the book over, point at the design, and look excitedly at their manager as a needle begins spinning behind them, the noise slightly muffled by the closed door.
"Well," their manager says optimistically. "At least it's small."
"WE," Jonghyun announces grandly as flings open the doorway, and Kibum looks up from the TV. "ARE BACK, AND GORGEOUS."
Jinki darts around him, right hand clutched over his left wrist, teeth clenched and tendons stretched, but happy. He seems content as he sits on the sofa and curls up along Kibum's side, hair wet from snow.
Jonghyun pouts. "Aren't you supposed to be lovey dovey with me?"
"Gladly," Kibum says as he pushes Jinki off and tugs his hand free from his wrist. "Show me."
Jinki's fingers are clenched around his wrist, not pressing against his skin, and when Kibum manages to pry off his hand push up the sleeve, he's only met with a neat bandage wrapping, slightly dotted with blood.
"You'll have to wait," Jonghyun says as he fits himself onto the already full couch, stuffing his feet in Jinki's lap and elbow in Kibum's side. "Trust me, the wait is worth it."
Two weeks, they all wait with bated breath as Jonghyun and Jinki peel off their bandages, filthy from a fortnight's worth of wear and tear. Jinki bares his left wrist while Jonghyun uncovers his right, and the sight is... disappointing.
"There's nothing there," Taemin says, crestfallen.
"So you couldn't go through with it," Minho says a little smugly, but Kibum continues squinting.
"Hang on... did you get it in white ink?"
"Yep," Jonghyun says proudly, moving his wrist slowly. "Can you see it? Two white stars, exactly the same on both our wrists."
They all squint at the inside of the two wrists, Jonghyun's slightly thinner and more toned than Jinki's. It's there, set deep in their slightly darkened skin.
Two stars, faint outlines done in white so that when they hold hands, the stars touch each other, present themselves proudly to the world. It's simple, but the meaning is clear.
"'SHINee, named for the light that they shine upon all,'" Taemin quotes softly from their debut stage, their very first one.
"Stars, because we're finally stars," Jonghyun says a bit proudly.
"And because they shine light," Jinki adds, smiling as well, and reaches for Jonghyun's hand.
They fit perfectly.
About a month later, Kibum and Minho come home with bandages on their shoulderblade and ankle respectively.
"What happened?" Jonghyun asks, eyes furrowed as he unconsciously rubs his left wrist.
Kibum smiles serenely.
"You'll see."
They, too, reveal their tattoos a week later, though their designs are unique.
Kibum's is a small, single star, done in red so that it almost looks like a birthmark. He explains that SHINee has become a part of his blood now, that even if they're small and seemingly insignificant, they're not. They'll always matter and be a part of him. All for one and one for all.
Minho's is slightly differently, with one black star with rounded edges having five smaller, white stars in each of the crevices. To him, he says, SHINee is his support, and he knows that they'll hold him up even if he falls, even if he can't walk anymore. It's the same ankle he sprained before, and they all know it.
Taemin protests loudly that he's the only band member without a tattoo. Before Kibum can say that he's too young, Taemin calmly, but firmly, states that if he's allowed to live away from his family for years at a time, sharing a dorm with five other people, dance so hard and sing for so long that he feels faint, and juggle his academics on top of that, then he should be allowed to get a tattoo. Besides, he adds, he already has his mother's permission.
They grudgingly allow him a few months later to go with their manager, who casts a dark look at Jonghyun as he leaves the apartment. The rest of them are greeted with a grinning Taemin a few hours later, happily munching on an ice cream as he walks stiffly around the dorm.
"Where'd he get it?" Kibum asks quietly, and their manager just shakes his head.
Two weeks pass before Taemin shows them his tattoo, and it's by accident. He's pulling off his sweaty shirt to get ready for bed, reaching for a pajama shirt before Jonghyun lets out a shriek and points to Taemin's hip.
"What? Do I have something there?" He brushes his hand over it subconsciously as he digs around the clean clothes pile, taking out his shirt with the air of having achieved something great.
He looks down, and covers his tattoo with a hand, but by now everyone's seen it, and Minho carefully pries his fingers away.
It's a shooting star, located right on Taemin's hipbone.
"That had to have hurt," Kibum says as he runs his finger over the design carefully. It's small, appearing as a widening line from far away, but they can see, as they move closer, that it's a simple shooting star with small sparks coming out of it.
"Well," Taemin says softly, pulling on his shirt. "The only way for us now, is to go up, isn't it?"