Key expressed his deep affection for SHINee as a five-member group, including the late Jonghyun.

On the February 12 broadcast of tvN’s variety show 'You Quiz on the Block,' SHINee’s Key appeared as a guest alongside his mother, Kim Sun Hee.

During the episode, Key spoke about Jonghyun’s passing, saying, “I was really shaken back then. I questioned what it meant to live recklessly. I even thought about quitting everything.”

He continued, “I was completely broken, but the Tokyo Dome concert was our way of facing it together. We felt that if we didn’t have a moment to honor him as a group, it would be too difficult to move forward. That was how we wanted to send him off - his brilliant yet short youth.”

Key also shared, “Every year, when his birthday or our anniversary comes around, I miss him even more. When we get new songs that he can’t record with us, I often think, ‘He would have done such a great job with this.’ He appears in my dreams a lot when I practice. He doesn’t say anything like an omen, but during concert meetings, he’s just sitting there. When I rehearse, he’s there. We are always five. We always will be.”

SHINee’s Jonghyun passed away on December 18, 2017, at the age of 27.

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