Various WayV Requests

You and Hendery are mentors, and while he's gone the trainees bad-mouth him

Request: hello! could i request a fic where the reader and hendery are mentors on an idol survival programme (like pd101/qcyn) and one of the trainees makes a bad comment about hendery's skills and the reader defends hendery? thank you and i love your works!! ❤️

Answer: Hi hi! Sounds good, anon! Let's try this out!

Also Hendery's great, idk why people are sleeping on him he doesn't even look like a bed.

Idol AU

Genre: Fluff, Light Angst

TW: Mean Trainees :(

Word Count: 1.2K

~

"Alright, let's take it again," you stopped the music and let the other trainees catch their breaths.

When you agreed to become one of the Rap Mentors, you were ecstatic to hear that Hendery, a good friend of yours, was going to work with you as well. The two of you had met up earlier to discuss how you'd be mentoring the trainees, and you were blown away by how devoted he was to his position. He had a whole plan mapped out for the trainees, and even left some room for change just in case a few of them learned differently. The attention to detail was amazing, and while he was explaining it, you were silently tossing out your original plan.

Speaking of Hendery, he told you earlier today that he'd be late due to commitments with WayV, which left you to the more rambunctious trainees on your own for a while, but you really cared for them too. You could see the drive in their eyes when they practiced.

"Do some self practice for a bit, I'll be right back," you nodded your head when all of the trainees delivered loud affirmations.

"Cut!" The director brought his hand down and the cameras stopped rolling. "We'll take a break too, run through the footage we have so far." The director gestured to you and you waved at the trainees before stepping out, the crew basically following behind you. You walked into your own break room and took the cooler you had rolled to the side just earlier that day. Hendery had dropped it off before attending to his schedule and gave you strict instructions to give them to the trainees during their break, and who were you to say no? You wheeled it back into the training room, but paused just before you walked in, hearing hushed voices on the other side.

"He's not even a main, I don't understand why we're training under him"

You already knew who they were talking about.

"I know, when I heard our mentor was going to be from WayV, I was expecting either Lucas or Yangyang, I didn't think we'd be dealing with the left overs."

With every word, you felt your blood boil. They didn't even have as much as a clue as to how hard Hendery had been working since even before debut. And you recognized those two voices very clearly, they were two trainees you and Hendery had a very difficult time dealing with, and according to the other mentors, they were having some problems as well. You slammed the door open, watching each and every shocked trainee jump in their spots. You pulled the cooler with you and dropped it off near them.

"Hendery dropped by before shooting and left this cooler in the break room, he asked me to pass it out to all of you during your break," you explained. You opened the cooler to show a plethora of sports drinks, all good for energizing through rough practice days. "He knew you had dance practice next, and wanted to make sure you'd all be well taken care of," you smiled. You handed the drinks out to each trainee, with all of them thanking you once they accepted it. And once the two problem trainees in question approached you, you handed them their drinks without another word or glance.

"You know," your voice cut through the joyful atmosphere. "I heard every word before this, right?" Silence.

"Miss (Y/N)-" a trainee stood up, but you put your hand out and silenced her.

"I'm not sure if you all realized this, but you are extremely privileged to be on this show alone. Even if you don't make it to the final group, you will have the natural boost of already having a public image under your belt, and not to mention the experience of being on television and training. You're a natural scouting target for big and small companies alike. Even I was lucky enough to have been featured in some SM variety before I debuted. Hendery didn't have any of those. He was announced as a SM Rookie and a few months later was in line to debut with WayV. He was a complete no one until that moment. I'm sure you all know how hard it is to debut in a Big 3 company, you all don't even have the brunt of it," you slammed the cooler shut, letting the noise echo across the practice room. You took a deep breath, every trainee was focusing on you, and you were sure there were no cameras around. "Please understand that when I hear crap statements like "he's not even a main" or when I hear anything related to calling my good friend, who I watched struggle and fight just to even get featured as a SM Rookie, being called "left overs," I will not sit idly by. You cannot act like this if you want to debut. Even if you debuted, your actions and your words will always somehow be used against you, not only will you have to deal with it, your team will be forced to as well. I suggest you fix it before I fix it myself." You looked around the room, many trainees had diverted their attention, and you knew full well that they had participated in the conversation at some point, and you also saw other trainees who looked at you with a new burning resolve. Again, the door to the practice room opened and the man of the hour walked into the room.

"Sorry I'm late, everyone! How'd you like my gift?" Hendery had his signature smile on his face and all the trainees immediately lit up, all thanking him for the drinks. "The camera crew are on their way, so finish up soon so we can get rolling again." He walked up to you and you handed him a drink.

"How was the schedule?"

"Tedious, but it's done with," he leaned against the wall next to you, looking around the spacious room. "Thanks, by the way."

"No problem," you shook your head. "The cooler was kind of heavy, but it was easy."

"No, I mean about what you said earlier," Hendery spoke a bit quieter. "I've actually overheard a couple of trainees saying things like that too before, but I didn't want to fuel it by stepping in, I figured I'd show it through my mentoring, but we saw how that worked out. So, thanks."

"Of course, are you kidding? I had to put them in place. If it wasn't me, it'd be someone even harsher."

"Like Xiaojun."

"Exactly, I did them a favor," you laughed. "But really though, you're one of the most talented people in SM right now, Hendery. Flex it."

"Of course," Hendery nodded his head and the camera crew filed in. "Alright, let's get to work! I'm feeling more energetic than usual."

"Places!" The trainees all returned to their spots. "Let's begin."