Producer's Corner

Chapter 7

As soon as they arrive Kiki disregards the groceries and hurries into her room. Obvious panic in her body language. Her friends decided to talk to her about it during dinner.
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Throwing her bag onto her bed, Kiki starts pacing back and forth. Trying to keep herself calm. Breathing in and out, trying to chant positive thoughts.

Will fans be happy?

Will the musicians be happy?

Will they like my ideas?

Will they accept my conditions?

Will this ruin my career?

Positive thinking, positive thinking. Negative ones won't help prevent bad ideas. I don't have fans for no reason. It'll be okay.

Taking a final deep breath, Kiki stops her pacing to grab her phone from her bag. She reluctantly puts the phone number in. Hoping it wasn't a joke.

Putting the phone to her ear, she chants positive encouragement. Though her foot taps against the floor in nervousness.

The call is answered after three rings. "Hello? Seo Jiho speaking"

Startling at the voice, she takes a sharp intake of air. Surprised at who answered the phone.

I didn't think they would have given me a direct number to one of the members. I thought it was going to be their manager or something. Oh, my goodness!

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

Kiki, coughing slightly, hurriedly responds. "Sorry. uhm. Hello, this is Producer's Corner's main producer." and only producer, though they don't need to know that yet.

"Oh, wow. I didn't think you would be calling so soon. Did you call for scheduling?" She could hear amusement dripping from his voice.

She mentally face-palmed at her flustered state. "Yes, I did. I was wondering what would work best for both of you. My schedule is easily adaptable, so whenever works best for you."

"That's great. I have to talk to Heesu first, but sometime next week should work fine. Do you live near Seoul? Assuming you're from Korea."

Huffing at the question, Kiki easily replies. "Yes, I do live in Korea, and yes, I live near Seoul." I should start getting used to these types of questions.

"That probably sounded rude. My bad. Sorry. No one knows anything about you besides the fact that you can make music. To be honest, I was thrown off when a feminine voice answered. Wait, that sounded bad too! That's not what I meant."

Softly laughing, Kiki hurries to make sure he knows that it's not offensive. "It's perfectly understandable, Mr. Seo. Because of how common male producers are, I was expecting those types of expectations. You're definitely not the only person who assumes I'm male."

"Right, still though, sorry. But I do need to go. I'll text you the details once I get them."

"Of course, I'll see you then. Bye." As soon as the phone call ends, she sits on her bed with a heavy sigh.

Just then, Lucas barges into the room with a grin on his face. "Dinner's done."

Kiki scowls at him: "Why do you never knock? I could have been naked." She gets up from her bed.

"But you weren't." He cheekily says. All she does is roll her eyes.

Sitting down at the table, they start putting food on their plates. Kiki's expression changed to one of worry. When Lucas and Megan once again notice her worried expression, they decide to try and help with whatever she's worrying about.

Lucas casts a sidelong glance at Meg and starts the conversation. "So, Kiki," he starts, dragging the o, "Whats going on in that mind of yours?"

Just by looking at her, you could tell that Kiki was starting to mentally leave the situation. She was eating on autopilot and was staring off into space.

Not even acknowledging that she heard Lucas.

Casting worried glances at each other, Megan tries to get her attention.

She's definitely out of it.

"What are you worried about?" She decides to ask.

Kiki's eyes finally focus as she looks at her friends with a discouraged expression on her face. She then looks down at her half-eaten food and pushes it away from herself.

"I'm overthinking again."

"That's alright, we'll start small." Megan says softly as she sets down her utensils. She asks, "Are you worried about the collaboration or your identity staying secret? And the fact you're not going to stay hidden for much longer?"

Focusing her eyes on one thing on the table, Kiki takes a moment to really think about what she's worried about. "A little bit of both. I didn't even think about the part where I'm probably going to be talking to way more people than I have. But what's my main problem? Concern: fandoms are really protective, and I'm worried that I might ruin my career somehow. Now that I'm saying that out loud, it sounds kind of selfish." She starts ranting about all the worries that were building up.

Taken aback by the sudden rant, Meg tries her best to reassure her. "Hey, it's alright to worry about things, and it's alright to worry that something you love doing might suffer damage. I'm sure all the artists you meet and work with will respect your decision about keeping your identity private. Plus, if they didn't like your music, they wouldn't have accepted your offer."

As Meg finished her little speech, Lucas looked at Kiki skeptically, trying to gauge her reaction. He was trying to figure out a way to help Kiki.

"As for the fans, I guess that can't be helped. If they don't like you, they don't like yo-"

As soon as he said that last sentence, Meg leaned over to smack him upside the head.

"You're supposed to encourage her!"

Rubbing his head, he grimaces at them. "But it's true. You can't change the fans' minds, at least not easily. There's no point. There'll be fans who like what you do and others who don't, but those fans don't matter."

Megan was ready to slap him again for repeating what he had originally said. But as the words processed through their brain, they slowly put their hand down.

"You make a point." Looking over at Kiki, Meg tilts her head, waiting for some sort of reaction to the points they had made. "What do you think?"

Exhaling deeply, Kiki looks at the two, a small smile making its way across her face. "I guess you're right. I can only hope for the best for right now."

"You don't have to worry about it right now; it's just an idea. If you don't like how this collaboration turns out, you don't have to continue." Lucas encourages.
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Waking up to her alarm, Kiki quickly realizes what day it is. The day of the meeting.

She actually woke up later than she usually does, it being almost ten thirty a.m. She didn't want to wait any longer than necessary, already feeling the nervousness settle in.

With a sigh, she gets up and out of bed to start her already stressful day. She didn't pick out an outfit before hand, so now she paces in front of her closet to think of some sort of outfit.

I also need to decide what to bring with me to the meetings.

Picking a casual-formal outfit, she starts packing a small bag.

Notebook, pen, laptop, and headphones? I hope that's all I need.

She sets her bag near the apartment door.

Kiki stands there, tapping her foot on the ground, anxiety and nerves forming a tight ball in her chest.

Breathe.

It's okay.

They're going to accept your conditions.

Fans are going to love the song.

It's all good.

She puts on her shoes, grabs her bag, and chants positive affirmations to herself.

I can do this. I can do this.
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Thank you for reading this chapter! I hope you have a great morning, day, or night! (This chapter has been heavily edited)

Word Count(not including a/n): 1,287

Character Count: 7,210