THANK YOU // DEX ✔️

3.

Siyoung wake up because her phone rang, it was her manager, telling her that he would come for her in an hour to take her to StarShip. The singer didn't say a word, but despite that, her manager understood her. They've been working together since her debut, and over time, they've come to know each other well - he knew that even if Siyoung didn't speak, she would soon get up and start doing something. He said he would come in an hour, but he would actually arrive in about an hour and a half, giving Siyoung some time to prepare.

After a stretch and a yawn, she played some songs and hopped out of bed. She had come from Jiwon around two in the morning, and it was now around seven, so she hadn't slept much. She will probably call Jiwon to scold her, but as the first thing, Siyoung decided to take a shower.

She never spends a lot of time in there. At most, two songs, and she often doesn't even fill that time. She blow-dried her hair and left it loose. Then she dressed in black shorts, a dark blue tank top, and a white loose shirt that was two sizes too big, but Siyoung loved it and wore it with almost everything.

For breakfast, she just had a bowl of cereal - don't blame her, she just didn't go shopping and didn't have anything else at home. Just as she was putting the bowl in the dishwasher, her phone started to vibrate. It was her manager, telling her that he was waiting downstairs. Siyoung nodded, even though the person on the other end couldn't see it, put on her white sneakers, grabbed her gym bag, and headed outside.

"A black bag with light blue stripes? You have free time, and you're spending it at the gym?" this was the first thing she heard from her manager, Kim Namgil.

"The gym is the best place I can spend my free time," Siyoung playfully stuck out her tongue at him and laughed when she saw Namgil's reaction - he just shook his head, rolled his eyes, and focused on driving.

"So you want me to drop you there once you're done with StarShip?" he asked. Siyoung nodded and added a casual 'uh-huh'. Namgil had driven her to the gym so many times that Siyoung thought he could get there blindfolded.

"Do you know what they want from me? A few days ago, I renewed my contract, so they don't want to fire me, do they? Did I do something? Did I break some rule that nobody told me about?" Siyoung fired one question after another.

"I don't know what they want from you, and don't ask. You'll find out soon," Namgil replied with a laugh. Namgil was about fifteen years older than Siyoung, but the two always got along well, and Siyoung even got along with his family - they were particularly kind, and she even has the honor of being the godmother to one of his sons.

~•~

"What?" Siyoung exclaimed when she heard what they wanted from her.

"Taeyeon can't make it, so they called us to see if you'd like to fill in for her," repeated one of the staff members. There were fifteen people in the room, including Siyoung and Namgil. Siyoung was the singer, Namgil was her manager, and the rest were StarShip staff assigned to the team responsible for promoting Siyoung.

"You want me to replace Taeyeon on one episode of Nolto? I can't do that. Taeyeon is somebody, I'm nobody. People will be upset that someone like me is replacing such a star," Siyoung argued.

"Siyoung," the head of her team looked deep into her eyes, "you have thirty million followers on Instagram, eight million subscribers on your personal YouTube, and fourty million followers on TikTok. Do you really think you're nobody?"

"Compared to the queen Taeyeon?" Siyoung asked, "Yeah!"

"In two days, you'll be on Nolto instead of Taeyeon. I'll call them and let them know we're taking it," he decided and then dismissed the meeting. Siyoung didn't want to replace Taeyeon, even though it was just for one silly episode, but at the same time, she knew it could be a good opportunity to gain new fans - she's more well-known internationally, so it would be beneficial for her to gather fans in her home country as well.