9th member of Stray Kids // y/n

chapter 25 ~ i dont know what to say apart from sorry

You place the situation to the back of your mind, planning to talk to him about it in the evening and get ready to go to the company like everyone else. In the car, Minho doesn't sit next to you like usual. Instead, he's in the back next to Han. But an eerie silence fills the van instead of chaos and shouting. Something about the whole ride felt empty, like a part of the group had ripped out even though it hadn't.

Inside, everybody crowds into Chan's office to listen to the new potential title tracks of the next comeback, which lifts spirits a bit. Halfway through the third song, a staff member knocks on the door and asks for Jeongin. Everyone is slightly confused, but the look on his face after he follows her out tells you everything. You make brief eye contact with Felix and excuse yourself from the room with him to follow them. As soon as the door closes behind both of you, he turns to you instantly.

"He's clearly in trouble. You saw the look on his face when he left. His ears were so red."

You nod in agreement before starting.

"Do you think it's to do with the money he asked for yesterday?"

"I don't know, maybe. Her expression seemed very serious, plus I've never seen her before, she must have been an executive or something."

When the realisation hits, you let out a gasp.

"You don't think he's being sent to talk to Park Jinyoung nim?"

He shrugs his shoulders. However, his face clearly conveys an agreeing expression. He begins to say something when he is cut off by Changbin, who opens the studio door, startling you both slightly.

"Chan hyung ways to know when you're coming back in, it's kinda important we still haven't picked one yet."
You briefly look over to Felix and pat his shoulder to signal that we will finish the conversation later. He takes the hint and turns around.

"Yea, we'll come back in, I was just worried about having to learn the new choreo."
Changbin nods, holding the door as he lets us in the room. We spent another hour in the studio going through all the song options 3racha have produced to end up having 3 we couldn't choose from. So while Han writes down all the pros and cons of each song on a whiteboard with a half dried out pen, you look at the time and notice how long Jeongin had been gone. Everybody was too engrossed in finding the right octave or working out line distributions to notice.

"Guys?"
You say loud enough so that everybody turns around.

"I think we should check on Jeongin he's been gone for almost 2 hours."
Chan looks up at the clock above the door and stands up.

"Han, keep doing what you are doing. I'll go check with someone to see if everything is okay."
He leaves the small studio, and Jisung carries on explaining why we shouldn't do EDM as it's been done too many times. Felix sits down next to Hyunjin and hands him a piece of paper with some lyrics, and as he's reviewing them, Felix turns to you.

"Chan hyung's been gone for 20 minutes."
You check the time on your phone to confirm it, and he has infact been gone longer than you expected.

"He's probably just chatting to someone. You know how he always greets everyone in the corridor."
You try to dissmis the situation despite being a but sceptical yourself. Felix nods and turns back to Hyunjin. Everyone is immersed into one of the tracks that Changbin had shown, picking line distributions until Chan scrambles into the room frantically. We turn to him, surprised by the unexpected disturbance. Hans eyes light up as he was going to call Chan a minute ago to ask where he had been.

"Hey, hyung, we ended up pi-"

"That's great, Jisung, but JYP decided we aren't going to have a comeback."
You furrow your eyebrows confused.