Love 101 || NewJeans' Minji

vi.

After getting the food that they ordered, Jun-seo, Jungwon, and Jake gathered in the living room, enjoying their dinner while watching the TV. The only things that they could hear were the cartoon show they were watching and the crunches as they bit into the fried chicken.

At some point, though, Jungwon decided to break the silence. "Right, Jun-seo," he cleared his throat and wiped his mouth with tissues, "have you thought about the thing that Wonyoung asked you?"

Jun-seo, indulged in the cartoon, didn't look at him as he answered. "What thing?" he asked, only to pause as he realized what Jungwon was referring to. He hummed and looked at his friend afterward, "I guess I will accept the position," he shrugged.

Jungwon's eyes lit up at his answer, a small smile forming on his lips, "really?" he replied and looked at Jake, who didn't really care about the topic, but after seeing Jungwon's face, it intrigued him. He wondered what could've changed Jun-seo's mind into accepting the position.

"I mean, I don't know yet, to be honest. My decision is not final, so yeah,," replied Jun-seo, a soft sigh escaping his lips. It would be awkward if he told his friends that the reason he considered accepting the position was because of Minji, so for now, he kept the reason to himself.

Meanwhile, Wonyoung and Dr. Kim was in the latter's office, discussing the plan for the juniors that would be taking the program; what activities that they should carry out throughout the first semester, and etc.

"Wonyoung, can I ask you something?" asked Dr. Kim at some point during their discussion.

Wonyoung looked up from her tablet and flashed a small smile, nodding. "Sure, what is it?"

Dr. Kim straightened her back and started organizing her desk slowly, "I know you are a great student, and you have an excellent decision-making capability, but I would like to know—why Jun-seo? I know I asked you to choose a candidate, and that I told you I'm on board with bringing him into the team, but again, why him?"

"Yeah?"

"I mean, among your colleagues, there were some other students who were just as equally, if not, has better leadership skills than Jun-seo—take Seeun for example, he won an award with his club because of his leadership skills," she explained, fixing her glasses before smiling slightly, "and, no offense to Jun-seo, but I haven't seen him do anything significant."

Before Wonyoung could answer, Dr. Kim stopped her, signaling to her that she wasn't done yet. "You are a great leader, Jang Wonyoung, and that was one of the reasons why you were elected as the president of our program's club. But as the head of the programme, I feel obligated to engage with my students."

Wonyoung nodded understandingly, a small smile formed on her lips momentarily before sighing softly. "I understand, Dr. Kim," she said, staring at Dr. Kim's desk. "But as I said when I suggested Jun-seo to you, he was intentionally avoiding any important roles, be it for his group assignments or co-curricular activities, because he had bad histories with such roles," she explained.

"Do you mind elaborating?"

"Unfortunately, Dr. Kim, I can't talk about it because I don't know the full details either," replied Wonyoung while shaking her head. "All I know was that it happened back in high school," she added.

Dr. Kim nodded understandingly. She took a few seconds to process their conversation, and when she finally did, she looked at Wonyoung with a teasing smirk. "And this recommendation has nothing to do with you being his ex?"

The question caught Wonyoung off guard, and her cheeks started turning red. "Huh, what? N-no, it doesn't have anything to do with our past relationship, Dr. Kim," she stammered and scratched her cheek awkwardly.