young & wild | chaeyu

eleven ; professional

 Jeongyeon looked up from her clipboard to be once again faced with an empty chair. She rolled her eyes immediately, grumbling something incoherently under her breath and angrily checking off a small inked box on the evaluation paper.

"Momo!" she yelled out, though she really couldn't be very angry with her. Not for long, anyways. And Momo certainly tested her patience every day Jeongyeon worked alongside her. It was enough to make Jeongyeon rethink some of her previous decisions, but she couldn't dwell on that. Realizing her mind was starting to head down that path again, Jeongyeon steadied herself. This is what you chose, remember? This is what you wanted. What's best.

Thankfully, Jeongyeon's thoughts were interrupted by Momo racing back inside the small office in a blur. One moment, she had been sitting in the chair, patiently waiting for Jeongyeon to finish filling out her monthly evaluations form, the next moment she'd escaped the room while Jeongyeon was distracted by the paperwork, so quick and quiet that Jeongyeon hadn't even seen her leave. And now, what felt like a fraction of a second later, she was back yet again, standing behind where Jeongyeon sat in her chair, bent over so her lips grazed Jeongyeon's ear and her hair fell against Jeongyeon's-- Momo's thick, raven colored locks falling against Jeongyeon's soft brown cut.

"What did you want, sweetie?" she whispered against Jeongyeon's ear. A small jolt of excitement lurched in Jeongyeon's stomach, but an uncomfortable and unfamiliar feeling accompanied it.

Jeongyeon exhaled softly. "Just... Nevermind. I finished your evaluation form."

"What, am I cut?" teased Momo. They both knew that Jeongyeon would never do that. Not that anyone else would let her. Momo wasn't exactly record-breaking, but she'd done okay in the market with her limited work as a solo artist, and she certainly was talented. But since Jeongyeon had registered her under the company as both a debuted artist and a trainee for their eventual girl group, she thought it was only fair if Momo had to undergo evaluations just like the rest of them. The only people exempt was Jimin and Jihyo, but they were the only debuted Korean artists the company had to offer.

"If you were a regular trainee you might as well have been."

"Oh, come on," laughed Momo, moving back to sit in the seat across from Jeongyeon. "You just couldn't bear to get rid of me, could you?"

Jeongyeon's nostrils flared, and she fought to keep her voice level and calm as it had always been. "Why," she asked. "Is it that you can't even get proficient on a language test but have no trouble at all flirting at the wrong times?"

The smile on Momo's face dropped immediately. "You already know that I am not very good with written tests. Speaking Korean is easier than writing it, for me. I know that most people find writing easier to study than speaking, but I was shoved here with only a basic grasp. To find things, I speak to people. I am forced to speak, not write. Besides, that's not a part of the evaluations for most people. I am trying."

For a long moment, Jeongyeon didn't say anything before continuing on, not bothering to respond to Momo's specific explanation.

"And your vocals today were... Lacking, to say the least. Tzuyu, our Taiwanese model, did better than you today. I get that you decided to try rapping. That's good. I want you to learn many skills. But you had no consistency or stability at all, which is a vocal problem."

"So why'd you have to make me stay afterwards?" Momo shot back. "Shouldn't you allow me to have maximum time to practice? Love, please."

"I can't baby you. I'm not going to sugarcoat my message or censor my feelings. Right now, I am your manager and you are my trainee. You need to step up your Korean and vocals. That is all I wanted to tell you."