young & wild | chaeyu

thirteen ; trilogy

 "I've written some of my own music," point out the brunette soloist, turning to face Jeongyeon straight in the eye. "And you don't manage me, Yoo Jeongyeon."

"That's true," added their main producer. "I believe Nayeon's take is more significant here, simply because she knows Jihyo better."

Jeongyeon closed her eyes, mentally reminding herself of the way she preached about professionalism to Momo just two nights ago. When she spoke, her voice was unexpectedly smooth and neutral. "Of course, Nayeon's opinion is very important in this situation. But we are all equals right now, right? This meeting is just to formulate ideas. And speaking of ideas, Minju's been awfully quiet. Anything you have to suggest?"

The aforementioned woman shifted in her seat, her gaze scanning over a set of notes in front of her. Lee Minju was a critical piece of the company, as she was both a musical producer and comeback and concept creator. She analyzed statistics and was able to offer input on who should make a comeback, when they should comeback, and what music they should make to follow or break out from trends.

"Well..." Minju murmured. A quiet lady in her early thirties, she didn't often speak until she was sure about something. "Of our three soloists, Jimin has the most sales, but she just released a mini album. Since we, as a company, want to promote fair and humanely made music, we'd look a bit hypocritical to give our best selling act promotion instead of all our acts. Momo, I love the girl, still needs a bit of work. She was doing fairly well in Japan, but we need a Korean comeback, and for that, she isn't ready. We aren't in the position in the industry to debut anyone else, and I honestly don't think we could. Three soloists for a small company is already a lot. Jihyo is our best option. I know most of us already knew that, but I hope anyone with doubts feels more secure with this choice."

A small murmur of agreement went around the table. Jihyo, who'd been trying reason with others that she could put on a good comeback, relaxed. Jeongyeon, along with most of the gathered employees, did not notice the way the beautiful soloist's shoulders dropped slightly and expression smoothed. Nayeon, who managed Jihyo and knew her far better than anyone else in the room, noticed. Relief coursed over raven-haired woman. It was important that Jihyo act on her best behavior-- the meeting, containing only seven or eight people, was vital. And honestly, Nayeon wasn't sure that Jeongyeon felt certain about giving Jihyo a comeback.

Really, Nayeon wasn't sure about anything when it came to Jeongyeon. A month ago, she would have been confident about the other girl's opinions. But now, Nayeon felt as though she barely knew her at all. It was crazy how fast they had moved apart after so long. But Nayeon couldn't let her opinions get in the way of her business. Nayeon had originally just wanted to sing and perform, but things had changed. She had founded a company, her dream label. No stupid sentiments could get in the way of that.

"What does everyone think?" Nayeon said, almost against her own control. Her voice sounded distant and unattached from herself.

"Sounds good," Jeongyeon said after a brief silence. "If Jihyo is our best chance, I don't doubt her abilities. What does the music production team think?"

Irwin Young laughed lightly. A bilingual producer, composer, and lyricist, he was their main creator of the company's discography. "Jeong, there's no need to call me 'musical production team.'"

Minju rolled her eyes, and to the room's collective surprise, answered. It wasn't often she spoke out in meetings unless asked to. "You're forgetting me, dummy. And Sunny and your wife. And I know for a fact our founders meddle with the musical process. And Jihyo just said she's composed some stuff. We just do stuff besides make music all the time, while that's all you're good for," she teased.

Sunny shrugged. "Okay, but he has done a lot of stuff. We don't want to hurt his delicate feelings, Minju."

Nayeon smiled sadly, watching her team bicker with each other. They had a few more employees-- vocal and rap instructors, dance teachers, a janitor, and Chaeyoung, of course. They didn't have their own music video directors or producers, but that was fine. They hired people to do the job, but when it came to long term employees, they didn't have very many. But this team, the eight people in front of her? She'd helped pick them each.

"Is this how all meetings are?" asked Jihyo tentatively. She'd attended meetings like this at the time of her debut, but they'd been a lot stiffer and more formal then.

Nayeon laughed, her melancholy thoughts forgotten. "Yeah. We can act professional, but we're more than just a business team now. It's been over two years since our start, and we've learned it's better to have fun and just enjoy the music."

Jihyo nodded thoughtfully.

"You know all of us, right?" Sunny asked her. "I'd hope you did, we debuted you first."

"I do. It's been a while, though." Jihyo smiled.

Sunny smiled. "Well, just in case... I'm Sunny, then there's Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Irwin and Annie, Minju, and Sunghyun. And you know our roles already."

"Yes, she does," intervened Nayeon. "But there's a lot more things to be determined to prepare for Jihyo's comeback."

"You're right," agreed Sunny. She brushed a lock of her short, wispy hair behind her ear. "I'm guessing we're just brainstorming and not looking into financial statistics at the moment?"

"No numbers right now," Nayeon answered. "We'll worry about money later."

"Good, because I forgot to print out a page of my notes," Sunny laughed lightly. "But right now, we should stick with five songs or less. And one or two music videos."
"Let's do a single," suggested Irwin. "One bomb music video and one bomb song. Promote it as much as we can."

"No." Annie Young had stayed quiet throughout the meeting. Her limited Korean and position as stylist and lyricist made it difficult for her to contribute to the meeting, but she evidently wasn't afraid to speak against her husband's idea. "Jihyo has two songs. This isn't about marketing, this is about her. She deserves songs, not just one title track."

Slowly, a big smile curled onto Jihyo's face.

Annie continued determinedly. "I think a trilogy would be good. Or three separate singles to build up hype."

"Yeah," Minju said suddenly. "We need something big, to make people forget the scandal and the budget cut ever happened." Nayeon glanced across to Jeongyeon, who had a ghost of a smile on her face.

"Promote three singles," Jihyo said after a moment. "All in a row? That seems risky."

"And difficult," pointed out Nayeon. "Are you up for it?" When it came down to it, it was Jihyo's comeback. In the end, they wanted it to be her choice.

"Of course I am," Jihyo answered confidently.

a/n: my bias group, stray kids, are having a comeback in six days (june 19th)! are you a stayonce, and what is your favorite skz song? i have a lot of them, but glow, 0325, mixtapes 1 &4, insomnia, and hero's soup are some of the ones that come to mind <3

(also, i'm listening to where you at by loona and it's so perfect ahdlkjdslkfj i love them)