young & wild | chaeyu

twenty-three ; conviction

Well," mumbled Nayeon. "Shall we get started?" She shifted awkwardly in her seat, wishing Jeongyeon would look up from her notes, stop scribbling messily, and talk to the older girl and co-founder.

"Yeah," exhaled Jeongyeon softly. "We should." The rest of the company's employees that had attended the meeting had left, leaving the two to discuss which trainee would be best to record some back-up vocals for the song.

"Who do you have in mind?" asked Nayeon, looking up at Jeongyeon.

"I'm not totally sure," admitted Jeongyeon. "It's a slower song, more emotional, right?" Nayeon nodded in confirmation, feeling relieved that things weren't too awkward, that Jeongyeon didn't seem as put-off by Nayeon's presence as Nayeon was by Jeongyeon's. "Well, then I think the best vocalist for this job would be Mina. The only problem is that her pronounciation right now isn't in the best shape, and since the final changes to vocals will be recorded Monday-- I'm so glad we had Jihyo record the demo lyrics and backup background vocals a while ago. Anyways, I don't think she has enough time to practice. Of course, if all else fails, we can push back the release date."

"Actually," Nayeon said suddenly. "I think we should do that. I talked to Minju and Annie, and both think that we're rushing things a lot. It'll be a serious time crunch to get this out on time, and I think it's more important to be completely satisfied with it."

"True," admitted Jeongyeon. "Has the announcement of the next single's release date been announced yet?"

Nayeon checked the time displayed on her phone, and her eyes widened. "In twenty minutes it will."

"Who's posting it?"

"Minju," Nayeon told her.

Jeongyeon nodded. "Of course, that makes sense. Is it unreasonable to hold off the announcement and maybe put another week before the release?"

"No," Nayeon decided. "Minju wanted to do that anyways, and she's the most intuitive about this kind of thing. If anyone protests, then we put our best cards forward and say it was a decision that needed to be made immediatley. Besides, we're the founders, Jeong. We still have a lot of power, even if we aren't CEOs or financial leaders."

Jeongyeon smiled slightly. "This feels like when we first started recruiting people. Fast, stupid decisions just because."

"Yeah," Nayeon agreed with a smile. "I miss those days. When we had nothing to lose and everything to gain."

"Feels like a long time ago."

"It's only been two years since we debuted Jihyo," Nayeon reminded her. "And three since we first held auditions."

Jeongyeon nodded, her gaze faraway as she reminicised. "But right now," she said suddenly. "We have fifteen minutes to contact Minju and tell her not to share the release date on social medias."

"I'm calling her on my cell," Nayeon mentioned, her phone raised to her ear already.

Jeongyeon raised an eyebrow. "That was fast."

Nayeon lifted her finger to her lips, signaling for Jeongyeon to stay silent. "Hi Minju. Yes, I am aware that you're doing stuff and I should be talking with Jeongyeon. She's right here with me, actually. We're both very grateful you picked up. We would like you to not announcement the second single's release date. I talked to Jeong-- yes, we're aware this is short notice and reckless. But Minju, it's just as reckless to only have a week for Jihyo to rest, finalize lyrics, record, mix, and finish recording the rest of the music video. Yes, I know we have a schedule. But who knows what will come up? Min, I know you agree with me-- okay, I'll never call you that again."

Jeongyeon heard quick talking from the other end of the line, though she couldn't pick out what exactly their older co-worker was saying. "What was that?" she mouthed to Nayeon. To her pleasant surprise, Nayeon held up her finger, signaling her to wait for a second as Minju continued talking. They used to do this often. Nayeon handling the phone calls, Jeongyeon ready to pull together notes, calculations, and convincing arguments. They'd both gotten really good at reading each other's lips. It seemed that they'd retained that skill.

"Give me a second, Minju. Jeongyeon's got something to tell me," she said into the phone. It was the reverse-- Nayeon had something to tell Jeongyeon. But they'd always done it this way. It made it sound like Nayeon could handle the phone call single-handedly, that she didn't need to ask her partner to do anything to succeed. In reality, neither girl would have come close to their dream without the other.

Nayeon covered the phone microphone, and in a nearly soundless whisper, explained. "She says that we don't have enough experience to do something like this, and that it isn't our job to make this kind of decision."

"Tell her we have many times before," Jeongyeon instructed, already searching on her phone. "Article from three years ago-- 'Young Duo Create Label, Hold First Audition With Only Two Employees.' There's a couple more, too."

"Alright," Nayeon said back into the phone. "We have just over five minutes to make a decision. Before you use your seniority to overrule us, I would like to remind you that this is our company. We were the ones to write the first song, to recruit trainees Jihyo and Jamie, and hire everyone else. We were the ones to work too many odd jobs, take loans from the bank, and rent this space, praying that we'd be able to fill it up and use it without regretting it for the rest of our lives. We did it for the music, Minju. You're passionate about music too. You know what a good song can do to the mind. And if we rush this, there's a fairly high chance that this song won't be good. A bad song from an unknown soloist from a small company has no chance at all. None of us are very involved in the money bit of this industry, but we all know that isn't a smart move. One more week, Minju. One week, to rest Jihyo and finish the song production."

Jeongyeon held up a finger. "One minute," she mouthed.

"One minute," Nayeon said into the phone. "A small decision in the long run, but it could be the difference between five hundred sales and five thousand."

Minju started talking again.

"Yes," confirmed Nayeon, flashing a thumbs up to Jeongyeon. "That's a good idea. So, do the announcement, but change the date to a week in advance. Don't worry about the music show schedule, I'll figure that out. Okay, bye. Thank you so much, Minju. And don't worry, this is for the better. Trust me."

With a click, the call ended. Right in time for Minju to change the date on the social media announcements and press send.

"Wow," exhaled Nayeon in a tired voice. "That... was exhausting. I haven't had to do a call on a time crunch in a while. Even when she wants to go against a decision, she's still so stubborn."

"But you did great," Jeongyeon told her. A weird feeling came over Nayeon. Just a few months ago, Jeongyeon would have added "babe" to the end of that sentence, and sealed it with a hug. Now, they had a table between them, and a million unspoken thoughts.

"Thank you," Nayeon murmured, eyes down.

"What did she say near the end?" asked Jeongyeon.

"She suggested the idea of still doing the announcement, but with the new date that we proposed. That way the rest of the company is much more likely to agree to it, since it's already out there. Kinda shady, but I think people will be fine with it once they learn that Minju, you, and me were the ones behind it. We'll be able to convince them, right?"

Jeongyeon sighed, chuckling slightly. "I'm not too worried about it, with your charisma and conviction. You're still quite the sweet talker, aren't you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, Nayeon." Jeongyeon closed her eyes. "Do you have any ideas about what trainee we should use?"

a/n: whyyy are there so many plot holes in this story 😭 especially around the beginning and the nayeon jeong and momo business

anyways i wrote this in the car and its kinda a disaster but eyyyy 2yeon talked to each other without exploding

im so tired idk i feel incoherent and i need sleep but im w family and ughhhh anyways chapter twenty four in twoish days

no question today im tired