Burnt Skies | Stray Kids 9th Member (Hwang Minaki)

How Naki Got Into MAYHEM

A/N: Not me saying that I'm gonna only do predebut stuff and then publishing this

THIS IS NOT PART OF THE PREDEBUT SERIES

"Okay kids, our schedule's a bit different today," Chan said as he walked into the kitchen. As he walked past to sit next to her, he patted Minaki's head slightly. "First we have a special meeting. After that we have group dance practice for a few hours, and then solo schedules that you guys know," he explained.

"What's the meeting about?" Felix asked.

"I don't know," Chan replied. "Minjun hyung never told me. But I hope it's good."

Minaki grinned. "Maybe we got a big interview request!"

"Ooh, that would be cool!" Jeongin agreed.

The group discussion turned into a bunch of conversations going on at once.

"We gotta go now, guys!" Seungmin called from the front door.

Chan smiled. "We better hope it's good."

~~~

"I know you must be wondering why you're here," Minjun, their manager, said. He and the staff were all smiling, and so was JYP. Minjun broke out into a bright grin as he slid a piece of paper across the table to Chan.

Chan furrowed his eyebrows before picking it up and beginning to read it.

"Dear Mr. Park Jinyoung-ssi, thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

We at Clear Water Entertainment have some very successful groups, especially our supergroup, MAYHEM. MAYHEM contains idols from multiple different entertainment companies, such as BigHit, Pledis, and YG. The group was a huge success, uniting the fan bases of all four groups that were represented in a way that never before happened.

Recently we have been thinking of debuting new members of more recent groups in MAYHEM. We have decided to add two new members to the supergroup. Your new group, Stray Kids, is one of the two groups we would like to represent in MAYHEM, the other being KQ Entertainment's rookie group, Ateez. If you and your group accept this offer, please ask the members of Stray Kids to choose a representative based on these criteria:

A member of the performance/dance lineAn all-rounderThe most unique member

The member that you choose will debut as a soloist under Clear Water Ent. as well. Whether they will continue to release solo projects under our company is up to you.

We have of course looked into Stray Kids and done our research. From what we have seen, the maknae of Stray Kids, Hwang Minaki, seems like the best match for this criteria. If your group thinks it best, we would like Hwang Minaki to join MAYHEM. But even then, this choice is up to you. You may always choose a different member to represent Stray Kids in MAYHEM. But we also request that you leave the decision of which member up to your group, as we at Clear Water Ent. believe that their choice would be best.

Thank you for considering our offer.

Sincerely, Jung Jihoon, CEO of Clear Water Entertainment."

The room was dead silent after Chan finished reading out loud. Minaki was the first one to speak up.

"They want me to join MAYHEM?..." Her voice trailed off in shock and her eyes widened. "Whoa."

"Not just whoa!" Hyunjin exclaimed. "This is amazing! They want you to join the MAYHEM!" He shook her shoulders excitedly. "This is so cool, Naki!"

"Now, before you get over excited, I would like to make some suggestions," Jinyoung said. "First of all, this choice is up to you. Your group does not have to be represented in MAYHEM if you feel it to be overwhelming for a group of your age. Second, if you do choose to join MAYHEM, which I'm confident you will, I personally think Naki would not be the best choice to represent Stray Kids."

Everyone's heads snapped up at his last sentence, their excited expressions replaced with confused ones.

"What do you mean?" Minho questioned politely.

"Well, there are a multitude of reasons," Jinyoung explained. "First of all, your group is classified as a boy group. If you go to MAMA, you would only win awards for boy groups even though you have Naki. Because of this, I believe it best to choose a male member to represent Stray Kids. Second, they would like a member of the dance line. Naki is in Vocal Racha."

"PD-nim," Chan said calmly, before anyone else could burst. "I strongly believe that Naki should be the one to join MAYHEM, and I'm sure the others would agree. About your first point, yes, we are classified as a boy group. But Mr. Jung asked for our most unique member. What's more unique than the only girl in a boy group?

"For your second point, I think you forgot that Naki is also a member of Dance Racha as well as Vocal Racha. That makes her even more unique than just being a girl, because she's the only member to be in two units. On top of that, even though she's a girl, she happens to be our best dancer. We debuted no more than a year ago, yet she's already widely known as JYPE's best dancer. There's even that viral clip of Momo sunbaenim saying that Naki dances better than her. Naki is definitely our most unique member and our best all-rounder.

"Also, MAYHEM already has two males and two females. Mr. Jung said that he has requested an ATEEZ member to join. ATEEZ only has male members. If we send a male, then there will be two more males than females. I'm confident ATEEZ will send a member, because it will definitely help with popularity to be associated with MAYHEM and their members.

"Of course, there are more reasons why she should join MAYHEM, but if I were to list them all, we'd be here all day."

Everyone was surprised with how calmly Chan delivered his thoughts to Jinyoung, but they all nodded, even Minjun and the other staff.

Jinyoung sighed, but smiled. "If you all agree with Naki joining MAYHEM, we can write a reply to Mr. Jung right away confirming his request. Raise your hand if you object to this decision." Naki looked around nervously, but no one raise their hand. Felix shot her a small smile that she returned immediately. "All right then. You are dismissed."

The moment they exited the room, Minaki punched Chan's shoulder playfully.

"Ayo, Chris," she laughed. "When did you write that essay about me?"