Nepotism

Chapter 8: Planning

'Oh my gosh! I'm okay but are you okay?' says Saerom, with a worried look on her face. 

I quickly reply with, 'Oh yeah I'm fine. I'm sorry for disrupting you.'

However, she responds with a disappointed face, 'Don't worry. I don't have anything planned for me.' She continues with a curious stare, 'Also, I haven't seen you before, so you're in that internship competition right?'

oh my god she knows hehehe.

'Yeah I am. Still trying to stand my ground here.' I say excitedly yet a bit shaky. She reassured me with, 'Well, if you need anything, just let me know. I'm always free.'

I couldn't help but smile ear to ear and reply with, 'Thank you so much. I won't hesitate.' I say as I hurry back to the board room I was meant to be at five minutes ago.

I enter the board room a bit too forcefully, immediately seeing Akai's worried look at me, with the HYBE staff giving me disappointed and and indifferent stares and "smiles". I take a seat next to Akai, having paranoid thoughts about how I can improve and stay in this competition so I can be an employee here and see Chaewon and Saerom everyday. And have a job here of course, to protect all the artists.

All the members enter room as well, besides Chaewon. Their manager asks where she is, with Sakura saying they don't know. They take their seats with Chaewon entering the room, a bit more shaky and anxious than usual, but no one else notices. But I did, I noticed. She takes her seat as well and the meeting commences. The director of LENIVERSE then asks the room, 'Alright, so we need some suggestions for a big episode to boost viewership plus we need to work on viewer retention. What we got?'

Some suggested an athletics challenge, talent show, a romance show parody, with all of them being rejected. My mind went ticking and ticking, and then I look over at Chaewon looking blankly at the table, which made me stand up saying, 'What about we do a collab episode with another group?' Everyone looks at me blankly, while Chaewon and the rest of the group keep looking at the table, but I continue by saying, 'Let's have an athletics challenge, or a talent show or even a romance show parody. And I suggest with either aespa or Stray Kids because they're trending right now.' 

After I said that, I can feel Akai facepalming, I see everyone giving empty nods and blank stares to their laptops, but then suddenly, Chaewon jumps up standing and shouting, 'I love that idea! We should really do something with Stray Kids. Or aespa maybe.' Everyone gives her a shocked look, especially the rest of members, with Yunjin mouthing to herself; "Stray Kids?".

Chaewon stares at everyone in a hopeful way, then makes eye contact with me, giving a reassuring smile. She agrees with me, likes my idea, and she is supporting me. Maybe there's something there... but I must stay professional.