Chapter Text
You were brought into JYP with a time limit: one year. One year of training before JYP debuted you, or you would be sent back home. The confirmation Park Jinyoung himself had given your family was the only reason your mother had even allowed you to leave Australia. Allowed you to continue finishing your bachelor's degree online.
And now, sitting in the waiting room, biting your nails raw as you waited for someone to step outside and tell you they were ready, it was hard not to overthink.
Was this it?
Exactly eleven months later, were you about to be called into a meeting and told, "Y/N, you're debuting."
Would it be with a group? Or maybe a solo debut?
Maybe you should temper your expectations. Maybe this was the meeting where they told you they couldn't find anywhere you fit. Maybe this was the moment they told you it was time to pack up and head back to Australia.
That would be something, wouldn't it?
But at the same time, your mind drifted to stages, recording booths, and arenas packed with people who had come just to hear you sing.
That familiar giddy feeling crept back in.
Before you could spiral through the cycle again, the door opened.
Ms. Oh stepped out, the woman who had been with you throughout your entire trainee period. She had been there in the early days when you struggled with Korean pronunciation. She had reassured you when you felt like you weren't doing enough. She had celebrated every small improvement.
And now here she was, wearing the most neutral smile she could manage.
"Y/N, come on in."
The room was intimidating.
A long conference table. Men twice your age dressed in suits and permanent frowns. And seated among them was JYP himself, looking, for all intents and purposes, like this was the last place he wanted to be.
You gave each of them a quick but respectful greeting before taking a seat.
"Do you know Stray Kids?" JYP asked.
That single question led to an hour where you didn't say much at all.
You nodded.
You listened.
You were shown graphs, contracts, and numbers that didn't make much sense to you before you were left with a stack of papers, two days to think, and a decision that felt like life or death.
Because, in a way, it was.
Ms. Oh led you out of the room and towards the elevator. Once the doors closed, she finally spoke.
"It's a big decision. I know."
"Big decision?" you all but shouted. "It's the rest of my life!"
"Well... eight years, as of now."
You levelled her with a look.
She shrugged.
It might have been true, but right now eight years felt like your entire life.
As the elevator came to a stop on the ground floor, you both stepped out. Halfway across the lobby, you stopped walking.
"Why are they doing this?" you asked. "What's the point? The real point. Not the whole 'following trends' thing they talked about in there."
Ms. Oh sighed before gently steering you towards a quiet corner. She motioned for you to sit on one of the small couches before taking the seat beside you.
"You know what happened with Stray Kids, right?"
You nodded. You knew one of the members had left. You knew they'd gone from nine members to eight.
Well...
Not for long, if the contract sitting heavily in your hands had anything to do with it.
"There's been backlash," Ms. Oh explained. "Bad backlash. JYP wants to go with a shock-them-into-staying approach. They don't know how long the group can maintain this momentum. They think the last comeback was their biggest success, but they're not convinced it'll last unless they do something drastic. Something so unexpected that people have to stick around just to see how it turns out."
She paused.
"Something like..."
"Adding a girl to the group," you finished quietly, your gaze fixed on the contract.
You were an experiment.
"Co-ed groups are becoming more popular these days. More in demand," Ms. Oh continued. "There was research done, at least."
You let out a humourless laugh.
"Yeah. Groups that were planned to be co-ed from the beginning. Not dropping a girl into an already established boy group. A group that's been together for over a year."
Ms. Oh nodded sympathetically.
"I know. I know this whole situation is crazy. But this is also your chance. They were pretty clear, Y/N. It's either this contract or a flight back home. The choice is in your hands."
You blinked rapidly, forcing back the frustration threatening to spill over.
This was happening.
Whether you liked it or not.
Like Ms. Oh said, it was either this... or back home, trying to find a job as an English teacher.
"What about them, though?" you asked quietly. "What about Bang Chan sunbaenim? Wasn't the whole point of Stray Kids that he chose the members? What does he think about JYP dropping a random girl with barely a quarter of his experience into the group?"
The fear had already begun creeping in.
If you were seriously considering this, if you were going to spend the next eight years surrounded by those eight men, then you needed to know what you were walking into.
"They spoke to him," Ms. Oh replied. "He came around."
He came around.
Of course he did.
No matter how much influence he had, he was still under the company's thumb. You didn't want to think about what they'd threatened to make him agree. They had probably threatened the future of the group. After seven years of working himself to the bone, of course he'd accept whatever deal they put in front of him.
"You've got two days," Ms. Oh said, standing. "Think about it. Talk to me if you want. I'll support you no matter what you decide. This is your life. Take your time."
With that, you parted ways.
You made the ten-minute walk back to the trainee dorms without your earphones in, letting the sounds of Seoul wash over you.
Traffic.
Conversations drifting past.
The distant chirping of birds hidden somewhere amongst the buildings.
It might be one of the last times you heard it all.
The trainee dorms were always crowded and loud.
You avoided eye contact as you stepped inside, heading straight for your room before pulling the curtain around your bed shut.
The contract lay pristinely in front of you.
That night, you read all thirty pages from beginning to end.
It was full of legal jargon.
The sort of thing a lawyer should probably look over.
You'd send it to your lawyer back in Australia tomorrow morning.
But you already knew what your answer would be.
They could have asked for both of your kidneys somewhere in those pages, and your answer still would've been the same.
You were going to debut with Stray Kids.
Chan knew he had to break the news to the others.
He knew it wasn't going to be an easy conversation. They were going to disagree. Minho might actually threaten to kill him for agreeing to this.
But his hands had been tied.
He'd been around long enough to understand the cryptic language company executives used.
He knew what they were really saying.
Agree to their demands...
Or lose the group he'd worked so hard to build.
Life was unfair.
Why him?
Why was it always him?
He wasn't perfect. He'd made mistakes like anyone else, but he wasn't a monster.
So why did bad things keep happening to him?
Some sort of cosmic karma?
Maybe he'd been a serial killer in a past life and this was the universe finally collecting its debt.
Calling a "family meeting" after everything that had happened recently was suspicious enough.
The moment the others saw the look on Chan's face, every one of them fell silent.
"What's going on?" Minho asked, instinctively stepping into the role of the responsible one whenever Chan looked like this.
"Nothing... Well, that's not true." Chan rubbed a hand over his face. "It's something. Depending on how you look at it... maybe it's good."
"Hyung," Felix said gently, "whatever it is, we'll figure it out."
Chan inhaled deeply.
"We’regettinganewmemberanditsagirl"
Everyone blinked.
Silence.
"Huh?" Hyunjin summed up everyone's confusion.
Chan swallowed.
"We're getting a new member..."
He forced himself to meet their eyes.
"...and it's a girl."
The room exploded.
"What the fuck?"
"What?"
"Is this a prank?"
"You can't be serious."
"Hyung, that's not funny."
"Channie—"
Minho's voice cut through the chaos.
"Please tell us this is some horrible joke."
Chan simply shook his head, trying to blink back the tears of frustration burning at the corners of his eyes.
He was about to disappoint the seven people he loved most in the world, and they him.
"Sit down," Minho said quietly. "And tell us properly what's going on."
Chan sat on the edge of the coffee table, the couch already overflowing with the rest of them.
He told them everything.
About the meeting.
About the arguments.
About the ultimatums.
About the ridiculous explanation of co-ed groups becoming more popular.
About the thinly veiled threats that they'd spend the remainder of their contracts locked away, unable to release music or perform if he refused.
How this was their only option if they wanted to keep their careers alive.
When he finished, the apartment fell into complete silence.
"I know this isn't ideal," Chan said quietly. "It isn't what any of us signed up for. So... if any of you want to leave..."
His voice cracked.
"I won't blame you. I hope you'll stay, but if you want to start over somewhere else... I'll understand."
"You're so stupid, hyung."
Jisung's raspy voice broke the silence.
Before Chan could respond, the younger man wrapped him in a tight hug.
"We're not going anywhere."
His grip tightened.
"It's Stray Kids or nothing."
Chan closed his eyes.
This time, the tears came from something other than frustration.
One by one, the others joined in until all eight of them were tangled together in a group hug that felt like home.
They'd get through this.
Together.
Later that night, Minho knocked softly on Chan's bedroom door.
"I looked her up."
Chan looked up from his laptop.
"Y/N."
"I figured."
"She was only a trainee for eleven months."
"I know."
"She can't dance that well. There are a few performances of hers on YouTube, and she's usually the weakest one."
"I know."
"At least she can carry a tune," Minho admitted. "Maybe one part of this whole thing was actually thought through."
Chan simply nodded, too exhausted to answer properly.
Minho sighed.
"You really think she can do this?"
Chan looked at him.
"Fit into this group? Make this work?"
Chan held his gaze.
"She'll have to."
He looked away.
“What other choice does she have?”