It was a natural occurrence. It was strictly protocol. It was just something that everyone knew came with the job. It was common knowledge that one could not host a music show forever. As Hyunjin stood by Chani and looked over at Mina crying and saying her goodbyes to the staff, he could not help but feel really sad for his senior co-host.

It had taken a bit, but they had actually become quite good friends. Seeing each other every week and having to act out such bizarre and embarrassing scripts together can really bring strangers together. He and Chani had become friends right off the bat through bonding over their cringey scripts. Their MC group chats had become quite fun in how they would tease each other once they would receive their scripts for every new week.

Hyunjin felt quite at ease with his co-hosts. Mina was older, and while Chani and he were technically of the same year, Chani had two months and quite a bit of experience on Hyunjin, making him the doted on youngest of the trio. However, with Mina now leaving, that would change a lot of how things had been. Mina had been there before either he or Chani had started and had been a great senior host in how she explained and handled questions from them. He would still have Chani, but he did feel quite sad that a piece of their trio would be replaced.

Mina was still saying her goodbyes, and suddenly the music show PD called Chani and Hyunjin to him. He took them aside and said sadly looking at Mina, “I know its sad that we need to see Mina go, but that’s just how contracts go in these types of situations.”

“Yeah,” Chani sighed, “I just can’t help but imagine when it will be my turn to say goodbye.” Placing his hand on the PD’s shoulder he added, “This is just such a great environment to work in, I know it would be hard to leave it.”

“Always a charmer Chani.” The PD said laughing at the obvious kiss-up to the boss comment. “Anyway, I called you both over here to tell you both that we have confirmed your new co-host.”

“Oh wow really?” Hyunjin replied “I didn’t even think we would hear about it until much later.” To be quite honest, Hyunjin hadn’t even thought about the fact they would be getting a new co-host because of it being Mina’s last show and all.

“Oh I know.” PD replied, “We have actually had our eyes on a particular group for a while and were just able to confirm within the last few days.”

Chani and Hyunjin nodded, waiting for him to continue. “It all happened quicker than usual but I wanted to tell you guys first before the new leaked anywhere else.” The PD looked at his watch, always on the clock, “Anyway, you new co-host is Kim Minju from Izone. You guys will be informed soon about meeting and practicing for her intro stage, but I need to go. Good show again! See you all next week.”

“Goodbye! Thank you for a great show!” Chani and Hyunjin said, bowing lowly to their PD.

Hyunjin tried to recall whether he had any previous interactions with his new co-host. He had, of course, watched Izone performances and music videos, so he was well aware of the group. However, in person the only interactions he could remember were just bows and passings with the group at award shows and events like Isaac.

“This should be interesting,” said Chani, breaking his train of thought. “It will be interesting having an Izone girl be a co-host after all that had surrounded their group last year.”

“Yeah,” said Hyunjin, “I just can’t help but dread having to be awkward with another new host.”

“Ah Hyunjin”, Chani put his arm around Hyunjin’s shoulders, “why are you so shy? You just need to skip all the formalities and act like you’re friends right away. Just remember at the end of the day, we are all co-workers and its always best to be civil with each other. Besides I’m here.” He said pointing to himself and winking.

“You’re right, I don’t know know what I would have done in this job without you.” Hyunjin was sincerely thankful for Chani. He was bright and friendly, but on top of that, he was professional. He could easily befriend anyone and save any situation, qualities that Hyunjin wished he had. While Hyunjin broke character often and sometimes found it hard not to smile through some of the outlandish lines he had to say, Chani was always there to get things back on track. Even Mina, with her longer experience hosting, was a great help to Hyunjin throughout his time there. Though Mina was leaving, he was happy he still had Chani.

“Guys!” Mina said rushing up to them, seemingly in a much better state than a few minutes ago. “Did you guys want to go get something to eat? One of the stylists said she would pay since it’s my last show.”

“Of course!” Chani agreed right away. “We need to have a proper send off with our senior host!”

“Yay!” Mina smiled, “and you Hyunjin?”

“I’m always down for food!” Hyunjin enthusiastically answered, “it’s even better if I’m not paying.” He added with a mischievous smile.

“Awesome!” Mina replied happily, “I’ll just go grab my stuff and my manager and I’ll see you guys there! I’ll send you the place in our group chat!” With that Mina was off, now her normal and lively self.

Now excited to eat with his co-hosts and staff, Hyunjin made his way to his dressing room and manager. He promised himself to search up Kim Minju online later.

AUTHOR NOTES:

Hey anyone who made it to the end! This is the first chapter of this fic i've been working on. I'm new to this site and this is my first story. I'm so sorry because I'm still trying to get use to this site and there's probably a lot of errors since I typed this out pretty quick. I've had the idea for this story brewing in my mind for a couple weeks and I normally wouldn't have written it, but there is such a lack of hyunjin and minju fics that I wrote this in hopes of inspiring others to write about them. Just so you know, I am not an Izone or stray kids stan so I really don't know much about these groups. I'm still trying my best to watch videos and learn about them. I just enjoy watching these two MC every week, so they inspired me to write. Please feel free to reccomend anything and let me know if you want me to continue. The next chapter would of course introduce Minju into the story!