If there were one major contributor to Park Jin-young’s success, it would be his strategic thinking. Having experienced firsthand the ups and downs of Korean music industry, the founder of JYP gradually gained a good grasp of what people liked and what they did not. He regarded both his wins and losses as invaluable insight, meticulously taking note of each and every action and what consequences it can bring about, any problem, may it be internal or external, was scrutinized and analyzed, soly for the purpose of drawing the grand picture of the entertainment market. He had consistently led his enterprise to prosperity; any incontingencies that inevitably transpired were settled with little to no damage.

That said, sitting in the middle of TWICE’s common room, facing the girls huddling together in fear of punishment, he had absolutely, unequivocally no ing idea how to deal with this absurd issue.

Especially when the issue itself was tugging at his pants’ left leg, as if fascinated by something. Oh yeah, he was wearing his favorite pants today, with frilly ends at the ankle.

“Tzuyu! Get back here!” Nayeon fearfully hissed. Seeing her words did not even make the strange girl budge an inch, the eldest of TWICE was forced to stand up and drag her by the waist back to where the others were sitting. She received a bite in the process.

“Ouch! Bad Tzuyu! No biting!” Hiss. Frustrated, Nayeon hit Tzuyu with a pillow.

“Greowww…mphfphfph.” Tzuyu’s warcry was quickly muffled by another pillow courtesy of Jeongyeon. As if on cue, Mina- with miraculous flexibility- had managed to keep Tzuyu’s hands firmly in her own to prevent any further outburst.

“Hush now Tzuyu-chan, PD-nim is looking.” Mina’s soothing voice saved the day again; over the last few days, Tzuyu seemed to have subconsciously associated anything Mina said with a sign to be nice and shut the hell up.

Then, again came silence. Dahyun and Chaeyoung, the two reasons why the entire JYP building was in utter chaos so late into the night and Park Jin-young himself had to rush to TWICE dormitory in less than fifteen minutes, did not even dare look up at the stern producer’s face. They had made a careless blunder, and it was time to pay the price.

“So…” Finally, the man spoke up. “Who is this girl?” He asked, motioning to Tzuyu, whose eyes never left the frills on his pants.

“PD-nim… I can explain.” Finally Jihyo spoke up. She was the leader of TWICE, and no matter what happened, she was ready to take the brunt of the damage for her maknaes as always. This time around, she was even more motivated, since what she did henceforth would decide Tzuyu’s fate. She was, however, stopped as JYP raised his hand.

“Wait Jihyo, I want an answer from her first.”

One second passed as the girls exchanged helpless looks, before Sana saw fit to chime in.

“That’s the problem PD-nim… She cannot speak.”

“Nor can she understand you right now.” Momo elaborated. JYP’s expression turned even more confused, if that were even possible.

Still, he was a patient man. Taking careful account of the girls’ state, he decided against bursting out in anger.

“Alright then, Jihyo, you’re up. Don’t even try leaving out any info.” He did not mean for that to come out so intimidating, but Jihyo had been under his wing long enough to know that was not a threat.

Taking a deep breath, Jihyo started her explanation.

_______

“Okay if that story had come from anyone else, I would have enjoyed a good laugh and had that person sacked right away for dishonesty. But you Jihyo-ah…” JYP paused to take a good long look at the out-of-breath girl. “I have known you for ten years, and you’ve never lied even once.”

JYP sighed and continued.

“But now, I’m forced to believe that you brought home a stray cat, and that cat somehow turned into Tzuyu here.” Said girl was trying to catch a colorful butterfly hairpin in Sana’s hand. Sana was having a hard time making it a challenge for Tzuyu, seeing as the other girl’s lithe limbs were longer than hers and she was as agile as, well, a cat. At least she was not causing any ruckus.

“Aside from the fact that it’s totally ridiculous, I otherwise have no argument against it for no