“Mom!” exclaimed a younger Jihoon, feet thudding loudly as he ran towards his parents. “Mom, Dad! I got an email from one of those entertainment companies! They said they liked my Soundcloud tracks and called me a genius!”

 

Though a positive reaction is not what he managed to elicit from his parents.

 

“Jihoon, how do you know it’s not a scam?” his father asked, raising a brow.

 

His mother’s reaction was much more irate. “I know I didn’t raise a fool, Jihoon! There’s no way you don’t know it’s a dirty man trying to draw you out.”

 

Despite flinching at both responses, it wasn’t anything he didn’t expect. Jihoon raised his hands and calmly proceeded. “Well, I video chatted with the representative that sent the--”

 

“Jihoon?”

 

“You WHAT--”

 

“My video wasn’t on, only his! Anyways, we arranged a meeting and he asked that you both be there to negotiate some details of the contract they want me to sign.” He finished with a deep bow, afraid to face the looks on his parents’ faces; he could feel his mother’s daggers pierce the crown of his head.

 

A deep sigh from his mother prompted him to raise his head. “Jihoon, is this what you want?”

 

Silence. Was it?

 

His father broke it. “Well?”

 

Jihoon wasn’t sure. “I don’t think another opportunity like this will come up again...”

 

.

.

.

 

“Make sure you call home every night.”

 

“I will, Mom.”

 

“If anything happens…”

 

“I’ll let you know--”

 

“It’s because you chose this fate for yourself.”

 

Jihoon, caught off guard, couldn’t help but laugh. “Understood.”

 

“And I love you.” Jihoon’s mother pulled him into a tight hug as the words left her, holding him there for a moment.

 

It was hard to hold back tears in this moment, but Jihoon didn’t want a teary parting. “Love you too.”

 

“Ah, you two. Acting like we’re sending him off forever! It’s just for the summer and he’ll be back in no time.” His father entered with Jihoon’s bags, setting them down with a thud. “Jihoon’s a man, so he’ll be fine. Right?”

 

“Aish, Jihoon’s still a middle schooler!” rebutted his mother who finally let him go, ruffling his hair as they parted.

 

“Right,” came Jihoon’s reply, nose scrunching as his mother messed up his carefully crafted hairdo.

 

“That’s my son,” replied his father with a grin, pulling Jihoon into a hug of his own. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll miss our Jihoon.”

 

“Okay, okay you two… I’m going to miss my flight!” Jihoon pried himself from his father’s side and picked up his bags with a smile. He began walking away, but decided he could manage one last farewell. When he turned around he saw his father comforting his mother, who already started to shed a few tears. He had to dry his own eyes first before waving and shouting his last goodbye.

 

Later on the plane, he let the music from his mp3 player drown out all background noise and allowed himself to reflect. The contract he ended up signing (after a rather long negotiation period) had him over at Pledis Entertainment’s building producing music during school-administered breaks and only then, until he graduated middle school. Therefore after the better part of a year, it would be up to Jihoon whether or not he wanted to continue producing for their company. It felt like for once, his future was clear.

 

But was it really? Jihoon wasn’t sure if this was what he wanted, wasn’t sure what he truly wanted at all. He felt like it was unfair he had to decide now, when his mind was constantly changing.

 

In the end, he pressed shuffle until a slow song came up and decided to listen to it on repeat until he fell asleep.

 

.

.

.

 

When he arrived, he was promptly greeted and brought to a meeting room with barely enough time to drop his bags off at the room he was given for the time being. The other people present in the meeting room greeted him as well before he was led to a chair. Jihoon sat uncomfortably at the large table, wondering if the next couple months were going to be like this.

 

“First matter of business: our plans for a new boy band named “Seventeen.” We plan to have the group’s image be one of youthful energy, characterized by its 17 energetic members. Should everything go according to schedule, the first round of auditions will be next month, which leads us to the newest addition to our team...”

 

Everyone’s eyes then turned to him. Jihoon gulped.

 

“Jihoon, we plan to have you in charge of producing a good portion of Seventeen’s music. The samples you published online were the type of sound we were looking for.”

 

Now he couldn’t help but smile bashfully.

 

“Though you’re quite good at producing already, pretty impressive at your age nonetheless, we’re going to have you accompany our senior producers on projects to better refine your craft.”

 

Before he knew it he was on his feet, bowing. “Thank you for the opportunity! I’ll work hard at improving upon my skills!”

 

The room broke out into soft laughter and encouraging smiles.

 

“We wouldn’t expect any less. Now, onto the second matter of business…”

 

Jihoon was buzzing with excitement and anticipation; perhaps things would turn out better than he initially thought.

 

---

 

Jihoon found himself at a loss for words. His eyes scanned the document in his hands, acknowledging the words spelled out in tiny font but not exactly reading them.

 

How did it come to this?