[A/N]

Hey y'all,

Part 3 is now up! I apologize for the long wait; I've been busy with my personal life. I'm finally in my last semester, so I'm focusing more on finding a job once I graduate.

So that's happening.

Hope y'all enjoy this one and leave comments/suggestions!

Now, let's get it.

"Jieun-sshi, we have a proposition for you," the Director spoke to her. His glasses were slowly coming off from their position when he lowered his head slightly to look at the seated woman, driving Jieun insane. She wanted nothing more than to yell at the executive to his glasses back into their original position. Though she held her tongue and fought back the instinct to do so, knowing how rude and sudden it would've been, considering the social hierarchy and being a guest in their company.

The suited man pushed them back before it fell, much to Jieun's relief. Her OCD felt a sense of ease once it returned to its original position.

Although a part of her wished they did fall for making her suffer this long.

The group just finished their conference meeting, talking about the logistics this project would take, constructing a contract while they were speaking. From budgeting, expenses, payment, to planning deadlines and other conceptual dealings that the executives had in mind, nothing was prohibited, and they talked about everything under the sun, as they all went through and suffered from the rather lengthy discussion.

Jieun brought a considerable amount of input during the meeting, being directly involved with designing and altering specific ideas that the executives had when planning themes, jacket covers, and even outfit concepts aside from the regular music production talks, much to the executives' surprise.

Normally idols don't have that much input into their decisions, especially female idols. But with Jieuns' popularity and star power along with her own personal catalog of releases and experience, she definitely possessed a lot of sway in what she does and says during these contract meetings, notably in music, but also in different artistic avenues such as fashion, choreography and even cinematography.

This company knew that and was relatively receptive to her suggestions, which Jieun notably appreciates.

She had meetings in the past with some company executives back when she was a trainee or even before when she was a model where she had no say in just about anything and was forced to do what they said with a polite smile etched on her face for hours on end.

But now that she was an established artist outside of her group and has gotten to show herself artistically with a discography to back it up, she now has a ton of control over what she chooses to do when it doesn't come to group activities.

Some criticism on her tracks with possible plans to meet again for the review and record the music was discussed throughout the meeting, with her manager-unnie and the guest group manager discussing their schedules to find a possible time for both groups. While the negative feedback stung Jieun slightly, she took constructive feedback like a professional. She used any helpful feedback that she could get and utilized it to make an overall better product for her and her clients.

Though, she wished it wasn't something as vague and nebulous as 'make it poppier' or 'slow it down' or 'make it sound like this genre instead.' Jieun needed something specific that she could work with if she wanted to make the best results for her clients; she's not a goddamn circus act that these people can entertain themselves with and then change their mind at a later point, she huffed internally. 

Her time is precious. She's not going to waste it on some tedious work.

Meetings like these were the least pleasant things about being an artist. Her passion being exploited for lucrative purposes always made her feel queasy. It felt so wrong and asive to know that the art that she put all her love, soul, blood, sweat, and tears was being turned into a commodity sold to the highest bidder made her feel sick to her stomach. The paperwork and random rendezvous with tons of unmemorable people didn't help either.

The amount of bureaucracy, in particular, made the woman tremble in anger. Like, why do they need to have a ing meeting for every tiny thing that they can exchange through email? It felt like these people cared more about their jobs than getting the work done.

It was a waste of time, in her opinion.

She had better things to do.

But, unfortunately, like everything she has experienced so far, it's just to have a job at the end of the day for some people, and they would do anything to keep it that way instead of being efficient in their line of work.

The livelihood of her life and career and the actions she chooses to take, all the pressure being placed onto her shoulders, having the weight of so many people's jobs at the tip of her fingers…

It's been a hard pill for her to swallow for a while now, knowing the power and influence she has amongst the millions of followers and fans she and her members had amassed.

It made her head whirl.

Jieun just wanted to create music and release it, not have all this extra baggage. But, sadly for her, she had already made that decision long ago at the expense of being restricted socially, professionally, and personally to be even considered at the position of where she is at. She knows that many others would die to be in the position she is now in, and she wouldn't change anything in the world.

She had already crossed that bridge when she decided to join one of the 'Big 4' companies all those years ago.

This is the nature of the beast in the music industry. You got to make sacrifices and connections whenever the opportunity arises to become successful. You got to follow the traditional and backward way of thinking from the dynamics and politics in the conference room to the stage sets to get ahead in your career and to have "made it," even when it is boring, bureaucratic, and misogynistic as at times. With music being universal in its art form, the types of industry you're in and the number of people you need to know are relatively tiny and very close to one another, especially in a prosperous country like South Korea.

Any tiny rumor, scandal, or wrong move can ruin your image and have you shunned and blacklisted just about everywhere.

It made her quite careful of the things she says or does, knowing that any action she does may affect their bottom-line or have their whole career and personal life at home in jeopardy. 

She tries not to dwell on these thoughts and guilty feelings often, as it makes her feel ingenuine and makes her overthink every little aspect of how she interacts with her members.

It's more of a gentle reminder to keep herself in check and keep her head in the game.

The last time she thought about it this often... well, let's say things were catastrophic.

Her thoughts were broken when the faceless company executive continued, his eyes unseen by the glare of industrial light fixtures hitting his glasses, creating a sort of dazzling light that blinded her from seeing his expression, "so far, we are very impressed with everything you've done so far, Jieun-sshi. Since you are competent with your work, we are confident to proceed further and would like you to proceed with the tracks you've sent us. Once you are finished with those songs, we would like to offer you the Creative Director position in charge of the music video and art direction for the groups' next comeback, especially in regards to the promotional cycle for this album and the repackage album."

Seeing that he had her attention, he continued, "Once album production and the choreography are finished, you will start conceptualizing the groups' album theme for their jacket. If you can do this, we will consider contacting you again for future collaborations with the other artists under our roster and will cordially invite you to our famous SM Songwriting Camp. You'll have access to all the resources and our facilities we have here, from our in-house producers to our internationally renowned and contracted choreographers and talents as well." Jieun accepted the offer graciously, seeing this as an excellent opportunity to further collaborate with other worldwide-powerhouse producers and artists.

SM Entertainment is usually known as the most experimental out of the 'Big 4' in terms of musicality and pushing the diverse genre into uncharted territory. Seeing as they recently acquired a ton of different sub-labels, the talent variety is insurmountable and a fantastic chance for Jieun to hone her skills as an artist and create future relationships and collaboration down the line for her and her group's projects.

"Come now, let's have you get your company ID and meet the girls you will be working with," The old crone says while getting up from his position, which Jieun followed. "While you're here, let's have you meet some of the labels and sub-labels artists and producers you might collaborate with in the future. We'll have Seohyun here give you a tour of the place and get you situated." The executive concluded when Seohyun entered the room and gave Jieun a tight hug with a light peck on her cheek, making the girl blink in surprise. 

Giving the new guest a wide-eyed look, Jieun immediately recognized the woman and relaxed the most that she had ever done this entire day while returning the embrace.

"You didn't tell me you'll be coming here, Jieun," Seohyun whispered lovingly to her ears, making Jieun shiver in pleasure. Seohyun was surprised to see her junior here, but she welcomed it nonetheless. Her tone held a certain amount of familiarity with a hint of wistfulness and warmth. At the same time, she the youngest hair, feeling the soft trudges engulfing her fingertips before getting mesmerized by her dark grey hair dancing and entangling with the movement of her fingers, making the Centennial girl relax, familiarizing herself to the warm feeling once again. "Sorry, unnie, I didn't even know I was coming here until manager-unn