The Winner members were all going crazy when the track came to an end, and Jieun and Seungyoon shared a triumphant high-five. We did it!

“Whoaaaaaaa!” Minho yelled, grabbing his head on either side with his hands and running around the recording studio like a maniac. “Whoaaaaaaa!”

“How are you only a trainee?!” Seunghoon demanded, slamming his hands down on the table in mock outrage. “I demand your immediate employment under YG Entertainment as a songwriter! Now!” Jieun laughed at the enthusiastic reaction.

“Seungyoon wrote all the lyrics and I just edited some verses,” she replied, suddenly hyper-aware that she had no idea how to address her partner in this collaboration; she’d never had to address him before, she should she call him by name as she did? Should she have called him Seungyoon-sshi? Thankfully, the Winner members didn’t seem to think oddly of it so she continued talking. “You can’t give me all the credit for the track being so good.” But the Winner members refused to let their leader off the hook that easily.

“Pffftttt, him?” Minho scoffed. “We heard the track before you did all the major fix-ups; it was nothing special.”

“But now, after you’ve worked your magic,” Seunghoon flailed his arms around dramatically to physically express how amazing he thought the track was, “it’s perfection!”

“Excuse me?” Seungyoon interrupted with a scowl. “‘Nothing special’?” Minho promptly ignored him, and both he and Seunghoon looked away as if they hadn’t just indirectly dissed his composition skills. Instead, Seungyoon and Jieun turned to Taehyun, who’d remained silent the entire time. “Why so quiet? You’re never quiet when critiquing a new song. You always have something to nag or complain about.” He merely shrugged.

“I need to have a couple more listens before I can give a final judgment,” he replied coolly and Jieun was disappointed by his lack of a reaction.

“Really? Okay, well…I’m sure the others won’t mind listening to it some more, right?” Jinwoo shook his head.

“I’m thinking this can become the official YG ballad after ‘Lonely’,” he said, leaning back in his spinning chair and kicking his legs around like a toddler. “It’s so prettyyyyyyy.” Jieun hit play one more time and while the other Winner members went crazy, she and Seungyoon shared yet another excited grin, which Taehyun took notice of with great amusement. I’m sensing something here that wasn’t there before. He got to his feet, surprising everyone in the recording studio. Jieun hit pause and looked up at him.

“Did you decide whether you like it or not?” Of all the Winner members, she’d quickly figured out that Taehyun had the keenest sense of judgment on a new song. If he thought it was good, then it was good. If he thought it could still use some work, then it could definitely use some work. Therefore, she was counting on his approval the most.

“I’m gonna need to walk it out,” he declared. “I’ll get back to you on it. Meanwhile, I think I’ll need to borrow the hyungs so they can try and persuade me to give it my final ‘OK.’” Before anyone could ask what the hell he meant, he grabbed Minho’s and Seunghoon’s arms to drag out of the recording studio, jerking his head in Jinwoo’s direction to show that he was included. Everyone complained, wanting to stay in the studio to listen to the track a thousand couple more times, but Taehyun was relentless. For a maknae, he sure wielded the most power over the rest of the members (after Seungyoon, of course.)

Once they’d cleared the room, Seungyoon let out a satisfied sigh. Jieun turned to see him leaning back in his chair, obviously not as worried about Taehyun’s final verdict as her. Her questioning look caught his eye and he grinned, already aware of the question that was ru