Stay - Stray Kids Han Jisung FF (RESQ SAGA PART 3)

61.

"So... Comeback..." Mika said as we all sat down around the table with some notebooks as we had a meeting without Yeongjae. "What are we thinking about?"

"I'm seeing a late October comeback or an early November one," Soojin stated. "How many songs do we have at the moment?"

"I have a finished one, one nearly done and three potential instrumentals," I answered.

"I have two instrumentals," Lin answered next.

"I have one finished one and one instrumental," Soojin said.

"And then we also have 《NO》. The five-member version," Leah finished. "That leaves us with ten songs."

"That's not bad! Not bad at all," Mika said. "We should play them all and see if we think they work together for the album and who will work on which song."

Soojin and I then stood up to go to my room to pick up the laptop and the hard drives with all of the songs before going back to the table and setting everything up.

"Do all of the songs you said fit the more mature and darker girl-crush concept with heavier sounds?" Mika asked us.

"Well, not all of the songs fit perfectly in all of the criteria, but they definitely are our style," Soojin answered. "Alix really surprised me as a songwriter. She seems to be able to grasp the feel we want to give the song very quickly and with just a few things."

It was shocking to hear her say that because her songwriting skills were no joke. I had worked with her a few times already on the creation of songs and we really seemed to be able to work together very well and understood each other perfectly, so hearing her say such compliment felt amazing.

"Thank you, really," I told her.

"Before we listen to that, I had an idea," Leah spoke up. "I was thinking that maybe we could focus on promoting the group in different ways before the comeback."

"What do you mean?" Mika asked her confused yet intrigued.

"We are singers, sure, but we are also talented in different areas and maybe we could focus on promoting using those skills," she tried to explain. "For example, Soojin has experience already doing ads from that one she did with Laneige; Soojin, Lin, you and I have experience as presenters from the MAMA's last year, Alix has appeared in some MVs... We could use that to our advantage to promote the group."

"I see where you are heading," I said. "The more we expose ourselves to the public and the more places we show up in, the more people will check us out."

"Precisely," Leah said and we high-fived. "What do you think?"

"I think we could definitely get that moving," Mika said. "We'll tell Yeongjae about it before telling JYP and I think we could do it."

"Perfect," Lin said. "We should use our contacts to get things going."

"Brilliant," Soojin chimed in. "But when do you think we should do the comeback? JYP has been hinting a possible tour for a while now, so we should take that into account too."

"Wait, a tour?!" I exclaimed. "When did he say that?!"

"Oh, he didn't say that directly but the other day when I went to his office to discuss some things, he said that we were big enough as a group now to at least do a small tour around Asia," she explained. "I think we should also take that into account if we are going to be doing all of this."

"If the tour thing really works, I think we could to a part of the tour before the comeback and another part after it, leaving a week or two of promotions in the middle," Mika said. "It's just a matter of being ready to work our asses off for the next couple of months."

"Bring me the stress and the anxiety!" Leah exclaimed like a crazy person, making us all laugh. "But seriously, be ready for the most stressing months of this year. Comeback season has officially begun."

ººº

Mika had asked Yeongjae to meet up that afternoon but she told us that she would go on her own so she could try to convince him to the best of her abilities. Yeongjae really cared about our wellbeing and always tried to negotiate our schedules as much as he could so we didn't feel either rushed or stressed, so he would probably hate the idea and try to stop us.

While Mika was working on that, the girls and I had already started to work by getting in contact with as many people as we could to try to get some work offers in many different areas. Soojin had even gotten in contact with some film and drama production companies to ask if we could try out for any secondary roles.

"I have already arranged a Laneige advertisement," Soojin said after hanging up the phone. "If Mika comes back saying Yeongjae or JYP didn't agree to this, I'm going to throw a tantrum."

"I'm sure none of them will," Leah said. "She can be quite persuasive when she wants to and JYP wouldn't miss a chance of making a whole lot of money."

"Have you realised we are technically doing their job right now?" Lin said. "Yeongjae and JYP are the ones supposed to get us deals like this."

"But we are quicker and more effective, aren't we?" Leah said picking up her phone. "In less than a minute, I will be getting an ad offer from Thailand."

We were all confused when she said that but, just twenty seconds later, her phone rang and she picked it up with a smirk.

I, of course, couldn't speak any Thai as neither could Soojin, so we just looked at Lin to check her reactions to the phone call. She seemed to be both surprised and amused by it, her eyebrows raised and a smile on her face.

"And that's how you do it, girls," Leah said throwing her phone on the table. "Be ready to see my face along with Bambam's and Lisa's all over Thailand."

"Was that offer really that amazing?" I asked her.

"Let's just say I was really envious of your bank account and wanted to try to match it," she said and winked.

"No flipping way!"