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Jaebeom laid in his bed, exhausted. Despite it being impossibly early in the morning, he was still awake, monitoring how his baby was doing on the charts. He was beyond worried. Both Tomorrow, Today and You Are had had subpar performances in all aspects and his future as an idol/songwriter was on the line. This was it; his make it or break it moment, and with the kaleidoscope of butterflies that had recently decided to take residence in his stomach, he could really use a warm ball of fur to hold. “Maybe it’s time I moved out to move back in with my cats”
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Jinyoung had intended to stay up with his members, but any attempts were honestly in vain; he’d always been the first to fall asleep at sleepovers as a kid. He woke up early next morning, dozens of notifications lighting up his phone. “Congrats son! Work hard and take a break. We love you.” - his father“Jinyoungie you guys did so well. I loved the song. Tell Jaebeomie hyung we’re all really enjoyed it. Hwaiting!” - Wonpil“We did it. We’re in the top ten on melon and number 1 in practically everything else. We’ve finally made it jinyoungie.” - Jaebeom
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“You know hyung, maybe it’s better this way. At least we don’t have to do the apple cheeks and ridiculous hair.” Jinyoung called out from his spot on the couch. Jaebeom just sighed heavily. “Hyung, it’s really not your fault.” “Jinyoungie, no one can deny the fact that we haven’t won a single trophy since I’ve started composing the title tracks. I can’t go on like this. Do you know how embarrassing it is to introduce your own song and to watch it fail spectacularly?” Jaebeom bit back as he threw his hand up in exasperation. “Whatever, I’m done. I’m tired. We’ll talk after Mcount. I’m tired. I'll see you in the morning.”
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Music bank that day was surreal for all the boys. It was far into their third week of promotions and no one had expected a win at that point, so when the MCs called their name, it was truly a surprise. Even on stage, while putting horrendous amounts of blush on his precious bandmembers, Jinyoung watched his hyung breath a shakey, wet sigh of relief with his back turned slightly away from the fans. He watched as Jaebeom finally allowed his face to settle into a genuine smile and as Jackson yelled “We made it!” into the mic, they made eye contact.They really had made it.
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Jaebeom managed to hold himself together until they were out of the spotlight, only breaking down in front of his member and staff. With a wet chortle, Jinyoung snaked his slim arms cradling the elder into his chest and smoothing his fingers through the gel of his tousled mullet. One by one, the other boys piled in, each one smothering the last and all warming the leader's heart.
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Although the vlive was fun, Jaebeom wasn’t too sure how to clean the cake off his face. Just as he was about to head to the washroom, Jinyoung bounded up to him, dragging a long index finger across his cheek, through the cream, and directly into his mouth. “You know hyung, you’re pretty tasty.” He hummed with his lips still wrapped around the finger and crinkles around his eyes. Had Jaebeom actually had any cake in his mouth, he definitely would’ve choked on it.
“Uh, thanks?” He said, cheeks blossoming into a pretty pink.
Jaebeom wasn’t quite sure if it was the cake, but today was awfully sweet.
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Jinyoung watched his hyung closely throughout the rest of promotions, relieved Jaebeom was feeling better after his first win. Although the win of a trophy on a music show was really quite insignificant and he personally didn’t think too much about awards and such, he was still extremely grateful for the fans and their effort. This was finally tangible proof to the company and more importantly to Jaebeom that people enjoyed the music he produced and that he should be allowed to continue doing it. The win had made his hyung happy, and by extension, he was as well.
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Both Jinyoung and Jaebeom had more than unpleasant feelings towards their ceo's office. It was in this room where they’d been told that JJ Project wouldn’t be coming back; it was here where they’d failed at 18. So, naturally, both of them were skittish when Got7 were called to the company.
“I’ve called you all here to congratulate you on your win, you especially, Jaebeom. You’ve done well; everyone likes the song” his words bringing a collective sigh of relief. “Come on! You guys have definitely established yourselves, and I think it’s time that we did something different, you know. Keep it fresh for the fans.”
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“So, we were thinking that it’d be good to give you boys a break, you know as a whole group.” he said, looking directly at Jackson, “Everyone can do what they want to for a couple months, but we do have some ideas for some individual schedules. It’s all up to you of course.”
The boys paused, looking at each other. This was kind of surreal and would be their first real break in a long time. “What were you thinking?” Youngjae asked, obviously excited to get some proper off-time.
“Well, after the repack in December, we were thinking of having a Japanese comeback in January. And after that, it’s completely up to you guys until May or June.” He paused, flipping through some pages in the large binder on his desk, “Oh and we think it’d be a good idea to have a duo do something.”
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The boys all frozen as jyp surveyed each of their faces. Yugyeom was the first to move, “Another JJ project comeback? Already?” He asked, looking quickly between Jaebeom and Jinyoung, interest clearly piqued.
“Well actually, we were thinking that debuting another subunit would be interesting, but if you all prefer, another JJ EP isn’t out of the question.” It was obvious that everyone was thinking the same thing: they wanted a permanent unit that wasn’t JJ project?
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The ride home was quiet with Jaebeom in the passenger seat and Mark and Jinyoung in the back, all three certainly thinking about the implications of what PD-nim had just told them. What would this mean for the group as a whole? And specifically, what would this mean to Jinyoung and Jaebeom.
Jinyoung tried to think about the situation logically as he crawled under his unmade duvet. He knew it wasn’t going to be Jackson for sure, and he could likely rule out any pairings they’d done for tour and their Japanese promotions. After that, it was hard to narrow it down any further for certain, but it wouldn’t be either him or Jaebeom, right? And even if that’s what management wanted, Jaebeom would deny doing anything without him. Right?
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The next morning, they were all back in the same room. “Jinyoung hyung, you mentioned already having a duo in mind…” Jaebeom trailed off.
“Ah, yes, our plans. We’ve thought about it extensively and we’re thinking that it would ideally be an unit that hasn’t been done before,” he paused, “and with the people who don’t currently have anything lined up immediately. Jackson will obviously be in China, and Youngjae, we’ve spoken already.” He stopped, nodding at him. “We also have some things in the works for the rest of you obviously, but I think Yugyeom and Jaebeom would be best suited to do the unit.”