“Gather up everyone!” Our manager, Sanghee clapped her hands together in that brisk manner she procured when she took her manager role seriously.

“You better have lunch because I’m starving,” Hana said, patting her stomach.

“No food,” Sanghee announced. “This is even better.”

“Nothing’s better than food in Hana’s eyes,” Minjung teased.

“Are we debuting?” Eunmi didn’t have to raise her quiet voice because her words caused enough of a wave.

Suddenly, all our eyes were on our Manager.

“Yun, get off your goddamn cellphone,” I swore. “You can text your boy toy later.”

Yun leisurely finished her text and tucked her phone away. She stuck her tongue out at me, “You’re just jealous, Jinae.”

“Girls, please,” Sanghee stressed and we loosely formed a circle around her. “The company has decided on your future. You’ve been training for a long time but they think it’s time to give you a goal.”

“Oh my god, we are so debuting!” Minjung screamed and jumped up and down.

“Minjung,” I said, rubbing my temples already. “Let the lady talk.”

“So they’ve decided on a group name. You girls are going to be called Nebula. It’s going to be a completely star-themed arrangement. Each of your stage names will be after constellations, which have been sorted according to your stage personalities. I’ll give you a rundown later and it will be more complex what you’ll have to memorize but they are all beautiful names.”

“And our song?” Yun brought up. She was the singer of us, of course.

“Screw our song,” Hana interrupted, “What’s our concept? Are we going to be a cute group? Because I can do cute but y is not my forte.”

“Speak for yourself,” Yun said snidely.

“I would like to hear our song,” Eunmi interrupted.

“Of course,” Sanghee whipped out a cd from nowhere and made her way to the music player. She slipped it in and we all froze, waiting to hear the song that would be stuck with us for the rest of our lives.

 The song began with a beautiful piano and harp combination and someone sang beautifully in accompaniment. Then the orchestra took a background check as a mad beat started and already Eunmi and I were jerking our limbs, bodies wanting to dance to it. Yun started following the singer and Minjung harmonized with her. Hana free-styled with the ridiculous speed she possessed and I knew we were instantly enamoured. This was our debut song. It ended and we all seemed stunned. It was like, we had been waiting for this moment all our training years but now that it was here it was too good to be true.

“It’s called Supernova,” Sanghee provided. “We’re still trying to translate the lyrics and move it around but that’ll be something you won’t have to worry about. First, we need to work your personalities and names. Then the choreo and singing will come. Jinae, you’re going to be the leader,” Sanghee said with a wide grin.

“She orders us all around anyways,” giggled Minjung. I flicked her forehead and she pouted.

“Minjung is the maknae.”

“Aw, our wittle baby,” Hana slung her arm around Minjung and hugged her so tightly she squealed in protest.

“Yun is our main singer.” Yun’s chest couldn’t have puffed out anymore if she surgically got her s bigger. “Minjung will be lead.”

“I’m the rapper!” Hana, always impatient ruined Sanghee’s spiel, causing her to glare. “Yes Hana you are the main rapper but Jinae will be lead.”

“Huh? Me?” I pointed to myself, making sure I heard right.

“Yes you,” warmth was emanating from Sanghee’s eyes. “You’re the leader and even though you don’t have any main roles, you have lead rap and dancer and I expect you to lead by example.” I gulped. Being leader didn’t just mean being the oldest. I was about to have a whole lot of responsibility poured on me.

“Our talented Eunmi will be our main dancer,” Sanghee finished. “Everyone happy with this?” When we nodded in response she became less of our manager and more of a friend. “I’m glad. You girls are going to be great.”

“It’s gonna be weird being called be different names huh?” Minjung said from her common spot in front of the TV. Sailor Moon was playing and she was glued to the screen. She was on her stomach and she was moving her legs back and forth. “Talitha. Do I look like a Talitha?”

“No one looks like a Talitha,” Yun replied without thought. She was painting her nails in celebration of our announcement.

I watched as poor Minjung wilted at the careless toss of words. I motioned with my head for Hana to do what she did best and cheer someone up. Hana jumped on Minjung and started to tickle her until she screamed truce and then she didn’t look so sad anymore.

“Hey Yun, you wanna try being less of a sometimes?” I suggested snidely.

“I’m just saying it how it is,” Yun said with a shrug of her shoulders.

“Where’s Eunmi, food is almost ready,” I said from the kitchen.

“She said she was practising some more,” Hana supplied.

“Does she ever stop moving?” I murmured, turning some of the stove burners off.

“Unnie, when’s food ready?” Minjung hopped over to where I was.

“When it’s ready,” I replied stoically.

“Can I have a taste?” she persisted.

“Ew don’t let her taste from the spoon you’re using,” Yun said, blowing on her newly done nails.

“Just one! Please!” Minjung tried her aegyo on me and I rolled my eyes.

“If she’s getting free food, I want some too!” Hana jumped on the chance to eat before everyone else.

“No one is getting any. Go sit down or get Eunmi from the practise room. Now.”

Hana and Minjung jostled each other, shoving on their shoes and trying to out race each other to probably scare the bejesus out of poor Eunmi that food was ready. Then there were two.

“And you call me a ,” Yun admired her nails blithely.

“If only ripping out your tongue wouldn’t ruin our debut,” I sighed.

Yun stood up and got her shoes on too. “Where are you going?” I demanded.

“Out. I’m not eating your mediocre food,” She said breezily.

“We are going to eat as a group,” I stressed.

“I’d rather hang out with Byunghee, to be honest,” She said, pushing her long hair behind her ears.

I stood before her watching her strap her wedges on. “I’m sorry okay. We shouldn’t fight. We’re setting a bad image for the younger ones. Please, don’t go. If we eat as a team on the night we were told we’re debuting then it’ll mean the world to them.”

Yun shrugged her shoulders, “I’ll be back before curfew. Later.”

I blew out air in frustration. Maybe I wasn’t quite cut out to be the leader. Eunmi asked where Yun was and I had to lie and tell them she was sick and left with Sanghee to the hospital. Yun was good on her feet. As soon as she got home and Minjung asked her if she was okay, she’d instantly went to I’m-sick-mode and totally went with my back story for her. Oddly enough, when Yun and I weren’t fighting, we actually worked pretty well together. It was an odd relationship we had.

That night, I lied on my bed, listening to Minjung talk in her sleep and thought about our future. I was a part of Nebula. Our debut song was Supernova. My biggest dreams were finally coming true. If only I could keep my group together and forge us so that we were perfect.

The next day we were working hard in the practise room. We didn’t have choreo for Supernova but we had to stay honed.

“Again,” I barked. I clapped my hands and called out “5,6,7,8!”

Eunmi led strongly, snapping each limb into place. She was perfect no matter what she did. Minjung, with her boundless energy kept up with Eunmi. Hana and Yun were looking a little worse for wear. The minute I noticed Hana misplace her foot I yelled for them to stop.

Hana collapsed to the floor immediately, breathing heavily. Eunmi was too but she kept moving so her muscles wouldn’t tense up. “Jinae, can we take a break?” whined Minjung.

“No. You’re doing it again. From the top,” I commanded them.

“I think someone is taking their leader roll a little too literally,” Yun said.

“Someone has to step up,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Guys don’t fight,” Hana begged. “Can we get through one practise without you two ripping each other’s heads off?”

“Again,” I insisted, joining them at Eunmi’s right. “Ready? 5,6,7,8.”

We practised for hours afterwards until I was satisfied that the choreography for the cover song was perfect. Sanghee came in to tell us that we should probably start referring to each other by our stage names so that we would get used to it. She even took us out for meat so that we could regain our strength and practise our names.

“Pass the rice, Andromeda,” Hana said to me with an air of a royal.

“No problem, Carina,” I replied handing her the rice.

“Lyra is so pretty,” sighed Minjung.

Yun dramatically flipped her hair over her shoulder and made a smouldering look at the mention of her stage name. Hana cracked up and Minjung started to giggle with her. Even Eunmi cracked a rare smile.

“Maia sounds perfect for you, Mimi!” I added. I took a healthy amount of meat and distributed it on Eunmi’s plate. She worked the hardest out of us today so she needed all the protein she could get.

“Thank you, Ji—I mean Andromeda,” Eunmi dug in and Hana gave her a look of approval.

“This food is awesome,” Hana roared. Yun and I shared a disgusted look at the fact that she was talking with full.

“Eat up because you’re going to need all the energy you can get, Carina,” Sanghee said smoothly.

“Don’t we need a greeting or something?”  Minjung brought up.

“That’ll come,” Sanghee said cryptically.

“It better not be stupid,” I warned her.

“Oh,” she said with a sparkle in her eye, “I think you’ll all like it.”

“IT’S JUST LIKE SAILOR MOOOOOON,” Minjung celebrated.

“Yes Minjung,” I said tonelessly. We were in the van ride back to the dorms and she was screeching about it for the fifteenth time.

“No but like really really REALLY like sailor moon,” She whispered excitedly. “We are going to look so cool!” She nudged Eunmi in the ribs, who blushed quickly. “Cool?”

“I fear we won’t be taken seriously,” I chewed on my lip in worry.

“It’ll be okay,” Hana promised.

“We will make it work,” Yun chimed in and it took all my power not to turn around in the front seat and stare at her.

“See? If Yun says it’ll work, then it’ll work,” Minjung latched onto anything positive.

“Lyra,” Yun corrected her seamlessly.

“Right,” Minjung said, “Lyra I mean.”

I was about the only one who didn’t exactly chime in when Sanghee said that we were going to each say our stage name, snap into a position and then as whole yell “We are Nebula!” She said the company was leaving it up to us to choose our positions but they had to approve them. At least they were giving us some leeway.

“Hey Maia, remember it’s your turn to do laundry,” Hana said, quick to shed all responsibilities as soon as we got home.

“I remember,” Eunmi assured her in that low voice of hers.

We piled out of the van and went to our separate rooms. Yun grabbed a shower immediately. I decided to forbid Minjung from entering our room and work on my position. I didn’t even know our concept for god’s sake. Were we supposed to look cute? y? I let out a frustrated groan.

“I GOT IT!” screamed Minjung and I ripped open the door to make sure no one was being murdered.

Instead she was jumping up and down with Hana. “What? What’s going on?”

“Talitha just figured out her pose,” Hana said.

Minjung bent down slightly, braced herself on her leg and made a v sign by her eye. I sighed. It was perfect for her. She had that little bit of mischievous maknae gleaming from her eye and she looked absolutely adorable. I sighed more heavily the second time. “Good job, Minjung,” I said anyways, patting her on the back.

“Unnie?” I didn’t hide my own disappointment well enough from the perceptive maknae.

“It’s nothing. Hana work on yours and help Eunmi with hers kay? I’m going out for a walk.” I grabbed a hoodie, shoved on some flip flops and left.

I looked both ways to make sure there weren’t any strangers hanging around and then decided to just listlessly go through the back alleys and roads around our dorm to think. The steady thunk of my flip flops against my feet calmed me and I tied up my hair in a ponytail. I was the leader. I was a dancer. I was a rapper. I could do this. I was at the centre of the line up so I had to draw attention. I had to think harder! I had to—not run into people.

I was so absorbed in my own thought process that I didn’t realize I was going to have a head on collision with another person. “I’m so sorry. That was super rude of me.”

I pushed up my glasses and looked up. Way up. I blinked and cocked my head, not sure I was seeing properly. Did I really hit them that hard?! Looking down at me with concern was an extremely attractive guy, similarly attired in the same comfy clothes, trying to look inconspicuous.

“I—” Oh god I had hit my nose and I could feel a sneeze coming on. Before I could stop it I was sneezing in that cutesy way that I absolutely despised. Three times to be exact. I stepped back and looked for a tissue and realized there were two boys and I had only walked into one. “And now I’m sneezing over you. Wow what a first impression.” I frowned when I came to the conclusion that I did not have a tissue with me.

“It’s fine, really,” The guy assured me and my eyes went bigger at what a deep voice he had. It wasn’t scary, more like Barry White, with a smoothness that just settled right in your bones.

“Besides, you’re so cute, how could he be mad at you,” The other guy said. His eyes went small at his smile but I pursed my lips at him. “I’m not cute.”

“Oh you most definitely are,” the taller one agreed.

“And you should refer to me formally. Say, I’m not cute, oppa!”

I deadpanned at the friend. “How old do you think I am?”

They both looked at each other, as if they were exchanging thoughts. “Younger than us,” The deep voiced guy said and the other one nodded with him. “How old do you think I am, oppa?” he encouraged.

I had enough of this. I rolled my eyes and put my hood back on. “I’m sorry, once again for bumping into you. Please accept my apology.” I bowed and then gunned it out of there. Wow what an embarrassing situation. Younger than those boys? They had baby faces. They had to be at least a couple years younger than me.

I decided to keep the little run in to myself. I could feel my face burning up already. Hana would hoot and Yun would never let me live it down and Minjung would insist that I be the maknae instead.

“See you again!” A deep voice yelled.

“Don’t forget your oppas!” The smaller guy called after me.

Yup, definitely keeping that to myself.