I was watching Hana nod off in class. Today we were learning our stage personalities more and being tested on our ability to stay on our feet when it came to questions. Most of the studios had pre-scripted interviews but we should be able to go with the flow if someone randomly started a topic. I poked Hana in the side and she jumped up yelling a member from Infinite’s name.

“Guess we know what you were dreaming about,” Yun said, delicately covering a yawn.

“Shut up Lyra,” Hana muttered under her breath but was bright red.

“Talitha,” The coach called on the maknae, “You’re the maknae in the group but do you ever wish to be the oldest?”

Minjung pushed to the side, like she did when she was in thought. She shook her head slowly, “I have a lot of growing to do as the youngest so I have to work really hard but I think Andromeda does a good job as the leader, so I think she should always have that roll.”

I felt surprised and proud at Minjung’s answer. The other members reflected my feelings. Minjung was mostly kidding around and didn’t really take much seriously, so the fact that she answered that so wonderfully was amazing. “Good job, Talitha,” I said encouragingly and Minjung looked proud of herself.

“Lyra,” The coach grabbed Yun’s attention next, “You’re the visual. How do you think you will deal with the massive amount of male fans?”

Yun didn’t have to think about her answer. “I will love all my fans unconditionally. If I have to get most of the attention because I’m the visual then I will take that responsibility.”

“What about y concepts?” The coach fired next at her.

“I will embrace y concepts. I have no problem with that.”

“What if there is a scandal?”

Yun paused at that one. Scandals were tough. The more you denied them, the more the public thought they were true. “Most scandals are misunderstandings. Naturally I will be spoken of as other boy band’s ideal girl but the public should understand that I’m 100% focusing on my career and I have no time for dates.” Wow she was good.

“Carina,” The coach raised an eyebrow as her head started to nod again. “CARINA!”

“Yes, sorry. I’m not sleeping. Just resting my eyes.” The coach smiled slightly at her joke. That was going to be Hana’s strong point. She could easily distract you with a joke. She was going to be our savior on variety shows.

“Carina,” The coach started again, “Maia is the most silent of your members. Can you tell us of a time when she wasn’t?”

Our coach was changing tactics. The company had chosen well. Hana went blank for moment but then as big grin grew on her face and I knew exactly what story she was going to tell. “Once we went out for ice cream. I went with Talitha and we gathered all the combined money and took everyone’s order. Maia wanted mint chocolate chip. When we got to the ice cream parlour and we ordered everyone’s, I was already drooling over Maia’s. So I ate hers and gave her mine instead. Maia took one look at the simple strawberry that I gave her and I thought ‘oh she’s okay with this’ because she picked up her spoon to eat. Then she stopped and stared at me and then closed her eyes and yelled “BUT I WANTED CHOCOLATE CHIP!!!” We were all so shocked at first that she yelled.” Minjung giggled and Eunmi had her head down on her desk. “Eunmi apologized, took her ice cream and locked herself in her room. She didn’t come out until the next day!”

The coach nodded and took notes. I wondered what she was writing. “Andromeda, we heard that you hate aegyo. Why don’t you perform some for us?”

My mouth dropped open. Now that I didn’t expect. “Ah, me? Surely you’d rather the maknae? Maia? Carina???” The coach gave me a reproachful look. As the leader, I was failing, again.

I straightened my shoulders back and tried not to look completely disgusted. I brought fists to just under my chin and said “Oppa, chocolate, juseyo.”

Yun burst into laughter, banging the desk with her fist and totally not acting like her normal cool self. “Please remind me to ask the host to get you to do aegyo. Oh my god we’ll be the most viewed showed that night.”

I raised my mouth, about to sneer at Yun that she was going to lose her image when Eunmi spoke up. “Unnie, you have really good aegyo!” She smiled shyly and I felt my face burn up. This was like my run in with those boys a couple of days ago. Great. “Thanks Mimi.”

“What about Maia? Doesn’t she have to answer questions too?” Minjung piped up.

“Maia is naturally quiet so she will have a mysterious quality to her. We’re going to ask her the least amount of questions first. Then we will slowly reveal her sweet personality.” The coach said in a clipped tone. They really had a lot of tiny details planned.

“Ah before I forget, did you girls choose a pose yet? The company wants me to make a report.” The question hung in the air, lingering with our own worries. We had but we were scared that our personal hard work would be shot down. “Come now, surely one or two of you have completed the assignment by now?”

I spoke up for the group, “We are all done. We’re just—”

“Afraid you’ll fail. Well, you girls better step up because you’ve got a lot of failure ahead of you. You’re going to be a rookie group. You’re going to make mistakes. Let’s go,” The coach cut me off and told us briskly to get ready.

We lined up according to how we had arranged ourselves last night. Yun fought for the middle spot because she was the visual but the other girls overruled her and said I should be in the centre as the leader. Yun was still sore over this because I could see her slightly sulking as she took her place at the end of the line.

Minjung took her place first, bending over slightly, bracing on hand on her knee and making a peace sign to from her eye with the other hand. Then went Hana raised both hands over her head, wrists cross and fingers spread. Then it was me. I crossed my arms behind my back and crossed my legs in front of me casually. Maia was beside me, head turned towards Yun, with her arm raised to have her hand hide her face. We had all agreed she should look like she was hiding because of her quiet nature. Finally, Yun confidently raised one arm up, bending it so her hand was behind her head and with the other she put it on her hip, cocked her hip and extended one leg out. She was the visual and emanating y. We all envied her sureness. I shouted “And we are,” and all of us shouted, “Nebula!”

“Talitha, Lyra, Maia, approved,” The coach said with no hesitation. “Andromeda and Carina… you’re going to have to work on it. Hmm, let’s see.” She rearranged us until she was satisfied and then took a quick photo with her phone. She showed us the final image and I had to admit, it looked much stronger with the changes she had done.

She turned Hana towards Minjung, lifting her leg up behind her and putting her hands together, wrists touching, under her chin to make a v. For me, she simply put me in a wide stance, but both arms on my hips and made me lift my chin in challenge. Everyone looked like they should be: cute Minjung, shy Eunmi, playful Hana, and y Yun. Even I managed to look confident, like the leader should be. It looked like I was asking someone to make us prove our worth. It was perfect.

“Alright, I believe that’s enough for today than.” Our coach congratulated all of us on the announcement of our debut and assured us that her report was going to be very positive. I let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding. We hadn’t failed. Things were still moving along smoothly.

“Food, food, FOOD!” yelled Hana as she hurriedly packed her things and almost ran out of the classroom.

“Hana, wait up, I want food too!” Minjung whined and chased after her partner in crime.

Eunmi look torn between tidily picking up her things and racing after the younger members.

“Go ahead Maia, we’ll catch up,” I said, smile cheerfully at her.

Yun and I walked with each other, even though we weren’t each other’s first choice. “So now we have to find you an oppa to practise your aegyo with, huh?”

Of course the first thing she did was attack me in more sore spot. God she was pissed she didn’t get centre in our greeting. “I’ll go make wanted signs,” I said, rolling my eyes, “Needed: an oppa who enjoys aegyo. Age doesn’t matter. Just needs to be accepting of grease.”

Yun snorted and I felt a wry smile tug at my lips. “You know, I know a few—”

“I swear to god if you say Lee Joon one more time, I’m going to kill you! He’s such a pabo I want to—” My mouth snapped shut. I should have realized there was only one thing that made Yun stop talking and that was boys.

We both stood there in silence as a group of guys joked and walked by the classroom. I hadn’t met any of our sunbae’s yet but these boys didn’t look like they had debuted yet either. They didn’t have that shine about them yet. But I could see the potential. The flash of big eyes, dimples, a quick smile, everything was an indication that these boys were going to blow some fan girls socks off.

Yun’s arm wrapped around mine, gripping it tightly. Was she showing anxiety? And to me, of all people? At that moment, it didn’t matter how much Yun and I fought. She needed me and I needed to prove to myself that I could be her support in that moment. So I didn’t peel her hand off of me. It was like both of us were too stunned from all the handsome faces that we couldn’t even bow in deference.

Then I saw some faces I recognized and they looked just as shocked to see me.

“Cute girl?!” The deep voiced guy said, bewilderedness not taking away from his looks. It emphasized his attractiveness, actually.

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me,” I groaned quietly.

“It is cute girl!” He was now pointing at me and I wanted to melt into the floor. “Baekhyun, its cute girl from the other day!”

“How do you know these guys?” Yun asked from the side of . She didn’t want to lose her smile she had ready for any male attention.

“I ran into them the other day thinking,” I was here to support Yun but I wasn’t about to spill all my secrets yet.

The guy he called for, Baekhyun, stopped talking to a very tall and foreign looking guy and jumped up to spot where Chanyeol was pointing. His eyes lit up when he spotted me and I winced. Great, he recognized me too.

“I should have known that you were with our company, you’re too cute,” Baekhyun said as he finally planted himself in front of me.

“I’m not cute,” I couldn’t help but get exasperated in the exact same situation. “We have a maknae. She’s cute. Not me.”

“I’m not cute oppa!” Baekhyun insisted, “Come on now, you’re not foreign, you should know better!”

I face-palmed myself. As if the aegyo I had done earlier wasn’t mortifying enough. Yun’s laughter twinkled from behind her hands and the boys eyes focused on her. “Someone from your group?” The deep voiced guy prompted.

“Ah, forgive my manners. This is—”

“Lyra.” She interrupted me, smiling widely. “And you are?”

“Chanyeol,” The newly dubbed Chanyeol smiled, showing off many teeth.

“You know our names, but we don’t know yours,” Baekhyun stepped closer to me. He was shorter compared to Chanyeol, but still managed to tower over me. I was going to be cursed wearing heels my entire career. I could feel my feet hurting already.

“Andromeda where are you, I want to eat, let’s goooooooo,” Hana yelled down the hallway, cupping her hands, as if she needed helping getting louder.

I tried not to answer, hoping she’d just go away but I should have realized that Hana wasn’t one to give up. “Jinae? Jinae!!! YAH LEADER I NEED SOME FOOD!”

“Hana, can’t you see I’m talking?!” I tried not to let my temper get the better of me, but still stressed her real name, if she was going to use mine.

“Wait, leader?” Chanyeol looked adorably confused.

“I told you I was older than you thought,” I said. “I’m coming Carina!” I moved but Yun’s hand didn’t let me get very far. She wildly motioned with her eyes that she wanted to stay and talk with the cute guys and I couldn’t leave yet because I clearly had an in with them.

“Jinae,” Chanyeol sounded it out. He must have liked it because his grin came back, “I’m going to remember that.”

“But I wanted to be her oppa,” Baekhyun mourned the loss of the word. He pouted slightly and I could already feel my hackles rising to his exaggerated sadness.

“Better luck next time,” Chanyeol clapped a hand on Baekhyun’s shoulder.

“You didn’t ask what my age was yet,” Yun said, looking sweet and yet seductive at the same time. How did she do that? Alas, Yun was still older than Baekhyun. Chanyeol laughed like it was the funniest thing he had heard all day while Baekhyun’s shoulders shrunk even more.

“We should get going. The other members are hungry,” I mentioned.

“Ah, us too, we’ve got practise,” Chanyeol suddenly looked worried, because the rest of their members hadn’t even noticed they were left behind. That must have been the down side of being a big group. I was suddenly happy for our small number.

“I’ll be seeing you are later, noona,” Baekhyun said, winking at me.

Yun and I bent our heads in respect and the two companions walked away. They looked odd, one lanky and the other dainty but they seemed good friends. Too bad I couldn’t say the same about me and Yun.

“You are going to get me introduced to every one of those members,” Yun announced when they had turned a corner and were out of eye sight and hearing range.

“You think so huh?” I said, not sounding so sure of that.

“I know so,” Yun said with such resolution that I believed her.

“Where were you guys?” Minjung jumped on us as soon as we met them near the bottom of the building.

“Talking to boys,” Hana said, sounding grumpy that I had brushed her off while talking with Chanyeol and Baekhyun.

“Boys?” Eunmi squealed. I ruffled her head affectionately. “Yes boys. Boys from our company to be specific. They aren’t going to harm you, silly.”

“Wait, boys from our company? Did you meet TVXQ? Super Junior? Shinee?” Minjung’s eyes were getting bigger and bigger as she mentioned our sunbae’s.

“No, these guys hadn’t debuted yet?” I looked to Yun for confirmation and she waved her usual “I’m agreeing but I don’t want to join the conversation”.

“Haven’t debuted…” Minjung whispered her next sentence, “You don’t mean the twelve trainees that SM has been keeping as a secret for super long, do you?”

I shrugged, “I don’t know Talitha, it’s not like the guys were boasting that they were our company’s best-kept secret.”

Minjung clung to Yun, “Tell me their names. Did you find out their names?!”

“Chanyeol and Baekhyun,” I supplied.

“B-B-BBAEKHYUN?!” Minjung screeched. “Baekhyun-oppa? Pretty Baekhyun-oppa with the nice hands?!” Minjung looked like she was having a seizure, she was fangirling so hard. “Chanyeol too? Why? Whyyyyyyyyyyy?”

“For god’s sake Talitha, pull yourself together,” Yun said, distaste dripping off her tongue.

“Put your poisonous words away Lyra,” I said, getting cold myself. I hated when she acted so insincere to Minjung. It hurt the younger one more than she realized. “Don’t worry, I’ll introduce you if I get the chance, kay maknae?”

“Really?” Minjung looked at me with stars in her eyes. “Thank you Unnie. I love you,” she blew a greasy heart to me and I caught it and pretended to eat it. Eunmi giggled at my exaggeration and then Hana told me to stop because she was already starving and things were back to the way they always were.