We entered the conference room to see our other bandmates and manager sitting at the table, the CEO of our company, Daydream Records, sitting next to our manager.

“Take a seat, you two.” The CEO, Sang Kyuhyun, says as he sees me and Moonbyul. We sit next to each other, opposite Mr. Sang and our manager. Moon relaxes next to me, spinning a ring on his necklace. I don’t know much about that ring other than it was his father’s ring, and that it was given to him before he moved to Seoul as a trainee.

“Why were we called here today?” Kai asks, apparently also as unsure about this as we are.

“Since you are a new idol group,” our manager starts, “we believe it would be best if you collaborated with one of our older idols or idol groups.”

Jay and I give each other a look. That look reads “we don’t have the time, why is this being brought up now?”

“Excuse me, Sunmi-ssi, but we don’t know if we could be able to work on a collaboration so close to our debut, as we are neck-deep in promo work and finishing up our debut album.”

Dawn jumps in. “I understand from a managerial and monetary standpoint that it would be beneficial for us, but if we’re planning to include this song on the album so close to the debut date, when the majority of our songs have already been completed, with our tracklist out, it just seems unrealistic.”

The rest of us nod our heads in agreement.

“Let me finish what Sunmi was saying,” our CEO says calmly, “it is a song by another group, Retrogade, which has a similar style to your group. And this is just planning, for an awards show or stage or something like that. We just wanted to bring it to your attention.”

Me and Dawn locked eyes as we heard the name Retrogade. We joined Daydream because of them, truly. We never truly met the Retrogade hyungs since we joined Daydream, but me and Dawn had been fans of them since debut.

Retrogade is a nine-member group that debuted three or four years ago, featuring, in my own personal opinion, the best idols of this genre. The members themselves are Shadow, Vanity, Youngbae, Sin, Soul, Tae, Yisoo, Atlas, and Eunjae. They’ve been quite famous since debut as their concepts were so different from the mainstream music put out in the K-Pop industry. They were a part of a scandal of sorts two years after they debuted, when two members (Sin and Shadow) came out publicly as gay, and that they were dating. When they came out, it was a little while after I realized I was bisexual, with a preference for men (not to mention I realized that due to a bandmate of mine). Of course, I was proud of the two of them. It took some time but they were accepted by the majority of their fans. They will occasionally play up some things for fanservice, but normally they just act the same as they would with their other members.

I’ve always wanted to meet the Retrogade hyungs, and to work with them too.

Dawn ends up speaking before I can. “If it’s with the Retrogade hyungs, we will do it 100 percent. Just maybe after debut.”

“That makes sense,” Sunmi says. “Zelo, your thoughts?”

“I’d love to work with the Retrogade hyungs, so of course I’m up for a collaboration with them, but I also agree with Dae and Moon, since our time until debut is running out, and we still have songs to finish and choreography to polish.”

“It’s settled then, after debut, we will set up a collaboration meeting with you and Retrogade. I know you all are busy so you may leave now and return to work.”

“Thank you, Sang-ssi.” the five of us say as we exit.