That Question

***LEI***

"Our guest today is currently the hottest and most trending boy group in K-Pop! And they're also famous internationally! These twelve boys have a mysterious yet interesting concept and for the first time in South Korea's entertainment history, even their backgrounds are a well-guarded secret! Let us welcome, Guardians!"

Applause and shouts resounded inside the studio as we made our way towards the stage. We waved a little, flashed some smiles and shook hands with the host. Honestly, I still felt quite nervous at such events. It hadn't been that long since we debuted and my friends and I had been quite busy.

"Welcome! Welcome!" said the host.

When everything finally settled down, we were asked to greet everyone and introduce ourselves one by one.

"""Hello everyone! We are Guardians!"""

"I am the leader, Seven!" our leader flashed a fatherly smile which I knew was a mixture of being mature and professionalism.

"I'm the eldest hyung[1], Xander!"

"Kai!"

"Blake!"

"Hi! I'm Tim!"

"Hello everyone, I'm Dean."

"Coby here!"

"Hello! Lei here!"

"Kyle!"

"Seth, the maknae[2]!"

"Leo here!"

"And I'm the main vocal, Calvin!"

The people inside the studio applauded again. There were even a few screams from our fans which I admit was not good for my ears. After the introduction we were then offered to take a seat.

"Finally! You have finally graced our show with your presence!" the host said with a smile and in a joking manner.

"We are honored to be here, sunbae[3]." replied Seven.

"Last year you made everyone curious when your teasers came out. Many were confused and many anticipated your debut, and when you finally debuted, you blew everyone's mind!"

"Thank you sunbae." said Seven while we smiled as well. I even noticed Tim blush.

"So tell me, no, tell us about your concept? I heard it made quite a debate in the company."

They all looked at my direction then handed me the microphone. I then explained what he was curious about.

As a K-pop boy-band group, we had concepts to make us different and unique, and catch a fan's attention. Our group, Guardians, chose the concept of being literal guardians with superpowers. When we were choosing the concept almost two years ago (which involved a lot of yells and debates from all sorts of people) we toned it down to three choices; being aliens (yeah, not happening), modern people with superpowers (hmm…) or being guardians that are guarding some sort of secret (sounds familiar, don't you think?).

We chose the last one for one obvious reason; it was our literal life.

"As you may have seen in the teasers and our recent MVs, we are a group of superpowered young men who have roamed the world since ancient times, guarding a long-kept secret and protecting the world from any possible enemies that pops out." I said.

"Yes. Your fan base, which is officially known as GFollowers[4], has many theories. Let's see…" he turned to the big TV screen behind us where screenshots of various tweets and comments were flashed. "One of them, with the username GFollower#1 tweeted; 'I think their concept is protecting the world for someone and that they are waiting for that person. Remember that very short scene in their debut MV? A girl in ancient looking clothes was walking in a field of flowers?'" he turned to us. "Any thoughts?"

"A very interesting theory." Kyle answered. "I'm quite surprised he or she took note of that very short scene."

"Here's another one from #1GFollower; 'They are waiting for someone and they are guarding the world for that person and keeps a secret. Who is she? Or is it a he?'"

Some of us giggled while the others just smiled.

"Both of them actually have the same idea." Xander commented.

"Many theories are akin to these two posts. Of course there are those that think you're aliens sent to guard earth but I guess only you guys will know the truth." the host replied.

'You have no idea.' I thought.

"A lot of comments also support the theories made by your various fans. So do you think we can get a clear explanation today?"

"Well… I guess we can say a little." Seven said while eyeing Kyle, Xander and I.

"Let's start with the girl. A figure of young woman shows up in your MVs. She could be wearing ancient clothes, classical ones and even modern ones."

"The girl represents our fans and the people we hold dear." Leo answered. "We will be the guardians that will make them enjoy our music, making them forget their worries even for a short time, so they could think clearly."

Girls started screaming inside the studio.

'Oh my ears.'

"And our secret is our real identities and our goals." he added.

"Well that is really something. Speaking of identity, one of the most interesting things about your group is that even your background is a well-guarded secret! Your company seems to keep a tight lip about it. Will there be a chance that we will know of it?"

"There is a perfect time for anything." Seven answered. "Actually the way our sub-groups are formed is already a clue to our background. Guardians-K consisted of me, Seth, Calvin and Blake, promote mainly in South Korea and we're Koreans too."

"Oh… but Calvin looks a lot like a Chinese person."

"Many people tell me that. My grandmother's Chinese and I guess I inherited a lot from her side of the family." Calvin answered immediately.

Before we came to the show, our company, MM Entertainment, already told us what information we could say. The mystery of our backgrounds is a big selling point for our group after all.

"Guardians-M who promotes in China is consisted of our Chinese members; Kyle, Lei, Leo and Tim. And I guess you can already guess why." Seven continued. "Then Guardians-J promotes in Japan with Coby, Kai, Dean and Xander as its members. Although Kai and Dean don't have an ounce of Japanese blood in them. And lastly, we have Guardian-Phil who pops up in the Philippines once in a while whose members are Lei, Seth and Dean as the three has lived there for quite some time."

"Okay GFollowers! A clue has been dropped concerning their identities!"

I looked at my friends and saw them smile as some of the audience in the studio started taking notes.

"Wow, your fans will surely become detectives at this rate." we all laughed at the thought. "Okay, now I know everyone wants to know this one question from you guys; does any of you have a girlfriend? or a boyfriend? We don't discriminate."

We were all silent for a bit then Kyle took the microphone to explain.

"Even if we're not bound by such a rule like 'no girlfriends allowed' we will focus on making our music first and make our fans proud, as well as expand our career. For now our fans are our girlfriends and boyfriends, we don't judge."

I winced internally at Kyle's answer. I didn't feel good at lying to the people who supported me. Especially when I'm dating his sister.

"I thought Coby has a fiancée?" Blake blurted out which made us glare daggers at him. "Oops."

"A fiancée?" the host gasped. "Ooh gossip. Coby?"

"Well since Blake already… revealed it." the tall Japanese young man said in gritted teeth. "I might as well say something. The engagement was decided by my parents since I was young. It's an old tradition in my family and I've never even met her."

"Oh wow. So there are still families that are like that these days, huh. I suppose we've had enough inquiries about your personal life." I sighed in relief. "Now let's talk about your comeback. Last week, you released your comeback album titles 'Two Sides'. I heard it has already sold over a million physical album copies and hundreds of thousands in Spotify, iTunes, etc. The title track, Two Sides has also topped the charts in over twenty-five countries! What is the story of this album?"

"Well," Seven took over. "Two Sides shows, literally, the two sides of a person, but the album mainly focused on the dark side of the world and the people in it. As beings that had existed in this world since ancient times, as you may have noticed in our MVs, we've had our fair share of it. Our concept for this comeback actually shows how we temporarily forgotten our duties, split into two sides and fell into obsession with the material world. Losing our goals."

"Ooh very dark indeed. What inspired this concept to be formed?"

Seven gave me the microphone.

"Well everyone has two sides inside them, a good side and a dark side and if we succumb to the latter there could be consequences. We're trying to show that side and how we can get over it and get back on track."

The host seemed satisfied with it because he smiled. He then showered us with praises which truthfully made me even more embarrassed. When the camera was no longer focused on us we then exited to prepare for our performance.

"And now let's welcome Guardian with their new song, Two Sides!"

We heard the cheers of the audience. It was showtime.

Notes:

[1] hyung - it's a term used in South Korea for boys to address slightly older males.

[2] maknae - Korean translation for youngest.

[3] sunbae - a term for older people in a workplace or at school.

[4] GFollowers - it's a term the author coined to name the fans of Guardians. It's quite common in K-pop fans.