In the Lane Crawford reception area, I glance at my watch. The meeting was supposed to have started twenty minutes ago.

Finally, the secretary leads me into a sleek conference room with floor-to-ceiling windows that give us a view of the bay. A woman dressed in a chic pantsuit, her dark hair pulled into a low ponytail, rises from the mahogany table to shake my hand. “You must be Rachel Kim. I’m Celeste Nguyen, senior buyer for Lane Crawford Hong Kong. It’s nice to meet you.”

I smile and shake Celeste’s hand, but on the inside I’m panicking. I was expecting to speak with assistant buyer Richard Chang, a more junior executive. He was the one I did all my research on, the highlight reel of his career meticulously printed on flash cards I spent the whole night reviewing. I know that Richard has a soft spot for quilted bags and that he thinks the color chartreuse is the worst thing to have ever happened to fashion; I know nothing about Celeste.

“Richard had a last-minute emergency, so I’ll have to take today’s meeting,” Celeste explains.

“That’s great!” I say brightly. “I mean, not great about the emergency, but…” I trail off and paste a small smile on my face. Calm down, Rachel.

“So,” Celeste says, taking a seat and gesturing for me to do the same. “Rachel Kim. You have an impressive resume as part of Girls Forever.”

She keeps her face neutral and I can’t quite read her tone—is she a secret fan? Does she hate our music? Did she only look me up five minutes before the meeting?

“We’ve carried a celebrity fashion line before,” Celeste continues. “Do you know the Ong sisters?”

I nod—Christine Ong has starred in some of the most popular films in Asia, and Michelle Ong, while not an actor herself, married a famous one. Well, actually, they never got officially married. I remember an interview where Michelle said while she loved her partner, she didn’t want to confine herself to a specific label, because terms like “husband” and “wife” are steeped in meaning and complicated connotations. Kind of exactly how I feel about being called Alex’s girlfriend yesterday. I love the sentiment behind it, but the term itself is so loaded for me as a K-pop idol.

“Anyway, it was definitely quite the experience working with the Ongs,” Celeste wraps up, and I realize I’ve tuned out her whole story.

“That’s so great,” I say.

She raises an eyebrow at me. “You think it’s great that Christine had a massive fight with Michelle and tried to pull their line hours before it was set to launch in our stores?”