Chapter 3

"Come on in!" A friendly-looking woman said. She was obviously really happy to see Soon-young and his parents.

This must be Ji-yeon's mother, Soon-young thought. She looks slightly familiar.

"Annyeonghaseyo" he said politely while bowing to Ji-yeon's parents.

"Hi, Soon-young! You've grown a lot since the last time I saw you! You and Ji-yeon were so little back then." While saying this, the woman looked at Soon-young with sparkling eyes, but he could see something sad in them as well.

Ji-yeon's father invited everybody to sit down. Soon-young quickly looked around the, quite large, living room, while his parents presented some gifts to Ji-yeon's parents.

"Your house looks beautiful." Soon-young's mother remarked.

"I'll show you around the house later, but sit down first. How have you been all this time? Wait, let me get you something to drink first. Coffee?" Mrs. Park looked at her guests. Soon-young's parents nodded, but Soon-young politely said he preferred tea.

After everybody received their drinks, Soon-young started to wonder where Ji-yeon was. He didn't realise that he wasn't paying attention to the ongoing conversation between the parents until he heard his name. "We wanted to visit you earlier, but we've been too busy, especially Soon-young."

Soon-young looked up when his mother mentioned his name. "You've been busy?" Ji-yeon's mother asked him.

"Ah, yes..." he replied. "But... did Ji-yeon perhaps go somewhere?" He thought she would have greeted his family if she was home.

"No, she's in her room, but... she doesn't feel very well." Soon-young saw that Ji-yeon's parents looked a bit concerned. Was that why he had thought that Mrs. Park looked a bit sad earlier? "Is she ill?"

"No, but..." Ji-yeon's mother started. "Can I ask you to talk to her? You two used to be good friends. Maybe she'll cheer up when she sees you again."

Cheer up? "Okay, I will go. You said that she is in her room, right? Where is that?"

☆☆☆☆☆

In the meantime, Ji-yeon lay on her bed with her camera in her hand. This was the camera that she used to film herself when she danced. That way she could see which parts she had to improve.

She thought of her father's words: "Ji-yeon, we know you love dancing and if it's your dream to do something with it in the future, your mother and I will support you. But if you think you're not good enough to show others your dance, we can't help you either." She understood what he meant, but changing one's mindset is harder than it seems. I just don't want to make mistakes.

Ji-yeon looked at her camera again. Should I give up? If I can't get rid of my fear for making mistakes, I can't do this.

She clicked on the delete button and saw the two options 'delete all' and 'cancel'. What should I do?

Suddenly she heard the sound of someone knocking on her door.

The door opened and Ji-yeon quickly put away her camera. A fair-haired boy gave her a curious look as he walked inside. "Am I disturbing you?" The boy asked.

He stood next to the door and Ji-yeon could see that he looked a bit taller than her, which is not short since she's always been one of the taller girls in her class. If her thoughts weren't occupied with memories of the failed audition, she would have had a closer look and realised that the boy looked kind of cute.

"Sorry if I am..." he said.

Get your mind straight, Ji-yeon. You should be polite to a guest, she thought before she forced a small smile on her face. "Aniyo. Annyeonghaseyo."

The boy smiled brightly, which caused his eyes to look like two small lines. "You can just talk informally," he said while he was still smiling. "I'm only a year older and it's not like we don't know each other."

"Eh?" Ji-yeon frowned. She didn't really pay attention when her mother told her who was coming for a visit. Did she know this guy?

The boy walked closer to her and put his hand in the air. With a warm smile, he said: "It's been a long time, Hong Ji-yeon!"



 

Okay so it's not really a long chapter... but at least longer than chapter 2 ^^
heungta-tan, april10_99, misterhobaby99, Lee_Jung_Hwan and panda_boss12, thanks a lot for subscribing!!