The ribbon on my left shoe was untied again. My stylist rushed over from the other side of the room when someone pointed out my shoe. I was hesitant to let her tie it for me. In fact, I was hesitant with the make-up artists as well. If I wanted to wear make-up, I would do it myself. If I want to dress in the outfit, I would do it myself.

Being restricted, forced and pushed around - is that what everyone in the "prestigious" Star Class wanted when they finished their training?

// 1 year ago...

Every first day of each school year at Fushigi Arts High starts off the same. A bunch of of students running over each other to see who made it to the Star Class - the class which guarantees to train you into a top idol. Whether the job you want is to be a singer, an actor or a dancer, getting yourself into that class will give you automatic entry into the industry. With such high stakes, no one expects to get into this class without extreme talents and luck. Getting in is the hard part, but what is even worse is that it only takes one single mistake to get kicked out of it. The class size has never been over six people since the first day it started.

Auditions to join the Star Class happen once a week on Fridays at 5:00pm and end at 7:00pm sharp. The audition line is never short and majority of the people waiting never even step into the audition room. Even though students were auditioned and auditioned, no one in the past three years has passed the auditions. The current students in the Star Class are all new students whom were recruited or were automatically accepted. Rumor has it that whoever passes the audition will be the "lucky 7th" of the Star Class and will become successful in all aspects of the idol world.

Students of the Star Class, officially called "Star Students", wear navy blue uniforms and their classes are held in a separate building for most of the time. However, the students are allowed to mingle as long as it does not interfere with studying. Star courses include specific training and outings such as on-stage lives and photoshoots in preparation for debut.  

For the rest of the students at the school, Fushigi is just a regular arts high school. Regular students wear regular white uniforms. They take common classes like music, dance and drama, as well as math, languages and sciences. If regular students want to audition for the Star Class, they have to work hard outside of class time to practise. For some, they will work hard day and night just to get in. For others, it would be too bothersome and give up.

//

Seoyoung nudged her way though the crowd of students waiting for this year's Star Students. As a tradition, the Star Students start off the school year by walking through the school entrance gates first. They then lead the school through the opening assembly.

"Excuse me!" Seoyoung stepped up to a girl who was in her way. There was no response from the girl as she was too busy staring at the gate.

"Move it!" She finally pushed through the line, but she lost her balance and went head first into a guy who stood behind the girls she was trying to get by. Irritated Seoyoung got herself together and walked away from the crowd. The guy, who was wincing in pain, looked up to complain, but he could not pinpoint the girl who collided with him because of the sheer amount of people in the crowd.

"They're here!" A girl screamed and pointed to the side of the school.

5 glowing figures made their way through and walked past the white sea of people. With their blue uniforms, they really do stand out from the regular students.

The first one of the five is Jinyoung - the leader of the Star Class. To his left stands Minhye in sleek black high heels and Rina the foreign student. To the right is Dongwoo, the president of the student council, and Sunwoo, an attention-seeker.

The regular students whispered to each other as they moved their hands around to count:

"Why are there only five of them?" "I thought that the Star Class had six people?" "Where is the other one?" "Is it a guy or a girl?"

Minhye crossed her arms and whispered to Jinyoung. "Who is the sixth Star Student?"

Jinyoung carefully looked around in the crowd, smiled and then replied. "He doesn't like all this attention. Don't worry, he'll be there for our first class."

Minhye nodded and the group walked into the assembly hall. The crowd scurried behind the five.

//

Meanwhile, Seoyoung got herself lost in another area of the school. She was not familiar with the school at all since this was her first year at Fushigi. In fact, it was not her idea to enter an arts school. Her mother works overseas and her father became depressed so he left home, leaving Seoyoung alone for eight years already. Fushigi Arts held a lottery for a few full-year scholarships to the school. All you had to do was write down your name, contact info and a picture of yourself on the form and you are good to go. The only condition is that the student must either do extremely well in the regular stream or be accepted into the Star Class in order to continue into second year.  

Seoyoung was lucky enough to get herself into the school's regular stream, but she has no intention of ever auditioning for the Star Class. She has no talent nor interest in any of the fine arts at all, so "doing extremely well" is not an option either. Her goal was to do well in enough in the other classes so that she could apply to another school for the next year.

"You should probably be heading to the assembly hall by now, right?" A voice called to her.

Seoyoung turned around and saw an unfamiliar guy look right at her.