It was our last day of school, ever, at St. Peter’s College. We would spend our final hours cleaning out our lockers, returning textbooks and signing shirts. Usually it would be done after our graduation ceremony, but this year due to renovations at the school it was moved to the Monday after graduation.

Things weren’t really looking good for me, or bad, for that matter. I had received a few acceptance letters from some universities, so I guess that was a good thing. But they weren’t the universities I was hoping for, so I guess that was a bad thing. It was difficult. I didn’t really know how to feel – should I be optimistic and happy, or just feel depressed that my future was not working out the way I wanted it to?

“Woohyun, pass me the spray please,” I called to him as I tried to clean out my locker. He was feeling extremely hyper today, hopping and jumping around with lots of energy from his enthusiasm and excitement.

“Woohyun,” I called again, a little louder. I think he was ignoring me or too busy annoying Sunggyu at his locker to hear me asking.

“Yes! Sorry, here,” he said apologetically, quickly handing me the cleaning spray. “What’s the magic word?”

I sighed. “Please.”

“Please, what?”

“Please pass me the cleaning spray.”

“Please pass me the cleaning spray, who?”

“Aish, Woohyun! Just give it to me!”

I tried to reach up and snatch it from him but he dodged and wrapped his arms around my waist instead.

“Ayyyy, stop it,” I giggled a little immaturely. “The freshmen are staring at us.”

“Who cares,” Woohyun said loudly. “Hey, kiddies, have you ever seen a guy kiss his girlfriend before?”

He watched their gaping faces with satisfaction and planted a sloppy kiss on my lips, tipping me back a little bit like in those cheesy romance movies.

“Hey kids, have you ever seen a girl run away from her boyfriend before?” I yelled loudly as I took off and dodged between the students who were moving from class to class.

“Kim Hana, you come back here right now!” Woohyun yelled menacingly, dropping the bottle of spray and chasing me past the science labs. “Kids, watch carefully! This is how you get her back!”

“KIM HANA, NAM WOOHYUN,” the principal yelled, noticing that we were causing a riot in the hallways. “STOP IT RIGHT NOW. JUST BECAUSE YOU TWO DO NOT ATTEND THIS SCHOOL ANYMORE, IT DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN RUN AMUCK AND DISRUPT THE OTHER STUDENTS.”

He beckoned us over and began to lecture us on the responsibilities we would have after high school. He said that high school was the easiest and most happiest times of our lives, and that we would drown and die in the amount of work in university. He also expressed his worries over the growing amount of juvenile delinquents at our school, but Woohyun and I just shrugged it off.

“Kim Hana, can I see you in my office please. Alone,” he added when Woohyun grabbed my hand and started walking with me to his office. “Don’t worry, prince charming. She’ll be okay with me for fifteen minutes. She’ll meet you at the tennis courts when she’s done. And don’t worry; she’s not in trouble. I suspect Miss Kim will like what I am about to say to her. Bye, Woohyun.”

The principal beckoned me to follow him and left Woohyun standing there, gaping. I turned back and gave him a small shrug before walking quickly into the office.

“Now, Miss Kim, I am sure you are aware of that form I had the whole senior year fill out at the beginning of the year, giving permission for the school to release student’s results to various universities?”

I nodded. “Yes, sir, I remember.” I was curious as to what was about to happen, but I had a small flicker of hope deep inside me. Maybe…?

“Well, we have released the results.” He looked and me and laced his fingers together, smiling widely at me.

“Sir?” I said hesitantly. I wasn’t really sure why he was smiling at me like that.

“I know you applied for Sydney and was unsuccessful. But have you heard of this university?” He held up a brochure and I nodded eagerly.

“Yes, sir, I have. I put in an application but they never wrote back to me.”

“Well, silly girl, of course, if you place an application three months after they have already sent out offers, they will ignore it.” He tried to fight back a smile. “How does such a smart girl who scored 97.3 on her finals, be so naïve?” He paused. “Well, as you know, we have released the results. And they also know of your rejection to Sydney. So they have offered you a fully funded scholarship to their university.”

I was speechless. “Sir, I –“

“I know, I know. There’s no need to thank me. Here’s your information packet, just make sure to fill it out and send it out by Wednesday by the latest.”

“Sir! Thank you so much!” I gushed. Wow. I couldn’t really believe this. It seemed almost too good to be true. This university had a steady engineering program, and was well known for their graduates in the workforce. I felt like crying because I was so happy.

Everything was working out; I would be staying in the same city as my parents and brother, the same city as Woohyun, and I had a full scholarship to attend university. I guess it is true when people say that the night is always darkest before dawn.

“WOOHYUN!” I screamed when I saw him. I ran up to him, flustered. “LOOK! I GOT A FULL SCHOLARSHIP TO GO HERE!” I pointed unnecessarily at the brochure. “I’m going to university! I got into a decent one!”

He smiled widely and gave me a big hug. “Congratulations, Hana! I always knew you had it in you! We need to celebrate,” he winked. “Especially because your campus is right next to mine!”

“No way?” My eyes widened. “Wooo!! Celebration time!”

He chuckled and took my hand as we walked to the bus stop. When I woke up this morning, I was only expecting to return home with my dusty old physics textbooks but instead I was going home as a student accepted into a university. It seemed too good to be true, and when I mentioned this to Woohyun, he told me a quote that I would remember for the rest of my life.

“Efforts never betray, Hana.”

I paused and thought about it for a little. “Are you sure?”

He nodded. “This applies in almost every aspect of life. If you put in the effort to build muscles, if you persevere for long enough, you will see results. You will have a muscly body. If you study for a test, you’ll score high. And even if the efforts seem to be wasted at the beginning, they will always come in the end. And this is living proof!” He grabbed my hand that held the information packet and waved it in the air.

“She won a full scholarship to university!” He yelled out loudly on the bus. “Without even applying!”

The whole bus just stared. Then, they erupted into cheers and began to congratulate me and shake my hand. I just ducked my head in embarrassment.

I looked at Woohyun as he was chatting to an old lady sitting across from us. Who knew that this boy would bring so much pain, joy and happiness into my life? He made me feel beautiful, stupid, smart, caring, pain and like I was worth it. What we had was something special, and I wouldn’t change it for a thing.

As I watched him lovingly, my mind wandered back to when the principal called him prince charming. In a way, my life was kind of like a Cinderella story. Woohyun was my prince. He had saved me from being a “slave” to my mind and low self esteem and confidence. We had to separate when the “clock” struck twelve, December, as we were graduating and attending different universities. We came from two completely different worlds.

      It was actually quite cheesy as I thought about it, the way my life turned out. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I've seen the best and worst of you, but we're sticking through because the without all of the ups and downs we've been through, you know that it's true,
that I could get really sick and tired of you.” - Four Year Strong

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thankyou so much for reading this story! i hope you enjoyed it as much as i did writing it! i learnt a lot from writing this, and i hope you guys did too!! :D

and i sincerely apologise for updating so late, and leaving such gaps between updating! but please stay tuned, i think there will be a surprise later on! :D

THANKYOU SO MUCH! <3