"Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."

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Jieun’s POV

            Pacing mindlessly back and forth in my room after sprinting home from school I shook my long, brown hair back and forth like a drenched dog shaking water out of their fur before grabbing a towel from the washroom to wring out the excess rainwater. My mom never questioned why I came home so late compared to every other theatre practice day, but I assumed she was probably too busy watching her bread dough ferment to pay much attention to me. After all, I’m a senior in high school about to graduate in less than two months, and I appreciated my mom for respecting my independence. Before heading upstairs to my room I placed two tickets titled ‘2011 year-end musical’ in bright red letters—our school colors—on the kitchen counter beside a china tea set where I was certain my mom would take notice. Sloppily tossing the now rain-soaked towel into the pantry I slid against the side of my bed onto the cold, wooden floor and stared into my reflection from the mirror in front of me.

            “Lee Jieun,” I mumbled my name quietly to myself, eying every small movement of my lips in the mirror, “Tomorrow’s your big day to show everyone what you’re capable of…” I felt completely idiotic for talking to my own reflection; as if being an anti-social sitting alone at the end of an empty lunch table everyday wasn’t enough to prove my status. Trying my very best to imagine the school theatre’s stage, I closed my eyes and saw the bright, dancing lights above that directed audience attention and visualized the grand piano in all detail. Reciting the entire script in my head, my confidence slowly built but was crushed when I got to the dance scene, now replaced by the inevitable kiss scene. I had no way out of this mess.

Even imagining Wooyoung’s face so close to mine made my cheeks heat up like my oven downstairs that was now baking loaves of bread, and my right hand felt the light heat radiating off the surface of my skin. I’ve watched kiss scenes a hundred million times in dramas, but no amount of media coverage can ease the edgy pangs in my stomach at the complex and unimaginable thought of Wooyoung’s lips against mine. I felt my right hand slip diagonally to brush over my lips, my bottom lip chapped from me biting it so much. Sniffing once to clear the mucous from my nose due to the cold rain and swallowing the phlegm that accumulated at the back of my throat, I paused all my thoughts before they grew too outrageous as I felt it slowly push down my esophagus. A sudden sneeze caught me by surprise and my mom immediately burst through my door with a blanket in her right hand, a tray of freshly baked pastries in the other.

“Jieun, don’t tell me you caught a cold!”My mom’s worried voice was muffled by my sudden bear hug. Even though I was a senior in high school, there were times when all I needed or wanted was someone to look out for me and give me confidence. My mom never thought highly of my acting abilities, and my singing was well hidden from her knowledge but as her daughter she allowed me to pursue whatever I wanted and supported me every uneasy step of the way.

“I got a phone call from Ms. Kim a few minutes ago,” she interjected with a more serious tone. I immediately wondered whether Wooyoung had informed our supervisor about the switch in scenes yet and if he did, I prayed that it wasn’t mentioned to my mom. The last thing I wanted tomorrow was an angry and overprotective father caging me in my room until the musical ended.

“What did she say?” I mused, receding back into a sitting position against my bed. At first, my mom’s stare was suspicious and accusing, which made my heart pound but after five seconds, she cracked. Her smile stretched from ear to ear as she nearly choked me with her warm embrace rejoicing,

“You got the female lead for tomorrows musical! Why did you lie to me and say you were only the insignificant pianist?” I hesitantly hugged her back and then pulled away with an uncertain stare.

“Was that all she said?” I questioned, receiving a light-hearted nod. Thank goodness!

Wooyoung’s POV

I let out a deep chuckle as I watched Jieun unsteadily charge out the front doors of the school, down the cement steps and nearly trip as she made a sharp turn to the left sidewalk. A part of me wanted to offer to walk her home considering how heavily the rain became but after the profession of the kiss scene I was certain she wouldn’t be comfortable around me for a while. My hot breath formed an imperfect circle of temporary fog on the windowpane and with my pointer finger I wrote out the word ‘화이팅!(Hwaiting)’ and then watched it disappear into the air. My phone began vibrating in my pocket and I pulled it out to see that someone from home was calling me.

“Umma?” I smiled into the phone at the sound of my mom’s voice.

“Yah, you rascal,” her raspy voice joked, “Come home soon; dinner is ready.” I imagined my mom’s extravagant cooking and thanked the heavens for being blessed with such a skilled chef as a mother.

“Arasso, I’m coming back now.” I assured her and hung up, but before I slipped my cell phone back into my pocket I stared at the screen blankly. Earlier when Jieun was putting the cleaning supplies back into the storage I stealthily dug out her cell phone from her backpack that was left ped; it was screaming for me to get her number. I opened my contact list and paused at Jieun’s name, sub consciously memorizing her number before opening a new text message. Her cell phone wouldn’t recognize my number, and that was my intention.

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Jieun’s POV

            My hand grabbed my earsplitting alarm clock and clicked gently on the off button as I mustered some energy to push my head off my welcoming pillow. The sun was shining considerably bright considering how dark and gloomy it was last evening, but this kind of weather gave me some sort of minor adrenaline rush to begin the day. I kicked my blanket away from me and rubbed my tired eyes while reaching for a hair brush.

            “Jieun, you awake yet?” My mom called from downstairs after hearing my raucous clock’s repetitive ringing. Coughing once to clear my throat I shouted back,

            “Ne, Umma!” I took two steps towards my mirror and took a long gaze at my morning reflection. I was definitely not a morning person but today didn’t seem too bad. Running the hairbrush’s refined teeth through the knots in my naturally straight hair I strolled to the washroom humming a childish tune. My head poked out the washroom door when I heard a loud ‘ding’ coming from my cell phone. No one texted me in so long that I forgot to set it to vibrate. After I finished my morning procedures and threw on my school uniform, I headed back to my room to grab my cell phone and paced down the stairs to the kitchen that emanated with the heavenly scent of freshly baked muffins. There were undoubted perks to having a professional baker as a mother. I smiled at my busybody mom and took a bite from a blueberry muffin while flipping open my phone to read the unexpected text message.

Unkown ID:

Good luck at the musical today! If you make even the tiniest mistakes, the audience will not let you off.

            “Is this a joke?!” I snapped after reading the message. I had no idea who the sender was, but I assumed it was just some person from theatre club who I had forgotten I’d given my number to. They were probably trying to scare me, but the only person I could think of that would have the heart to do that was Eunjung. Even hospitalized she had the heart to send something so arrogant? Shaking off my mom’s confused stare I nearly dashed out the door to school. It felt like a pain to have classes in the morning on such an exciting day, but it also gave me more time to mentally prepare myself for my big moment. 

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            It was ten minutes before the curtains opened and everyone was feeling confident for the performance, and being dolled up in some made up persona helped me get over my lack of confidence somewhat. My head turned to Ms. Kim, who abruptly exclaimed,

           “You’re switching the dance scene with what?” Her words were slurred but I was certain of what she meant. Wooyoung’s confident and unshaken posture stood firm as our teacher processed what he just told her. With a now more reasonable tone she huffed,

            “Are you insane? Jang Wooyoung are you literally trying to ruin the show on purpose because Eunjung is unable to costar with you tonight?” Her assumption of Eunjung and Wooyoung being an item made me smile amusingly. Wooyoung only stared back at her without responding to her unnecessary accusations.

            “I realize Jieun isn’t the most experienced of dancers, but a kiss scene? High school kiss scenes take immense amounts of practice to perfect! Someone as shy and innocent as Jieun can’t simply just go out there and wing it!” Ms. Kim pointed out sternly; she had a point. I gulped as I rose from my seat and headed to Wooyoung’s side. He smiled as I approached, and I could only nod in response.

            “Please believe in us, Kim seonsaengnim.” His words were grim but sincere, and Ms. Kim had no choice but to give in after being informed that there were only five minutes until show time. Another worry hit us hard during these last crucial five minutes; something crucial that none of us had thought about beforehand.

            “If Jieun and Wooyoung are up on stage; who’s going to play the piano?” The voice of another shy musical theatre member addressed the problem to us. Ms. Kim did a face palm and at the moment, I could feel the high hopes of every musical theatre member crashing down. What’s a musical without the music?

            “Can’t we just sing in acapella?” I was shocked by my own sudden suggestion, but relief washed over me when I saw Ms. Kim’s face light up.

            “Are you sure you can do it?” she eyed Wooyoung and I for a long moment and we nodded simultaneously. At the two minute signal, we were ushered onto the stage to take our places. I was amazed that there were no butterflies in my stomach at this moment, but this was crucial and I couldn’t afford to falter now. Just before the curtains opened I made brief eye contact with Wooyoung beside me who winked back with a calming smile. Nodding again, I took a deep breath and watched as the curtains to my future slid open; my future in musical theatre and entertainment in general were now in the audience’s critical hands. As if I had rehearsed a million times, my eyes stared directly to the back of the room giving the audience the illusion that I was looking at them. It was a little trick I caught from the old musical theatre sunbaes that I found to be quite handy in this situation, and after a deep breath I began to sing the introduction song. Even without the piano, my voice filled the once aching silence with a new upbeat melody. From the stage I heard a small gasp from Ms. Kim and smiled audibly; she was obviously impressed and with all my heart I hoped that the audience would be too.

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            Now standing centre stage alone, I knew it was almost time for the most anticipated scene that would surely wrap up our last musical with stunning morale. The crowd was completely engaged and silent as the scene progressed, and though I faced the other way I could hear Wooyoung’s gentle footsteps approaching me from behind. He came so close that I could feel his warm breath down my neck and immediately I wished that we had rehearsed this scene at least once. I wasn’t ready! His strong arms wrapped around my body from behind and I let out a surprised gasp, though was not part of the script, added to the convincingness of our last scene. Before turning around to bury my face in Wooyoung’s chest I caught sight of my parents sitting close to the front row and noticed sparkling tears running down my mom’s cheeks. She wasn’t stupid; she knew what scene was coming up. Breathing heavily, I restrained my legs from shaking and wrapped my arms around Wooyoung’s body now facing him. His blank stare mesmerized me but I couldn’t afford to lose focus now. From the sidelines I knew Ms. Kim was biting on her nails and shaking like a boat caught in a storm, leaving all hopes of success on this once unplanned scene. Wooyoung’s face inched closer to mine slowly, taking his time to examine my face. When our lips were just a few centimeters from touching, my shoulders were shaking uncontrollably but not enough to be scene from the audience, and he whispered tenderly,

            “Do you trust me?” I immediately closed my eyes and nodded, waiting for my first kiss to be stolen on this very stage tonight by a prince charming that was fantasized into my reality.

A/N: Haha i'm so nice, I ended this chapter RIGHT before the kiss scene. (:! Please leave some thoughts in the comments below; i'll be sure to respond ^^!