Lauren and Kyungsan were watching Disney movies at Lauren's house. They should have been studying for their finals but Kyungsan convinced Lauren that one day off wouldn't kill them. They were cuddling on the couch and feeding each other popcorn humming along to Aladdin's song “A Whole New World” when the phone rang. Kyungsan got up to get it since Lauren was feeling lazy and wouldn't budge.

“Yoboseyo. Kim residence.”

A fairly young woman with a cool, clip voice answered, “This is Sooyi from SM entertainment. I'm calling on behalf of Kim Lauren...”

“Yah, Lauren! Come here, quick! It's SM,” he whispered, covering the phone and gesturing to Lauren.

Lauren set down the popcorn and hurried around the couch. Kyungsan put the phone between both their ears and held Lauren's hand out of nerves. Lauren's brow furrowed as she concentrated and her nerves caused her to bite at her finger nails.

“I'm calling to say congratulations. You have successfully passed the audition and become an SM Entertainment trainee.”

Kyungsan and Lauren gave a small squeak of joy and shook their squeezed hands, their bodies naturally jumping with excitement.

“Your practice starts this Friday after your school finishes. Have a good day.”

The beeping phone-line announced the call had been disconnected and the phone needed to be hung up. Kyungsan did this so he wouldn't have to listen to the annoying noise as Lauren stood still with slacked and eyes wide in cute surprise. As soon as he put it back on its receiver, his phone started ringing in his pocket. Rubbing Lauren's arm gently until she came back to earth, he took it out and answered the call from his father.

“Hey, son...” His voice sounded unusual, like he was hiding some secret he found really amusing.

“Hi, appa. What's up?”
 

“So, I just got a call from some cold but hot-sounding lady from SM. She wanted to congratulate you on passing the auditions but you weren't here. I told her she could send a dancing leprechaun later or something...”

Kyungsan was too shocked and confused to think on his father's humor. He couldn’t believe he'd been chosen to be a trainee. They must have made some mistake. He didn't have anything special to offer, no charisma or talent. He didn't believe it was real. He stood there in the kitchen waiting for someone to pinch him and wake him up from this amazing but crazy dream.

Suddenly, he felt a slight sting on his arm. When he turned to the side he saw Lauren had read his mind and pinched him. She was giving him an attractive, contagious grin like a cat. Then she giggled and jumped onto him, hugging him tight. He finally snapped out of his funk and hugged her.

“We made it!” she squealed happily in his ear.

Kyungsan spun her around. “Wow, I can't believe it! We're going to see each other all the time! You're going to be an idol.”

Lauren stopped the momentum and put her feet on the ground. “No, you're going to be an idol. You're going to have so many fans, I know it. Just look at this face.”

Kyungsan smiled despite it was rather painful with her pinching his cheek fat.

“I bet your fan-club will be even bigger. I'm joining it so I can be the leader and regulate who can touch you and who can not.”

They both giggled, looking up at each other with love-filled, twinkling eyes.

The classrooms all throughout the school were silent except for flurried scratches of pencils and the occasional groan of frustration. Yoogeun was one of those that continuously groaned. He hadn’t studied enough and he couldn’t answer even half of the questions on his history exam.

Oh, forget it. I'm graduating even if I fail this, he thought. He rested his head in his hand and filled in the bubble sheet in patterns to make a picture. At the end of class, he had finished making a snowflake. It made him smile because he was thinking of Tayoung.

Tayoung in her classroom was working hard on her tests. She'd spent several hours studying every day for the last month so she was completely ready for these tests. She finished in a breeze, even having time to look out the window occasionally at the summer sun, flowers and flitting birds. Lauren made a growling sound. When Tayoung looked over she was surprised to see Lauren digging her hands into her head and staring at her paper hopelessly. It seemed she'd been able to answer all questions but one. Since she had a perfectionist nature, it really bothered her that she couldn't answer one.

Tayoung hummed and tapped her finger next to the correct answer on her paper. Lauren for awhile pretended to not see, fighting with herself. She'd never cheated before and really disapproved of it. With a sheepish smile, she eventually gave in and copied the answer. Then they both flipped their answer sheets upside down so nobody could cheat off of them.

Finished? she texted Kyungsan under the cover of her desk.

Kyungsan had finished his test after five minutes of the allotted hour. He flipped over his sheet, not liking to give any of his less intelligent classmates a chance to do as well as him. Then he kicked his feet up on another students chair and leaned the legs of his own back so he was reclining. He was resting his hands on his stomach and napping when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He grinned a crooked, warm smile as he read Lauren's message.

Yeah. Beat you again :p he messaged back.

No you didn't. I was just making you think that! she lied.

After the final bell rang, the students turned in their tests to the teachers and said goodbye to them. Then Yoogeun, Tayoung, Lauren, Kyungsan, Mason, and Karin met with some others for a big party at a restaurant to celebrate the end of the year and graduation for some. They were eating meat though they couldn't drink soju so they settled for soda. They laughed a lot as they played games and fed each other punishment wraps.

Some people gave speeches. There were bangs on the glasses as the classmates said, “Class rep, speech, speech, speech!” Because everybody was insistent and noisy, Lauren stood up despite her embarrassment. She was graceful and looked elegant and beatiful even in a sweater, jeans and a ponytail. Her presence commanded the room naturally and Kyungsan just looked up at her with pride and admiration.

“Well...um, so we finished school today,” Lauren gave an awkward giggle that made everybody laugh.

“It's sad to say that today will be the last day we see each other. I'm sure we will meet again in the future but things just won't be the same. Some of us are going to college, others are leaving the country to study abroad, others will be trying to work. We all have chosen different paths that suit us. We've become adults...”

There were some shouts, whoops and wolf-howls. Lauren laughed and joked, “Well, most of us have gotten older.”

She looked at Kyungsan who had hit her leg. She gave him a soft smile and ruffled his hair affectionately. There were some whistles and surprised voices all around. Lauren brushed off their insistence for a public kiss with a frantic wave and shake of her head.

Then she got serious again with a small smile. “We've grown a lot together. We're not babies, nor toddlers, nor even teenagers. We can make our own decisions, be responsible and we don't need to rely on our parents for everything anymore. This is a privilege we have earned and I'm proud of all of you. Go out in the real world and leave your marks. We can do it. Just like we managed to get this far. We made it through the hell of high school, guys. We really did it!”

There were claps all around and then a cheer to the graduated students. The party went on late through the night at various locations, no alcohol necessary. They were drunk on the happy feeling of living and becoming accomplished.