“Let’s not stop until we’re stars, shining and high up in the sky.”   <:>      We’ve always shared one dream: to stand on stage in unison with the audience and fans.  Of course, it was easier said than done; the path to stardom was almost impossibly difficult.  There were more failures than successes over the years.  Often, I succumbed to utter despair and wanted to give up and leave everything behind.      I didn’t, though.  I couldn’t.      Jieun and I had promised each other to achieve our dreams no matter how long it took or how perilous the process was.  I had to be there to support her during times of struggle, and her for me as well.      But when Jieun debuted earlier than me, our dream began to crack.  I was engulfed in devastation, and most importantly, envy.  She gave me words of comfort—the usual “it will be your time soon, Myungsoo” and “I hope we can stand on stage together one day”—with traces of guilt evident in her voice.  That guilt, however, felt like sympathy.  I knew, somewhere deep down in my heart, that it was not her intention to do so, but being the sore ‘loser’ that I deemed myself to be, her sincerity looked like mere pretense.      I eventually stopped contacting Jieun.  She was busy with album promotions, anyway, so it didn’t even seem to matter to her in the slightest.      After going about on our own separate ways, I realized that time doesn’t wait for anyone.  I wasn’t an exception.  In the blink of an eye, two years went by.      I thought of Jieun sometimes, but really, I was really too busy to do anything besides that.  The hard work and effort that I poured in became fruit soon enough, and I was able to debut as L, the visual and vocal of a boy group called Infinite.      When I was a trainee, I had thought that once I was an official star, everything would be a piece of cake.  I believed that all I had to do was sit back and take in the cheers and spotlight that fans would offer.      Well, I was dead wrong.      Nothing was easier—if not worse.  No matter how hard Infinite worked, we were ‘just another rookie’ out of plenty others.  Honestly, I wasn’t sure if we were any more special or talented than the rest of the robot-like trained idols out there.       I guess some things did change, though.  While my previous goal was a successful debut, my current one was to get recognized by the public.  In other words, I desperately wanted fame.      “Things will get through soon,” our president told us every single day.  “You’re all still rookies.  There will be a time for you guys to shine.”      The seven of us Infinite cheered, but I knew that none of us actually believed in such hope.  We were all just waiting for luck.   <:>      One afternoon during the summer, I received a call from none other than Lee Jieun.  I was fairly surprised—I never expected her to call me first, though it wasn’t like I had planned on contacting her in the first place.  While hesitating to pick up or not, I was overwhelmed by unanswered questions: “Why did she call me?  What made her think of me?  What can she possibly want?  What will she say to me?  What will I say to her?”  Deciding that I would rather get the answers myself, I accepted her call.      “Uh, hello?” I said in an awkward tone, as if I didn’t know who was calling.      It took a few moments before I heard a response.  “Myungsoo.”      Unintentionally, I flinched.  It was partly because I hadn’t been called by my real name in a while, but for the most part, Jieun’s voice had a strange impact on me.  It suddenly felt as if I hadn’t heard from her in an eternity—well, it was somewhat true—and I realized that I missed her.      “Hey…Jieun,” I replied, choking down a ball of emotions back down my throat.  “How…how have you been?”      Without addressing my question, she blurted out, “Myungsoo, do you remember the promise we made with each other?”      “What pr—”  It took me a moment or two before the faint memory dawned upon me.  “Oh, yeah, the promise.  I remember.  Why do you ask?”      I then sensed a sort of hesitation on her side of the call.  I figured that she was going to say or ask something of great importance, so I patiently waited.  Finally, she asked in a low voice, “Are you going to keep that promise?”      I frowned.  I knew the answer to the question immediately, and I knew that she did, too.  But, I had this strange feeling that she wanted something different.  “What do you mean, Jieun?”      “…Well, uh…” She paused, probably considering if she should just stop.  She asked anyway.  “Would you still do anything to become stars and achieve our lifelong dream?”      My answer remained unchanged and firm.  “Of course.  Wouldn’t you?”      Her silence seemed to scream at me.      After a while, she whispered, “Yes, of course.  Of course…” Without saying anything else, Jieun then ended the call, leaving behind a trail of mechanized beeps on the line.      I threw my cell phone aside, crashed on to my bed, and closed my eyes.  I began to think, “Why did she ask me that?  Was something wrong?”  I recalled hearing from somewhere that Jieun’s first album had almost completely failed—though she started out ahead of me, we were in pretty much the same situation.  At some point, I was relieved by the news; I just refused to believe that I was so cruel.  I reminded myself that I should call her to apologize and to make up for the time we had lost together—after all, we were in a serious relationship in the past—but I didn’t.      I was too tired.   <:>      I was even more surprised when Jieun called me once more two or three days later.  I guessed that she was going through difficult times and that I was the only person she could turn to for support.      “Hey,” I answered.  “It’s you again.”      I had expected a calm reply or maybe even a giggle or two.  What I didn’t expect, though, was a voice choking back sobs and despair.  “Myungsoo… Myungsoo…!”      For an instant, my mind completely blanked.  I found myself completely forgetting the resentment and jealousy that I had stored towards her as worry overtook me.  “J-Jieun, what’s wrong?  Why’re you crying?  Jieun!”      “I didn’t know wh-what else to do, M-Myungsoo… I just…”      “Damn it, Lee Jieun, where are you?”      “Home,” she whimpered. “I’m at home.”      “Don’t move one foot from where you are,” I told her, trying to be as calm as possible while I fumbled to get dressed.  “I’ll be there in ten—no, five minutes, okay?  Just stay still.”      Then, I began to sprint, began to run like I never have done before.      When I found myself at “home”—the old basement under LOEN that Jieun and I always snuck into during our trainee days—I was greeted by a complete mess.  Shards of glass lay around on the dirty floor, ragged curtains were torn, and frames containing our photos were turned.  It was only after switching on the flickering lights that I could spot Jieun, curled up and hiding in a corner of the room.      “Hey… Jieun?”  I said quietly, slowly approaching her.  “What…what’s wrong?”      She didn’t look up or respond; instead, she continued to sob with her head buried in her knees.      I knelt before her.  “What happened?  Why are you like this?”  I tried to put my hands on her shoulders for consolation, but to my utter shock, Jieun pushed me away fiercely and let out a bloodcurdling scream.