*school bell rings*

Kikwang was still fuming at Soyeon and Yoseob who tricked him twice, in a day.

“Hey, aren’t you going to the audition?” teased Yoseob.

“Yeah, yeah, shut up,” Kikwang said.

“Hey hold up, I’ll go with you,” Yonghwa said.

“Why?”

“Hey, as the ex-MC, I think I can give you a few pointers.”

Kikwang raised an eyebrow at him. “You do know I’m not actually planning to pass the audition right?” Kikwang said, before leaving for the audition. “You know, now that I think about it, it’s partly your fault that the audition is held in the first place,”

As soon as they arrived at the main hall, they noticed that there were quite a number of people gathered there.

“Wow, with this crowd, I’d have no trouble failing the audition,” joked Kikwang.

“Haha, we’ll see about that,”

The two walked around the hall while waiting for the audition to start. Kikwang then saw a group of ‘Dream High’ students, waiting for the audition as well. Kikwang stretched his neck to get a better view of the group.

“Oh? she’s not here,”

“Who are you looking for?” Yonghwa asked him.

“A friend of mine, but I guess she’s not auditioning,”

“Is this friend of yours, a real cutie?” asked a small voice from behind him.

“Ah, IU-ssi! You’re here after all!” Kikwang exclaimed.

“Haha, y-yes,” IU replied shyly.

“So I guess you’re here for the audition huh?” asked Kikwang.

“Ah, yes,”

“Great, so am I!”

“Oh? Then I guess we’ll be competing for the same spot then,” IU said sounding a bit sad.

“Haha, I guess we are,” laughed Kikwang. “But between you and me, I’m not really trying to get picked,”

“Ehem,” interrupted Yonghwa.

“Hmm? Why, do you have a sore throat?” asked Kikwang.

Yonghwa motioned something towards Kikwang.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah, I forgot,” Kikwang said, realizing Yonghwa’s message. “IU, this is Yonghwa,”

“Hi there, it’s nice to meet you,” Yonghwa said, flashing her one of his bright smiles.

“Nice to meet you too,” replied IU.

“You must be the girl he met during his ‘dummy face’ mode,” continued Yonghwa.

IU let out a small chuckle. “Is that what you call it? ‘dummy face’ mode?”

“He’s the one who named it,” replied Yonghwa, pointing towards Kikwang.

“Haih, just when I was about to forget about it,” sighed Kikwang. “Oh yeah, IU, how did you recognize me without the.. the scribbles..”

“I recognize your eye smile and hairstyle,” answered IU.

“Your height probably helped too,” added Yonghwa. “Let’s be honest, how many people in our school has a height of below 170 cm?”

“Ya! I’m well over 170 cm!” retorted Kikwang.

“Really? I find that hard to believe,” teased Yonghwa. Then the two began their cute little squabble for a while in front of IU. IU just laughed at their antics.

“You guys really look like fun to hang around with,” she said while laughing.

“Heh, this is nothing, wait till you meet the rest of our friends,” smiled Yonghwa.

“Oh? That’s a great idea! You should come and meet our friends,” Kikwang said. “But I have to warn you about Soyeon though, she’s a real witch,” whispered Kikwang.

“Haha, sure, I’m sure it’ll be fun,” agreed IU.

“TO ALL PARTICIPANTS, THE AUDITION WILL BEGIN IN 10 MINUTES” came the voice from the speaker.

“Oh? It’s nearly time,” said IU, “I’ll be going now,”

“Oh? Where are you going,” asked Kikwang.

“I’ll have to go back to my schoolmates you know,” chuckled IU.

“Oh right, haha,” laughed Kikwang. “Okay, good luck on your audition,”

IU waved the both of them goodbye before returning to her schoolmates.

“Oh!” Kikwang exclaimed suddenly.

“Why?” asked Yonghwa.

“I just remembered, I still owe her 500 won,”

***

“I wonder how Kikwang’s doing right now,” wondered Joon.

“Yeah, I feel bad about him though,” added Min.

“Well, if you feel so bad about him, then you go replace him,” Soyeon said simply.

“On second thought, it’s his fault for sleeping,” Joon quickly added.

“Aish, you guys are hopeless,” whined Yoseob. “Come on, me and Soyeon are gonna go watch him,”

Hyosung raised his eyebrow. “Oh? Did you have a change of heart?”

“What? No, we were planning on going in the first place,” replied Yoseob.

“Well, we got him in this mess in the first place, of course we were planning on going,” Soyeon said simply.

“Oh..? Seems our little witch has a heart after all,” joked Joon.

“Haha, really funny,” Soyeon said sarcastically.

Hyosung on the other hand, seems to be caught in two minds.

“What’s wrong, Hyosung?” asked Min.

“No-nothing,” answered Hyosung. “Come on, we should get going,”

The group went over to the school hall. On the way though, Soyeon walked over towards Hyosung. “Hyosung-ah, are you sure it’s okay for you to be missing your tuition like this?” she whispered.

“It’s okay, I’ll just tell my mom that I came down with a fever or something,” Hyosung said, forcing a smile.

“If you say so,” said Soyeon, a look of genuine worry for her friend on her face.

“Faster guys, we’re gonna miss the audition,” insisted Joon.

***

“Did you get a look on your number?” asked Yonghwa.

“Yeah, I got a good look at IU’s number as well,” Kikwang replied. “I’m number 28, and she’s number 15,”

“I guess, it’s because you registered a bit late,” Yonghwa said.

“Haih..” Kikwang sighed. “Guess we’re gonna be staying here for quite a while,”

“What do you mean we?” teased Yonghwa.

“Ya!” yelled Kikwang.

“You guys sure seem to be having a lot of fun,”

“Oh? Yoseob!” Kikwang exclaimed. “Guys! What are you doing here,”

“If you ask him, he’ll probably say that he was worried about you,” Soyeon said pointing at Yoseob. “But truthfully, we just want to see you fail,”

“Somehow, I have little trouble believing that,” replied Kikwang.

“Kikwang, when’s your turn?” asked Hyosung.

“Hmm? I’m number 28,”

“Oh, okay, what number is it now?”

“12, 13, I think?” answered Yonghwa.

“Oh? It’s number 13 already?” wondered Kikwang. “Guys, a friend of mine’s number 15, you should watch her,”

“Is this the girl you were talking about earlier? The one from ‘Dream High’?” Seohyun asked.

“Wow, that’s right!” Kikwang said brightly. “Didn’t expect you to remember that,”

“NUMBER 15, PLEASE COME UP ON THE STAGE” came the voice from the speaker.

“Oh? It’s her! Come on guys let’s watch her,” Kikwang motioned towards his friends.

***

“Please state your name and age,”

“A-ah, y-yes,” stuttered IU. “I’m Lee.. I mean, my name is Lee Jieun. I’m 18 years old,”

“Emm, ok, you can now read your script,”

“Y-yes,” stuttered IU. “Welcome, everyone to the annual-I meant 2011 annual ‘Ah my school’ music festival,” IU continued reading her script, stuttering every now and then. After she finished reading the first script card, she nervously tried to switch to the second card. Her hands however were trembling too much, that she accidentally dropped all of her cards.

IU was speechless at how fast it all happened. And when she saw the judges murmuring and scribbling at her mistake, she was reduced to tears…

***

“Is she okay? She looks nervous,” asked Joon.

“Dude, she’s getting absolutely murdered,” Yonghwa said.

“Yeah, I can see that,” Kikwang said, worried about his new found friend.

“Oh, no.. she dropped her cards,” Yoseob noticed. “This is bad,”

“Not if I can help it,” Kikwang said before jumping up from his seat, and bursting towards the stage head-on.

“That’s en-”

Kikwang took the judge’s mike on his way towards the stage. He then jumped straight onto the stage in front of IU.

“Kik-kikwang,” IU said, surprised by his sudden appearance.

Kikwang gave IU a small wink, before taking the mike to his mouth. “Ah, IU-ssi, that was really nice of you to feint nervousness to buy me sometime,” Kikwang said brightly. “I almost thought I couldn’t make it in time,”

“Huh?” said a very confused IU. Kikwang then motioned for her to bring her mike closer to .

“I especially like the mixing the cards bit! You made it looked so real that for a second I thought you really dropped your cards,” continued Kikwang.

Thankfully IU understood what was happening quickly. “O-of course! That was my special skill,”

“Ah yes, anyway IU-ssi, now that I’m here, let’s continue with the MC-ing.” Replied Kikwang.

They continued with their ‘on the spot’ MC-ing, cracking a few jokes here and there. IU regained her composure through Kikwang’s help and both of them performed quite well. By the end of their audition, the judges all had a smile on their face.

“Thank you, Lee Jieun-ssi and..?” The judge asked Kikwang his name.

“I’m Lee Kikwang, ‘waiting number’ 28,”

“Hmm.. Ok, Kikwang-ssi, I’ve already crossed out your name,”

Both IU and Kikwang were both surprised by the judge’s decision to cut off his name. “Wh-why?” IU asked the judge. “He was trying to help me!”

“IU-ssi, it’s okay,” Kikwang assured her. “I wanted to leave early anyways,”

“Oh? You can’t leave, you have to wait until the end of the audition,”

“Wh-what?” Kikwang said in disbelief.

“You heard me, I’ll be seeing you, both of you, after the audition,”

“Wait, she didn’t do anything wrong,” protested Kikwang. “If you’re gonna punish someone than punish me. I’m the one who took one of the judge’s mike and entered someone elses audition. I’m entirely at fault,”

The judge just gave both of them a light smile, before turning back towards the audition at hand.

***

“Jieun-ssi, Kikwang-ssi, please stand up on the stage,”

Both of them walked onto the stage, bracing themselves for the punishment that was about to follow.

“Okay, after a long discussion, we have decided that the both of you…” said the judge. “…will be our third and fourth MC during the music festival,”