Korea National University of Arts. Still a relatively young institute having only been opened in 1993 with the School of Music. Following that, a new school was opened each year; the School of Drama in 1994, the School of Film, TV & Media in 1995, the School of Dance in 1996, the School of Visual Arts in 1997, and finally the School of Korean Traditional Arts in 1998. It was the first institute of its kind in Korea; solely dedicated to the cultivation of the arts. Some of these programs were the first ever in existence in Korea, like the School of Dance being the first institution of higher education for dance. Since its conception, those gifted in the arts, finally having somewhere to develop their skills, have been flocking to K-Arts…

For the past 3 years, Kwon Boa has been perfecting her dance techniques within the walls of K-Arts. She had been taking dance since she could walk; ballet, modern, jazz, tap, hip-hop... When she was happy she danced. When she was sad she danced. Even when she was angry or frustrated, dance was her release. So naturally, she chose dance as her major. She didn’t even think twice, it was… part of her being. Even though she had her musical talents too, they were more like a hobby that she would participate in when she had the time. It was surprising that she even had time for anything else since she spent every waking second practicing.

But now that she was entering her 4^th year at K-Arts, the pressure was starting to get to her. It just didn’t feel the same anymore. Expectations were high and she knew she needed to do well if she was to get into the University of California, Berkeley graduate dance program. Dance used to be the one thing that would make her feel better when she was upset. But now… now it was the thing that made her worry and gave her the most anxiety. She was frustrated. Frustrated that no one was taking things as seriously as she was. And yet, no one was giving her any room to breathe.

“Why is everyone looking to me? Can’t I just dance without any purpose or expectations? Maybe I shouldn’t have chosen dance as my major… I… I don’t know if it still makes me happy…”

It was the first day of the term and spring was just around the corner to greet the students. The campus was particularly buzzing on this day. It had been a while since Boa could remember the campus being this filled with excitement. Actually, she had been waiting for a month for this day… Since the encounter that day during the break… That girl… That mysterious girl… Boa had been waiting for this day in hopes of meeting that girl again.

She wasn’t quite sure what it was about the girl but Boa was already captivated. She knew nothing, absolutely nothing about this girl and yet the music that came from the girl had Boa wanting to know more about the girl desperately. There was so much character in that one piece; bright and cheerful, yet innocent and vulnerable. It was like listening to the laughter of a little child who was playing; something so infectious that it would melt anyone’s heart. And when she saw the girl, Boa’s heart fluttered a little.

“I don’t know if I believe in love at first sight… Love… It’s a very strong word and shouldn’t be thrown around easily. But… I’m certainly drawn to this girl… I think… I don’t even know why…”

“Unnie, I’m going to have to leave you now. My department is at the other end of the campus,” Soojung told her sister as she gave the older one a hug. “Did you bring the phone I asked mom and dad to get you?”

Sooyeon nodded her head slowly and pulled out the phone from her jacket pocket. “Why? I don’t need it…”

“Just in case…” the younger Jung replied.

“But who am I-“ the elder Jung started to whine.

“For me, okay? So I can text you when I miss you. So I can find you when I need to,” Soojung said trying to persuade her sister to stop questioning the phone.

Sooyeon gave her little sister a smile and a peck on the cheek. “If that’s the case, I’d expect you to text me non-stop.”

“Arasso, unnie. Get ready for some intense spamming,” Soojung giggled. “Now I really have to go… Don’t want to be late for classes on the first day.”

Sooyeon held onto Soojung’s hand firmly and let out a soft whimper.

“I’ll come look for you the first chance I get, okay? I promise,” Soojung comforted her sister.

Sooyeon reluctantly let go of her baby sister’s hand.

“Do well, unnie… I see you later.” Soojung gave Sooyeon a soft kiss on the cheek and headed towards the School of Drama building.

“I hope unnie will be alright… She seems extra clingy today… I wonder if something’s wrong…” Soojung thought to herself.

She recalled the last time they were on school grounds together, a month ago. When she found her sister after her orientation session, Sooyeon was also behaving oddly but she didn’t know why nor did her sister wanted to tell her why. She didn’t worry for too long because she had managed to lift Sooyeon’s spirit easily.

Soojung often worried about her elder sister. Sooyeon was a sensitive soul and had strong emotions. However, she had trouble expressing herself. Only a handful of people truly understood Sooyeon. Everyone else just saw her as a childish, snobbish, tantrum throwing spoilt brat who was full of herself. It didn’t help her case that she was talented without having to try too hard and she was beautiful; with sharp features, the body of a goddess and lushes hair that cascaded down her back, even though she never really gave her looks a second thought because it really didn’t matter to a pianist. But to those who were close to her namely her family and best friend, Miyoung, Sooyeon was just incapable of expressing herself accurately or at least conventionally.

When Sooyeon was a baby, her parents had a difficult time figuring her out. She cried a lot as a child whenever something upset her, regardless of how small the issue was. After Soojung was born, Sooyeon became really attached to her little sister. When they were old enough to communicate, Sooyeon would only ever go to Soojung whenever she had a problem. Sometimes it was hard on Soojung, especially since she was the younger of the two but Soojung didn’t mind. She was just as fond of her elder sister as her elder sister was of her. They were inextricable and as they grew older, Soojung became extremely protective of Sooyeon.

The only other thing that Sooyeon was ever fond of was music. When Sooyeon was 5, it was recommended to her parents to enroll her for music lessons to improve her language development. So they signed her up for piano lessons and Sooyeon took to the instrument like a fish in water. It came so naturally to her that even her parents were shocked. But they were relieved that she had finally found something that made her so happy. There were still days that she was upset by the end of the lesson but most of the time, she came home in a state of joy. Eventually, they also enrolled Soojung for piano lessons and found that both their daughters were gifted. Although, it was a little different between the two girls; Sooyeon had raw talent and poured all her emotions into the music whenever she played, whereas Soojung was diligent and worked hard to develop her skills and played with technical finesse.

Even though it helped a little, Sooyeon’s withdrawnness didn’t improve. However, there was nothing actually wrong with her developmentally. She did well in school and in fact, she was particularly strong in math and written language skills. So her parents decided to just let her be since there wasn’t anything really wrong with her, just that she was really shy.

Soojung was still thinking about her sister as she was hurrying to classes when she suddenly walked into someone by accident causing her to drop the books that she held in her hands. She bowed apologetically at the stranger but she didn’t really bother to look at whomever she had bumped into. She leaned down to pick up her books but the stranger got to them even before she did.

“Here you go…” The stranger handed the books over to her.

Soojung finally looked up to meet the stranger’s eyes.

“Oh...! It’s that student from orientation…”

“Uhm… Th-Thank you…” Soojung said as she accepted the books from the stranger, their hand briefly brushing against each other.

It caught Soojung by surprise causing her to drop her books again. She quickly bent back down to pick up the books yet again but so did the stranger. Unfortunately, this caused them to bump heads. Soojung rubbed her head in pain whilst the stranger just laughed.

“Are you always this big of a klutz?” the stranger asked as a joke.

“Uhm… N-NO!” Soojung answered indignantly, partly because she was embarrassed and partly because she thought it was rude of a stranger to make such a statement.

“Sorry… I was just kidding…” the stranger apologized, noticing that she had somehow offended Soojung.

“Whatever, I’m late… Sorry about all this…” Soojung bowed again to the stranger and ran off.

“Jung Sooyeon! Where do you think you’re going?” the loud voice of Hwang Miyoung echoed throughout the hallway where her best friend was walking.

Sooyeon stopped short and whirled her head around to look for her best friend. The next thing she knew, she was tackled unexpectedly and caught in a bear hug, by Miyoung of course. If it was anyone else, Sooyeon would have probably gotten a heart attack but she was used to Miyoung being overly expressive with her affection. Sooyeon patted her best friend on the back, glad to see her too.

“Where’s Soojung? Miyoung asked once she finally let Sooyeon go.

“Class…” Sooyeon gave a simple, one-worded reply.

“Do you have class this period?”

“No, next…”

“Me too! Where were you headed?”

“Uhm… nowhere…?” Sooyeon mumbled.

“Come with me… I want to show you something!” Miyoung said excitedly.

“Huh?”

“Come on!” Miyoung didn’t bother explaining further. She just grabbed Sooyeon by the hand and dragged her along.

Miyoung brought her best friend across the building and up to the bridge that connected the School of Music and the School of Dance buildings. Then she stopped and pointed outwards towards the corner of the building that they were facing.

“Check it out!” Miyoung told Sooyeon.

“What?” Sooyeon asked perplexed at what her best friend could possibly be so excited about.

“Look! Over there… can’t you see it?” This time Miyoung used her hands to physically turn Sooyeon’s head towards what she wanted her best friend to see.

Sooyeon looked into the distance and focused her eyes. Finally she caught sight of something that someone had drawn on the pavement at the corner of the building. It was impressive. A 3D chalk art. But there was a slightly insidious feeling about the drawing.

Sooyeon turned back to Miyoung and gave her a worried smile.

“I know… It’s a little dark and tortured but it’s still amazing isn’t it?”

Sooyeon turned back to the drawing. “This person is hiding…” she muttered to herself.

“Hmmm? Hiding what?” Miyoung asked.

“Hiding behind a façade…”

“What are you talking about…?”

Just then, Miyoung spotted a familiar face down in the field, in the distance.

“Hey, Sooyeonie, I have to go! I’ll talk to you later, okay? Did you bring your phone today?”

Sooyeon nodded.

“Great. I’ll text you…” Miyoung told Sooyeon as she ran off.

It took quite a bit of effort but Miyoung finally managed to catch up to the familiar face she had spotted from the bridge.

“Hey! Taeyeon-ssi!” Miyoung called out.

Taeyeon turned around to see who it was. When she saw it was someone she didn’t recognize, her expression turned into puzzlement, wondering how the stranger knew her name.

“Don’t you remember me?” Miyoung asked when she saw Taeyeon looking at her with a confused expression. “A month ago, during the break, I asked you what you were drawing on the ground, you kept shushing me? Does it ring a bell?”

“Ahhh…” Taeyeon nodded her head but she didn’t sound like she cared all that much.

“It was you again, wasn’t it?” Miyoung asked.

“What?”

“That drawing… in the same spot… It was you wasn’t it?”

“And what if it was? Are you going to nag me again?”

“Uhm… no… I just wanted to tell you that I think it’s amazing…” Miyoung said shyly, feeling a little dejected that that was the image she had left from the other day.

“Oh… uhm… thanks,” Taeyeon replied with the same amount of embarrassment having mistaken Miyoung’s intentions. “Uhm… well… I’m headed to class,” she bowed.

“Hey!”

“Yes?”

“Uhm… my name is Miyoung. Hwang Miyoung, sophomore, music department,” Miyoung decided to introduce herself since she knew Taeyeon’s name but Taeyeon didn’t know hers.

Taeyeon hesitated for a second. Then she decided to walk up to Miyoung and held out her hand. “Kim Taeyeon, sophomore, visual arts department,” Taeyeon replied.

Miyoung smiled and shook Taeyeon’s hand as they both bowed to each other yet again.

“Well, I’ll see you around Hwang Miyoung… Have a good day…” Taeyeon greeted cooly as she walked off.

Miyoung just happily waved back towards Taeyeon who was already walking away.

“What was that about…?” Sooyeon wondered after her best friend ran off without an explanation. “Hmmm… now what? I have time to kill…”

Sooyeon decided to do the thing she usually did… Find a practice room and play…

She walked back to the music building and found an empty practice room. Some schools would require students to get the key for a practice room from a designated authority but at K-Arts, almost everything was state of the art. Students need only swipe their IDs and depending on your department and level of authority, facilities were readily available.

The moment she sat down, she took a deep breath and as she breathed out, she started playing. The fourth of Maurice Ravel’s five Miroirs, Alborada del gracioso or roughly translated to Dawn Song of the Jester. Dedicated to Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi, this piece includes many parts that mimics the sound of a Spanish guitar and the rhythm of a Spanish castanet. Never one to bother with the proper expression, she started off strong at fortissimo instead of mezzo forte, as if the sun was already up and shining instead of rising in the dawn. Nevertheless, she played with the intensity that was meant to reflect the complexity of the piece. A jester, in his façade, using wit and irony to mask the true meaning of his intents. She ended with the same intensity and she started the piece with.

“Everyone hides… but if you look closer you can see the truth…”

Sooyeon looked at the time and found that it was almost time for her to head off to class.

“First class of the year…” Sooyeon let out a sigh of content.

She turned the handle to the door but felt something heavy pushing against it, swinging the door open towards her unexpectedly. Then someone stumbled through the door.

Sooyeon’s eyes widened with shock. She had secretly been hoping to see this person once again since their first happenstance a month ago.

“S-s-sunbae…” Sooyeon let out.

“I’ve been looking for you…” was the first thing Boa said.

Everything in Sooyeon told her to run. She was too scared. Of what exacty, she wasn’t sure but she didn’t have the courage to face nor talk to this legendary sunbae whom she had heard so much about and had seen dance a few times during Sooyeon’s freshmen year at K-Arts.

“M-Me…?” Sooyeon couldn’t believe her ears. “Why? Why would she be looking for me?”

Boa was suddenly at a loss for words. “Why did I say that? What am I supposed to say now…?”

Sooyeon and Boa both stood staring at each other, awkwardly, unsure of what they should each say to each other.

Unexpectedly, it was Sooyeon who spoke first. “S-sorry, s-sunbae… I h-have to g-go to c-class…” She was still unable to get her stuttering under control. Sooyeon bowed and hurriedly tried to leave.

But when she had tried to walk past Boa, the sunbae caught the hoobae’s hand. “Wait…” Boa pulled Sooyeon back.

This time, Sooyeon couldn’t look at her sunbae directly. “W-Wae, s-s-sunbae-nim?”

“Uhm… I’m Kwon Boa, senior, dance department,” Boa felt a little foolish introducing herself as such but she didn’t know what else to say aside from wanting just another second with this girl.

“I-I know, sunbae…” Sooyeon replied. It seemed like her stuttering was getting slightly better.

“Oh, uhm… you do?”

Sooyeon only nodded. She tugged on her hand to see if the sunbae would let go but Boa held firm, not wanting to let the girl go.

“I-I really have to go, sunbae…” Sooyeon told the senior, her voice soft and barely audible.

“Just… just tell me your name…” Boa pleaded. She couldn’t let the girl go without at least knowing her name.

Sooyeon finally lifted her head again to look at Boa. She wasn’t expecting it but the older girl was staring back at her with what seemed like longing in her eyes.

Sooyeon chewed on her lip a little before answering. “S-Sooy-yeon…”

“Sooyeon…” Boa repeated the name. “Sooyeon…”

“S-sunbae, please… I have to g-go…”

No longer having any viable excuse to keep her, Boa had to let go of her. And the moment she did, Sooyeon ran, as fast as she could. She didn’t stop until she got to her classroom. She found a seat and collapsed into it, catching her breath.

She placed her hand on her chest, over her heart. She could feel her heart beating, no, it was pounding erratically against her chest.

“What… what is this? Why…?”

She clutched her chest. She knew it wasn’t because she ran because her breathing was now steady again. So that meant it had to be…

“Sunbae-nim…?”