CHAPTER FOUR

“Im YoonA! What are you doing? Don’t block the way of the lead actors!”

Tree YoonA moved away with some difficulty from the supposed to be the lead’s main stage as Mrs. Kim shouted rather annoyingly at her with a really loud voice. She pouted and soon grumbled some surely-not-good-words about how unfair she was being treated by her theater teacher. How could she not be like that? She thought that she was already good enough to be the lead actress after all of dedications that she had given to this theater club, and she as a sophomore, had the right to at least taste the payoff of her hard works to become the lead in this musical, once. But what did she get? Sadly, her teacher chose a junior instead of her to be the main star and she had to accept the reality that she, once again, had to be a tree. The sad life of Im YoonA, really.

She threw an envious look at the actor, who was still merely a junior that from her perspective, not really good enough to be one of the leads. She scoffed now and then as she observed the gestures of that junior who was in her eyes, still could not establish the right emotion for certain scenes.

“She surely is terrible. Her acting lacks a lot.” She said to the tree next to her. It’s Dongwoo, another pitiful soul that had a fate with creatures.

“At least, she’s better at singing than you. You always go off tune every time you sing.” He replied casually.

She clicked her tongue as a sign that she was annoyed by his response. She held back the urge to smack his head as she knew that the circumstances were really impossible for her to do so.

She stuck her head out of the tree’s hole and turned her head in his direction. “Do you want to see the new move of my Hapkido class and taste the kick fall upon your body?”

He swallowed nervously upon hearing her threat and hastily went deeper inside his hole to avoid her deadly-glare and pretended not hear anything as he whistled some random tunes.

“Just you wait and see, Dongdong. You will beg for forgiveness.”

“You and your temper. That’s why you don’t have a boyfriend until now. You are as scary as a thug.” He mumbled.

But she still could hear what he said. “What did you say? You really wanna die?” She said through her gritted teeth. Her anger already reached her crown and it could explode at any moment.

The lady luck was on Dongwoo’s side as Mrs. Kim announced that the practice would be halted for an hour. As soon as he heard that, he detached himself of the tree costume at once and run away to save his own life. He was fast enough that Im YoonA failed to arrest him.

Im YoonA tried to catch her breath after she had run after that Dino Dongwoo all over the school. He was too fast and she decided to call it a day because she was already too tired to continue her pursuit. She marked her way to the canteen to buy some drinks before she decided where she should go to. All of her best friends were busy with their own club; Xiumin and Lu Han with their soccer, Jonghyun with his band, and Kris with his basketball; so, she didn’t have many options. Leaving the canteen, she headed to somewhere her feet take her to, walking down the corridors with a bottle of cold water in her hand, which was already less than a half because she didn’t realize that she kept shoving the water into as she walked around.

She walked passed by the field where the soccer team and the cheerleading squad practice side by side; she could see Luhan and Xiumin there (being happy as always every time they played soccer), and also Yuri, Tiffany, and Bomi at the side of the field (being energetic as ever whenever they watched the soccer team practice). Then, she kept walking, and walked passed by the gym. She took a few steps back and pushed open the door, protruded her head, and looked around. The gym was fuller of people more than she expected; basketball team was there, and of course a couple of girls who were eyeing the boys with sparkling eyes. She was not going to blame them though, because one of the reasons she was here, was because that bunch of hot and attractive boys, even Kris looked so appealing. Don’t get her wrong, but it’s undeniable truth.

She entered the gym and made her way towards the bleachers. She took a seat on the upper level and began to observe her surroundings; those girls were busy fangirl-ing over the boys, whispering some predictable words, like handsome, cool, attractive, and many more adjectives that she could not clearly hear (not like she cared), and the basketball team that was practicing their three-point shooting (Kris was so awesome in this). She waved her hands when Kris turned around and saw her. He waved back and mouthed some words that seemed like ‘wait in there’ or ‘wait for me’ (she was not sure), but replied him with a big smile as she nodded her head, anyway. She could not stop smiling, even when Kris already turned around again and walked away, until she realized there were many pairs of eyes glaring at her, as if they were ready to eat her alive. There, she forgot that Kris had many scary fan girls.

Soon enough, Kris headed to where she sat at, did not forget to flash his charming smile to those girls in the middle of his way.

“Once a Casanova, always a Casanova.” She muttered, more to herself.

He climbed up a few rows, still with that smile spread over his face, and finally stopped at her row. He slid over the bleacher and took a seat right beside her.

“What are you doing in here? Don’t you have musical practice today?” He asked as he got hold of the bottle out of her grasp and drank it in one-shot.

“Being a tree doesn’t need any practices. I only have to stand there, aggressively blink my eyes several times, and sing lalala~ for less than fifteen seconds. That’s it. I hate Mrs. Kim, really.” She explained it to him. He chuckled as he looked at her cute pout at the end.

He ruffled her hair playfully before saying, “Don’t say that. She’s still your teacher.”

She took a moment to dishevel her hair that was messed up because of Kris’ naughty hand a moment ago. Then she started ranting again. “Do you know how many times already I’ve been a tree for these past two years? Do not try counting it.” She warned him even before he could move his fingers to calculate it. “I couldn’t even remember that. I’ve dedicated all of my life for this club. I’ve given my best, but what did I get? Nothing. I never taste the glory of being one of the leads, even for once. And you know what? Mrs. Kim preferred to choose that Junior who lacks in acting, but good at singing instead of me. No no no, she’s not that good at singing actually.” She corrected himself. “-She’s just so-so. She’s just overrated. You know, that Bae Suzy.”

“Oh! I know her! She’s cute. And pretty. And totally my type.” He exclaimed, then added a playful smirk at the end.

At this, she responded by sending an electric glare to his eyes for five seconds, before slapping his head lightly, in which he replied with the look that was rendered as ‘what? Did I say something wrong?’.

“Do you even remember the girl named Jessica? And please focus on me, Mr. Wu Yi Fan. Could you?”

He let out a few chuckles at YoonA’s sarcastic replies. “Okay, okay. I’m focus on you now.” He deliberately widened his eyes while looking at her attentively. “See?”

She just rolled her eyes at that. “So, it’s like that. I’m tired of being an outcast. Could Mrs. Kim give me more decent role? At least once?”

“She held an audition for certain roles beforehand, didn’t she?”

She just heaved a deep sigh and shook her head gently as an answer for his question. He slightly pursed his lips before going nearer to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She jerked a bit at the sudden movement, because of so many reasons she could not explain one by one, but then she just shrugged it off.

“Here, I’ll become your reliable Oppa for once. You can see me as a hypocrite or anything you want to call me, but just so you know, I want you to see this matter from different perspective.” He paused for a moment before continuing, “Yoong, you forget to see the bigger picture, don’t you? Don’t you think being in a musical means you’re working as a team, too? You’re on one team, so every single character is important. Besides, where in the world we could find a tree as pretty as you, huh? A tree isn’t just a tree when you’re at it.” He wiggled his eyebrows while looking at her teasingly.

She wanted to smile, but held back as much as she could because she had this pride, that she didn’t have any intention to let it down. She just elbowed him on the shoulder as a result of the embarrassment.

He pretended to be hurt, rubbing the spot she had just hit as he scrutinized his face. She stuck her tongue out at him, not buying his mediocre acting. He moved closer again and placed his hand on top of her head while saying, “So, my point is, don’t ever give up. Keep working hard and your dreams will come true eventually. Sometimes, big things come from small things, Yoong. I know you understand that, So, cheer up!” He ruffled her hair again, more affectionate this time.  

“Wah! How did I become so wise like this? Wah..”

She could not say anything as she was amazed at how mature and reliable he was. He never knew, that she really admired the way he handled this kind of things. In her eyes, he was really a good friend, a good brother, and a good man, whom others would look up to, appreciate, and admire. He never knew, that he was really perfect in her eyes.

“By the