Yonghwa sighed. He glanced at his watch for what seemed like the hundredth time, and tried to listen to what the emcee was saying but all he wanted to do was to go home and take a nice, warm shower.

“Please don’t do that, Yong. The cameraman is coming over- I don’t want them to catch you looking bored.” His manager gritted his teeth and glared at him.

“Well, I don’t care – it’s all your fault for bringing me here in the first place! I told you I didn’t want to come here, until you said I was going to win an award.” Yonghwa hissed. “There’s like only the Grand Award left now – and do you think I can win it?”

“Well- it’s not impossible.” His manager grinned and excitedly rubbed his hands together. “You got nominated for it! There’s a possibility.”

“I’m probably gonna lose it to him.” Yonghwa glared at the guy sitting smugly with his hands crossed at the table in front of him.

“Who?” His manager followed his line of concentration. “Oh. Cho Kyuhyun? He’s the big thing this year.”

Yonghwa’s blood boiled. He hated Kyuhyun with every cell of his body, simply because he had tried so hard and had yet to surpass him. He longed for the day where he could overtake Cho Kyuhyun, and take his place as the first male solo star in the whole of Korea.

“And to think we used to be best friends.” He whispered to himself.

*

Flashback:

(Yonghwa is 15 and Kyuhyun is 16)

“Hyung- it’s finally time!” Yonghwa gestured excitedly at the laptop screen in front of him.

“Wae? What’s that?” Kyuhyun strained his eyes to look at the screen.

“I passed level one – I PASSED LEVEL ONE OF THE AUDITIONS!” Yonghwa screamed gleefully, and threw his arms around Kyuhyun’s neck. “I CAN FINALLY BE A STAR!”

“Woah, calm down, kiddo.” Kyuhyun unwrapped Yonghwa from his body – and stepped closer to the laptop. “SMTOWN AUDITIONS?”

“Yeah! You didn’t hear about it?” Yonghwa snorted when Kyuhyun shook his head. “Been studying for your finals too much, eh? This is what’s been the buzz of the town – they say that only 15 people are allowed to advance to Level Two.” Yonghwa grinned. “And I'm one of them! One out of the thousands of people who auditioned!”

Yonghwa slammed the laptop screen and hastily packed his things. “I better tell omma now – she’ll be so proud of me. See you!”

As Yonghwa ran off, Kyuhyun took out his phone and typed “SMTOWN AUDITIONS” in the search bar. “Hmmm….”

*

“CHO KHUHYUN! CHO KYUHYUN!” The fans’ chants could be heard all over the stadium.

“JUNG YONGHWA! JUNG YONGHWA!” A faint but slowly increasing sound could be heard coming from somewhere, but it could never beat the chants from Kyuhyun’s fans.

“Hey, listen.” His manager nudged his arm. “You have fans here!”

Yonghwa rolled his eyes and jiggled his legs. He was getting impatient, and if the emcee didn’t announce the winner soon he swore that he would just get up and leave…..

Not that he was interested anyway. He knew he wasn’t going to win.

“And the winner of the Grand Award is…..”

Yonghwa leaned forward. Okay, maybe he was interested.

“JUNG YONGHWA! CONGRATULATIONS!”

Yonghwa sat there and froze for a moment. His heart stopped beating as confetti rained down on him and he was so shocked that he didn’t know what to do-

Until Kyuhyun turned around and gave me a death stare. Yonghwa got up to his knees, waved at the fans and gave Kyuhyun a grin while he passed by, remembering why he even was here in the first place.

*

“Unnie, look, Yonghwa oppa won!” Hana squealed.

“Okay, Hana. You have to go to sleep, now that you know who’s the winner.” Seohyun finished folding the last of the laundry sitting on the sofa and smacked Hana lightly on the thigh. “Go!”

“But Unnie, aren’t you happy?” Hana pouted.

Seohyun laughed. Her little sister could be too cute for words sometimes. “I don’t even know who this Yonghwa person is. You know I’m not interested in this stuff.”

“Yeah, yeah. All you know is how to study.” Hana muttered as she walked away. “I’m going to sleep with my Yonghwa poster!” she screamed happily and ran back to her room.

Seohyun smiled and shook her head. She picked up the remote and glanced at the screen – just when the cameras focused on Kyuhyun’s grim face. Her heart turned cold, and she quickly pressed the red button.

She hated to admit it, but it still hurt to look at his face.

*

It was chaos backstage. Celebrities were slowly coming up one by one to congratulate Yonghwa – celebrities that didn’t even give him more than a glance until today.

“Funny how people suddenly start being friendly to you only when you win the Grand Award.” His manager muttered. “Bootlickers.”

Yonghwa laughed. “Still feels good, especially when I look at the sore loser’s face.” He looked across the stage at Kyuhyun, whom had been going around with that grim face of his for ages. “Should I go over to gloat in his face or-“

“YOOOOOONG!” Someone threw herself at Yonghwa, grabbing him by his neck. “Looks like someone made it big tonight!”

“Get off me, Park Shin Hye.”

Shin Hye pulled herself away and gave him a naughty grin. “Why? Are you afraid that the paparazzi would come up with an article on how Jung Yonghwa and Park Shinhye got back together? Cos’ I don’t mind.”

“Another bootlicker.” His manager whispered into his ear and stalked off.

“Seems like that idiotic manager of yours still dislikes me, I presume.” Shin Hye observed. “Why can’t you listen to me? I’ve been telling you to change managers since we got together until we broke up-“

“You’re the one that needs to be changed.” Yonghwa gave her a playful poke in the ribs.

"Hey, we agreed that there would be no hard feelings when we broke off!"

"And we agreed that we wouldn't acknowledge each other in public, so why are you talking to me now?" Yonghwa smirked. "Is it because I'm no longer the unnoticed Jung Yonghwa, so you start to regret not continuing it with me?"

Shinhye stood there speechless as he walked off.

*

Seohyun sighed – she stared at the clock. 4:15am.

She rubbed her eyes and tried to focus – but she couldn’t. Her finals were in a week, and all she wanted to do was to get into a good university and get a good job. But her family was financially weak.  Ever since her father’s business went bankrupt, she had been losing things that she thought would last forever one by one – her father, who had to run, her mother, whom had died from a illness. She only had one thing left. Hana.

She even lost him. Whom she thought would be there for her, forever.

*

Flashback:

(Seohyun is 15 and Kyuhyun is 17)

Seohyun hesitantly stepped into the car with dried tears resting on her cheek. Kyuhyun put down the newspapers and turned to face her as she slammed the door after her.

“Seohyun, what in the world happened to –“

“I know.” Seohyun sat silently in the car, and fought the urge to cry. “I just found out yesterday night.”

“What would happen to your family now?” Kyuhyun asked.

Seohyun shrugged her shoulders. “My father’s gone.” Her voice wavered. “He ran and abandoned me with some money and Hana.”

"Are you.... okay?"

"I guess omma knew since a week ago." Seohyun's bottom lip trembled. "I should have known, the way she took that phone call and her face turned pale and she fell to the floor and-"

Kyuhyun leaned over and wrapped his arms around her. “Don’t cry.” He whispered as her body shook violently with sobs. "I'm still here. It's okay."

"All my friends have left me....." Seohyun buried herself in his chest. "I should've known. They liked my money, not me. Who's going to help me take care of Hana?"

“I’ll find a way to help you.” Kyuhyun whispered and held her even tighter.

Seohyun sobbed even harder. "I don't know what I'll do without you. Please don't ever leave me...."

"I won't."

*