I excitedly skipped up the stairs of the subway station, breathing in the smell of Boong Uh Bbangs (goldfish shaped hot red bean bread) warming the cold March air. I tightly grabbed onto my bag that had a notebook full of compositions. I looked around as I climbed up the last step. To my left, an elegant brick building proudly stood on a carefully trimmed land of grass, squeezed between forests of tall glass buildings. At the main entrance, there were thirty something people hovering with their sleek maroon colored school blazers and beige khakis/skirts. My heart thumped wildly at the sight of them.

‘I’m one of them now!!’ I thought.

I was officially one of the students at the Music and Arts Academy of Seoul.

***

Just a few weeks ago, I couldn’t even dream of going to this school. I am a lawyer’s daughter, which explains everything about me. I’ve never gotten below an A in my whole entire life and I won all the trophies that were within my reach. My dad expected me to be a lawyer like him and I worked hard to fulfill his dream…until I realized that it wasn’t my dream. My heart wanted to be a singer/song writer my whole life; I just had to realize it. I’ve never thought that singing and writing songs would be anything more than a hobby. But it was the only thing that made me truly happy, something that made me feel like myself. So, when I graduated middle school, instead of writing essays and entering more school related competitions to impress the math and science departments of private schools, I secretly auditioned for the Music and Arts Academy of Seoul.

“What??? Music?? You want to be a musician??” My father was enraged when I first told him. He pronounced the word musician as if he was saying the word hobo or stripper.

“Yes. I auditioned for the MAAS.” I calmly replied.

“Well, you are not going to be able to make it, young lady. Fortunately, I know the principal of that school from university. I will call him right now and tell him to kick you off the list, though I doubt that you even made it.”

“It’s too late, father. I got the acceptance letter this morning.” I handed him a neatly folded document.

He scoffed, “And how are you planning on attending that damn clown school without the tuition paid?”

“I received full scholarship from the school. I placed first in my category. Please, please let me pursue my dream, dad…”

After a week of convincing, he finally gave in.

***

I quickly crossed the road and headed towards the crowds of people squeezing through the main entrance. I could tell the first years apart from the crowd. Our hairs were black or dark brown with the typical student hair cut. Our uniforms were rather loose. The pants were long and baggy and the skirts covered our knees. The second and third years had colourful hair; sandy blond to bright blue to something a unicorn might’ve puked out. Their tight fitting pants slightly revealed their ankles and their skirts were as short as the ones in manga and anime, showing their thighs covered in goose bumps due to the icy weather. I tried to picture myself with light blond hair and thigh revealing skirts and shivered. I still had problems trying to step out of my old geeky reserved self.

As I stepped into the school grounds, I felt cleansed. It was a fresh start. My cheeks turned pink with excitement and anxiety. The school felt alive. Almost everyone had something like a guitar or violin case on their backs stating what they majored in. The general aura was more like a university than a high school but it was still full of hormone and potential crazy students.

After a few pushes and pulls from the crowd, I somehow ended up at the assembly hall in the school building where the start of the school year ceremony was going to be held. I went to an empty seat and waited for the ceremony to start. As the principal made his way across the stage, a girl slumped down beside me. She was panting.

‘Wow, late on the first day…’ I thought.

“I know what you’re thinking. Woah that is late on the first day!!” she giggled, “My name is Yeona. Nice to meet ya^^”

I stared at her wide eyed. Did she just read my mind? I managed to get a hold of her hand and shake.

“My name is Ara. Nice to meet you, too.” I mumbled.

“Oh I love your expression, haha!” She laughed. And it was infectious. I couldn’t stop myself from giggling.

“I am so delighted to see these young musicians and artists full of potential and spirit!! I can ensure you that this year will be the best blah blah blah” The principal went on and on. He was very energetic for a 50 something year old man.

He talked for another 20 minutes until he mentioned scholarships.

“The top student from each major receives a full scholarship and I am honoured to introduce them. May the students who received full scholarship this year please stand up?”

What?? The last thing I wanted to do was stand up. That would mean going back to my geeky full-scholarship self again. Reluctantly, I stood up, biting my lips.

“You got full scholarship, too?” Yeona, standing tall beside me, asked.

‘Thank god!!!!’ I breathed. I brightly smiled in relief and nodded.

“What major?” She whispered.

“Singing/song writing.” I whispered back.

“Damn! I heard that the competition was the worse in that area because there were so many people who auditioned for it! Good for you!” She patted my back.

“Thanks, what about you?” I asked as we sat back down.

“Piano. I’m the decent child in the family.” She smirked, then her face lightened, “Oh then that means we are roommates!!”

“Uhhh…ok?” I was so confused.

“Oh, you don’t know much about this school, don’t you! Don’t worry; it’s unusual for a first year to know about this. Anyway, the full scholarship students automatically get paired up to be roommates because they don’t want to risk a smart one sharing a room with a lazy one and waste his/her precious talent. And since there are only two girls who placed first this year, we get to share a room!!”

She suddenly gave me a bear hug. Relieved that my roommate was not a psycho or a , or both, I wrapped my arms around her.

***

After the essembly, Yeona and I separated. I guessed that I wouldn’t be taking many classes with her because our majors were different. I stared at the extremely complicated map of our school as I walked. I only looked up when I felt my head bumping into something soft.

“Oh, sorry…” I apologized. In front of me stood a tall girl with sandy brown hair with blond high lights staring at me.

“You’re the full scholarship girl, right?” She raised an eyebrow.

‘, everyone knows who I am…’ I cursed internally.

“Yeeessssss…” I answered cautiously. I looked at her name tag. It said Solbi Lee.

She looked at the map in my hand.

“What’s your first class?” She asked.

“Oh…it’s…Music History class.” I read from my schedule at the bottom of the map.

“I know where that is. I’ll take you there.”

Solbi sunbae (a person with more experience, usually older) led me to the end of the now nearly empty hallway and down two flights of stairs. I thought we were going to walk down the hallway but she was on her way to another flight of stairs that was rather dark. Of course as a hoobae (a person with less experience, usually younger), I kept my mouth shut. I jumped over a step with a metal bar placed along the edge of the step. I looked to the side and the bar continued to stretch vertically on the wall that held a fenced door leaning against it. The latch on the other side of the door had a giant lock hooked to it.

‘She’s going to cage me…I’m going to be stuck in this dark basement and no one’s going to know…holy what am I-’

As I was mustering up enough courage to say something, I heard a pair of footsteps coming closer behind me.

“Hey, what the are you doing with the first year?” A voice deeper than this dark basement echoed.