Present Day

Sandara’s Apartment

      As a kid, the Choi’s were my only friends.

      The first time we had met, I was a five year old playing with a used Barbie doll on the kitchen isle while my mom was moping the floor. Hye Yoon had come in to get a glass of water, and invited me to play dress up with her and her brother. My doll wasn’t welcome as long as I played with them.

      Our dress up rules were simple: She was the queen, Seunghyun was the king and I was a fair maiden.

      In fairytales, a maiden would never be allowed to outdo her queen – not without her approval, or on the other hand, not without the fall of the evil queen. But my life was never a fairy tale, and in my eyes, Hye Yoon was never wicked.

      She was everything I wasn’t, and I was everything she wasn’t.

      I shouldn’t have abandoned my doll.

      The Queen was tainted by darkness.

      Still, she is my only best friend.

      Looking bellow me, it seems like I’m floating over an empty dance room. The light shyly threw glances from one mirror to the other, rays flirting secretly as an eastern looking man rubs his stubble, helplessly gazing at a beautiful long haired Burnette.

      “Why do you look so down, Coach?” the said girl jokingly smiles, her voice very close yet sounds as if its miles away. She leaves a small laugh at the end of her sentence, the sound of it triggering my chest to tighten.

      “It wasn’t easy, but we found out who jeopardized your shoes last semester.” He mutters in a heavy accent, breathing deeply as he shuffles around the room. The girl’s soft smile flatters a bit, but it slowly come back up.

      “This is good news then, isn’t it? Why do you look like you’re about to faint?” she forces out a high note of excitement. I notice her hands are intertwining into a weave of nerves behind her draped bag – it is not visible from where I view the scene, but I can feel her every movement as if it was my own.

      The man sighs. “I don’t think you’d want to know, Sandara.”

      Want to know what?

      What is going on? Why is he calling her by my name?

      “How bad could it possibly be?” she gulps, chuckling thickly. “I have always known it was Lee Chaerin. That girl is nothing but jealousy on legs, and frankly, I really wouldn’t have expected anything better from her-”

      “It was Choi Hye Yoon.” He cuts her off, looking at her straight in the eyes.

      My ears perk up at hearing her name and I divide my attention between the sorry man and the star struck… me, I guess. She stops talking, and after moments of deadly silence she replies shakily.

      “She told you Lee Chaerin did it, right?” she states pleadingly, her eyes as wide as a deer’s, forcing on a smile. “Why wouldn’t she come to me first, though?”

      “Sandara, she was the one who sabotaged your shoes.” He repeats slowly, coming closer to the retreating girl, her hands now curled around her mini-skirt as she shook her head.

      As if I was inside her mind, I can feel my own throat clenching and my hands shaking, my head dizzy as I try to understand what is going on. Why does it seem like Hye Yoon did something very bad to the girl called me.

      This is just a dream, I repeat in my head as the scene unfolds under me.

      Just a dream due to my stress.

      Like a movie, the dialogue doesn’t stop no matter how clogged up my head is.

      “I think you’re mistaken, Coach.” She laughs dryly, “I’m sure you’ve got the wrong person.”

      The man doesn’t say anything and keeps on approaching her, his eyes softening every second. When he tries to apologize, the girl yells in frustration. “No, this can’t be true. Hye Yoon is my best friend”

      “I’m sorry, but we have it on tape.”

      “No! She… She can’t – she wouldn’t do that to me,” she croaks, and I notice her eyes franticly looking around the tightening room, her hands curling until her knuckles turn lifeless white. “We grew up together, we shared a dream and - and she’s my best friend.”

      “Sandara dear,” the coach finally reaches the frantic girl and puts his hands on her shaking shoulders, sobs forced back into indistinguishable murmurs. “I’m so sorry to be breaking this down on you like this, and right at the beginning of the year as well. I’m also sorry it took this long.”

      She harshly shrugs his hands off her and fiercely rubs away her escaped tears, keeping her face as emotionless as possible. “No, I’m sorry Coach. I think you’ve got the wrong person. Unnie loves me, and she would never do what you accuse her of doing.”

      He sighs in annoyance this time and frails his arms in surrender, stepping back slowly. “Like I said, we have it on tape. I could show it to you, but I think it would be best if you hear it from her yourself.”

      “There is nothing to hear because nothing happened!” The young Sandara explodes, her voice cracking up. Somehow, I can feel her hesitation about what she had just said – she wasn’t so sure herself. “She’s my best friend,” she repeats shakily, “She’s my best fri