“Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” A set of four-year-old twins runs towards Haerin’s bed as they shake her from her sleep, “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!” They keep exclaiming. Haerin groans from bed and pulls up the duvet to cover herself from the sun, “Dad! Dad! She’s not waking up!”

Soon, a man enters the room shaking his head. He picks up her daughters and glare at the sleeping female under the covers. A woman follows behind, “Jae, honey, is Haerin awake yet?” Eunhee asks as she walks to stand beside his husband. She looks at a lump on the bed.

“Mommy maybe Aunt Haerin’s dead!” One of the girls exclaim.

“Her stylist is already downstairs. It’s 2pm. She needs to get ready,” Eunhee says as she takes the twins from Jaejoong and leaves the room to the siblings.

Jaejoong sits on the side of the bed and taps the sleeping lump on the bed. He is quite aware that Haerin hasn’t gotten much sleep in the last eight months of shooting her film. It’s only been five years since she had graduated but Jaejoong feels as if his younger sister had caught up to his age because of her job. Nonetheless, he is still proud of her despite the constant stress and sleepless months. A year after she graduated, Haerin worked as an assistant to a director and working for the director, that’s how she made connections and met people and been given an opportunity to do her very first film, which is premiering tonight.

“Haerin,” Jaejoong calls, tapping her awake, “Come on. You have to get up. Your stylist is here, you still have to take a bath and put on that gown for tonight’s premiere, come on,” He pulls off the duvet from Haerin only to catch her with open eyes, but she’s not excited or happy, nor does she look like she had just woken up.

“Hae, are you okay?” He asks as she sits up from bed and looks at her brother, “Are you sick?” He asks, touching her forehead only to find out that her temperature is normal.

“Is my movie really premiering tonight?” She asks.

Jaejoong chuckles, “Hae, we’ve been over this.” He says as Haerin covers her face but Jaejoong can perfectly see her sister turning tomato red under her hands. He giggles and hugs his sister, “Your premiere night is going to be awesome. I’m so proud of you,” He embraces the nervous Haerin.

“What if I trip during the red carpet?” She mutters through hug.

“Well, that’s you, you know. You’re a klutz and self-embarrassment is your talent,” He jokes and she whacks her arms. They pull away from the hug and he pinches her nose, “Come on, get up and take a bath so your stylist can finally begin his work. The red carpet is at six o’clock, you can’t be late,”

Haerin nods and do as told. She prepares herself for the make-up session she’s about to have. She walks downstairs and meets the lovely twin daughters of her brother, giving them both a kiss as they follow her around. The twins stop running when the dress is settled on the body mannequin they had set up. It’s a dark red ball gown, with a laced top and a full dark red fluffy skirt. Haerin takes her mug of coffee and stares at the dress in awe.

“I thought it was going to be the white one? You know, the one that didn’t stand out much?” Haerin asks, sort of in panic. She did pick the dress beforehand and decided to go with a simple white dress, something very far from the gown she’s seeing now. Meanwhile the twins seem to enjoy the pretty glamorous dress as they play around the skirt, “It’s a movie premiere, not an award show?”

“I don’t know, I just brought what I was told to,” Her stylist says, “Anyway, let’s fix you up now. We still need to do your hair,”

“What?” She asks in confusion as the assistants take the mug from her and she is pushed down to sit on the chair right across three mirrors. On the table is loads of make-up and Haerin cannot believe she’s actually getting dolled up so much. They start applying foundation on her. Her phone rings and Jaejoong answers, putting it on speaker so Haerin can talk without having to press the gadget on her ears.

“Hello?” Haerin says with closed eyes.

“There’s my favorite!” A woman’s voice echoes through the phone. It’s her mentor and the director she worked for that taught her the things she needed to know about directing and helped her get to where she is now—Director Ahn Jiyoung, “So, are you prepping for the big premiere night tonight?” She teases through the phone.

“Currently being held captive to apply make-up on my face as we speak,” Haerin jokes and the rest chuckles at her, “What about you?”

“Currently being held captive to apply make-up, too. I guess we’re both dolls for tonight,” Director Ahn says through the phone, “Anyway, I just called to make sure you aren’t still sleeping. I’ll see you tonight, alright?”

“Okay. I’ll see you tonight,”

“And Haerin?”

“Yeah?”

“Good things are coming, I just know it,” Haerin couldn’t help but smile because of Director Ahn’s statement, “You’ve done a good job and I’m really happy to see you achieve this now,”

“Thank you Ms. Ahn. I really appreciate it. I couldn’t have done this without your help,” Haerin says, trying not to let her tears escape her eyes with full knowledge that make up is being applied on her face.

“Alright. No tears allowed. We’ll never get you done in time if you cry!” The stylist exclaims and the two directors just chuckle.

“Alright, I’ll see you tonight Director Ahn,”

“I’ll see you tonight Director Kim,”

Director Kim. Just a few years ago, she was Assistant Kim to Director Ahn. Haerin didn’t have it easy at all. Doors didn’t open themselves to get to where she is now. It took lots of rejections, screaming and a whole lot of reprimanding, too. Being in the media industry, she had received lots of criticism when she was just starting. Director Ahn used to be harsh to her; she called it tough love and gave Haerin lessons that she needs to learn if she wants to last in the field she chose.

It took her a while to get back on her feet after three of her stories were rejected to become a film. She thought it would take her long to be given a chance, not until Haerin wrote the script for 300 Hours. Once submitted, it was up for review and the next thing she knows, Director Ahn was going to direct it. But the senior director rejected the offer and instead suggested that Haerin does it. The board doubted and didn’t want to give her a shot as big as this, considering that she was just starting. But Director Ahn put all her faith in her, told the board they won’t be disappointed and now here is Haerin, preparing for her first ever premiere night for her first movie.

She didn’t see this coming, at least not this soon. She almost gave up; she almost wanted to quit when she thought this was not the world for her. But something kept her going. Something stopped her from slipping off the edge. Eight months of sleepless nights were all worth it. She finished her film in time and was given the support she needed to finish it. This, being her first major film, she put in all she could to make it perfect.

She’s here, doing what she wants to do in life and achieving greatness one after the other. Rough roads weren’t able to stop her and now she can finally tell herself that she is indeed strong. Being a rookie in the film industry, she always felt like the small one, but considering how she’s doing and learning from one lesson to another, she can definitely say that she can handle the industry better than she imagined. She just knows how to put everything to faith and belief that in everything she does, good fruit will grow out of it.

After getting her make-up and hair done, the stylist leads her upstairs to help her wear the red ball gown. Haerin can’t help but think how much it will draw attention because of the size of its skirt and the trail behind it. She’s so used to being behind the camera that being in front of it actually scares her. Once she has it on, she stands in front of the mirror and is surprised to see it look all right on her. Haerin hasn’t