Hi there, my name is Jessica Jung and I am on a mission. Ever since I entered high school back in March, I have known that it is my destiny to become the future wife of a certain Kim Taeyeon. Oh actually, I'm supposed to call her 'sunbae-nim' because she's one year ahead of me in school. It was a little difficult for me to get used to using honorifics and formal language to me when I first moved to Seoul from California a few years ago but I'm pretty much fluent now! People don't stare at my blonde hair as much as they did back then either. They must have gotten used to it and finally accepted me for who I am and who I am is a blonde.

Wait where was I...oh yes. Even though we had only met once previously and she had never acknowledged my existence since then, I still knew that the stars had ordained for us to be together.

Our first meeting had been a little rocky, but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed with my special Jessica-brand of love and care. It wasn't disastrous, but when my parents had introduced me to Taeyeon sunbae-nim as the daughter of one of their family friends, I was shy and had mumbled out a weak, "Annyeong, Taeyeon." My shyness wasn't the issue, rather, it was that I had used informal language to her even though she was older and it was just our first meeting! She seemed a little taken aback but brushed it off and returned my greeting. She left afterwards for what her parents called 'a prior engagement'. I knew that was code for 'she left because she had some cooler friends to hang out with' or something.

We have crossed paths in school a few times now but she never glances in my direction, let alone say hello to me. So why am I so keen on attracting the attention of a girl who doesn't seem to care about me at all? I want to show her that I've learned since I first came to Korea and know how to greet her properly now! And then we can go together hand-in-hand to each of our parents and ask for their blessings for our marriage, to which they will surely say yes.

Where does my confidence come from, you ask? Haha, that is because I have come across some deep insider knowledge. Kim Taeyeon has a huge weakness for gummy worms and that will be the key to my success.

Today, I have put together an assortment of gummy worms carefully packaged with my best artistic efforts, which were fairly passable, if I do say so myself. I then attached an envelope with my confession letter, which I had poured out my heart and soul and consulted multiple dictionaries and thesauruses to write. 

It would be too obvious if I walked into the second-year classrooms myself to place the package on her homeroom desk myself, so I sought the help of my friend Choi Sooyoung. Sooyoung's mother is Taeyeon sunbae-nim's homeroom and math teacher. I asked her to pretend to need to ask her mother some random question and along the way discreetly place my confession letter on the desk of my one true love.

All I have to do now is wait for the school day to be over and then sunbae-nim will realize her hidden feelings for me and come and sweep me off my feet and carry me away and...

The bell rang, and I hurried to pack up my books and head upstairs to the second-year hallway. I waited around the corner of the stairs since I was a little intimidated by all the upper-classmen walking around. After a few more minutes of waiting, I heard her voice coming, and she sounded like she was heading in my direction! I hurried to fix my school blazer and bowtie and also straighten out my uniform skirt.

"Man, can you believe these first years? Why would someone just leave an empty package of gummy worms on my desk? Couldn't they take it to the trash. Aish, seems like we're not getting any respect." That was definitely Taeyeon sunbae-nim! But! Why was the package empty? How could that be?

"Are you sure they did it on purpose? Maybe they just set it down for a moment and forgot." This voice was unfamiliar, but I guess it must have been a friend of sunbae's.

"Whatever, let's just get out of here. These underclassmen aren't worth worrying over. We gotta get to practice before coach chews our ears off." Just then Taeyeon sunbae-nim and her friend rounded the corner and passed me on the stairs. She didn't even turn back to look at me! It was like I was invisible, although it was just as well, since my confession seemed to have been ruined. I started walking back to the first-year classes to meet up with my friends so we could walk home together. Wait a minute. My friends. My friend. Choi Sooyoung.

I spotted her outside our classroom chatting to a few other students. When she turned and saw me standing by the stairs, her eyes opened wide and she turned around to run away from me. Oh hell no! I may be a terrible athlete and slow like a tortoise, but if there's one person I can outrun, it's Choi Sooyoung. I caught up to her before she could make her escape.

"Yah!! What happened to my confession?" I gave her my trademarked Ice PrincessTM glare.

"Omo-I'm sorry Sica! I promise to make it up to you! They just looked so inviting in that totally artistic personalized packaging and I hadn't had second breakfast and I really was going to give it to her but-" I sighed and decided to cut her off. It was no use arguing about it anyway since it was already done. See? I am a merciful goddess.

When I got home, I went straight to my room and slumped onto my bed. I pulled out my journal and opened it up.

Dear Diary, Sunbae-nim didn't notice me today...

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I hope you didn't think I'd give up so easily. No no, I know that our paths have been lain before us and that mine becomes intertwined with Taeyeon sunbae-nim's. That is why you can find me, on this lovely summer day, dressed in shorts and a sporty T-shirt with cleats on my feet. Yes you heard correctly; I am at school on the training field, here to try out for a position on the soccer team!

Bleh, lovely summer day, my . I can't stand this heat. I would give up anything to be back indoors under the protection on my beloved air-conditioning. Well, anything, that is, except for my future marriage plans with Kim Taeyeon. Also, just to be clear, the AC is my beloved, but Taeyeon sunbae-nim is my beloved-most. 

You see, although she is only a second-year, Taeyeon sunbae-nim is the captain of the school's soccer team! She had made it onto the team as a starter last year and was promoted to leadership just this past month! That's just one of the hundreds of thousands of reasons why she's so perfect. Despite her petite little cute body, she runs around the field like a pro and kicks the ball with such force and precision that some colleges were already scouting her!

As for me, well, it's pretty obvious why I'm here. I'm not trying to get a starting position or anything. Just please let me be good enough to be a bench-warmer! Accompanying me today is my good friend Yoona, or Yoong, as we call her. She's way more athletic than me and I think she may be here because she actually wants to be on the team.

"Sica-yah, are you sure you want to do this? Soccer is a pretty intense sport." Yoong was eyeing my with so much skepticism she her eyebrows were about to burst out of her head.

"Of course I'm sure! Why else would I be here?" I scoffed at her. How dare she. How dare she? Well, I don't blame her.

"Well I don't want to sound mean, but it's just that, I've never seen you do a single athletic thing ever! And we've been friends since you came from California at the beginning of middle school! Like, not only have I never seen you do something athletic, you even wore makeup for this tryout! Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Well of course I had to have makeup on. What if Taeyeon sunbae-nim noticed me? 

"Oh shush Yoona, it's not like I'm trying to fight for a spot on the first team. I'd be happy just being the water-girl." Sigh, how wonderful it would be, to walk up to Taeyeon sunbae-nim and hand her a cold bottle of water after she scores a goal and watch her take chug it down as she wipes the sweat from her brows. And then she would turn to me and hold my hands in her own and stare into my eyes. There would be no words exchanged between us, but we both knew that she had dedicated that goal to her one and only love, me.

I was rudely interrupted from my thoughts by a loud voice telling us to line up. Oh, it was the friend who was walking with Taeyeon sunbae-nim the other day. She was a tall girl with dark hair and a tanned body that had obviously been trained as an athlete.

"Ok recruits, listen up! My name is Kwon Yuri and I'm the vice captain of the team. I will be overseeing your tryouts today while the captain runs drills with the current players. There are twenty-two of you here today and we only have spots for two people on the first team. We will consider others for the second and practice teams as needed." Hm, maybe I have a chance on the practice team? And was it just my imagination or was Yoong standing up a little straighter than before?

"The first thing we're going to do is see how well you all can run. We'll start with a set of hell runs up and down the stadium steps and then I'm going to time you all in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash."

No no no no no no no! I'm screwed! I can't even make it past the first part of the tryouts. I felt Yoona's hand reach out to touch my arm reassuringly and felt a little better. She may make fun of me all the time, but she's there to support me always.

So as it turns out, hell doesn't even begin to describe our runs up and down the steps. I thought running on flat ground was difficult but this was just inhumane. Prisoners of war have been treated better than this! Obviously I was the slowest one and it was not by a close margin. I watched as the rest of the group waited for me at the bottom of the steps for me to finish my last round. Most of them looked to be laughing at me but at least Yoong was there to hold me up after I made it down. Still, I would do all of that one hundred more times to fulfill my predetermined role as Taeyeon sunbae-nim's future wife. We will make the stadium steps bow down to us in awe of our devotion to each other and then who will be laughing? Me, that's who!

We were then given a short break to get some water and recover before our sprints. Yoona went to ask Kwon sunbae some questions about the team or something so I was left by myself. I wasn't complaining though, because it gave me some time to admire the angel from my dreams in the adjacent field. She was coaching the starting team through some dribbling exercises but not only was she telling them what to do, she was showing them herself. I watched her criss-cross the ball through a line of orange cones with ease and then finally shoot it past the goalie on the other side and into the goal net. 

Will our children inherit her athletic abilities? I hoped they would but I knew I would love them unconditionally even if they turned out to be closer to me on the sporty-ness spectrum. Actually if they take after her in any way then I'm sure they will be just perfect and the envy of their school! Every day I'll wake up early to pack lunches for my gifts from heaven and send them off to school or work. I actually don't cook very well right now but...

It was a soccer ball. It was a soccer ball, and it came from the sky, and then it hit me. And then nothing.

I woke up in the nurse's office and when I forced my eyes open, I could see Yoona sitting beside me with a worried expression. She let out a sigh when she saw I was awake and hugged me tightly. Awh, this is why I let her tease me so much without spitting it back. Okay okay, I wasn't very good with comebacks so it's not like I had a choice.

"Oh Sica, I was so worried. Why did you let that ball hit you like that? It flew all the way from the other field; you should've had plenty of time to spot it. Were you spacing out again?"

"N-no! I just didn't see it is all!" I tried to defend myself, but felt a little weak. If only my Taeyeon in shining armor were here to take my side! Just then, I remembered why we were at school in the first place.