Chapter Seven

Dream High school – a place where talented young individuals all over the country are trained to become mega superstars of the entertainment world; a school for the gorgeous, the prestigious, and the great.

And in front of such a magnificent school, stood a petite little girl, hardly breathing as she froze before the gate. The building remained just as brilliant as ever from when she last saw it, but now that it was swarmed with students each seemingly more dazzling than the other, what was already a radiating place seemed to radiate even stronger.

“Nervous?”

Haneul glanced up at Jongin, who smiled kindly down at her.

“Nervous.”

A pat on her shoulder, Jongin then gently led her inside the school. Ignoring the heads that was turned and the stares she was receiving, Haneul stared straight in front of her and focused on her breathing.

Everything went by in a blur. Before she even felt like she was ready, Haneul found herself standing in front of the class, blurs of faces staring back at her curiously.

“My name is Go Haneul,” Haneul bowed to the class, her voice soft, “Nice to meet you all.”

“Welcome to Dream High school, Haneul,” the teacher nodded her head, “There’s a seat at the back, you can go sit there.”

Timidly, Haneul bowed her head and made her way towards the empty desk, keeping her eyes on the ground. She could feel their stares boring into her back, but she kept her eyes low and managed to slide into the seat.

Time flew by in a flurry. Before long, the bell signalling for lunch rang throughout the school, and as if a spell had been broken, students immediately jumped off their desks and began moving around.

Haneul, on the other hand, remained rooted in her seat as she found herself swarmed by a group of girls. Though each approached her with a friendly smile, but Haneul could almost sense the competition that was lurking beneath their easy-going façade.

“So, Haneul right?” A girl with wavy brown that seemed to be the leader of the pack spoke, “What’s your major?”

Haneul cowered a little, “A-Acting.”

“Oh, cool, I’m in the acting major as well,” the girl smiled and reached out one hand, “My name’s Bae Suji, but you can call me Suzy.”

“Hi Suzy,” Haneul timidly returned Suzy’s handshake.

“So what experiences have you had?” Suzy flicked her hair back, clearly interested. Her friends surrounding her also perked up, ready to seize up the new girl in front of them.

“U-Uhm…” Haneul trailed off, feeling herself growing smaller and smaller, “None.”

A flicker of surprise crossed Suzy’s expression. “None?”

By now, Haneul was speaking so softly she could barely hear herself, “None.”

“Oh,” Suzy trailed off and exchanged looks with the other girls, “I see.”

A moment of pause.

“But that’s alright,” Suzy let out a cheerful laugh and moved away from Haneul’s table, ready to leave now that she knows what she needs to know about the new girl, “You can just start gathering experiences from now.”

“T-Thank you.”

“No worries. Well, I’ll catch you later,” Waving her fingers at Haneul, Suzy sauntered away with her group of friends following behind her. As soon as the group moved away, one of her friends immediately leaned in to Suzy and snickered.

“She has no experiences? Then how did she get into this school?”

“I’ve heard that she came into school today with Kim Jongin,” Another spoke up, “She probably got in through connections.”

“Kim Jongin!?” There were looks of mild shock, “you mean that CEO from Sky Entertainment? Woah, then she’s going to be some big competition-“

“-just having connections won’t get you anywhere.”

The group fell silent as Suzy spoke up. Despite the girl’s soft features, her voice was as hard as stone.

“These kind of people pisses me off the most. The kind with no talent but still expect to get somewhere in the industry just because they have connections,” Suzy paused in her heated speech before she let out a sigh and her usual angelic smile returned to her face.

“Well, it doesn’t matter,” Suzy waved off the matter breezily, “Time will prove everything.”

Taking one last look back at the new girl, Suzy scoffed and walked away.

On the other hand, Haneul was still rooted in her spot. The daunting encounter with the girls had scared her more or less, and Haneul would imagine that there would be more daunting encounters to come in the next few years. Resting her cheeks on the surface of the desk, Haneul sighed and wanted nothing more than to melt into thin air.

“They were a bit scary, weren’t they?”

Jolting upwards, Haneul stared wide-eyed at the boy sitting next to her. With large eyes and lips that curved upwards into the shape of a heart, he was undeniably good-looking. Though he seemed like a nice person, but then again, Bae Suzy also seemed like a nice person.

Haneul was starting to understand that in the world of Dream High school, you can never judge a person by its cover.  

“I’m Do Kyungsoo, nice meeting you,” Seeing how Haneul wasn’t about to speak anytime soon, Kyungsoo spoke instead of her. Flashing her a bright smile, he reached out a hand for a handshake.

Her lips wavering into a smile that wasn’t exactly a smile, Haneul lightly tapped Kyungsoo’s hand before dropping it abruptly. Kyungsoo paused, surprised at the girl’s stiff body contact before he burst out laughing.

“Hey, hey, I’m not some bad guy,” Kyungsoo wiped tears away from his eyes, “there’s no need to be scared of me.”

“I-I’m not scared of you.”

Kyungsoo chuckled, “Sure you aren’t.”

Biting her lips, Haneul cleared and glanced away from the boy, her face blaring red. She was never the type of girl who understood how to interact with others – she never had the chance to. Not when eyeing her every move was her grandfather, almost as if he was afraid that something would happen to Haneul; that she would meet people she shouldn’t meet and do things she shouldn’t do.

Haneul used to imagine how life would be like if she could break free from her grandfather’s protective eyes. How it would feel like if she could hang out with friends after school, going to a small coffee shop in town or hanging outside for as long as she wished.

But now that she was actually freed from that bond, it left Haneul…clueless. It left her absolutely clueless on how she should survive in this world alone, how she should continue living on without the protection and security she received from her grandfather.

And especially now, with her enrolled into a big superstar high school in Seoul and sitting next to a boy who was still chuckling at her, Haneul had absolutely no idea how to survive in this situation.

“Anyway,” Kyungsoo continued speaking, oblivious to Haneul’s wish for him to just leave her alone, “how are you finding this school so far?”

Haneul fidgeted with her fingers, “It’s alright.”

“Just alright?” Kyungsoo raised eyebrow, “but then I guess you’ve only had Math and English classes so far. Just wait until it’s time for your major classes next period, they’re the best.”

Kyungsoo paused a little, “You’re in the acting major, am I right?”

Haneul nodded her head in reply.

“I’ve heard that it’s really hard getting into the acting major,” Kyungsoo flashed her another one of his brilliant smiles, “you must be really talented.”

Haneul grew silent. Was she talented?

Honestly speaking, she probably wasn’t. But not wanting to say anything more in the matter, Haneul changed the topic.

“You’re not in the acting major?”

“Unfortunately not,” Kyungsoo chuckled, “I’m in the singing major.”

“Oh…”

Singing major… The thought of the major left a bitter taste in Haneul’s mouth, If Bakehyun was enrolled in this school, he would probably be in the singing major as well.

“Anyway, why are you just sitting here? Shouldn’t you go look around the school?”

“Look around…the school?”

“Yeah,” Smiling widely, Kyungsoo jumped up from his seat and grabbed Haneul’s hand, pulling her up along with him, “C’mon, I’ll give you a tour around Dream High school.”

Dream high school was indeed spectacular. The main classrooms were already dazzling enough, but what really stunned Haneul was the advanced major department buildings. With each department separated by different coloured buildings, they stood proudly and eye-catchingly on their ground, seemingly vying to outshine each other.

Pausing in their footsteps, the two stopped outside the buildings. Heaving a proud sigh, a smile graced Kyungsoo’s lips.

“They’re magnificent, aren’t they?” Kyungsoo commented admiringly, turning a head to Haneul. His smile only widened when he saw the awestruck expression on the girl’s face and shaking his head with a soft chuckle, Kyungsoo left the girl to continue being awestruck.

“The red building over there is the acting major department,” Kyungsoo directed his finger to the utmost left building, “and the blue one in the middle is the dancing department.”

“And the yellow one…?”

“That one’s my major. The singing department.”

Haneul nodded her head in response, her eyes still drawn to the three buildings. Finally, she tore her attention away from them and glanced up to Kyungsoo, who was looking down at her with an amused smile on his face.

“Looked e