The bell had just rung. It was the signal that I was waiting for. The time where I can quickly go hide behind my books wearing a large and comfy sweater with a hot chocolate drink by my bed side. Thinking of my relaxation that's awaiting me back home, I quickly packed up my things and greeted my friends, Wendy and Irene, good-bye and headed for the door.

I almost completely forgot! Professor Leeteuk told me to drop by the music room to get the music sheets for the next school recital. I don't sing at all but Professor has been helping me with my scholarship for Seoul University. Helping him with errands is the least that I could do. 

I went back to the classroom and headed over to the teacher's desk where the music sheets are kept. Nobody's lingering inside the classroom after the bell rings. Most of them have school clubs or cram school. I can't do neither because I have to study on my own since I can't pay for cram school. Anyway, I took a moment to take in the picture of an empty classroom. It's seems so peaceful. How I wish it were like this when classes are on-going. It took me a couple of minutes before I realized that I have to get the music sheets to the music room, as the music club members might get mad. I took the sheets and quickly ran off to the music room. 

As I reached the door, I gave a gentle knock. After a few seconds, someone opened the door, scanned my face for a few seconds before letting out a squeal and grabbed my hands, making the papers fly over.

"She's perfect! She matches the description just as you said Professor!" Exclaimed a girl who was wearing a red turtleneck, a pair of white shorts and white sneakers, clearly not our school uniform. 

"She's a cute girl isn't she? Nobody notices because of her hair covering her face and her eyes always behind those huge glasses of hers. But lo and behold, a beauty worthy of the title princess." Said a man from inside the room. 

That voice, I recognize that voice! Isn't that the professor's voice? I asked that question over and over in my head but was then interrupted by the hands grabbing me and pulling me inside the room and closing the door behind me. I saw the professor inside, sitting on the teacher's desk and smiling gleefully at me while the female was jumping up and down in delight.

"Professor, what's going on? I thought this was the music room? I thought there was practice?" I asked, clearly confused at what's happening.

"Well, you see Seulgi. I have this habit of helping others who are in need. And today, I'm helping out a close friend of mine. Seulgi, meet Lee Soonkyu."

"Yah! I told you to call me Sunny! It ruins my cute image." 

" H-Hello there. I'm Kang Seulgi. I-It's a pleasure to meet you." I said timidly before reaching my hand out towards the female.

She flashed me a warm smile as she turned to me."I'm Sunny. I've been dying to meet you actually. Leeteuk has told me many things about you." She shook my hand and sat on one of the chairs while facing me.

"What exactly is going on here Professor?" I asked, looking at the both of them, confused.

"Well, you see Seulgi, I work in the entertainment industry and I'm scouting for the perfect girl to star in my new talents' new music video. I called your professor for help in case he would be able to recommend me someone who would be perfect for the role. This is where you come in, my dear." She said with a playful glint in her eye.

"Well, is there anyway I could help?"

Professor Leeteuk approached me and put his hands on my shoulders. "Her description clearly fits you perfectly and so I recommended you."

Sunny then spoke. "So, Miss Seulgi, how would you like to become a princess?"

"M-Me? A princess? What is going on Professor?!" I stammered slash exclaimed at the professor. I was a mere student living a normal life before this sudden glamour appeared and might actually take everything from my books to my hot coco away from me. I gave him a frowned expression. "You tricked me into going here?"

Professor Leeteuk just seemingly nods while smiling at me. "I actually already phone your mother about this.." The professor started.

"And she signed the contract without question!" Sunny beamed with her hands clasped together. "Quite frankly, you don't have a choice at this point."

"Can't I atleast think about this? I mean, first of all, I quite enjoy my happy life a normal person so how can you make sure that nothing will change after? And second, you didn't even clarify what I was supposed to do? I mean, a princess? I have no idea what you are talking about!"

"Here's the thing, dear. As I have said earlier, I'm looking for someone who fits the description of what my boss is looking for. Pretty girl, princess-looking, porcelain skin, beautiful eyes, about 160 - 165cm tall, petite and just overall gorgeous okay? I actually held auditions for this role but my stars, my darlings, keep rejecting those that I have chosen, saying that they are simply annoying fangirls who wants to get down with them. That's were your professor came in. I asked him for help, sent me a photo of you guys together, showed it to the boys and it was done. I just said we had to get you. Your professor called your mom last weekend about it and she agreed. We then met yesterday to finalize the contract, which by the way, she has already signed. Now all that is left is your signature and we are good to go."

"So you're asking me to take the role? I don't even know how to act or anything. Did the professor tell you that?"

"That's the thing. They prefer that you don't act and let your natural emotions flow. Trust us. We know what we're doing. So, do you agree?"

"I have a few more questions. Will I get paid?" I have to get money out of this if I was going to do this. "When will the shoot take place? And also, I don't want anyone finding out about me. I won't be recognized outside filming after the video is out right?"

"Yes you would. It'll be a hefty sum too! My company pays handsomely you know." She said with a wink. "That's the plan. We will have you unrecognized to be safe from fangirls. Oh and this isn't just one music video. There are plans to have a couple of music videos for the album release. Since there is a story that binds everything, you will be starring in all videos. We're actually thinking if we should just hire one girl to star in their music videos for all time so that it wouldn't be a hassle to us. It'll be easy to protect one girl from rabid fangirls, would create chemistry and rumors and both of them find you plain enough that they wouldn't end up trying to you up! It's a win-win for everyone. Shooting is this coming weekend."

"How exciting! You'll be the envy of every fan girl. So you have to be careful." Professor Leeteuk chimed in to the conversation. "Can I offer to be her manager? No fee required. Afterall, I got her into this. And besides, it'll be like seeing my own child growing up right before my very eyes."

Professor Leeteuk has been teaching and mentoring me ever since I was an elementary school student. I know I can trust him. I just can't believe he would set me up like this.

"Wait, If they find me 'plain enough' then why hire me? This doesn't make any sense."

"It's because they saw that photo of you when you were plain-old boring Seulgi. Wait till we transform you into a princess! That's the quality that you have. Okay, how many confessions have you had every month?" Asked Sunny.

"Well, I don't really get confessions. Nor do I care about getting any confession anyway. What's this got to do with the job?"

"Well, you see, you don't get any confessions because you don't make any effort to look more worthy of a confession. Like by simply tying up your hair so everyone can see your beautiful face! It would at least get you one, trust me. I've been there. Anyway, you would be able to get confessions if you were to look more presentable and lady-like than you already are. I'm saying that this transformation can boost that up. But, only during work hours. Can't have anyone recognizing you. So anyway, are there any more questions? I'm quite frankly enjoying this talk." She said with a grin.

"One last. Who will I be working with?"

"Ah, my dear. You will be working with a duo called 'Romeo' and actually, they already have a huge following from their previous survival competition controversy. Everyone expected the duo to win but it seemed like the final judges were paid to vote against the pair and crowned the now idol group, 'Sparkle' as the winner. You should know by now who I am pertaining to. They are the biggest news to hit Korea!"

Flustered because I was absolutely clueless, I shook my head. "I actually do not watch tv. I tend to read books all the time."

"What?! So you don't know SeKai of Survival School? Hmm. Interesting. This is quite exciting! I wonder how the boys would react. So then, will you take up the job offer?"

Hesitantly, I gave them a curt nod. "I'll do it." It wouldn't be that hard right? After all, it was just acting for music videos. A minor role. No one would focus on me as they would be focused on the boys of Romeo and the music. Of course, the music, that’s the whole point of this thing. I took a deep breath and with a more determined look, I asked Sunny. “So what do I have to do?”

“Kyah! Thank you! You just saved me!” She exclaimed eagerly. “Well, I shall have to give you some rules to follow if you don’t mind.” She then rummaged through her files and handed me a folder. “Here are the rules and things to remember during shoot and outside the shoot.”

---

Rules and Guidelines to Follow as Romeo’s Leading Lady
1. You are not to disclose your real identity to anyone, including the members of Romeo. You will be completely transformed into a different person while on the shoot and you will not speak of your life outside to the boys of Romeo, the staff and anyone else other than your manager, Romeo’s manager and your family. Your identity will be kept secret as to protect you from the harsh, rabid fandom of Romeo.
2. You are to obey instructions according to Romeo and your manager. They will be guiding and helping you to keep your identity disclosed.
3. Maintaining your figure and complexion is a complete must. You are the princess that captured the hearts of Romeo. You must not exceed 50kg in weight. You must always use the skin care products provided by the company to aide you in maintaining your complexion. You must also follow the strict diet that would help you lose or gain weight as needed.
4. You are to not do vices like drink or smoke. This is part of maintaining a healthy and beautiful image in case anyone recognizes you as the princess of Romeo.
5. Be on time. Transformations will take a long time and a lot of effort so you must be up and early at least 30 minutes before the call time. Reminder to always be updated by your manager of your schedule.
6. Maintain a professional relationship with Romeo. You are not allowed to fall in love with any of the members. Evidence of you dating any member will automatically result to termination of the contract.

---

The rules seemed easy enough for me to follow. But I don’t I quite understand the first rule properly so I asked. “How will my identity be kept a secret from everyone?”

“Well, you’ll be transformed into a princess. We’ll give you contacts, wigs, make-up and all that. Something similar from that American TV show called Hannah Montana. Nobody would know it is you! Besides, you always hide your face from everyone, yes? So based on your personality, nobody would expect you to be the princess.”

I nodded slightly, only just getting a bit of it but agrees to it anyway. “All right then. Anything else that I need to do?”

“You just have to sign the contract which your mom has read and signed as well.” She said while handing me another folder that contains the contract and a pen for me to use. I took it from her and signed my name on it.

“There you go.” I said before handing her the folders. “We start this weekend right? What time and where do I need to go?”

“I’ll be picking you up from your house at 6:00 in the morning.” Professor said before patting my head. “You just need to ready by then. I’ll also take you home. I’m your manager from now on.” He playfully winked at me.

“Oh alright then Professor. If there’s nothing else, then I’ll see you both this weekend.” I said before gathering my things and quickly exiting the room. I can’t help but let out a large sigh of relief as soon as I got out of the room.

I’m honestly not too sure if I am up for the job but I cannot back out now. I already signed the contract, which was also signed by my mother without consenting with me. I really need to talk to her about this.

I started walking home, my mind still thinking about what I just got myself into. Once I reached my house and have gone inside, my mom appeared, grinning at me. It was obvious that she was going to ask me about the contract.

To give a little bit of background, I live with only my mom. She and my dad got divorced after they fell out of love. No interesting back story there. They’re still friends and they still talk so I’m glad things worked out that way. My dad re-married when I was 10 and now I have a step-mom who’s very nice and a step brother who’s 24 this year that always teases me, 8 years older than me. I don’t see my other family very often as they live in Jeju Island. Anyway, my mom doesn’t make much money. Just enough for our daily expenses and maybe a little get together, just her and me out for dinner. My dad gives his share of expenses to send me to school but that’s about it.

On the way home, I figured she might have signed the contract because we needed the money. We cannot have been relying on my dad forever. So as soon she saw me, I forced myself to smile. “Yes mom, before you even ask, I signed the contract.” I said as I took of my shoes and switched them to my comfy slippers.

“Yes! My daughter is actually going to meet SeKai! I can’t wait to meet them! I bet they are so much more handsome in person. I’ll make sure to take tons of photos! I can’t wait!” She said excitedly as she run to me for a hug. “Thank you! Thank you! I know I signed you up for this without your consent but it’s SeKai! I’ve been watching them since Survival School and they were amazing! I’ve been a fan ever since! And now you will get to work with them.”

My jaw dropped. I pulled away from the hug and looked at her in amazement. My mother didn’t want to better our lives. She was being a total fangirl and using me to meet her idols! My mom! My 42-year old mother who has been married before, is being a hard core fan girl over some idols that are probably my age! Unbelievable!

“What?!” I exclaimed. “I signed the contract because I thought you wanted to better our lives for a change so that we wouldn’t have to rely on dad so much! And here you were signing a contract because of your fangirl dreams and even using your own daughter. Your own daughter! I can’t believe you were so childish!”

Yes. I yelled at my mom. I’m actually the more mature one in this household. Sure, she does her responsibilities as a mother, the best way she possibly can, and I am telling you that she is the best mother anyone could have ever had. But when it comes to other things, she’s like a kid who just loves to do what she wants without a care in the world. There was this one time, she asked me to dress her up as a teen (mind you, she looks so young for her age) and went around in an amusement park to count how many guys would hit on her for fun! And there’s another time that she sneaked into a local concert I attended just to find out what kind of music I like and ended up having a little too much fun. She ended up drunk and I had to drag her home.

“B-But.. It was SeKai! I couldn’t help myself when I heard from Leeteuk. And besides, this would help you as well.” She said as she put her hands on top of my shoulders. “My dear Seulgi, you don’t have a lot of friends. You do not interact with guys. You are always coped up inside your room, not having fun.”

“But mom! Reading is-”

“I’m sure it is dear.” She said, interrupting me. She has got to stop doing that, really. “Okay, listen to me. You need to get out there. Be more outgoing! Have a little fun and experience things you have never experienced before. Think of how many doors this would open for you. And besides, I trust Leeteuk to watch over you. I’ll only be there during the first day to see SeKai and that will only be for a couple of photos and then I will be gone. I will stay out of your job afterwards, unless I am needed to step in and protect my daughter.” She explained.

“Do you really think I need to get out there and do things that most teenagers my age would like to do?”

“Yes! I really think you should. It’s a great opportunity for you to experience life. I’m sure you’ll find yourself enjoying the job. And who knows? Maybe you’ll get an acting job out of this. Maybe you’ll even get to be an idol! Who knows, right? I know you’re talented, Seulgi. I see you dancing by yourself in front of the mirror sometimes.” She said with a wink. Could she be any more embarrassing than this? Good thing no one is here.

“Remind me to lock the door next time.” I said before hugging my mom. “Fine. I’ll really give it a try. Just please promise me not to go crazy when I actually go this weekend. I want them to think that I am normal, in which case, I am.”  I can’t help but chuckle.

“Yes! Finally, you see my point. Go live your life to the fullest, dear. Opportunities like this do not come by very often so grab it while you can okay?” She said, grinning from ear to ear at me like Joker. My mom seriously can be creepy at times.

“Okay mom, let me just go get changed and I’ll help you with dinner.” I pulled away from the hug and headed upstairs. “And please try not to hurt yourself with the knife. You usually get cuts when you get extremely excited.”

“I will!” She called as she headed to the kitchen.

I went to my room, and just dropped my bag on the floor, quickly heading over to my bed and sat down to process everything that just happened this afternoon. Earlier this morning, I was a regular student with two best friends and this afternoon, I became the leading lady in an upcoming debut single of the most-awaited duo. I sighed to myself and let myself fall down on the bed.

“This is ridiculous!” I exclaimed. No matter how many times I think about it, I just couldn’t understand how this happened to me. It’s absolutely astonishing, really. I sighed once more and got up to get changed. I took off my uniform and changed to some comfortable clothes before heading down to help my mom prepare dinner.

After an uneventful dinner, I helped my mom clean up the dining area and the kitchen before I head off back to my room and help start on my homework. Tomorrow is already the weekend and so I can only imagine what my first day would be like.

I decided to finish my homework quickly so I can open up my laptop and actually research about what I am getting in to. I wanted to know about ‘Romeo’ beforehand so that I would not be that idiot who just got herself into this mess and not know who Romeo actually is.

After two hours of working on my homework, I’m finally done! I can now relax a bit and get on researching. I put away all my school work, took a box of banana milk from the mini-fridge inside my room (thank you step brother for giving me your old fridge after you graduated from university). I opened up my laptop and searched for SeKai. Numerous articles popped up.

“Let’s see here..” I said to myself as I browsed through numerous articles. It said that their real name are Kim Jongin and Oh Sehun. They are known as the duo SeKai from Survival School. They won second place and are planning to debut soon but little info is known. Nobody knows when they will debut. “Except us.” I said to no one. Another article I read is about their profile but I wouldn’t to seem creepy, knowing a lot about them and simply skimmed through it. It said that they are just a year older than I am. Quite tall as well.

“Well, enough info about them. Time to look for photos.” I googled photos of them and what I saw took me by surprise. No wonder my mom loves them. They look amazing! How am I supposed to be the princess of these two when I look so plain and simple? Feeling defeated, I shut off my laptop, turned off the lights and just headed off to bed.

“I wonder what awaits me tomorrow.” I asked myself before turning on an alarm for four in the morning and went to sleep.

 

[ Author's Corner ]
I know it's supposed to be longer. And I tried to make it longer but I couldn't think of anymore scenes that could prolong this. The first chapter was too short so I just combined the first chapter and the second. So the official next chapter would be her makeover (which btw, i am really excited about) and her first meeting with SeKai! It'll be divided into two parts. Part 1 is Seulgi's makeover and meeting with Sehun. Part 2 is meeting with Kai and the shooting with all 3 of them together. I'm so sorry for the confusion but please bear with me. *weeps* 

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