Track 37 | Track 38 | Track 39

Kyung Mi texted that she couldn’t come as she was still at work. Shinae was still busy collecting documents for med school left and right and promised to try and catch up with the presentation. But despite the fact that the presence of her two best friends was likely to be just felt and not seen at the auditorium, it didn’t bother Rara at all. When those two were present in the crowd, she couldn’t help but get unnecessary flashbacks of funny memories that would cause her to lose her poise and concentration.

But that doesn’t mean she’s getting away from that habit of remembering unwanted backtracks—because Dasom and Micha were there and she had her fair share of hilarious moments with them. The first piece of advice she had gotten from Professor Bo about presenting was to look for someone you knew in the crowd and look at them in the eye. It was something Baekhyun had taught her too, to which she replied that it wouldn’t work when it came to her. There was just so much going on inside her head.

It was easy to maintain eye contact with Baekhyun since he was in between a stranger and a close friend—an acquaintance, at the very least. Surely, they didn’t share much time to have her laughing a bit in her presentation, which is why she thought practicing with him was a bit biased. She should have practiced with Kyung Mi and Shinae or Dasom and Micha; but it was too late for that now.

And it’s not like she didn’t learn something from those past few days under Baekhyun’s watch.

When the emcee called out her name and the title of their thesis, she went up on stage and smiled at the crowd. No doubt, even the core of her soul was trembling with fear but she forced herself to think about failure and embarrassing herself in front of many people to put a stop to her inner mental breakdown.

One shot, she only has one shot. Another opportunity like this won’t appear again any time soon.

As soon as Rara greeted the audience with a good evening, the presentation went very smoothly. So far, so good. Dasom leaned closer and whispered to Micha, “Do you see this, Micha? I don’t recognize that stage presence!” She exclaimed with surprise. “I totally get you, Dasom. She’s gotten so good.” Micha said in a stunned voice. Rara treated their thesis as a task, nothing more than just an obstacle to overcome; nothing special. But right now, she made it seem like she was as passionate about their thesis as she is with art.

The audience was separated from the advisers. Dasom and Micha sat on the far back, while Professor Bo sat in front with the rest of the advisers. Closer to the stage was the panel of judges. She watched Rara with admiration; she wanted to give her a round of applause right then and there—but then, she celebrated too soon as she noticed Rara starting to lose her focus and balance.

, it’s always Chapter 4. Rara cursed inside her head as she got lost somewhere in the discussion of the results of their thesis. Don’t stop talking now, idiot. “The rate of photosynthesis depends on the amount of light that enters the compartments, thus, the...the...” Her eyes scanned the audience frantically, avoiding Dasom, Micha, an