Chaeyoung looked up from her seat as the room descended into darkness. The audience seemed to hold onto their breaths in anticipation. A single light shone upon the stage, revealing a white, petite swan in its full elegance. Mina lifted her arms up and before she transitioned to her next step, Chaeyoung could swear she made eye contact with her. It sent her heart tumbling back.

Watching Mina dance brought her back to when Chaeyoung first saw her through that window. The wall between them that day prevented her from reaching towards her, but Mina was there— upclose, and within her reach. She wanted to just pull her down into a full embrace, but a part of her was stuck in that trance, mesmerized by the performer’s movements.

Mina seemed so small standing by herself in that big stage, but each of her steps were full of confidence. She owned that stage; she dominated it like it had been hers all along. With each gesture, with each gaze, Chaeyoung trembled. She released a breath she felt she’d been holding since the beginning.

When the performance ended, the audience gave a round of applause. Mina was merely the opening and wasn’t included in the actual competition. It might have been a bit unfair for the others if she did.

The event came to an intermission and Mina emerged out from backstage in casual clothing. Her make-up had been removed and her hair hung loose on her chest. Chaeyoung could still imagine her in white and the intense gaze she gave off.

The Japanese shouldered her bag and smiled at her. “Ready?”

“Barely. That was some performance. I can’t believe it took you this long to show me that side of you.”

Mina chuckled, ”My practices are so boring. There would be no point for you to be there, and I’m not exactly competing just yet. I have to focus on school first.”

“You’ll be fine,” Chaeyoung reassured her.

Mina drove both of them to the university, barely making it with 5 minutes to spare. They spotted Momo standing by the theater building, fiddling on her phone. “Momo-yah!” Chaeyoung called out.

Momo looked up. “Yah! What took you guys so long? People are already inside.”

“What do you mean? We’re totally on time,” Mina said.

They shuffled inside and took their seats in the middle of the room. Students chatted idly, their voices echoing in the building as some walked about and some remained seated. The bustle of the students were put to calm when a man of notable aura walked up to the stage. The voices were put to a hush as he tapped on his microphone to signal their attention.

“Class of 2019,” he started. His voice was truly attention-grabbing; it boomed inside the building. “Congratulations on your acceptance and welcome to Seoul Institute of the Arts.”

~

Momo stretched her hands up as they emerged to the sunlight. “Man, that guy talked for days!” she let out a complaint. “You guys want to check out the clubs?”

“Sure,” Mina nodded, but her eyes were still on the school’s pamphlet they handed to freshmans. She was studying the programs with great intensity, although she’d done so before she applied.

Chaeyoung had to lead Mina to make sure she didn’t wander off as she kept herself occupied. She held her hand and walked through the crowd of newly enrolled students. The only thing that managed to get Mina’s attention was the small booth that said Gamer’s Club on its banner. The Japanese stopped on her tracks, pulling her eyes away from the pamphlet and towards the isolated booth.

“Want to check it out?” Chaeyoung asked her. Momo was already off to the booth across from it, inquiring about the Food Enthusiasts Club.

Mina gave a small nod. They walked towards it, watching the two members on the other side of the table looking bored. It wasn’t until they reached the table did they look up, as if surprised that people actually came to them. “H-hi,” the tall boy said.

“Hi,” Chaeyoung replied.

There was an awkward pause between them, and the girl with heart-shaped lips next to the tall boy rolled her eyes. “You’re hopeless,” she muttered to him. Then she turned to Chaeyoung with a smile. “Hello, are you interested in joining our club?”

“Yes. What exactly do you guys do?”

“We’re basically a personal-interest type of club. We meet up in the club room every Mondays and Wednesdays to play games. We have a PS4 console, a Switch, various board games, and occasionally we hold D&D sessions when we have enough players.”

“D&D?” Chaeyoung raised her eyebrows.

“Dungeons and Dragons,” Mina muttered to her, to which Chaeyoung nodded but still not knowing what that was. “What kind of video games do you often play?” Mina asked the girl.

“We have all kinds. We take a vote in the beginning of every meeting to pick our top two that we would play that day. Anyone can bring their own game as well for people to vote on it. As of late, the club has been playing Brawl. It seems that the hype for that still hasn’t died down. We have Call of Duty, Tekken, Mortal Kombat, Overcooked, to name a few. We also have various PCs, so people can play online or they can play single-player games if that’s their preference.”

All those games were lost to Chaeyoung. She zoned out on Brawl, and was still trying to figure out what the hell Dungeons and Dragons was. But Mina seemed like she knew what the girl was talking about. Her eyes lit up like a Christmas tree as the girl explained and she knew how much she wanted to take part in it.

“It seems like she really wants to join,” Chaeyoung chuckled. “Where can she sign up?”

The girl pushed a piece of paper towards Mina. A sign-up sheet that only had two names on it. Mina wrote down her name on it. “The meetings are officially Mondays and Wednesdays at 4. But really, we hang in there any day anyways, so even if you feel like playing some other day, you’ll always find someone there.”

Chaeyoung smiled, “Thank you.”

Mina looked at her girlfriend, “Aren’t you going to sign up?”

“Eh?” she turned to her. “I don’t really play games that often...”

The Japanese looked at her with pitiful eyes, begging her to join. She blinked rapidly in attempt to sway her, and although it wasn’t something Mina normally did, Chaeyoung fell right into it. She sighed and wrote her name down on the sheet.

“Awesome. My name is Hyejoo, by the way. And this is Chanyeol,” Hyejoo gestured to the boy next to him who smiled all throughout, not saying a word but kept his eyes on Mina. “He normally talks a lot. Like a lot, but I guess today something got caught in his throat. I’ll see you guys next week then?”

“Yeah,” Mina smiled and they walked off to venture to other booths.

When they disappeared, Hyejoo let out a groan. “Yah, I only agreed to be here because you said you’d do all the talking.”

“Sorry, but it’s just that. Wow. She was really pretty.” Chanyeol shook his head, still unable to grasp the moment. He dropped back down to his seat and thought about the beauty he had just witnessed.

Chaeyoung was looking at the booth that had Soul & Slam written on its banner. It was a spoken word poetry club. She made her way for it, dragging Mina along with her who was already shaking her head on the thought of joining it.

“Chaeng, I can’t speak poetry, much less voice it in front of a crowd,” Mina reasoned with her.

“I joined the game club with you. You’re accompanying me in this one.”

“Okay, but that’s different. You don’t need to socialize to play games.”

Chaeyoung rolled her eyes at her and smiled at the boy on the other side of the table, manning the booth by himself. She wrote down her name on the sign-up sheet, and after letting out a groan, Mina followed suit.

“We’re actually having a poetry slam tonight at the Totoro Cafe,” the boy said. “It’s right next to the school, on the parking lot side. Why don’t you come and check it out?”

“Sure,” Chaeyoung replied as he handed her a flier for the event.

As they took a glance at the flier while they walked, Momo finally joined them again with an unpleasant look on her face. “I’m hungry,” she said with a pout, holding onto her stomach.

“Of course you are,” Mina said with a hint of sass. “Is everyone else done with their orientation?”

“Sana and Dahyun are. Everyone else had orientation last week so they should be free. No, they will be free. Jihyo and Nayeon backed out on our last gathering. We have to celebrate the start of our new life!” Momo pumped up her arm while her other hand occupy itself by messaging people. It was quite obvious how much she’d been hanging out with Sana.