“PEOPLE LOVE TO BELIEVE IN RUMOR RATHER THAN PROVING IT RIGHT.”

***

“Yo, girl. Where will you go afterwards?”

Her back stiffed just listening to that voice. Her palm sweating as much as her heart beat. She bit her lower lip and pouted for a bit.

“I-I just gonna head home after this.”

She stuttered. It's not like she intentionally do that but she is just afraid of these people. Who knows what they gonna do afterwards.

“Ah, I see. How about we go for some karaoke? We heard you can sing well?”

The latter suggest it as if they are some real friends. Yuri just stood there silently. She do not want to sing anymore. Not after she was humiliated before. But can she reject their offer?

While she is contemplating by herself, the group suddenly pulled and dragged her along.

“W-wait! I don’t -”

She tried to pluck her courage and reject them, however, as soon as she opened up , she is slammed at the wall and pinned by the group.

“Look, we do not have all day to wait for your reply. All we wanna do is asking you to join us go karaoke, is that hard for you?”

I don’t want to sing anymore!

Tears started flooding in her eyes. She is just too frustrated with herself.

This is not gonna happen if I just stay low.

This is all entirely my fault!

Yuri just managed to scream internally. She really do not have the guts to spill her emotion anymore. Not anymore.

“Heh, well. Who in the world is stupid enough to believe that she is scouted just because she can sing?”

As soon as she heard that remarks, her heart is bleeding again. The group roaring laughter is deafening her ears. She pushed the person that is pinning her earlier and running away as fast as she could.

Her tears smeared her face and she did not care about it anymore. She managed to arrive at her home and locked her door. She slumped by the door as soon as she arrived.

Yuri tried her best to muffle her cries as she do not want to worry her parents anymore. She admit that she love to sing. Even words can’t describe her passion in singing.

She always take extra care of her vocal chords and even attending some vocal class. She enjoy singing more than anything in this world. Through singing she find her inner peace, joy and something that is indescribable with words.

However, things have been different than before. Now she thought that she make a wrong choice to fall in love with singing. She is now suffering physically and mentally because of her one and only love -singing.

I should never do that! What in the world do I think at the moment?

She lay on her bed without changing her uniform. She stared on the ceiling, hoping to calm down herself.

“When tomorrow comes, I'll be on my own
Feeling frightened of the things that I don't know
When tomorrow comes
When tomorrow comes
When tomorrow comes
And though the road is long
I look up to the sky
And in the dark I found, I stop and I won’t fly
And I sing along, I sing along, then I sing along...”

Tears started to pour out again as she sing that song. She just cannot continue to sing it as she know, she do not have that particular someone to be her flashlight.

“Somebody, help me get out of this darkness.Please.”

She  begged to nobody. She is desperately yearning for some miracle to bless her and bring her far from this hellish situation. Then, she just stay there silently as she has no more energy to do anything.

***

Flashback

“Hey, Jo Yuri.”

Suddenly some classmate approaching her. Yuri is a shy type and she rarely open up to people. During school time, she is often alone, minding her own business, doing anything she can without bothering others. Thus, when someone actually taking their time to talk to her, Yuri can’t help but feel a little bit nervous.

“Y-yes? What can I help you?”

She tried her best not to sound rude or anything that might offense the latter party. She tried to flash her awkward smile to them. Luckily, they smiled back warmly at her.

“Nothing. We just wondering if you want to hang out with us. You know, having our youth time together.”

The girl ask sheepishly. It seems that they has lay their eyes upon Yuri for quite some time before asking her today. Yuri is taken aback upon hearing that question. Her eyes opened up a bit and she carved some smile.

“I’ll gladly accept that offer. Let’s introduce yourself first. My name is Jo Yuri.”

“Ah yes. Forgive our manner earlier. We are too excited to ask you.”

She replied and offered her hand. They shake hands and walk together slowly. They chattering energetically while debatin where is good to spend their first meeting together.

“Shouldn’t we go and grab some food and drinks first? I think we all are starving!”

One of the girl exclaimed while rubbing her stomach. She smiled cheekily as her friends nagging her about her eating habit.

“Hey! I am still growing and thus I need lots of food! I don’t want to starve myself, okay?”

She retorted and grabbed Yuri by her side. She is pouting towards her other friend and just walking straight towards a fast food chain.

“Oh hey! We never say that we are not hungry!”

Some of them exclaimed and fastened their pace to walk together again. Yuri just giggled at her new friends behaviour.

Well, they seems quite close to each other. How nice.

Yuri somehow enjoyed herself while spending her time with them. She expect they will be awkward with each other as they only talk today but they proved her wrong. They chit chat as if they already befriended for a long time.

I don’t hate this. It is actually not bad.

Yuri monologues. She never believe that she managed to spend her time as normal teenager today. All of this seems too dreamy to be reality for her.

As soon as they finished eating, her friend suggest that they go to karaoke as they say that it is the fastest way to bond together. Yuri just follow them as she also do not have another plan for the rest of the day. She do not attending her vocal class anymore as she face some difficulties to pay the fee.

Thus, she always spend her days practicing with whatever she already learned. She also sometimes plays her keyboard and strums her acoustic guitar.

She is already satisfied with her life and planning to be just as plain as possible without having to deal with some troublesome teenager phase with her friends; not that she has any to begin with.

Today is new experience for her. She never come into a karaoke place and thus, she is quietly excited to see all of those equipment within the room. She detect a couple of microphone laying on the table.

Her friends already fighting to choose some song to sing from the song selection. Yuri  just sit there, awed by her new surrounding. Noticing that Yuri just silently sitting, her friend decides to cheer up the atmosphere by singing Celeb Five song.

Yuri laugh out loud upon hearing the opening of the song.

“Seriously we are singing this song?”

They giggled together as they tried their best to keep some straight face while singing and performing that song. Yuri enjoyed herself with this new company. They insist Yuri to sing a song solo after they already tired from goofing of earlier.

“Eh~ But I am not that good!”

Yuri tried to politely reject their offer but their begging, shining puppy eyes make it impossible for her to not grant their wish.

“Just