A/N: This is the elusive HSM/Musical/Theater Taengsic fic I was raving on about on my twitter. Title is definitely from the HSM Song What I've Been Looking For. (TBH I was tempted to entitle it Start of Something New but that would have been cliche...)

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“Drama is like a five-year old child. Why, you ask? Because they have the ability to be someone else with total absorption and know that they are seeing things from a different perspective.”

 

This was important, thought Jessica. Her professor was explaining something vital to her learning and yet she couldn’t even find herself taking notes like she usually did. She was distracted. This was unlike her.

 

She was The Jessica Jung, voted most-likely to debut in Broadway by teachers and students alike since she was five years old. Little Miss Perfect who never failed a test nor unsuccessfully landed a lead role in any of the major plays by their university. But even an outstanding student like her had days like these when all she wanted was to bolt out of the classroom and simply head into the elusive announcement board.

 

“Drama is the enactment of real and imagined events through roles and situations,” her professor prattled on. It wasn’t like anything she heard was new. This certain professor tended to say a similar introduction to his subject every start of the school year. This one wasn’t any different.

 

“Drama enables both individuals and groups to explore, shape and symbolically represent ideas and feelings and their consequences.”

 

Jessica sighed. Talking about consequences, how much would it cost her if she sat up then walked out of the lecture hall right this instant without any word of explanation. The thought instantly made her crack up inside; those kinds of actions would garner her a sure spot on the front page of their college newspaper. She could see the title vividly now: ‘Top Theater Arts Student Caught Rebelling in the Act!’ or something just as scandalous as that. Honestly, they should just change the newspaper’s category into a tabloid at this rate, Jessica mused.

 

Miraculously, Jessica doesn’t find herself doing any of those. She sits still, agonizing for the next hour and a half, mostly daydreaming about the endless possibilities of her life after university. She was two years too early for the true life of a theater career but it didn’t hurt to imagine herself finally there.

 

And nothing was going to stop her from attaining that goal. She was going to make sure that everyone would watch her shine.

 

 

 

Nine powerful and long strides were all it took for Jessica to finally find herself standing in front of the Drama Department’s bulletin board. It was nothing special, the drama kids liked to keep things simple with a twenty-four inch block of cork. That didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, what mattered was the single piece of white A4 paper that was radically pinned in the middle of the brown space, the first announcement of the year.

 

Into the New World

Written by KTY

Cast

Kang Jonghee – Jung Jessica

…

 

 

Her eyes widen comically at the text. She got it. She actually landed the lead role. Not that she had any doubts in the first place… well maybe just a bit, a tiny bit.

 

But none of her past lack of confidence mattered right now when the evidence of all her hard work was in plain sight right in front of her. A smile graced her lips, not like those bordering-on-fake stage smiles; it was one out of genuine happiness.

 

“Unnie!”

 

The blonde wasn’t given much time to even react before a lithe and taller body barrels into her. The only reason she wasn’t on the ground now due to the force of impact was all thanks to the unlikely strong arms that steadied her into an embrace.

 

“Did you get it?! Tell me you did. Remember what talked about, it’s lead or nothing, unnie!”

 

“Yah, Jung Soojung!” Jessica had to press onto the other girl’s elbows to stop the rambling. “Are you planning to give your unnie a chance to speak?”

 

“Sorry,” finally calming down, Krystal smiled sheepishly and shrugged. “I got too excited.”

 

Jessica couldn’t stay annoyed at her sister for more than even five minutes, not when she was this adorable. She was sure the younger girl knew just how much power she had over her. But for the sake of Jessica’s fragile pride, Krystal would happily act innocent about it.

 

“So?” Krystal slightly nudged when her sister still didn’t respond. But the smug smile forming on Jessica’s face was enough of a confirmation for her already. “No way…”

 

The smile grew even bigger now. “Yes way, Soojung,” she said accompanied by a playful flip of her blonde locks.

 

No time was wasted as Krystal pulled Jessica into another hug that was thankfully a lot less rough than the first.

 

“I knew you could do it Jess. I’m so proud of you,” Krystal uttered sincerely.

 

The theater major reveled in the warmth of her sister’s hold for a while longer. She mumbled a silent thank you into Krystal’s shoulder. She’d never admit it out loud but there were lots of wonderful perks to having a taller sibling.

 

Krystal lets go after a minute. “So? Who’s the lucky co-star?”

 

It was only then that Jessica remembered the play would have two leads. She already knew who the first one was but due to the uncontainable excitement earlier, she completely forgot to check the rest of the cast members. She turned back, facing the board again, swiftly skimming through the rest of the names.

Most of them were familiar people Jessica’s already worked with in previous productions, except for one. That one name Jessica’s never even heard of until today.

 

“Who the hell is Kim Taeyeon?”

 

 

-

 

 

“Lee Hyori!”

 

Taeyeon all but shouts into the seemingly unoccupied auditorium, her eyes scanning the room for any sign of movement. The lights were dimmed all except for one spotlight shining directly in the middle of the podium.

 

“Yah!” The person she was looking for suddenly pops out from behind the piano situated on stage, her hands flying to her hips menacingly and obviously irate. “How many times do I have to tell you to call me formally when we’re in school you brat!”

 

The raven haired girl just rolls her eyes before walking the distance closer to the stage. She now stood right below the angry faculty member but it was still not enough to faze her. Not when she’s known this same person in front of her for more than half her life now. It wasn’t Taeyeon’s fault that she didn’t bother with formal titles with the woman who she’s seen faced more times than what’s acceptable from a supposed esteemed school professor.

 

“Calm your . There’s no one else here but us.”

 

“You…” Hyori growls, her eye twitching a few times before asking, “What do you want, child of satan?”

 

At the question, Taeyeon takes a step forward, unfolding a piece of paper from her back pocket before shoving it into her teacher’s face. Hyori simply squints to take a better look at what was written on the white parchment.

 

“What is the meaning of this,” Taeyeon enunciated each word with great emphasis.

 

Hyori just gives her a completely unimpressed look. “What do you think, Taeyeon-ah? It obviously says here that you got casted into a lead role for the biggest university production this year.”

 

“Exactly!” Taeyeon doesn’t back down. “What do you mean I’m casted? Come on, tell me this is a mistake. It has to be.”

 

“No can do, kid. It’s not a typographical error.”

 

Taeyeon stares, trying to find a hint that the older woman was lying. She unfortunately found no such thing. Finally feeling defeated, she uses the last bit of her remaining energy to hop onto the platform before immediately sinking into the hard wooden floor and letting her feet dangle on the edge. After a few more minutes of silence, she hears Hyori sigh before sitting alongside her.

 

“Why,” Taeyeon quietly questioned with her head bowed.

 

“You know why,” Hyori unhelpfully replied, her arm draping over Taeyeon’s shoulders. “You’ve got the talent and skill for it, Taeyeon. I think it’s a complete waste that you refuse to show it to the world.”

 

“But Teach, you know how much I abhor the attention. I’m a behind-the-scenes kind of gal.”

 

“And that’s exactly why you need an intervention. Look, I’ve watched you out sing and ultimately outperform almost everyone in the drama department. And it’s pretty much your fault for writing a self-insert lead character into the story. How do you expect me not to cast you, Yoo Eunjae in the flesh herself?”

 

“Isn’t that the whole point of being a screenwriter?” Taeyeon says, still adamant. “I create in the comfort of anonymity and let some other actor bring that character to life?”

 

“That’s true,” Hyori concedes, “if you didn’t have another set of abilities that could seriously land you somewhere great. Besides, aren’t you still unsure of what to major in?”

 

Taeyeon groans at the reminder. She wasn’t a freshman anymore, time was slowly running out and she still had zero idea on what major to take. Hyori was right but it still doesn’t instantaneously extinguish her antagonism to the spotlight.

 

“Low blow, Teach. Low blow.”