A bunch of voices can be heard in the classroom as the students are talking among themselves.

 

Some of the students talking with each other. Some of them used their time to study for a bit. Also, some of them just mind their own business.

 

They used their free time to relax their mind for a while before the next class. They got only one class left for today after all.

 

Sakura wants to recap the subject of the previous class but the certain duck didn’t let her study peacefully. In the end, she ditches her book and keeps messing with Yena.

 

Pissed off Yena is a fun sight to see making more people joining Sakura messing with Yena.

 

A whine and waves of laughter causing a loud atmosphere in the class.

 

“Okay, guys. Calm down and listen up.”

 

Eunbi knocks the table to get her classmates' attention. The noise slows down as everyone in the class obeys to a class representative giving attention to Eunbi.

 

Eunbi notices a certain girl didn’t bother to listen to her.

 

“Kang Hyewon.”

 

The whole class turns their heads to the back of the class to see the name Eunbi just called. The girl had an earphone stuck on her ear while looking out of the window.

 

Eunbi signal to Wendy who sat beside Hyewon to get the silent girl's attention. Wendy softly patted Hyewon’s shoulder.

 

Hyewon raised one eyebrow at Wendy and the petite girl quickly pointing her finger to the front of the class.

 

You’ll be dead if you don’t pay attention to me.

 

Hyewon read Eunbi’s lips perfectly and she just rolls her eyes. She put aside her earphone.

 

Sakura chuckle softly as she heard Hyewon’s mumbling about Eunbi is being a pain in the at the moment.

 

Yena poked her side, questioning what’s so funny. Sakura shakes her head and stuck her tongue.

 

 

:::

 

 

As she knew she got the attention she needed, Eunbi starts her speech.

 

“Are you guys aware of the cultural festival next month?”

 

Numerous yes can be heard.

 

“I have news to deliver to all of you from our faculty.”

 

“What is it?” Yena asked on behalf of the class.

 

“Our faculty assign us to participate in a cultural festival.”

 

A rapid response from the class is what Eunbi already expected. Some of them are excited and some of them are not fond of the idea.

 

“Why us? Did our junior will take the part as well?”

 

“Oh! Are we going to open up a booth or something?”

 

“This is bothersome.”

 

“Do we have a choice what will we gonna do?”

 

Too many questions thrown at Eunbi makes the girl irritated and impatient.

 

“Shut up.”

 

Everyone in the classroom shut their mouth after hearing Hyewon’s cold voice.

 

“Let Eunbi finish before interfering with her.”

 

The whole class is quiet after hearing Hyewon’s sharp comment. She’s an icy princess for a reason. Eunbi mouth a thank you to Hyewon before she proceeds.

 

“As I said, our faculty urge us to join the cultural festival. They already assign to us which part we will participate in. Not only us, our senior and junior also will participate but as they mentioned to me, each of the batches will get different tasks.” Eunbi look around the class and let out a small chuckle seeing her classmates' reaction.

 

“Any questions?”

 

Tzuyu raised her hands.

 

“Yes, Tzuyu?”

 

“So what are they assigned us to do?”

 

“Good question. Since we don’t have any choice, they decided to let us do the play.”

 

“THE PLAY?”

 

“OH MY GOSH, WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY THINKING?!”

 

“WE’RE GOING TO DRAMA CLUB NOW? HAHAHAHAHA.”

 

“OUR FACULTY IS SUCH A JOKE SENDING US TO DO PLAY.”

 

Eunbi shakes her head seeing her classmate slowly becoming a mess with the sudden news. She just let them complaining for a while before decided to interrupt them again.

 

She claps her hands to gain their attention.

 

“Hey hey calm down! Now we need to divide the tasks. I need full cooperation from all of you to make this happening and memorable as we can.”

 

Jisoo raises her hand to asked question and Eunbi let her.

 

“What play are we going to do? I believe the faculty already choose which story they want us to perform right?”

 

“Yeah what is it Eunbi? I hope it’s not a cliche story.” Chaeyeon frowns seeing Eunbi smirk, which means the story will be a fairytale genre.

 

“Snow-white and seven dwarfs.”

 

 

——

 

 

 

Everything going fast before Sakura can even adapt to the information. Staring at space for god how long.

 

Incoming call from Yena.

 

“Hmm...” She picked up.

 

“What a nice greet from my best friend.” Yena sarcastically said.

 

“What do you want?”

 

“Where are you?”

 

“My room. Why?”

 

“Just asking. You look trouble earlier.”

 

“Why would I?”

 

“I don’t know. Usually, you don’t mind because you love acting but today, you’re not being yourself.”

 

Sakura drops her body to her bed roughly. She sighed.

 

“Probably because of the role I’ve got?”

 

“Cmon Sakura. You got a princess role again. If I’m not mistaken, this would be your third time.”

 

Sakura quiet for a bit.

 

“...Maybe I’m just nervous.”

 

“You sound suspicious but it’s okay. I don’t wanna force you. Tell me when you feel okay to share.”

 

Sakura smiles, relief.

 

“Thanks, Yena but nothing to worry.”

 

“Fine. Ooh gotta go my mom calling me. Bye!”

 

“Bye Yena.”

 

She put her phone beside her after the call ended. Sakura is aware she is nervous but not because of the role she got. But more because of a certain girl.

 

 

:::

 

 

 

Flashback.

 

“Congratulations Sakura! You got the princess role. It fits you, as usual.” Chaeyeon gives a thumbs up.

 

“Thank you.” Sakura smiles.

 

“By majority vote, Sakura won and will play as Aurora Princess. Now, we will vote who’s gonna play as a Prince.” Eunbi wrote down Sakura’s name on the whiteboard.

 

“So?”

 

No one answer. No one raises their hand. Everybody doesn’t want to play a cliche prince fairytale, just like Eunbi expected.

 

“Since no one willingly wants to do this, I guess I don’t have a choice but will choose randomly.”

 

The whole class loudly groans, not wanting their name to be calling out. At this moment, they can only cross their fingers.

 

“I volunteer.”

 

All eyes are staring at the person who voluntarily wants to act like a prince. They can’t help but shook as hell seeing Hyewon raise her hands confidently.

 

“Hyewon?!”

 

Hyewon shrugging her shoulder, stand up from her seat before making her way to the door. She opens up the door before talking to Eunbi.

 

“Write my name on it. I’m going.”

 

She closes the door. The class is loud with the sudden news. Sakura remains speechless.

 

“Umm....so Hyewon will be the prince. The practice will start tomorrow. You guys can go back. Class is canceled anyway.”

 

“Why won’t you told us earlier?!” A whole class whines with the new information except one person.

 

End of flashback.

 

 

:::

 

 

She never involved with class activities before, she will, only if Eunbi threatens her.

 

“Why she volunteers to do this anyway? It’s so weird.”

 

Hyewon is mysterious. She is a quiet person and loves observing people. She didn’t talk much.

 

Even though she is a silent girl but doesn’t mean people would bullying her. She has intimidated aura around her and her optimum beauty makes people love her even more.

 

It is like she has her world where people cannot enter. It looks like she doesn’t care about anything since she had a boring look most of the time.

 

She likes being alone yet she has best friends. It’s so amazing every time Eunbi and Chaeyeon drag Hyewon whenever they go while the other girl looks so done with her life because it seems she cannot do anything to her best friends.

 

“Why my heart needs to beat this fast? Right, stop it.” Sakura groans because she knew the real reason. She turned off the light and try to get back to sleep. Hopefully.

 

 

 

—————

 

 

 

One week later.

 

 

 

It’s so nice to see the class excited and working hard together even though some of them are against the idea at first.

 

The production team is working hard to uplifting the plays later. They’re so creative that makes the acting team more motivated to do better so that their hard work is not wasteful.

 

Well, probably “not all”.

 

“Hyewon ah...” Eunbi pinches her bridge nose.

 

“What?”

 

“What the hell was that? I know you can do better than that.”

 

Eunbi is not satisfied with the way Hyewon portrayed her character. It seems like Hyewon didn’t really into “it”.

 

It’s been one week the acting team practice together but Hyewon doesn’t really into the play especially during prince and princess interaction parts.

 

Sakura feels sorry for Hyewon as the girl just stay silent while Eunbi keeps blabbering for almost 15 minutes on Hyewon’s lacking in practice. Eunbi can be very brutally honest if she wants to.

 

“That’s enough already, Eunbi. Maybe Kang needs more time to adjust to her character. Remember, this is her FIRST time after all.” Chaeyeon comes to the rescue.

 

Hyewon smirk as Chaeyeon back her up and Eunbi saw that. She ruffles her hair and points her finger to Hyewon.

 

“Stop with that smirk Kang Hyewon I don’t like it at all.”

 

“Besides.....” Chaeyeon continues.

 

Chaeyeon whispers something to Eunbi’s ear and the class rep keeps rolling her eyes. She squints her eyes directly to Sakura and the short hair girl suddenly doesn’t feel good with the stare.

 

“...and I have a favor to ask you Sakura.” Eunbi shifts her attention to the other girl.

 

“What is it?”

 

“I want you two to practice your parts together starting tomorrow.”

 

“Ehhhhh?!”

 

“We had no choice. This punk here is so slow, you’re the only one here who has wide experience with theater so I beg you. Plus it is easier since both of you play the main characters. Please practice with Hyewon together, we don’t have much time Sakura. Pretty please?”

 

“Errr...”

 

Sakura feels pressure with Eunbi's request while the others are waiting for her answer. She doesn’t keen on the idea as she is not close to Hyewon.

 

She never talks to Hyewon personally before, how the hell she needs to work alone with her? Sakura looks at Hyewon but it’s hard to read the brunette expression as her face show uninterested with the situation.

 

“You’re the only one who can save us. Hyewon probably will destroy this whole play if she didn’t improve. The clock is ticking.” Chaeyeon adding the fuels into the fire, adding more pressure on Sakura’s shoulder.

 

“What about Hyewon?”

 

“We don’t need her opinion.” Eunbi glared to Hyewon who didn’t do anything.

 

“But it’s not fair. We need her opinion too.” Sakura wisely said and Eunbi sigh.

 

“Fine. Hyewon?”

 

“I’m cool with it.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“See? That’s why we don’t need her opinion.” Chaeyeon trademarks laugh echoing around the class at Eunbi’s remark.

 

“More time my .” Eunbi whisper but Sakura heard it.

 

“So that’s all for today. You guys can go back now.” Eunbi wraps the practice.

 

“And you better show up tomorrow and don’t ditch Sakura. If you ditch your practice, I will skin you alive on my own.”

 

“Ooh, scary hag.” Hyewon sneakily said before run for her life before the witch Eunbi caught her.

 

“Yah Kang Hyewon!”

 

Practice with Hyewon? Oh, heart please be prepared to start from tomorrow.

 

 

————

 

 

 

This is awkward.

 

The two of them are sitting in one of the empty classrooms after their class dismissed.

 

The atmosphere becomes more awkward than usual as none of them trying to talk. They are more focusing on their script in their hands that should be practicing together. Until Hyewon had enough with the silent atmosphere.

 

“Let’s start practice,” Hyewon said looking at fidgeting Sakura.

 

“Uhh yeah..how about we start from the first act, from the prince’s lines.”

 

“Sounds good.”

 

The more they practice together, the more curious Sakura got. Hyewon acting is not lacking at all, Sakura can even say Hyewon’s is far better than her.

 

Sakura also notices Hyewon slowly loosen up her personality to not make her awkward and uncomfortable which Sakura very thankful. They become a bit closer after practice from time to time.

 

“Oh wow. You’re good.” Sakura astonishes by the way Hyewon carries her lines throughout the practice.

 

“...I’m not good.” A slight tint on Hyewon’s cheeks makes Sakura slightly shock. It’s so rare seeing Hyewon this shy.

 

“Is this the same Hyewon before? You’re really good! They need to know this.”

 

“I don’t care about their opinion.”

 

“It such a waste if they didn’t know about this. You’re good Hyewon.” Sakura insists to tell everybody.

 

“It’s not important to tell them. Forget about this Sakura. Let’s continue.”

 

Hyewon brushes off the topic leaving Sakura pout at her rejection idea. Hyewon saw it and smiles adorably at Sakura, makes the girl heart chaos.

 

“B-but they n-nee-“ Sakura stutters, trying to cover her cheeks blush with her palms.

 

“Ah ah~ let’s drop that. What’s the next scene?” Hyewon slips her hand through her scripts.

 

As Sakura regains her sanity back, she searches on the next scenes they need to practice. She can’t help to blush again.

 

“The kiss scene.”

 

Silent.

 

“Which scenes? We have three kisses scenes right?”

 

Sakura blush hard when Hyewon mentions that. She quickly told Hyewon they will practice the scene where the prince found the snow-white princess laying down unconscious after eating the poisoned apple.

 

“After that, we will go through the remaining kiss scenes one by one.” Sakura scratches her not so itchy cheeks. Shy.

 

Hyewon coughs a little. “Do we need to kiss for real in these scenes?”

 

Sakura timidly shakes her head. “Not necessary. There are a certain trick and angle without doing it for real.”

 

“I see. So you don’t want us to kiss for real in this scene?”

 

“W-what?”

 

“Just kidding. Can you teach me the angle?”

 

“Y-yeah sure.” Disappointment showed on Sakura’s face but she quickly hides it.

 

Sakura teaches various tricks as she had an experience being in musical before. Hyewon looks serious and jotted down on her script the tips as she won’t forget it easily.

 

“Okay, I’m ready! Let’s practice this scene.” Hyewon stands up from her chair.

 

Sakura and Hyewon merge chairs to make a fake bed so Sakura can lay down for the next scene.

 

“Uhhh are you ready?” Hyewon eyeing the other girl taking a comfortable position on the chairs.

 

“Sure..”

 

“You don’t have to close your eyes even though you’re supposed in a coma. I mean we’re just practicing.” Hyewon piercing eyes make Sakura’s heart more uncontrollable.

 

“I mean if you want to..” Hyewon shrugged seeing Sakura didn’t answer her back.

 

“Okay! We can start now.” Sakura said before going to her “bed”.

 

 

:::

 

 

The Practice.

 

 

“What was that?” Hyewon is alone coming from the front door stared at the laying body from afar.

 

“Is that a person?” Hyewon carefully walking to the laying Sakura while holding a folded script (her sword) as a precaution.

 

“Aurora Princess?”

 

Hyewon gets close beside Sakura who closes her eyes. Sakura can see Hyewon from the corner of her eyes. She mantra to herself to stabilize her heartbeat.

 

“Why is this breathtaking angel sleeping in the woods?” Hyewon whispers gently.

 

She’s improvising the line!

 

There’s no “breathtaking angel” in the script and Sakura clenching her fist to prevent opening her eyes. She also tries hard not to blush.

 

Sakura feels Hyewon trying to wake her up by lightly shaking her body, she feels an electric run straight through her body.

 

“She sleeping so soundly. I must not wake her up.”

 

Hyewon then notices the apple besides Sakura and examining the red fruit.

 

“Isn’t this a poisoned apple? She ate this?!”

 

Sakura swears to god her heart beats like a rapid train when Hyewon is touching her right hand to check her pulse. Putting her head to Sakura’s chest to check her heartbeat.

 

This skin-ships is not on the scripts! Oh god please kill me.

 

She prays hard Hyewon didn’t notice her pulse is beating like crazy. Her face must in beet red like a poisoned red apple.

 

“Thank god she’s still breathing.” Hyewon pulling her head away from Sakura’s chest leaving the short hair girl relief, a bit.

 

Yeah, I’m so thankful I can breathe again you dense fake prince!

 

The next line should be Hyewon sit beside Sakura saying a couple of lines before the kissing scene.

 

Silent embracing the room as Hyewon's soft breath is like music to Sakura’s ears. Sakura feels the itch to open up her eyes, curious with the silence and she can’t feel the movement from the other girl.

 

“Princess. Wake up please.”

 

Sakura feels a shiver when Hyewon takes a hold of her right hands before brought to her lips. Kissing.

 

Oh my god.

 

Sakura bites her lips when she feels Hyewon touching her face gently with another hand.

 

“Don’t you want to open your eyes now my princess? I’m here to save you.”

 

“Beautiful.” Coming out from Hyewon’s lips. Sakura still closing her eyes, tears almost come out with these overwhelming feelings.

 

“Sakura.”

 

Sakura doesn’t know why but the way Hyewon whisper her name affectionately manages to make her open up her eyes.

 

There, Hyewon looking at Sakura with her shining eyes. Caressing Sakura’s cheeks softly before tracing her delicate fingers to the soft lips.

 

Sakura froze when Hyewon touches her side lips, hypnotize by the gaze