| Soyeon |

"Ya, say hi. You two just hugged a few minutes ago." Soyeon stared at the two strangely silent grown men. 

Unlike his usual manner, Seungwon didn't even smile, as he stared across him at the identical blank expression on Dohyun. 

"Good job today." The more introverted boy finally broke the silence. 

"You too, I guess you're really as good as Soyeon noona said you were." Seungwon responded rather disingenuously. 

"Did you two fight?" She was confused, how they could be so cold all of the sudden. "Why do you both look so awkward."  

"I'm going to go get something to drink." Dohyun suddenly spoke up, before turning to leave. 

"YA! Aren't you going to watch Minji's performance? Ya you better watch!" She yelled in frustration as she watched him float away, quickly disappearing in the crowd of students. 

Looking back at Seungwon, she noticed it then, a definite frown on his lips as he gazed off into the distance, straight at her other friend. 

Nudging him on the shoulder, she decided it was time to investigate. 

"What's wrong with you?" 

"I heard the haunted house is no joke this year, want to go check it out?" He inquired, clearly motioning for them to leave from the auditorium entrance. 

Soyeon rolled her eyes as she followed him away and into the school building. Things really hadn't changed much, the festival was decorated almost identically to past years. 

"So does Noona have a new boyfriend yet? That last one was such an to me." He tried to lighten the mood, an act so shameless, she couldn't help but scoff. 

"That's cause you kept texting me when I was with him." She huffed in annoyance. 

"Oh is that right? Is that why you kept inviting me to hangout with your friends? Don't think I don't know noona was using me to get closer to your female sunbaes." He pointed out. 

With a guilty smirk, Soyeon wrapped her arm in a clingy manner, to keep a group of Seoul Tech students who attempted to approach Seungwon away. 

"Hey, shouldn't I make use of having a handsome best friend to my advantage. Besides, you are just so good at entertaining noona's friends." Soyeon admitted. 

Then it was silence. The two somehow walked undeterred through the haunted hallways of the school festival, neither so much as flinching from the various jump scares. 

He simply paced quietly, his mind clearly absconded from the present. 

Finally, tired of being ignored, she stepped on his brand new white sneakers. 

"YA!" The calm athlete snapped. 

"What? What's wrong? Say something, you're never this quiet. Are you mad about something?" 

Seungwon huffed as he stared into her eyes, seething in mysterious frustration. 

"Why didn't you tell me?" He questioned. 

"Huh?"

"That those two already knew each other. How long have they been friends for... never mind how do those two even know each other?" 

Soyeon, who had no clue what he was talking about, shrugged her shoulders. 

"Who?"

"Lee Dohyun and Minji-ssi." He finally identified the two he was referencing. 

"What? Are you joking?" 

However, the straight expression on his face, that Soyeon couldn't remember seeing him have since he was a 1st year, slowly shocked her. He was serious. 

"This was their first time meeting for this event." She answered, her eyes searching his for the extent that he would investigate this matter. 

"They just met." She clarified for him again.  

"No way." Seungwon frowned. "That doesn't make any sense. They look like childhood friends the way they interact." 

He wasn't completely wrong. It did seem so odd how friendly they seemed considering their alleged lack of history. 

Lee Dohyun, the cold loner who she had first met when he spotted her crying in the PC-bang and offered her a free bowl of ramen.

After that act, she had spent over 3 months frequenting the Happy Gamer, pestering him to help her improve in LoL before he finally opened up after becoming annoyed by her terrible gaming skills. 

Somehow Song Minji had done the same in a few weeks. 

"What? Are you jealous someone else is getting close to her?" Soyeon took the opportunity to tease the sullen faced jock. 

The perfectly mannered boy, was far from innocent when it came to wanting something. After all he had at one point relentlessly pursued her when he was a 1st year. Not in a romantic way, no not anything like that.

The ultimate competitor, Jeong Seungwon had almost begged her to take him under her wing in the student council. At first, she had mistaken him as trying to make advances on her, just based on his close friendship with school delinquents like Inhyuk. 

But slowly, she realized he was just under immense pressure from his parents to improve his portfolio and wanted to leverage his social abilities for academics like she did. 

"Are you sure... then how does he even have her Kakao?" He remained suspicious. "Are you sure you aren't already taking his side?" 

Soyeon scoffed, at his insecurity. "Ya, are you kidding? I love both my sons equally. They really first met through this event... I was shocked as well to see them getting along so well." 

Finally satisfied by her answer, he nodded. 

"By the way... do you like her that much?" She wondered, surprised to see someone so adamantly against any distractions to his academic ambitions finally buckle. 

Sure, the girl in question... was something else. 

"What's not to like?" He posed, in a rather cold voice considering it was supposed to be praising the 1st year. 

"You really like her right? You're not just doing this because your parents like her or something." The scary thought slowly entered Soyeon's mind. 

He didn't respond, but she could tell he just wasn't used to having feelings for someone. 

. .

|   ?   |

Applause. Loud applause clambered through the auditorium as she climbed the steps to center stage. 

From festivals past, seeing beauties rise up to the talent show stage wasn't an uncommon sight. But generally they were joined by their friends, hiding their amateur skills by commanding those around them to dance even worse to highlight them. 

However, this was different. Song Minji was alone... and more, she was singing. The type of performance most prone to total humiliation. Unlike a group performance, there was no where to hide if your voice couldn't exceed the audiences expectations. 

It was clear to him. Given the type of heightened standard that the crowd would have for her, this was a pretty dumb decision. Especially considering she was quite smart in his eyes. 

A series of piano notes played for the intro, signaling it was a mostly acoustic song. 

"For my performance I will be singing to Taeyeon's U R." She spoke over the first few notes. 

"For a long time I've held it in my heart, Clouds and rain" ♫ As soon as she sang the first few notes, he realized his mistake. 

His entire thought process had been under a single assumption. That the already unfairly talented Song Minji was not a good singer. This assumption was quickly laid to rest.  

Her voice was deeper than most, similar to the way she spoke. But it somehow perfectly matched the song. 

"Hoping sincerely for a warm sun to shine

Raindrops wet my shoulder" ♫

Standing on the darkened stage, a microphone held centimeters from mouth, her large eyes gazing wistfully away in his direction. 

"Even when I become dry, 

I was so afraid that it would remain." ♫

Her slender body swayed in perfect synchronization with the music. 

"You are like a light, after the rain has passed,

You keep coming up in my heart" ♫

He watched in awe as emotion induced tears slid down from her eyes. This song the ultimate ballad to express ones affection towards another. 

"Cause you are! 

The light that fell on me" ♫

The moment she sang the first line of the chorus, he felt it. Thump. Thump.

Thump. Thump.

The way her usually large eyes folded shut to immerse herself into the role of the lyricist. Expressing every ounce of affection towards this imaginary man who the original singer was so obsessed by. 

"You are! 

Like a beautiful dream" ♫

"With seven rays, the entire world,

Becomes dyed even more beautifully" ♫

He took a deep breath, panicking internally as he felt his entire self unable to avert itself from each delicate detail that made up her picture perfect face. 

"Always

Yeah U R." ♫

He wished at that moment... he hadn't stayed. He wished he had just left like he had first intended. Thump. Thump.

At that moment, as cringe and stupid as it sounded. For the first time, he grew immensely selfish and greedy, wishing just for a second... that the lyrics of the song were directed at him. 

While he was completely immersed, totally charmed with the angelic 1st year. What he didn't know was the other that felt these exact same emotions.

One, who like him, was unused to feeling the fluttering feeling of first love. 

Both of them helplessly and hopelessly fallen for her. 

 They were destined competitors, both vying for a common goal.

. . 

| Minji |

Minji walked off the stage, to roaring applause, clearly silencing every single one of her haters in a timely manner. 

While it was her appearance and past