"No. No. No!"

 She yelled out in frustration, tearing the paper where she had been working on her art for the past hour from her sketch book. She glared at it with such hatred for a few seconds before she proceeded to shred it into pieces. No matter how many times she had tried to draw that image which had been so apparent and crystal clear in her mind, she never seems to get it right. Her mind and fingers never seem to function well and fully copy the important details and thoughts of the  image to the blank pages of her dear sketch book.

 'Damn it, Kim Sooyeon,' She had scolded herself. 'Work harder.'

 From the corner of her room, heaps of crumpled pieces of paper were overflowing from the garbage can, a result from her endless attempts to fully convey the image to the blank pages of her sketch book. But with each time she had attempted to draw, there was always a mistake, a new error within the her work. She made several attempts to make it right but her efforts were proven futile. Those crumpled papers strewn across the floor were the proof of her useless talent.

 'This is why you are never made for perfection.'

 She had told herself this several times, after each mistake or error she had made, whether it was big or small. Since she was young, she had aways been expected and groomed to be made perfect. Perfect in everything, inside and outside. She was expected to be like her older sister. Smart, confident, beautiful, optimistic, and an ideal role model and heiress to their family's fortune. That was how she described her oh-so perfect older sister. But even if she is envious of how perfect and ideal she was, she knew that she couldn't stay in that state for long. But unlike those cliche love-hate sibling relationship, she actually loves her sister, even if she won't admit it out loud. Because underneath that perfect exterior, her older sister is actually a dorky and eccentric kind of person. The only side of her older sister which she really love.

 Because she was being groomed to perfection, even a single mistake would make her a complete failure. She was groomed to be the type to win, never bowing down to failure. She hates it when she makes a mistake, an error, even the smallest or slightest bit of that would be enough to make her feel like her efforts were proven futile. Take the heaps of crumpled papers that were strewn across the room, for example. Every time she had tried to draw something out of her high-standing expections, it never seems to be right.

 Angered. Devastated. Frustrated.

 That's what she can say about her feelings right now. Out of complete anger and frustration, she threw the crumpled paper in her hand across the room. She groaned and punched the wall. She didn't care about the throbbing pain in her fist. She was a complete failure, after all. Withdrawing her fist back to her side, she glanced in complete disgust at the pile of crumpled papers that were lying lifelessly across the room.

 Mindlessly, she picked up a crumpled piece of paper and, slowly and gingerly unfolded it as she took a look at her work that she had previously called a failure. It was a detailed drawing of a woman, gazing with a hopeful look across the balcony and into the starry sky, her hands wrung together as a small, sad smile was on her face. She exactly had no idea why she was compelled to draw this but for a moment, it reminded her how her dreams were soon going to fade away when she took a step into leading her family's future.

 "This doesn't even make any sense," She muttered to herself.

 A knock was heard from the door and a person peeked out of it. It was a girl who looks no older or younger than eighteen , yet she is shorter than Sooyeon herself. She had a cheerful expression on her face, her hand raised as if she was about to knock on the door again. Frantically, Sooyeon hid her hands behind her back, the once crumpled paper in her hand was being clenched.

 "Yah, Sooyeonnie! Umma told me to wake you up!" Her older sister said in her usual perky tone.

 Sooyeon gazed over at her older sister, her eyes falling over the latter's extrovert self, short and just plain beautiful. Her long bronze hair cascades down her back like a crashing waterfall, her dazzling eyes sweeping through the room. Her tanned skin shone other than the soft light being emitted from the room and it was obvious that she was definitely excited for what the day has in stored for her.

 'And one of the many reasons on how are we even related. Honestly, I could never understand her optimistic and extroverted self when she's already driven to the core to be the perfect candidate to lead our family some day soon...'

 "Ne." She nodded quickly. "And please, just don't call me Sooyeonnie."

 She just giggled before her eyes fell on the pieces of papers, her smile turning to a frown. "Have you done your homework all night?"

 "Well..." She faltered, biting her lower lip. "I haven't done them yet."

 "Umma isn't going to be pleased when she hears about this."

 That sentence was simple and effective enough for Sooyeon's face to harden. Tersed silence befell on them. They exchanged hardened glances, with her staring at her with a look that she hasn't seen for a long time. Disappointment. She tried hard, thinking of words to say to start a conversation and end the hardened silence between them, but nothing. This kind of silence between them is definitely something that Sooyeon isn't definitely used to. She could hardly formulate something to say to her older sister.

 "I better get going." She broke the silence.

 She just shot her a slight (and somewhat strained) smile. "Okay."

 Without even returning her smile or saying another word, she left the room in a swift manner, trying to make as little noise as possible to prevent further disturbance to her. This was one of Sooyeon's reasons why she often wonder about her older sister's double personality. On the outside, she's the girl everyone wants to be: smart, rich, talented, attractive, and an ideal role model to everyone. Despite under peer pressure and stress, she always puts on a smile and continues with her work, even if it is harder for to do so. If you get to know her more, she is actually a dorky kind of person. So in her older sister's exterior, she's a bright, optimistic person who has everything anyone could ever ask for in their lifetime. But there were those moments, especially if it involves anything with family, that her older sister's personality goes for a drastic change. She would become solemn, emotionless, almost as if she could never find that true happiness in her life. She had become that girl every time she had made a mistake, big or small. Her parents would always scold her for it. After all, they were trained, groomed and made to be flawless in every single way. This rare side of her older sister was passed down to her. She couldn't exactly picture what true happiness is, as she never had even experience it ever since she was a child. Her parents were too demanding, wanting everything to be perfect. So, it always upsets her older sister whenever she is like this: solemn, emotionless, lonely, but she always hides it with a smile. But this time... it was also one of the rare times she would no longer shield her disappointment in her attitude.

 She completely gazed on to the spot where her older sister stood before she left, a lump rising in . She actually wanted to say something to her...

 'But there was nothing to say.'

 She shrugged and loomed over to her night's work once more, picking up the pieces of papers that were strewn across the floor. She slowly unfurled the paper, looking through the countless drawings, countless pieces of papers of the same work, just as if one look of the drawing would make a whole lot of a difference to the rest of her similar works.

 Each was the same. A dark background with the stars splashed all over the sky. The trees huddling close together as their branches were swayed downwards, as if it was bending to greet her Majesty. In the forest floor sat a young girl dressed in robes from the olden times, her face looking upwards to the sky with that look full of sadness as the tears were silently streaming down her face. The expression and tears were especially emphasized, as if she knows her dreams were going to be crushed soon.

 'It's almost as if that girl is me...'

 ----

 "— I swear, hyung. It's like she has a brain of a supercomputer, inherited the many talents of famous singers, dancer, musicians and whatnot, has the looks of a supermodel, the leadership of our previous presidents, and she is frickin' short!"

 At the end of his best friend's somewhat endless ranting, Kim Ryeowook slowly took out the books from his locker and gave him a skeptical look, his lips contorted to a slight frown. "Aren't all girls supposed to be shorter than boys?"

 "Yes, but there are other girls who are around our height — but that's not the point!" Kyuhyun caught himself from going off topic and glared at his sunbae-slash-best friend. Ryeowook chuckled lightly at Kyuhyun's riled up behavior. "Then what's your point then, Kyu?"

 "She's not even arrogant, yet she's beautiful, hardworking, and not to mention popular," Kyuhyun started to nag once more. "Honestly, I'll never what's going on with this school. All the boys are practically going gaga over her. And I keep hearing the girls saying, 'Oh, how I wish I was like Taeyeon-sshi,' it's practically annoying. And she's always walking around with this sense of authority around here, like she owns this place! Why, if I were her, I would — "

 Ryeowook turned to look at Kyuhyun, a playful smirk on his face. "My, my, do I detect jealousy from the Great Cho Kyuhyun?"

 "Wha — Kim Ryeowook, I, Cho Kyuhyun of SM High School, is not jealous!" Kyuhyun is bascially screaming on top of his lungs by now. "Why should I be jealous of Kim Taeyeon?! I'm practically contented with everything that I have right now! I don't need to be — "

 "Where are your honorifics this time, Kyuhyun?"

 Ryeowook's words were whimsical and at the same time mocking as he gave his best friend an expectant look, raising an eyebrow as he interrupted Kyuhyun. He picked up his books from his locker, then he slammed it shut, still awaiting for his hoobae's reply. Then, a devilish smirk curved its way to Kyuhyun's mouth, giving him his usual look.

 "Just because you're older than me, doesn't mean I'll always have to be that respectful towards you."

----

 "Jongwoon?"

 Sooyeon was confused, as she felt a tap on her shoulder, only to turn around to find the erratic Kim Jongwoon looking more elusive and nervous than he usually is. He didn't even dared to look at her straight in the eye, as if he was afraid that she would actually bite him. Hard. She found that thought amusing, almost wanting to smile. But she had to keep on a straight face, like she always do.

 "Do you have..." He stammered, a trait of him which had been going on for the past few days now. She actually found this trait of his to be cute, but she rather not say that out loud and decided to keep it to herself.

 "I still have History and Mathematics, Jongwoon-ah," She said in a nonchalant way. 

 "Oh... do you want to..." He started to stutter hopelessly again, the way he usually does nowadays.

 Sooyeon could feel a lump rising towards .

 'I know what he's going to say.'

 Normally, she would usually object his offer, but she decided to do something a bit different for a temporary change. "Okay..."

 Jongwoon was taken aback from her response, as he didn't exactly expected for her to say that. "You will?"

 She just nodded slightly. "Yes. Now, I'll go first, Jongwoon." Sooyeon said it slowly as she retreated from Jongwoon and disappeared into the crowd. 

 For the whole time, Jongwoon stood there, smiling to himself. In reality, he pretty much expected that she would say no and mentally prepared for himself the "rejection". But seeing that she had accepted his offer to walk her home, Jongwoon actually felt pretty confident that he is one step closer maybe to winning her over. From his side, a pretty girl materialized next to him, her head shaking slightly in amusement as she gazed over Sooyeon's retreating figure.

 "For once, I never thought the day would come when Miss Kim Sooyeon actually agreed to Kim Jongwoon's request to walk home with him," She mused, her eyes sparkling in wonder and amusement.

 "Better believe it, Yoong. I think I might actually have a shot in this," Jongwoon said in an arrogant manner, softly chuckling to himself. 

 Im Yoona just smiled in ecstasy, finally happy that her plan is going out as planned.

 'Maybe this will help Sooyeon smile again...'

----

 "What are you doing?"

 Sooyeon gave her older sister a look of disbelief as she saw her older sister transplanting the young seedling into a flower pot, her face going slightly red from the work she had done as beads of perspiration trickled down the sides of her face. The moment she saw her sister, a warm smile immediately found its way to her face as she got up from the ground, hugging the flower pot tightly to her chest. Sooyeon shook her head slightly at her older sister's naive actions, a small smile slowly finding its way to her face.

 "Of all the things you could've done, Taeyeon unnie, you chose to do some... agriculture stuff?" Sooyeon queried, chuckling slightly.

 She shrugged her shoulders. "It's nice to actually try something new, Sooyeon. You should do it some time."

 "I don't think so, unnie," Sooyeon said as she started to walk away. "I have enough things in my life to do."

 "Like trying extra hard to be perfect?"

 Sooyeon stopped in her tracks when Taeyeon's words floated into her ears. Her body stiffened as her expression hardened. Taeyeon noticed this and took this chance to finally tell Sooyeon what she had kept bottled up for a long time now.

 "Sooyeon, I know — "

 "Taeyeon! Sooyeon!"

 The sound of their mother's screech resonated the entire household, effectively causing Taeyeon to shut up. The older among the two just gave Sooyeon a weary look before proceeding to head out and find her mother. Sooyeon just stood there for a few moments, before she also followed what her older sister had done. All while she paved her way through the household, the words of Taeyeon forever remained in her head.

 'Like trying extra hard to be perfect...'

----
Author's Note:
Hi ~ Here's Chapter 1! My friend actually helped me out in writing with this so I'll give a shout out towards her: Thank you, Nina! Thanks for helping me! :D Haha, just so you know, as much as she loves writing and K-Pop, she doesn't have AFF. xP