"The light of starry dreams can only be seen once we escape the blinding cities of disbelief. "

ミ★~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~★彡

Wooyoung’s POV

            I held the mop dripping with soapy water in front of her dumbfounded face, waiting for her to finally get up and help me clean. She stared back at me with wide eyes, not bothering to take the mop from me as she stared. Without thinking I grabbed a hold of her left hand and pulled her up feeling her soft hand in mine.

            “Are you just going to stand there or are you going to help me clean the stage?” I snapped at her slowness. I only realized that I was still holding onto her hand as she nervously tried to pull away. Was she blushing? I loosened my grip and her hand fell to her side, her head turning away. This is going to be interesting. Her shoulders brushed against my arm as she approached the piano, stuffing the script Ms. Kim handed to her before walking back to me. I could tell she was avoiding eye contact but she finally took the mop from me and dragged it onto the stage. Smiling, I headed towards the back of the stage to straighten out the floor mats, occasionally stealing small glances of her as she mopped. After watching her for a few minutes I began to wonder why I never acknowledged her as anything other than the pianist of the club before. She was considerably short but pixie-like with long, brown hair who liked to smile to herself as she worked. Unknowingly, I began to gravitate towards her; having some pathological desire to get to know her more as corny as it felt and sounded. Grabbing a broom off the dusty floor in front of the stage Jieun was mopping, I began to sweep the same pile of dirt back and forth inattentively. At around my tenth glance in her direction I guessed she caught on to my ‘stealthy’ glances, because I received an immediate death glare from her direction. Embarrassed to have been found out I kept my head down, now sweeping more seriously as I tried to think of how to break through her anti-social barrier that kept anyone in the theatre club from getting to know her.

            My ears perched when I heard a soothing hum from the stage, finding myself slowly swaying to the beautiful sound that soon progressed into a confident song. Turning to the direction of the music my eyes popped open when I realized the heavenly voice belonged to Jieun, the quiet and self-reserved girl who continued to sing to herself as she mopped. I closed my eyes and rested against the standing broom, listening quietly to her calming voice. It was surprising how flawless her voice was in acapella, and I felt so eager to hear her voice in tomorrow’s musical along with the piano.

            “Yah, Jieun,” I interrupted. She stopped singing and her cheeks immediately flushed a bright pink color, probably forgetting that I was in the room listening. I chuckled softly at her brief embarrassment and smiled at her, taking the mop from her hands to get her full attention.

            “I think you’ve mopped enough for today. Look, the stage is sparkling.” Joking, I pointed to the floor under our feet and stared at the blurred reflection beneath us. She was now smiling, but not at me.

            “I think we’re done cleaning, don’t you?” Eying the whole theatre once, she nodded approvingly to my question. We were standing centre stage, both staring outwards to the empty seats that quickly filled with hundreds of people in my imagination. Without looking at Jieun I asked,

            “Are you nervous about tomorrow?” From the corner of my eye I could see her head turn to face me and in return, I looked back at her to give her my reassuring smile. Sighing, she turned back towards the imaginary audience and confessed,

            “To be honest I don’t know why I agreed to this offer. I don’t think I’m ready.” She was still smiling but I could tell it wasn’t out of sheer joy. Her eyes were filled with questions that I couldn’t decipher, but I felt my heart leap when I finally heard her speak. The whole time we were in the theatre together she never once spoke a word to me until now. In a way, I felt kind of honoured. She had a soft and quiet speaking voice that was much different from her previously confident singing voice but it suited her shy personality. Understanding her need for a confidence boost I informed,

            “You won’t know if you’re ready until you stand up on stage tomorrow.”

Jieun’s POV

          I stared up at him in confusion; if it turns out that I’m not ready on stage tomorrow then won’t it be too late? I could feel the stage fright butterflies start to flutter in my stomach and walked slowly to the edge of the stage to take a seat. Wooyoung followed behind me and sat on my left side, still smiling.

            “If you’re ready, then tomorrow after the musical the audience will give you a good response. That’s how you’ll know.” He winked at me as he added and I turned away to think about it. My two hands pushed against my aching stomach as I mulled over his words. I’ve been in musical theatre for three years and I’ve always told myself that I was never ready. If by now I’m still not ready then when will I ever be? Suddenly I was pulled up by Wooyoung who was now standing beside me.

            “I know what will ease your anxiety—at least a little.” His calming smirk never left his face as he strutted towards the grand piano, running his right hand across the polished keys before beginning to play. Immediately after the first note I recognized the song to be the opening to tomorrow’s year-end musical. After a few more notes I felt my singing voice take over, the first stanza that was meant to be sung by Eunjung flowed out my mouth to match the melody perfectly.

            “I dream high, I dream a dream,” He smiled at me as I sang quietly but my voice grew stronger as the song progressed. By the final line my stomach was at ease; thanks to Wooyoung I was no longer anxious. He rose from the piano and stood in front of me, patting my head lightly with praise. I felt my cheeks warm up but I couldn’t help but smile back. Out of curiosity I asked,

            “Aren’t you disappointed that you won’t be on stage with Eunjung tomorrow?” I remembered watching each and every one of their rehearsals together and how their flawless acting made their chemistry feel so real. If anything, it was quite possible that their on stage chemistry existed off stage too. If I were to interfere with anything I would never forgive myself, no matter how much I detested Eunjung. He stared into my eyes for a long moment, making me wonder whether he was “looking into my soul”. As confused as I was I stared back at him, noticing his blemish free face and how well his brown hair contrasted with his light skin tone. I began to question myself for asking after not receiving a response for so long. Something must be on my face! I brushed my cheeks gently immediately getting a roaring chuckle from Wooyoung in response.

            “I’m not disappointed at all,” he assured, “She’s been my costar for every musical this year and I find this sudden change exciting.” I nodded slowly. He was excited to have me costar with him? I felt embarrassed and flattered at the same time.

            “You’ve already memorized your lines, right?” He asked and I nodded. I doubted whether I would be able to reach Eunjung’s standards in acting but I knew the lines inside out, and if anything, I knew them better than Eunjung did. I never realized how much he liked to smile before, and I wasn’t sure why he’d want to stick around so long since we finished cleaning up a long time ago but I felt thankful to him. Every word he spoke to me helped to build my reassurance for tomorrow. Cocking his head to one side he asked,

            “Then, which scene are you the most worried about?” I mentally scanned the script over and over in my head before answering,

            “The dance scene,” My mind replayed the sudden injury Eunjung suffered and knowing how clumsy I was, the same thing could happen to me but worse because tomorrow would be the real thing. The butterflies that had been chased away fluttered back into my stomach at the thought of it and I sighed.

            “We could take the dance scene out,” Wooyoung suggested. I was even more confused, but if that were possibly I would feel so relieved. My mind highly doubted that possibility though, and I wanted to curse Wooyoung for bringing my hopes up.

            “Do you know why we added the dance scene in the first place?” he entertained the thought, staring up at the ceiling as he lay on his back as if the flaring lights were shimmering stars in the night sky that was the pitch black roof. I lay on my back beside him and foolishly tried to identify the big dipper in the fluster of lights, not answering.

            “Ms. Kim wanted our last musical to be memorable. In the past our school never performed a musical with a dance scene before because generally, musical theatre students were wonderful singers but lousy dancers.” He explained with a teacher-like tone.

            “If we take the dance scene out then our year-end musical won’t be as memorable.” I reminded him, not wanting to ruin Ms. Kim’s original intentions. I loved the musical theatre club and if we were to just come and go, and be nothing but a distant memory after tomorrow then all our hard work for the three years that we’ve contributed to this club would go to waste.

            “There’s an alternative to the dance scene, though. Ms. Kim presented me with two additional scenes that I was to choose between and naturally, I chose the dance scene.” Curious as to what the other scenario was, I asked,

            “Then if we drop the dance scene, what do we need to add?” His head turned to face me with a mischievous smirk.

            “So you want to drop the dance scene for sure?” He digressed. I sighed and nodded, knowing how hopeless my dancing abilities were. There was no way I could master the dance moves by tomorrow when Eunjung had two months of practice and still couldn’t nail them.

            “Yes.”

            “Then whatever the alternative is, you have to follow though okay?” I noticed his now more serious face light up which raised my curiosity. There was no way I was going to embarrass myself on stage with my amateur dancing so I agreed. His dark brown eyes studied my face closely before he whispered almost seductively,

            “The alternative to the dance scene is the kiss scene.” My mind froze and I could feel my eyes growing ten times bigger in shock. Did I hear correctly? My heart skipped a beat and my face burned up almost instantly as the butterflies in my stomach were figuratively eating me alive. I have to act out a kiss scene with our theatre club’s heart throb, Jang Wooyoung?!

A/N: The dialogue involving the stage and audience response was inspired by Dream High, when Kang Seonsaengnim told the students that the stage would show them if they're ready as well as the part when Shi Seonsaengnim told BaekHee that everything would be revealed on stage (her plagiarism). i'll be updating a lot more now that I received the beautiful poster made by Christy from Kaleidoscope Kreations! Please comment with your thoughts, I'm thankful for everyone's support ^^!