A person can grow only as much as his horizon allows.

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Jieun’s POV

            After a few days of exploring I quickly grew accustomed to my new surroundings in the Art Institute. Even though school didn’t start for a few more days, I could already sense that my social awkwardness from high school had followed me all the way here. I sat at an empty picnic table and rested my elbows on the surface, staring at the shadows of the leaves from above cast down along my arms. Sub consciously, I began tracing the peculiar shapes with my left index finger, despite the fact I was right handed, and hummed to myself. My voice began no louder than a gentle breath, and grew louder with every passing second. I was humming to the chorus of Say You Love Me—my original song of which I misplaced the lyrics to, but though the words on paper were lost to me, having written them from the heart I felt that every lyric was already engraved in my mind. It was odd that reminiscing upon such words never saddened me to the point that I wanted to break down in a corner and sob; more surprising that as the lyrics drifted through my mind there was only one person occupying it. Unknowingly and unaware that I was smack in the middle of the school’s outdoor premises, where crowds of new students like myself were in hearing distance, my humming transitioned to ‘Maybe’, humming the melody until my lines came up. After singing the first verse, smiling at the memories of standing in the centre of my high school gym with Wooyoung, a cold hand tapped my shoulder. Instinctively, I jumped and ly to see Eunjung’s face no more than one foot away from mine. There was a deep grin on her face, and I couldn’t tell whether she was going to torture me for pleasure like she used to in high school or not.

            “That’s the song you sang at graduation, right?” Eunjung asked smugly, taking a seat across from me at the wooden picnic table and leaning closer as if she wanted to emphasize how engaged she was in the conversation she just started. I nodded slowly, eyeing her every movement as I held back the thought of making a run for it due to my own insecurities around her.

            “With Wooyoung…” She mumbled in a softer voice after my nod, sending involuntary chills down my spine. How long had it been since someone mentioned his name out loud? Trying not to let her intimidation get to me, I shrugged and turned my head away to stare at the leaves that shook from the gentle warm winds of late summer.

            “Still not going to talk to me?” Eunjung asked suddenly, inching her face closer to mine to enforce eye contact. I sighed and looked right into her dark pupils, taking a silent and unnoticed gulp as I did. She wanted my attention; now she has it.

            “Look Jieun, I don’t like Wooyoung anymore. I probably never did, and anything I ever said to you regarding him back in high school was out of jealousy.” Eunjung admitted; her cheeks slowly flushed a light pink color and now it was her turn to cut eye contact. I was a gullible person by birth, but something was ensuring me that Eunjung was being sincere.

            “Jealousy?” I asked; trying not to allow myself to fall so easily for her words. She’s deceived me with them far too much in the past.

            “Ne, jealously, but don’t let this go to your head. Even though I offered to be friends with you, I don’t intend to go easy on you in class. If we’re ever competing against each other, even if you cry and beg I won’t take pity on you.” Her sincere tone quickly shifted mid-sentence to her more familiar and aggressive voice, flooded with overconfidence and her nature of having a superiority complex. Sighing again, I turned to her and smiled,

            “That’s great, because I don’t intend to go easy on you either.” For a split second I could see rage in her eyes but she managed to tame her anger and smirk at me.

            “When did you learn to become so feisty, Lee Jieun? I’ll take this as a challenge, and the first of us two to debut will be the crowned the best.” She said in almost a sly hiss. Her challenged brought me back to the reality I placed myself in. I was in Seoul’s top art school, and competition would only get heavier every day. Raising my hand in front of me for a handshake I nodded,

            “Alright then,”

Taecyeon’s POV

            The fresh air was simply delightful this morning. The sun had just risen and I woke up especially early today to scout for a new jogging route. Pulling out my cell phone from my shorts’ pocket I glanced at the time—6:39am. I mentally drew a map of my new jogging route and was heading back to the dorm when I saw someone familiar sitting against an oak tree. There was no mistaking the shade of brown in his hair and the dorky way he sat on the grass. I skidded closer towards him, almost ninja-like as I tried to think of a way to startle him, but when I was just ten steps away, my knees froze in place.

            “If you only asked me to stay, I would’ve never left.” Wooyoung’s sorrowful voice rang through Taecyeon’s ear, dismissing any anxiety to pull a prank on him. After hearing those few words, I was certain that this poor boy was missing Lee Jieun. I’ve been his buddy throughout high school and watched him go through countless girls in our grade, as well as the pretty noonas and never once have I ever heard him breathe one word of regret for dumping any of them. The thing about Jieun was that I knew they were never officially together. I jumped backwards slightly when Wooyoung suddenly pounded both his fists into the ground, making a gentle ruffling sound in the grass. How typical of him to punch things in his midst of frustration.

            “Yo, Wooyoung,” I finally made my presence known to him. My voice probably startled him more than his sudden act of violence towards the Earth, but when he finally greeted me back; his lack of energy made me think that he probably felt like the entire universe was crashing down on him.

            “Hey, Taecyeon hyung,” He sighed, rubbing the dirt off both his knuckles and then patting the grass beside where he sat. I sat down like he implied for me to and squinted slightly, trying to guess just how down he felt. It was unfortunate that sympathy and face reading were two things I was known for doing badly. Beating around the bush was also something I fail to do, so rather than trying; I decided to ask him straight up like a man,

            “You miss that Jieun girl don’t you?” His body instantly stiffened. I took that as an agreement to my assumption. Sighing at this adversity of his, I looked up at the blaring sun and allowed my curiosity to get the best of me.

            “You’ve dated almost every girl in our high school, but what makes that girl so much more different?” I pondered, remembering the brief moments that I noticed Jieun passing by me in the hallways. She always walked with her head facing the ground and her eyes shielded behind her thick framed glasses. The only time I really got to see her face clearly for even a few seconds was near the end of our graduating year when she was shoving past my crowd of friends and I by the theatre doors. Still, I never saw anything that made her stand out from all the girls Wooyoung dated in the past. She definitely was not the prettiest, nor was she the brightest.

            “Don’t refer to Jieun so casually; she has a name.” He defended with an empty voice, staring straight at the patch of dirt near his feet.

            “Alright, I’m sorry,” I apologized, raising my hands up as if a cop was pointing a gun at my head to exaggerate the situation and add a bit of humor in between the evident tension. My attempts were futile.

            “You never did tell me clearly why you had to leave Korea. If you had a fight with her, just make up. What’s the big deal?” I began, rationalizing every side of his situation that I was aware of in my head.

            “We didn’t fight…” Wooyoung mumbled, allowing his voice to trail off at the end of his sentence. I furrowed my eyebrows and pried,

            “Then what exactly happened that night you randomly walked into my neighborhood and stood mindlessly outside my house?” There was no way that night did not relate to what happened between Jieun and him. Slowly, I began putting the pieces together.

            “Minus materialism, what does a man have other than his pride?” Wooyoung shot back with a question in monotone. As unusual as it sounded, I laid my head back against the tree trunk to think sincerely, deciding that this was an inappropriate situation for my witty and unneeded statements.

            “Virtually nothing,” I breathed, unable to think of an answer worth mentioning. I admit that I’m someone who lives off my own ego.

            “So how do you continue to pursue a girl when you have nothing?” Wooyoung turned to me with his unchanging sorrowful expression. The words in my mind stuttered and I found myself staring back at him blankly.

            “You’re pathetic.” A female voice said in a light hearted chuckle. From the sounds of it, she was no more than one metre away from the two of us.

            “What the hell?” I roared, turning to see Suzy casually in a standing lean position against the very same tree. Her eyes were filled with amusement; the smirk on her face was mysterious.

            “I said you, Jang Wooyoung, are pathetic.” Suzy pointed at Wooyoung who stared back at her with wide open eyes. In my long history with Wooyoung, there was never a soul brave enough to call him pathetic—until now. Suzy was definitely an exception to every rule, and though I had grown up with her until she left for Canada, I still could not believe how inconsiderately blunt she could be. Her shoulder pushed off the tree trunk and she stood straight in front of the two of us and flipped her light brown hair behind her shoulders.

            “If you miss this girl so much, why don’t you just go back to Korea?” Suzy provoked, taking a step further towards Wooyoung and inching her head closer to him. Their eyes were only a few centimeters away, and her dead cold stare was not interrupted by even a blink. Where had Wooyoung’s almighty confidence gone? Never have I seen him so degraded before.

            “You aren’t even fluent in English. How do you expect to survive here?” Suzy continued, raising one eyebrow. I could hear Wooyoung’s teeth gritting in his mouth and watched his fingers clench into a tight fist. Suzy was going too far. If she didn’t stop she’d have to make a trip to her family dentist in less than five minutes.

            “You’re right.” Wooyoung replied, loosening his fists and dropping his defensive glare. How many sides did Wooyoung have? Right now it felt like I didn’t even know him.

            “But I’m not going to give up here. I’ll learn English, and I’ll do whatever it takes for me to find what I came here to find.” He replied with a confident voice—the liveliest he’d been since I heard him all morning. Nodding her head slowly, she took a step backwards and asked,

            “And what did you come here to find?” Now Wooyoung was clearly in control of the situation. He was smirking at Suzy, his eyes were filled with some burning determination still unknown to me as he proclaimed,

            “A dream,”

A/N: I decided to update today hehe! Sorry didn't edit yet. I'm too busy to even write the chapters nowadays let alone edit but one day I will get to that. Hmm... This chapter seems a little boring, I'm sorry. And the story is still focusing more on Wooyoung but hey, he's important ^^! Please leave a comment with your thoughts below! your feedback is much appreciated (:!!!