Wisdom is knowing what to do next; virtue is doing it. 

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

Jieun’s POV

            I stood light headed and confused in Wooyoung’s gentle hug that succeeded in stirring the audience into complete awe. Seconds passed as my eyes glued shut, waiting patiently for Wooyoung’s lips to fall upon mine. They never came. Opening one eye, I saw Wooyoung’s face no more than a few centimeters away, his eyes staring into my opened one with an amused expression. Now opening the other eye, I felt his warm breath against my cheeks as he chuckled and slightly forced me backwards so that his back was facing the crowd. Leaning his head in closer to leave less than half a centimeter of space between our lips, the crowd roared with enthusiasm and thunderous applauding. I caught a peek of the red curtains closing slowly separating the two of us on stage from the hundreds of satisfied guests. When the curtain was completely closed I stumbled backwards as Wooyoung immediately pulled his arms away. Before I had time to process what happened, Ms. Kim rushed all the musical theatre students onto the stage in a horizontal line for a final bow. I stood beside Wooyoung who didn’t spare me a fleeting look but held tightly onto my right hand as the curtains parted once more. After bowing the crowd applauded uncontrollably, and anxious friends hollered some of the student’s names. Of course, no one shouted mine. I watched Wooyoung pull his hand away from me and head backstage alone before all the others who were still taking their time and enjoying the spotlight that was previously mine. Wooyoung walked over to a corner and grabbed a water bottle from the stand; I followed, cornering him. Unscrewing the cap, he stared at me for a moment before chugging half the bottle and then held the half empty bottle in front of me.

            “Thirsty?” He mused, smirking devilishly at me. As dumbfounded as I was I pushed his arm away and demanded,

            “What happened out there?” It seemed like my whole day of worrying had gone to waste, because in the end the kiss scene was just a hoax.

            “What do you mean?” He shrugged, and then chugged the rest of the water and screwed the cap back on. Was he trying to play dumb?

            “The last scene—“

            “Ah, the ‘kiss’ scene?” Wooyoung interrupted with an inward chuckle. Embarrassed at how desperate I must’ve looked right now I nodded and kept my eyes glued to the floor. Even though I wasn’t making eye contact with him I could sense that he was watching every movement I made. Why did I even care that he never kissed me for real? In the beginning I never wanted it to happen, so why did I get my hopes up?

            “Were you hoping for it to be real?” he laughed as if there was some hilarious joke that I wasn’t let in on. Mixed up with my thoughts I shook my head and blurted,

            “No!” I felt as childish as ever for denying without reason.

            “No?” He reiterated with an engrossed expression, inching his face towards me again. Even though there was at least half a foot of space between the two of us, I could feel my heart beating uncontrollably in my chest. I looked up at him, intimidated by his calm smile that was capable of turning me into a clueless fool.

            “Well, I mean…” I mumbled, hypnotized by his sheer presence. I myself had no idea what I wanted to say. Upon impulse I winced when he inched closer to me, closing my eyes on instinct again. They immediately shot open at the sound of his roaring laughter. It reminded me that I was still a ‘nobody’, and now that the musical was over I was nothing more than the dutiful pianist again, at least until graduation. The way he was laughing so heartlessly now made me feel like a complete joke—a vulnerable person who was easily manipulated by everyone. I felt warm tears form in my tear ducts and turned away as he continued to laugh. If I cried here I would only further embarrass myself.

            “Jieun!” When I looked up the first person I saw was my mom who immediately pulled me in for a squeeze, and I felt my father’s protective hands give me a firm pat on the back. They were both smiling at me until my dad noticed Wooyoung now well composed only three feet away from me.

            “Annyeonghashimnikka,” Wooyoung coughed and then bowed; from a third person’s perspective it would seem like he was my boyfriend for being so formal to my parents. My dad grunted and then nodded at him, diverting his eyes to my blank expression. Was he misunderstanding?

            “Jieun-ah,” My mom frowned, “You never told us there was a kiss scene…” I could feel the acid in my stomach churn; I was speechless. My father was now glaring at Wooyoung who kept his content smile on his face, refusing to blink. It would seem a little creepy, but Wooyoung made not blinking appear unusually natural.

            “Who are you to smirk like that?” My dad fumed, his voice slowly growing louder with every word that slipped past his lips. The smile on Wooyoung’s face began to fade away but he didn’t respond. This only angered my father more.

            “How dare you steal my daughter’s first kiss?!” His voice boomed as his right hand rose threateningly. I see it coming; he was going to hit him! My heart was beating fast and my mind raced uncontrollably. The next thing I knew, I was standing in front of Wooyoung protectively, holding my dad’s arm away with all the energy I could muster up.

            “Don’t!” I begged, now crying. I didn’t know why I was, but the tears wouldn’t stop coming. His arm relaxed at the sight of my tears that I was reluctant to wipe away. A firm but comforting hand from behind patted my right shoulder; I turned to see Wooyoung now smiling genuinely at me. It was different from the devilish smirk he gave me earlier.

            “Don’t touch my daughter!” My father’s voice was sharp and sent shivers down my spine. Wooyoung stepped forward, now the same distance away from my father as me and explained,

            “I never stole her first kiss,” My dad’s eyes immediately fell on me and I could only nod. Inside, I felt disappointed but it was really too good to be true. Now slightly humiliated my father bowed and apologized, turning away to leave my mom with the two of us. I sighed out of relief and stumbled; Wooyoung caught me before I made contact with the floor.

            “Kwaenchanah?” He asked concerned, my mom was just as alarmed by my sudden collapse. Regaining balance, I kept my eyes on the floor and explained,

            “My dad’s a really scary person. I’ve never stood up to him before.” In our family my dad was the dictator, and no one could ever tell him what to do. He was the alpha, and we all had to bide by his commands. Sometimes I would think living with him was worse than the military, but in the end I knew he only wants to protect me.

            “Why did you do it?” Wooyoung’s voice was softer now, and our conversation went on as if my mom wasn’t even here. She was a hundred times more understanding than my dad; that’s for sure. His question caught me by surprise, but in the heat of the moment I felt the need to protect him, even from my own dad.

            “I don’t want to see you get hurt.” I sniffed, trying hard to cease my senseless crying. I hated appearing weak in front of people, and I hated making people worry about me. His genuine smile stayed adorned on his face as he patted my shoulder again, but it felt as if it was an owner patting their dog on the head.

            “Gomawo,” He thanked before leaving me with my mom backstage. Even now, I couldn’t discover the reason behind the fake kiss. My mom wrapped an arm around me and led me out of the school to the car.

            “In honour of your first successful musical casted as the female lead, we’re going to treat you to your favourite food!” she gushed, nudging me gently on the head and then jumped into the passenger seat of the car. My dad remained silent throughout the whole car ride; mistakenly using violent threats on Wooyoung must have really hurt his pride, but I didn’t want to talk about it. Maybe the fact that I stopped him shocked him the most; after all I never did anything so impulsive against him before. The car jerked to a stop in front of a small but homey authentic sushi restaurant.

            “All you can eat.” My mom lightheartedly whispered in my left ear before pulling me into the building. After taking our seats and ordering, I made sure to avoid all eye contact I could with my father. The last thing I needed was an unnecessary lecture about the danger of teenage boys and raging hormones in the middle of a public setting from an overprotective father. It was completely like my mom to be oblivious to the kind of tension that was present, but it added to her childish innocence that made her the kind of understanding mom she was to me. I placed my cell phone on the wooden table and began to spin it in circles as I waited. Evidently, it vibrated. Who would want to text me, of all people? Curiously I flipped open my phone and pressed the open button, revealing the text message.

            Unkown ID:

            How did you like the kiss with Jang Wooyoung?

            I gawked blankly at the text message, reading the same words over and over as if my brain couldn’t process them. I could tell that it was the same person who texted me before the musical; but who was it? My only guess was the infamous Eunjung; it was so like her to interrogate me about trivial things, especially if they involved Wooyoung. This kind of amusement in me felt new and wrongly satisfying, but if it was Eunjung, there was no doubt that she was jealous—of me.

A/N: Haha, did I fool you all with the fake kiss? ^^ Sorry if it was disappointing but this fanfic just started! Don't worry, there may be kiss scenes in future chapters (real ones LOL). This point of the fanfic is still close to the introductory stage, so i'm guessing this is going to be one long fanfic haha. I might not update until next week since it's my birthday weekend ^^! But please comment, I love to read feedback!