The end of wisdom is to dream high enough not to lose the dream in the seeking of it.

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Wooyoung’s POV

            I skillfully pulled over next to a van parked along the same curb with darkly tinted windows. It was probably Jieun’s manager’s car. Excited to finally see her again and talk to her face to face rather on the phone, I headed towards her house only to see someone standing at the doorstep, talking quietly to Jieun with the use of several hand motions. Looking closer, I could see that Jieun was not pleased.

            “I don’t want to see you.” Jieun announced, her words frosted with a sense of coldness that I never thought could escape from her lips. Her eyes were fierce but serious, her hand on the knob ready to slam in shut right in front of his face. From the angle where I stood, it was unlikely that she would see me. If things got messy here—though I never planned for it to—I was glad my mom suggested coming later bringing over some homemade rice cakes.

            “Just let me say one thing.” He pleaded. I wanted to laugh at how pathetic he looked. She gave no reply and he took it as an invitation to speak.

            “For everything, I’m sorry.” He sighed, his head lowering as he turned around to walk down the steps. Without saying goodbye, Jieun closed the door without making a single sound. His head still hung low as I crossed paths with him, our shoulders brushing slightly forcing him to turn and glance at me.

            “What brings you here? Eunjung dump you for cheating on her too?” I wondered, not even slightly curious. He froze in his place, confirming in my head that my assumption was probably true. Without a word of defense he made his way down the path from their house and turned left on the sidewalk. Shrugging, I headed towards the door and accidently pressed the door bell twice. Immediately the door swung open.

            “Kikwang I told you to—“I stared back at Jieun whose annoyed face transitioned to stun and then excitement.

            “Nice to see you again too,” I joked, stepping into her house and kicking off my shoes, brushing some snow off my shoulders. Before I could close the door I noticed my mom’s car outside, her headlights flashing once before turning off. In just a few seconds, she was rushing from her car towards the house as if there was a 90% off sale at her favourite clothing store. I kept the door open for her as she shivered feverously in place.

Jieun’s POV

            “Welcome!” My mom greeted, leaving the kitchen with her apron still on. The two mothers exchanged hugs as Wooyoung and I went to see Donghae. He was attempting to have an intellectual conversation with my uninterested father who sipped on his box of soju, grunting at every question Donghae asked. I didn’t understand why he was even trying. Once my dad whipped out the soju, it was game over.

            “What’s up?” Donghae greeted in fluent English.

            “Pleasure seeing you here; how have you been, bro?” Wooyoung replied back, his English dressed with a slight accent but impressed me nonetheless.

            “Great! I’m working under SM Entertainment now.” Donghae revealed switching back to Korean so we all could understand. Everyone in the house except my father congratulated him. My mom interrupted our brief conversation with the freshly baked and decorated cake, the words reading “Happy New Years” with a variety of fruit outlining the edges. Once we each got a piece, Donghae decided to have a more mature conversation with the two sober adults in the house. He had a way with adults that made everyone over the age of 30 draw their attention to him since childhood. I wasn’t surprised that so many of his “noona fans” begged me in middle school for his number. I sat on the long sofa adjacent to the TV and Wooyoung joined me with the plate of cake in his hands. My dad had fallen asleep, a common annual occurrence on New Year Eve. When we finished eating and cleared our plates, we continued sitting on the couch, neither of us starting the conversation first. I was comfortable where I sat, the back of the couch a comfortable headrest, but something about the atmosphere made my head shift downwards to rest on Wooyoung’s shoulders. I couldn’t have felt safer in my life despite the fact that there were three idols in the house and reporters would come breaking in if they knew. With both my hands, I grabbed Wooyoung’s left and squeezed it tight but not tight enough to cut blood circulation. His hands were warm despite the potential snowstorm that was reported to be coming our way. The moment our hands made contact, he shifted his head to face me and I looked upwards to make eye contact but my head stayed resting on his shoulder. It was a bit uncomfortable for my neck, but I had something I wanted to say.

            “Wooyoung-ah,” I said in a low voice audible enough for only Wooyoung to hear.

            “Yes?” He answered, staring at me with eyes that I could only describe as loving.

            “I’m really proud of you; you know that?” I admitted with a huge grin. If he could only see how much he had changed since high school the way I did he wouldn’t be able to deny that he was proud of himself too.

            “Gomawo. You’ve come a long way too.” He smiled, brushing away a few strands of my bangs that unwelcomingly fell over my eyes.

            “Midnight is coming. Do you have a wish?” He asked after a quick glance at the clock.

            “I never knew you were supposed to make a wish when the clock struck twelve on New Years.” I laughed. Was this some new tradition he wanted to start? I had to admit it was a cute idea.

            “New Years mean a fresh start, don’t they?” He added, laughing along with me. I nodded, considering his perspective before declaring,

            “Then I do have a wish.” He gave me a curious stare, causing me to smile mischievously.

            “If I tell you then you have to promise to make it come true.” I announced confidently, letting my stubborn side take the best of me. I then proceeded to lifting up my pinky for the old fashioned and undeniable pinky promise.

            “I promise,” He said in almost a whisper as our pinkies intertwined.

Wooyoung’s POV

            I waited patiently, my eyes planted on her small face as she finally told me her New Years’ wish.

            “I wish that we’ll be happy together, this year and until forever because after I got to know you, I made it part of my dream to be next to you.” She admitted, her face starting to blush a rose-y pink hue. The moment she finished speaking, I leaned my head down and planted my lips on top of hers gently—her first kiss. Our first kiss.

            We suddenly broke contact the moment a loud round of applause erupted in the living room. I hadn’t noticed how many people had gathered here. It was as if only Jieun and I existed in that moment of time. The applause was loud enough to wake Jieun’s dad from his alchoholic dreamland. I took a quick glance at Jieun whose hands covered her lips, her cheeks now beat red. If I could see my face right now I would bet that it was just as red, if not, redder. Jieun’s mom stepped closer towards us, singing a familiar song that I recognized to be Yoseob and Drama’s ‘First Snow, First Kiss’. Her voice was shaky past her tears of joy. In the background I could see my mom giving me a ‘thumbs up’, smirking as if I was the mischievous one.

            “Aigoo, Jieun’s mom, why are you singing this? It isn’t even the first snowfall of the season.” She laughed, breaking the awkward tension and giving the two of us some space to breathe.

            “But it’s my baby Jieun’s first kiss!” My mom gushed, clapping wildly like a seal on steroids again. Though I should’ve expected as much, I was surprised that Kikwang never made a move on her during the time they were ‘together’. Still, I was happy to be the first. I glanced at Jieun who was blushing wildly still, hiding her face with a cushion.

            “Eomma; stop embarrassing me!” She scolded helplessly, causing us all to laugh. From the corners of my eyes I could see her father glaring at me, although he was too drunk to beat me for kissing his daughter.

            “Was that your first?” I smirked, whispering the question in Jieun’s ears. She moved the cushion from her face so that I could see her and nodded. The light atmosphere seemed to make everything this moment funnier than reality would find it and I laughed, in which she responded with a hard thump on the forehead. I rubbed my forehead and then opened my arms for a hug to ‘make up’. She turned away pouting, playfully annoyed. If I didn’t know she had acting experience I would’ve thought she was actually mad at me.

            “Yah, Jieun-ah,” Her mom called but she ignored her, “It’s too late for you to play hard to get.” I could see her pulling out a camera, snapping photos in random intervals. Regardless, I hugged her from behind whispering,

            “Don’t be mad,” as her tensed and stiffened body relaxed upon my embrace. Her head turned to stare at me and the moment her gaze softened, I planted another gentle kiss on her lips. Though our eyes were closed tight, we could see and hear the camera’s flashing.

            “Ooh la la, this will look wonderful as the banner of my blog!” Jieun’s mom cheered excitedly, forcing us to immediately pull away.

            “Eomma! I thought you closed down your blog! Do you know how many netizens are tracking down your posts every day?!” Jieun whined, pouncing off the couch for the camera but missing. Ever since netizens found the source of our graduation video after our debut, people patrolled her blog for more information on us every minute. The two of us chased her mother around the entire house in circles and even figure eights for the camera. I was surprised at her finesse, being able to keep up with two younger adults. It was impressive how excitement could drive her to do laps. A few minutes before the clock struck twelve, the doorbell rang again, Jieun and I went to open the door only to be surprised to see JYP himself at our doorstep, mouth muffled with a huge wooly scarf. From far away he probably looked like an Antarctican terrorist. This was by far the best New Years of my life. Wait, scratch that. This was by far the best day of my life—so far.

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Jieun’s POV

            The nagging promotions ended weeks ago and today’s the first day I would perform a song of my own, a song I chose to represent my new mini album. My manager reported that a few minutes since the release the sales had already gone higher than she expected for a trainee. Reviews of my mini album read that they were inspired by how real my lyrics were, but how relatable my songs are and how sincere I sounded with every word I sang. For me, each song in my album represented a section of my life, most involving the emotions of premature love for him back in high school. From the responses, of all the songs in my new albums the one getting the most attention was my personal favourite; ‘Maybe’, and that was the song I chose to perform today. We waited backstage for the host to announce us, and when the lights turned black we silently headed on stage. Even before the lights came back on, I could hear the excited fans chanting my stage name.

            “I heart U, IU,” They repeated over and over again, neon posters and light sticks illuminating the blackness of the auditorium. The lights went back on and the music immediately began. We each sang our lines perfectly; in fact, we had no need for a rehearsal. The memories of high school came flooding back and I even imagined myself under the blue lighting of our gymnasium that seemed miniscule compared to the stage we now owned. I looked to the side, remembering how Kim seonsaengnim smiled encouragingly at me from the sidelines, her eyes resembling that of a proud mother’s. When my eyes distinguished imagination from reality, I almost couldn’t believe who I saw in the sidelines, staring back at me with those same caring eyes. It had almost been a year, and seeing Kim Seonsaengnim standing beside the lighting crew with a new perm made my eyes tear up. When the song ended, the lights dimmed to a light pink color and Wooyoung pulled me close towards him. It didn’t take me even a second to process what was coming next. He lifted the umbrella that the stage staff had given him and opened it, covering our heads The floor we stood on began to descend downwards as I leaned in closer to make the ‘fake kiss’ look more believable. To my surprise, his lips fell on mine for about two seconds before we were completely out of view. Observers from in the upper section and sides would’ve seen that the kiss was real. Though this was no longer my first time, my heart still fluttered and my heart would beat rapidly in my chest. He grabbed my hand next, pulling me backstage where Kim Seonsaengnim waited to greet us.

            “You two did amazing.” She smiled as I embraced her for a hug. She was my first mentor, the first person who took the risk to believe in my talent that I myself would not acknowledge and encouraged my imagination to soar.

            “Thanks for everything.” I smiled, my eyes unable to restrain the tears from falling, soaking the shoulder of her blouse.

            “You two have made me the proudest high school musical theatre supervisor in the world.” She smiled warmly. Our reunion was cut short by my manager who ushered for me to head back to the stage. She explained that our relationship had already been revealed and that the host wanted me to say a few words regarding my new album. Wooyoung went with me back to the stage and we stood in the centre, a microphone in my hand, Wooyoung’s hand in my other.

            “Since every song was sincerely from my heart, I feel like I can truly say this album is mine. Not only is it mine, but as fans I hope that you will take this as a gift from me. These songs not only share the stories of a teenage girl struggling to love, but a teenage girl who dared to desire. What I hope you all will cherish in your hearts and minds is your ability to dream and your willingness to chase after them so passionately that you all will someday lead your own dreams.” I spoke clearly into the microphone the words I wanted to share with everyone here.

A/N: This is the last chapter of Dare to Desire. The next chapter is a sincere thank you from me to each and every one of you readers.