For those with ambition, reality is more of a creation than an unalterable certainty

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Jieun’s POV

            After confronting Wooyoung at lunch, it felt like the heavy burden was just magically lifted off my shoulders, and whenever my eyes met with someone giving me an unpleasant stare, my mood was so bright that I just smiled back. I was on a carefree kind of high, and the weird thing was that I wasn’t sure why. Was it maybe my guilty pleasure of having girls jealous of me and my closeness with Wooyoung? Even though in the end everything was just a lie, deceiving the entire student body seemed somewhat stimulating for me. I just went from a complete nobody to somebody—even if it was somebody everyone didn’t necessarily like. It’s not that I like the fact that people thought of me badly, but it was because even though the world seemed against me I still had one solid rock to stand on.

            “Jieun, go down to see your counselor.” My Chemistry teacher ordered me, pushing up her thick lenses as she did so. I snapped back to reality when I realized every pair of eyes in the room was on me. Standing up, I did a half-hearted, apologetic bow before heading out the door. To me, it seemed more like a nod of acknowledgement. As I took my time strolling down the hallway, smiling at the fact that my knee didn’t hurt when I bent them to walk anymore, I wondered why my counselor would want to see me. I couldn’t wrap my head around a logical reason, but my counselor had always been quite supportive of me since my freshmen year. As I approached the student services room, I peeked through the half covered windows and saw that my counselor’s door was wide open. Taking a small gulped, I slipped through the small crack that I created through the door and bowed to the secretary at the front desk. Without a word she pointed to my counselor’s room and I nodded.

            “Good afternoon, Jieun.” Ms. Hwang, my student counselor smiled. Compared to the other counselors, she was probably the youngest and friendliest from what I’ve heard.

            “Good afternoon,” I bowed before taking a seat on one of the wheeled chairs that the student service rooms offered. It was unfortunate that regular classrooms never have wheeled chairs, but if they did all the immature students would just be driving them around the science labs, knocking over Bunsen burners and various chemicals.

            “You’ll be graduating in a few weeks,” She began, spinning a pen in one of her hands. I never understood how people could do so, and privately at home I would try but never got the hang of it.

            “I remember earlier this year you mentioned you wanted to become an actress or a singer after high school?” She asked for confirmation and I nodded. This was my dream, and being in musical theatre helped me to affirm my decision of entering the entertainment field. Though I am a shy person by nature, I was slowly learning to push my way out of my insecure circle of silence. Wooyoung was really helping me with that. His smiling face filled my mind and I smiled, wondering what class he had right now.

            “I want to attend the Seoul Institute of the Arts after high school.” I added, breaking the few seconds of awkward silence. Her smile faltered; I could feel that she wasn’t confident in my abilities.

            “Jieun, are you positive you want to enter the entertainment field?” She asked again. Most teachers would find it difficult to support a student who wants to enter such a risky career path, but all my life this was all I wished for.

            “There’s nothing I want more.” I confirmed, nodding with a serious stare. This was my future; I wasn’t taking it lightly.

            “The brightest path may also be the loneliest.” Ms. Hwang warned, placing the once spinning pen onto her desk. I nodded again, knowing full well that there was a possibility that I’d be lonely. Still, becoming an entertainer was my dream.

            “I knew this would be your answer,” Her smile returned to her face as she explained, “Seoul’s Institute of the Arts will be holding auditions just a few days after your graduation so be prepared.” I rose from my chair and thanked her as I bowed. My brain already began fantasizing about the audition, and the moment I opened the door I froze.

            “Wooyoung oppa…” I gasped; he stood less than a foot away from me, just as surprised.

            “Where are you going for post secondary?” He asked, breaking out of his shock state before I could.

            “Seoul’s Institute of the Arts,” I breathed, fumbling backwards a few steps before brushing a few strands of hair out of my face.

            “That sounds fun,” He smiled, entering the counselor room and taking a seat where I once sat. I forgot that we had the same counselor, because students were assigned to them based on last name. Ms. Hwang was in charge of students with last named from ‘J’ to ‘P’. Taking a deep breath, I closed the door silently and headed back to Chemistry class.

Wooyoung’s POV

            “Wooyoung, your record shows that your post secondary plans are still undecided. Have you thought about your future at all since the last time we spoke?” Ms. Hwang’s tone was calm but frustrated. I leaned relaxed against the comfortable chair with wheels, staring up at the ceiling corner before answering,

            “I know where I want to go for post secondary.” I watched Ms. Hwang’s face light up at my response; she has been trying to help me figure out my post secondary plans since my sophomore year. Grabbing her blue ball point pen from the desk in front of her, she pulled out a piece of paper with size twelve text printed on it and glanced up at me.

            “Where is that?” She asked. I crossed my arms and gave her a dead serious stare.

            “Seoul’s Institute of the Arts,” I declared, witnessing her brightened expression turn into a slight twitch.

            “Are you certain?” Her voice was questioning, but she couldn’t restrain me from going where I wanted. I nodded and she sighed, writing a few words on the sheet she just pulled out and tucked it away in a folder labeled with the letter ‘J’.

            “Auditions for the Institute are after graduation so be prepared,” She informed me, crossing her hands on the top of her desk. I rose from my chair and nodded, thanking her before I left. After passing through the door I bumped into Taecyeon, a close friend of mine since middle school who rapped as a hobby and starred in our schools dance club since freshmen year.

            “Taec, where are you going for post secondary?” I wondered, knowing he would not let his entertaining talents go to waste by going to medical school or business. Though his dad was an influential figure in the business world, Taecyeon was never interested in following the footsteps of his father.

            “Hard to say right now… Possibly America?” He chuckled. Other than Korean, Taecyeon was quite fluent in English and would survive easily in America.

            “Good luck, then.” My tone was not sarcastic at all; he nodded and entered the student services room, the door slamming behind him. It was so like him to have a “smashing” entrance. Shrugging, I headed back to Social Studies.

A/N: Haha sorry for the short update, the next one will be a lot more interesting and longer ^^! I'll edit later so forgive any typos and grammar mistakes. xP! Leave a comment <3

"The brightest path may also be the loneliest."

-Go Hyemi, Dream High Episode 16