The world always looks brighter from behind a smile.

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

Jieun’s POV

            Graduation was tomorrow already; it felt like time flew by much faster now that I had a slight reason to enjoy what otherwise would feel like an eternity of ignorance and neglection. What was that treasured reason of mine? Wooyoung of course. Every day after school we would practice the song I personally wrote, and every time we sung it together it only felt more and more right despite the fact that it was my heart’s true confessions to him. We became close to the point that he would hug me casually every morning and after school, escorting me to my locker like a bodyguard when he could even though we weren’t hypothetically together. We were close friends but the rest of the school thought completely different, but thanks to Wooyoung, I never gave another thought about what anyone else thought.

            “Yah Jieun! Dosing off already?” His warm voice filtered through my ears and I felt my heart jump, snapping me out of my mindless trance. My eyes followed his path down towards the dusty stage where I sat, tracing his every movement until he was sitting beside me. He placed a comforting hand on my shoulder closest to him and smiled silently for a few seconds because sighing,

            “After tomorrow we won’t have a reason to see each other again.” My heart sank at his words. Weren’t we friends? What did he mean that we wouldn’t have a reason to see each other again? I bit my bottom lip, wondering if he chose to go to America after high school or not, remembering how he mentioned the benefits of star schooling in America. At that time I never took him seriously, but ridiculed him at the thought of Wooyoung becoming the next Justin Bieber. Why else would we not see each other again? My mind just didn’t want to accept the fact that he would leave me after tomorrow, especially after everything we went through. There was no way our friendship could surpass those who were friends since childhood, but I would assume we were fairly close.

            “Are you going somewhere?” I asked, not wanting to hear the response. I didn’t know why I cared so much considering we were only friends, but all throughout high school no one had ever made me smile as much as he did in only a few short weeks. He shook his head, making me wonder even more. Was it because he didn’t want to see me? The two of us walking down the hallway together did seem like an unlikely site. I was a social outcast invisible from the eyes of every student including other social outcasts until Wooyoung came along, and he was at the head of the social hierarchy. These two classes were like King and peasant in the European feudal system, and like so, they did not intermix.

            “Once we graduate, there’s no more musical theatre. There’s no duets to practice for, no classes together, so if we did meet, what would there be to do or talk about?” He leaned his shoulders backwards, staring up at the blinding lights. It was true; outside of music we really had nothing in common, but it still didn’t make sense. Outside of music, there wasn’t much more to our lives anyway. Even though we were polar opposites in social status, I wished with all my heart that he would stay close to me. Was that too selfish?

Wooyoung’s POV

            I stared up into the ceiling tracing patterns with my eyes, unwilling to see her facial expression. However she interpreted my words, I knew she felt hurt and I didn’t want to look into her sad eyes. Girls need to develop their own independence; if I’m always there for her to rely on then she’d be lost if I disappear one day. I felt kind of like a jerk, because I was the one who purposely dug my way into her secular circle. I never regretted doing it, but if we’re both going to enter the entertainment business there’s no way I could always be around when she needed me.

            “Should we practice now?” I suggested, changing the atmosphere. We rehearsed more times than I could count but it kept the awkward silence from drifting in. When we sang, it was like our emotions spoke without us needing to think too much. That was the magic of music; they spoke the words of our hearts which otherwise would not come out. I sat before the piano, possibly for the last time in my life that I would be sitting here and placed my hands on the keys. I savoured each second I spent staring at my distorted reflection in the shining surface of the piano, turning my head to the side to ease the distortion. I didn’t have to look to know that Jieun was already beside me; by now we had already developed some telepathic sense to feel when we were near. As we sang together I pictured the two of us standing on the small stage in the gym where the graduation ceremony would be held, and it seemed so real that I could almost feel Jieun’s soft hands intertwined with mine. I imagined her eyes glimmering in reflection to the blue-white lights as her voice drifted from her smiling face. When I imagined her head turning to wink at me my mind blanked. These daydreams of mine were far too bazaar. After the song ended I reluctantly placed the cover back over the shiny piano keys and pushed the chair back in with my right leg.

            “There’s no school tomorrow so would you like me to pick you up at around six?” I offered, already slipping my backpack onto my back. She quickly made an ‘x’ shape with her hands and shook her head insisting,

            “No, it’s fine! I’ll just meet you here before we head to the gym.” I was curious as to why she was so against it. Was it really that awkward to pick her up if we weren’t dating? I had already walked her home from school several times, so did picking her up for grad really mean much more?

            “Would you like me to walk you home today then?” My question hid my inner confusion well. She shook her head again, telling me that her dad would pick her up. I felt a little disappointed but I knew better than to argue against the force of her father. I give that fierce man credibility for his influential infliction of fear into the hearts and minds of the people who interacted with his daughter. After giving her a brief goodbye hug, I headed out the front doors and left her waiting alone in the foyer of our school. The sky was lightly fluffed with small clouds and the wind felt warm against my cheeks. Summer was really flooding in. I brushed a few small chunks of dirt off the side of my shoes and jumped down the stairs, jogging past a silver car that just drove in to the cul-de-sac of our school and into a deep puddle of mud. Laughing to myself at the driver’s misfortune, I made my way down the appropriate sidewalk holding onto both straps of my backpack.

Jieun’s POV

            I sat on a bench in the foyer waiting for my dad to call me, flipping my cell phone up and down so rapidly that I swore it should’ve fallen apart by now. I stared into the screen that flashed bright pink every time I flipped it open, and though I had it out in case my dad would call me, a side of me really wanted Wooyoung to text me and ask if I had gotten home safe yet or not. He’s shown his protective side to me so many times that it felt disappointing when he didn’t do these small things. Was I being too clingy with my thoughts? Sighing, I left my phone closed and stared into the office where three secretaries were getting ready to leave. The moment I diverted my attention away from my phone, it vibrated. My heart jumped when I thought it was a text message but when the vibrating never stopped, I knew it was a phone call. My heart sank again.

            “Appa? Ne, I’ll come out now.” I sighed and picked up my now light backpack, having returned all my burdening textbooks yesterday and dragged my feet out the doors. When I exited the school, I stopped outside the front doors to take in the fresh, summer air before noticing my dad’s slightly muddy but silver car parked at the edge of the cul-de-sac.

            “I saw Jason just now,” My dad coughed the moment I closed the back door. Even if the passenger seat wasn’t occupied, I always sat at the back. It felt more comfortable for me that way as strange as it seemed.

            “Jason?” I repeated with a questioning voice. Who was Jason, and why did my dad bother to mention him to me? My mind froze when he responded,

            “The player you costarred with at the musical. Why was he at the school so late? There were no other students and the teacher’s parking lot was almost completely empty. You weren’t with him, were you?” His accusing voice caught me by surprise and I immediately remembered the lie I had told him the first time Wooyoung walked me home. Gulping, I knew I was in for it. It was either my dad found out now or tomorrow at graduation, and neither scenario would be pleasant. I wanted to slap myself for digging myself into this grave.

            “Appa, he’s not a player.” I remarked, trying my best to avoid the importance of his question. I was interrupted by a car that cut in front of us. Immediately my dad burst into a rampage of hardcore Asian road rage, swearing uncontrollably at the car in front of us, occasionally sticking out his middle finger when the driver turned back to glance at us. I took this unexpected opportunity to pull out my iPod that I always kept conveniently near, slipping my earphones into my ears and blasting the volume when I felt alone or just wanted to escape for a while just like now. Music always brought me away from reality, into my own world of fantasies where everything happened in my favour. I knew a world like that was impossible to wish for, but that was the temporary world that music made me feel was my life; at least for a short time. I hummed along to the slow tune that blasted from my ear phones, staring out the window as I silently held in the anxiety I was currently suffering for tomorrow. My dad will find out tomorrow, and tomorrow after graduation he will kill me. Even so, if I were to die tomorrow I would have no regrets because at least the last person I was able to stand on stage with was Wooyoung. I gave a mental reminder to cherish every second on that final high school stage, because after high school the fun and games are all over. High school is the end of my childish life, and from what I experienced I only knew that life never got easier. As you grow up, life gives you fewer reasons to smile. Even so, I could only think of how exciting the new challenges would be when I entered Seoul’s Institute of the Arts, and today I made it an objective in life to develop my own reasons to smile.

A/N: Next chapter will be WAY way way way more exciting! Promise!!!!! xD! What did you all think of the update? Post a comment ^^!

"As you grow up, life gives you fewer reasons to smile."

-Samdong Dream High Episode 14